I've recently been having some power issues in my server, and am coming to the experts (you guys) for some suggestions.
First, let me describe my system.
Lian Li PC-76 Case
Asus CUV4X-D Motherboard
Dual Pentium III 850MHz CPU
1GB PC100 RAM
ELSA Synergy-2 32MB Video Card
Yamaha 16x10x40x CDRW Drive
Floppy Drive
Intel NIC card
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Now the hard drives are where I'm having the power issues. I have (2) 3ware 7500-8 IDE RAID Controllers managing all of my hard drives. Here is the layout of controllers and drives. All of the WD drives have had the firmware patch to fix their issues with the 3Ware Controllers.
3Ware 7500-8 Adapter 0
Port 0 - Western Digital 80GB 8MB Cache --| - RAID1 - OS Drive
Port 1 - Western Digital 80GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 2 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 3 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 4 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --| - RAID5 - Storage
Port 5 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 6 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 7 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
3Ware 7500-8 Adapter 1
Port 0 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 1 - Maxtor 120GB 8MB Cache ----------|
Port 2 - Maxtor 120GB 8MB Cache ----------| - RAID5 - Storage
Port 3 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 4 - Hitachi 200GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 5 - Hitachi 200GB 8MB Cache --| - RAID5 - Storage
Port 6 - Hitachi 200GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 7 - Hitachi 200GB 8MB Cache --|
Now the issue I'm having is that some the drives repeatedly show up as "Not In Service" or just don't show up on the controllers at all. I've repeatedly RMA'd drives (probably about 10-12 in the past 4 years) yet the problems still persist.
The system is being powered by 2 PSU's. The main PSU that is powering the MB, peripherals, and some of the drives is an Antec TruePower 550W. A Second PSU sits on top of the case and powers some of the drives, which is a PowerWin 450W (model#: PW-450ATXE-12V). Now I understand that this is definitely a weak point in the system, but this PSU was just a spare I had laying around and I threw it in there with a PSU tester as the loopback for a temporary fix.
What I'm thinking of doing is leaving the Antec TP 550W as the system PSU to power the MB and CD/Floppy drives, and then adding 2 new PSU's to power the drives with 8 drives on each PSU and ditching the PowerWin PSU.
I'm looking for suggestions as to what a good solid PSU is that could handle powering the drives with ease. Price is somewhat an issue, I don't want to spend $300 per PSU, since I'll be buying two of them, but $300 total for the two is a possibility.
I'm also open to alternative suggestions than the scenario I explained above. Basically this system is far from reliable right now, and at times I cannot even get it to boot fully into Windows. Last weekend I formatted the OS drives and reinstalled the OS, so I know its not an issue with Windows.
Any help or advice you guys can give is greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Javic
First, let me describe my system.
Lian Li PC-76 Case
Asus CUV4X-D Motherboard
Dual Pentium III 850MHz CPU
1GB PC100 RAM
ELSA Synergy-2 32MB Video Card
Yamaha 16x10x40x CDRW Drive
Floppy Drive
Intel NIC card
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
Now the hard drives are where I'm having the power issues. I have (2) 3ware 7500-8 IDE RAID Controllers managing all of my hard drives. Here is the layout of controllers and drives. All of the WD drives have had the firmware patch to fix their issues with the 3Ware Controllers.
3Ware 7500-8 Adapter 0
Port 0 - Western Digital 80GB 8MB Cache --| - RAID1 - OS Drive
Port 1 - Western Digital 80GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 2 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 3 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 4 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --| - RAID5 - Storage
Port 5 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 6 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 7 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
3Ware 7500-8 Adapter 1
Port 0 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 1 - Maxtor 120GB 8MB Cache ----------|
Port 2 - Maxtor 120GB 8MB Cache ----------| - RAID5 - Storage
Port 3 - Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 4 - Hitachi 200GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 5 - Hitachi 200GB 8MB Cache --| - RAID5 - Storage
Port 6 - Hitachi 200GB 8MB Cache --|
Port 7 - Hitachi 200GB 8MB Cache --|
Now the issue I'm having is that some the drives repeatedly show up as "Not In Service" or just don't show up on the controllers at all. I've repeatedly RMA'd drives (probably about 10-12 in the past 4 years) yet the problems still persist.
The system is being powered by 2 PSU's. The main PSU that is powering the MB, peripherals, and some of the drives is an Antec TruePower 550W. A Second PSU sits on top of the case and powers some of the drives, which is a PowerWin 450W (model#: PW-450ATXE-12V). Now I understand that this is definitely a weak point in the system, but this PSU was just a spare I had laying around and I threw it in there with a PSU tester as the loopback for a temporary fix.
What I'm thinking of doing is leaving the Antec TP 550W as the system PSU to power the MB and CD/Floppy drives, and then adding 2 new PSU's to power the drives with 8 drives on each PSU and ditching the PowerWin PSU.
I'm looking for suggestions as to what a good solid PSU is that could handle powering the drives with ease. Price is somewhat an issue, I don't want to spend $300 per PSU, since I'll be buying two of them, but $300 total for the two is a possibility.
I'm also open to alternative suggestions than the scenario I explained above. Basically this system is far from reliable right now, and at times I cannot even get it to boot fully into Windows. Last weekend I formatted the OS drives and reinstalled the OS, so I know its not an issue with Windows.
Any help or advice you guys can give is greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Javic
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