Power Supply for Quad Socket Opteron

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ShadowFlash

ShadowFlash

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Feb 28, 2009
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I find myself in need of power supply for one of my older machines i'm thinking of resurecting. The board is a Tyan K8QW S4881 AMD quad opteron. It needs an EPS12V 24+8+8 ( preferablly with another 4 pin also ). I'm also thinking of throwing in a big bad video card if I can get it up and running. I require somewhere around 1000 watts. It's been a long time since I had to buy a power supply, and the one I need is definately an odd duck. This machine was having random restart problems before it was shelved, so I don't want to spend alot of money on this, just in case the board is FUBAR. The rackmount case and hot-swap power supplies are all long gone. I do have another case the board actually fits in ( SSI MEB 13"x16" ), but the current PSU lacks 2x 8-pin. The case is set-up now for a front mount 2U hotswap PSU, so a front loader with opposite side AC power connector would be nice, but I don't think I'll find any affordable solutions like that. I found this one at newegg ( and E-bay for $10 less with shipping included ). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817338035&Tpk=AP-P4ATX95FEPC So far its my only affordable option, and it seems adaptable to save for another project if my MoBo is infact the culprit. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
I figured as much, but like I said, so far it seems to be the only one I can find. I could sacrifice any PCI-E power connectors and run a seperate video card PSU ( like the themaltake power express ) if need be. Without powering the video card, I could drop down to 850 watts, but not much lower. The 24+8+8 is the big problem here.

Edit: I just double checked my manual, and I could probablly drop down to 750 watts, but I'de have to keep the system pretty lean ( no arrays ). No big deal if the price is right.
 
+1 what Silverion77 said

+1 what Shadow703793

Athena Power is definitely not recommended.

I crunched the numbers and factored in one GTX295 video card. A high quality 500 watt power supply is plenty. Don't know why you think you need 1,000 watts.

Corsair has a reputation for high quality power supplies that are rock steady and very reliable. They consistently earn high marks in technical reviews and comparisons. The VX550 which is very efficient is currently available for $94.99 with free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

As always, the power supply comes with a 5 year warranty.

EDIT - SHADOWFLASH - You mentioned rackmount equipment. Any chance you've got four AMD Opteron cpu's on a daughterboard connected to that Tyan motherboard? If so, are you using it as a server or a super graphics pc? That would explain the need for a 1,000 watt cpu.
 



Yep, title says quad socket, not quad core. No Daughter Board though, that would make 8 sockets....here's the link @tyan....
http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=247

And Here's a couple key quotes directly from the manual......

The Thunder K8QW is standard EPS 12V compatible, please take following
combination for reference. Please be aware that ATX 2.x, ATX12V and ATXGES
power supplies are not compatible with the board and can damage the motherboard
and/or CPU(s).

We suggest using a 700W or higher power supply; this is dependent on how
many devices you have installed. However, 700W is sufficient for system without
many devices (i.e. 4 x AMD Opteron 875 CPU, 16 x 1G DDR 333 Memory, 1 x HDD,
2 or 3 expansion cards)

The first 700W should read 850W...it was corrected in the revised manual, but I don't have that one handy.

The kicker here is the 24+8+8 ( + another 4-pin if I would choose to run quad ranked memory, but I'm not right now ). There are very few affordable PSU choices with all these connectors. Most only come with 24+8+4 connectors at best. This originally had 4x hot-swap 350W eachin a 3+1 arrangement. Remeber, this is on questionable hardware, so I don't want to neccesarily buy an expensive one, only to find out the MoBo is the problem and I don't need the PSU at all. If the MoBo is bad, I'de just strip it for parts at that point. I found these two, which should work...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171030
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153089

They're both around $200, which is about all I'de be willing to pay for something I may not need.

what's it use ? CAD/CAM solid modeling, gaming ( no FPS, mostly RPG and RTS ), Light video..transcoding and such....but mainly just 'cause I don't like 'vettes, I'd drool over a 400HP fiero all day.

If it does prove to be stable once more with a new power supply, then I might just want to throw in a Quadro ( mid-range ) or a GTX, either way, keeping the sytem power "lean" and running a single high-end graphics card would put my requirements around 1000W
 
I knew they had adapters for PCI-E 8-pin, but had no idea they had them for Mobo 8-pin. Great idea, I already have an extra 1100W server power supply that's missing 1 8-pin, so that should work as a temporary/diagnostic type fix. I would definately be leary on using it as a permenant set-up however, as these particular boards are known to melt the plugs right to the board under high draw. A normal 8-pin has 4 yellow/4 black wires, and 2 molex only provide 2 of each, splicing them at the adapter, which is a concern for long term or heavy use. For testing, it'll probablly be what I end up doing for now. If everything works OK, then I'll consider throwing some money at a good PSU. Thanks for the idea...saves me a bunch of money to test it.

Just for reference, any opinion on the last 2 PSU's on newegg I posted ? The user reviews from newegg are negative, but thats par for the course.

The picure for my profile is the actual board.....
 
Yeah, luckily I have not experienced it, but there are many others on professional forums that have. I typically don't post on those forums simply because I don't have the kind of budget at home or at my small CNC machine shop to "do it the right way". Like I said, this particular board DOES have a reputation of melting plugs to the board under high power draw scenarios even with "tyan certified" PSU's. I know a low quality PSU can increase the likelyhood of such an event but it happens nonetheless with high quality ones as well. The board in question (S4881) is a generation before the advanced power management we have today. My B4985 board does not have this problem and is only 1 generation newer. With boards like this, normal desktop risks are magnified given the added complexity and power draw.

I was hoping to handle this project this weekend, but all of a sudden I have 2 computers to "fix" for paying customers, so once again my own projects get pushed back....sigh.....you can't fight the money....
 
Well, the board and CPU's aren't really worth much now-a-days.... My tyan FT48 16-core build is really my baby right now, but in this economy, it sits half-done due to lack of funds to build it right. No big deal, as that one will accept 4x 6-core optys when they're out and quad SLI support, so waiting isn't exactly killing me. I loved my S4881 before it crapped out though, and it's kinda turned into a vandetta for me to resurrect it... :fou: I have plenty of other machines to play with, it just holds some sentimental value to me at this point. I was actually selling it about 6 months ago to fund the new build when it crapped out. I had to purchase a replacement out-of-pocket to meet the customer's timetable which unfortunately ate up most of the profits. I only do paid computer stuff as side jobs other than managing work's machinings.
I've contemplated swapping the old board into the new FT48 case, as it has the correct power supply, and is a really nice "desktop" case very similar to the legendary VX50 ( in fact it's actually all the same components without provisions for the additional quad socket daughter board ). My problem with that idea though is the pin-out on the special 14-pin fan connector to the pwm hot-swap fan control board. They are the only fans in that case ( it's designed for passive cooling to all 4 sockets which should make it refreshingly quiet ).

This is the pinout for the MoBo the case is designed for ( B4985 )

CPUFAN0_TACH 1 | 2 CPUFAN2_TACH
CPUFAN1_TACH 3 | 4 CPUFAN3_TACH
SYSFAN0_TACH 5 | 6 CPU_FAN_TACH2
SYSFAN4_TACH 7 | 8 SYSFAN5_TACH
NC 9 | 10 NC
GND 11 | 12 KEY
GND 13 | 14 CPUFAN0_PWM

It looks realatively simple to wire pins 1,2,3,4,7,8,11,13,and 14 to the correct locations on the non-supported (s4881) board. I'm assuming for now that "NC" ( pins 9 and 10 ) stands for "no control" or "no cable", but that's just a guess. Pin 12 is a complete mystery to me though. My guess is that it's used by the motherboard BIOS to let it know it's in the FT48 case and not needed for the actual fan control board, but again just a guess. TYAN support has been great with all of my projects, and I have a request in to them, but I doubt if they're going to help me on this one. I also don't know if I want to risk my brand spankin' new chassis on this project unless I'm very confident I understand that pin-out correctly. I'de imagine the fan control board is next to impossible / overly expensive to replace if I fry it playing with un-supported configs. If you know more than me on pin-out abbreviations, help would be cool.

I traditionally play with CAD/CAM software and Graphic Rendering, an odd combination to be sure, but I can take any 2D image such as a photograph, and change it into a 3D surface ( the rendering part with ray-tracing if desired ), then change that surface into a true solid model ( the extreme time-consuming part ), then program that solid for a CNC machining center ( the CAD/CAM part ), followed by a "cut-part render" ( more rendering, but not so intensive ) to prove it out, and finally mill the new 3D image into any material desired. While the i7 looks to be amazingly fast, I still can't get past the lack of ECC on such time-consuming and critical tasks. Triple channel RAM is cool, but quad sockets with NUMA is just as good and more useful in my case. The upgrade cycle at the shop last year got a couple dual quad-core xeons, so I doubt if I'll be getting an i7 anytime soon. I went with the AMD monsters at home simply because I practically stole them ( $600 for the FT48 barebones kit with Mobo ) and these home boxes also serve as "multiple simultaneous user" machines for the family and gaming ( usually 3 active per machine with 3 monitors, keyboards, and mice ) using VMware, plus streaming a "media center OS to at least 1 TV. It's alot to ask from one box, I know, which is why I'm perpetually caught between the professional server/workstation crowd, and the home enthusiast crowd. I'm cheap ( or frugal if you prefer ) like most home user's, but use enterprise level machines. This usually puts me a generation behind due to the high cost involved.

Sorry for the Essay...I'm just bored and drunk... :pt1cable:
 
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