Question PSU Advice Needed

[daniel_542]

Hi everyone,

I am building a home data storage server and am struggling to work out what level PSU to buy due to the specs i am using for it and the fact that the old putervision PSU calculator (which lets you know loads on the separate rails) no longer exists.
Specs as follows:
Ryzen 4300G CPU on a full atx board
Using onboard graphics so no GPU
1 128GB NVME SSD
8 7200RPM 2TB Hard disks (SAS)
1 PCIe x8 SAS controller
DVDRW drive
1x120mm fan, 1x90mm fan and 7x80mm fan (3 of these are on the HDD bays) most fans run through a controller
1 Zalman Temperature display and fan controller in 1
120mm CPU air cooler

My concern isnthat o tried a 650W PSU but it looks like the 5v rail is struggling on that level as the spinup on the drives is heavy on both 12v and 5v rails.

Can anyone give me a decent estimate of what wattage i need to stick to for the max 5v rail and total output please?

BY much googling, i have discovered that hard disks can pull up to 20W each on 12v and 5v rails on spinup - but much less on idle, however it peaks again under read/write load. I can separate spinup times of the drives if needed as the intention is to keep it on most of the time anyway. I just need the power to be stable while it is in use.

The reason i know i have a rail issue with the 650W is due to testing on my gaming PC with all drives on a 750W corsair and it apparead to not have the issues with the drives running. But I just wanted to be sure that the issue is in fact a wattage issue before i replace the 650 i recenty returned.

Thanks in advance

 

[COLGeek]

What is the make/model of your 650w PSU?

For what you described, a quality 650w PSU should suffice.

 

[Ralston18]

Start here;

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-psus,4229.html

Apply 2 or 3 of the referenced calculators and do your own manual tally as well.

If any given device/component has a range of voltage values then use the high end value.

 

[daniel_542]

What is the make/model of your 650w PSU?

For what you described, a quality 650w PSU should suffice.

It wasn't a good brand, can't remember off the top of my head and it is a few months ago in my.purchases so would take time to find. I think it may have been in the range of CIT or another relatively low end brand. Initially, i thought 650 should be plenty, but clearly the max out 9n the rails was my issue. The 5v rail turned out to max out at less than 20A/100W over 3.3/5v rail but 8 drives can pull up to 120W on initial spinup from cold and 100W + under load. I use staggered start (going to change this to 5 seconds per drive - currently on 1 sec). I'm considering multiple options that range from 650w to 850w total right now but keeping an eye on the 5v/3.3v rail Max output in each case as i am relatively sure the issue is in that zone of the specs as I don't run enough on 12v to cause issues in that area (despite the 8 running drives).

I am in UK and amazon appears to be a fair bet as i have the refund from the previous attempt to use 👍

Are GameMax PSU's considered good these days? I know to avoid ones like "Ace Power" and unbranded ones thanks to much googling over the past week

 

[COLGeek]

What is your budget?

 

[geofelt]

Two suggestions:
1: Buy only a quality psu. In the absence of a reputable review, look at the warranty.
7 years usually gets you decent quality. The best will have 10 or 12 years.
Look to Seasonic or Corsair.

2: Don't bother with psu calculators. They are deadly accurate if you know all of the inputs.
But, we don't usually know what capacitor ageing factor to use or what our future requirements might be. Most power demands come from discrete graphics or overclocked processors neither of which which you don't use.
Hard drives take little power, mostly when starting up. 300w might be sufficient.
Look at a 750w or 850w unit. Clearly plenty. A psu only uses the power demanded of it, regardless of the max capability. A strong psu will operate most efficiently in the middle third of it's range and be quieter while running.