Anyone else running dual-PSU's ?

howardb

howardb

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If anyone is interested, I have a dual-PSU setup whereby my motherboard, graphics card and primary HDD are run off one PSU and all my hard drives and fans run off the other.

I decided to do this 5 or 6 years ago and initially made up my own cable using this chaps guide at Burning Issues. I've changed it to a Lian-Li Secondary Power Cable about a year ago, when they became available - woking well still.

I'm currently running two Gigabyte Odin 585W PSUs, and these cables ensure that both PSUs power on simultaneously when your power button is pressed. Shutdown does the same thing.

I've only had one PSU failure so far, about 2 years ago, which I don't think is bad considering the PC is on 24/7 at 25% load.

I'm interested to know if anyone else has this setup?
 
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1170 watts of power, what could you be running that would use that much and that a single PSU wouldn't take care of? I'd understand if you had some bad ass WC with tonnes of drives.
 
Hey bro. I also had a setup like this a few years back. Basically had two boxes, Box1+PSU1 was my normal tower running my system etc, and then box2+PSU2 was a case I modded to have 3 removable shelves, which could each hold 3 drives fixed onto them. (This was my idea of a cheeeeep modular storage bank..heehee) Case1 and case2 "fitted" together to create a double with mega pc :) I also followed some or other online guide, ended deviating a little an making myself a sweet cable. Not quite the same as your linky, but ended up with a similar result. 1stly I shorted grn+blk to startup PSU2. Problem with that tho, was would always be running, even when main PC was off. But, then I added a small relay which I wired to my Box1 power button so that when Box1 turns on, it turns on PSU2 too, and same when it shuts down. I wired it in such a way that all I needed connecting box1 to box2 was a single molex power cable (rewired tho). Worked 100% and never had any problems with my HDD's. At one stage I was running 11 HDDs, 2+9 :D
 
Can I see a pic of this please? Sounds intresting (Or it never happend :D)
 
@Tpex: I got pics, jus not with me at the mo (currenly in JHB). Will have to post next time I go home.
The cases were nothing fancy, jus an old case I had lying around that I modded. (Although did spray to match my main case, I thought it looked pretty smart) If your mainly interrested in the relay though, its actually pretty simple. If I recall correctly think I used a 5 pole 12v relay (picked up at my local electronics store for around R10). Actually only need a 3 pole, but they didnt have. Anyway, you just gotta wire it up so that PSU2 is conected to the N.O. (normally open) position when no power, and must complete the circuit when the relay recieves power. Really not difficult. Although, looking at that Lian-Li cable, it will prob be easier to just make one of those. But then you'll have that bulky ATX harness + cable between your two cases...
 
Photos/link here for my setup - currently upgrading all the components and swapping to a white Codegen case (same model).

I found the single-high-rating PSUs way too expensive at the time, so opted for the dual PSU route - both 585's cost me less than a dual-rail 700w at the time. As they've been running perfectly for years, I saw no need to change the setup to single PSU.

I'm running 15 HDD's at the moment in this box, hence splitting the power - I'm running my server 24/7, so if one of the PSUs fail, I can still have the PC running, and I just unplug and swap if needed.
I'll be swapping my NAS box drives to the old black Codegen case and will be building it up as a full HD media tank, whereby I can add HDD's as space is required - the case can hold up to 16 HDD's in the normal bays, an up to 21 using 3-in-2 cages.
 
Dilsnick said:
Hey bro. I also had a setup like this a few years back. Basically had two boxes, Box1+PSU1 was my normal tower running my system etc, and then box2+PSU2 was a case I modded to have 3 removable shelves, which could each hold 3 drives fixed onto them. (This was my idea of a cheeeeep modular storage bank..heehee) Case1 and case2 "fitted" together to create a double with mega pc :) I also followed some or other online guide, ended deviating a little an making myself a sweet cable. Not quite the same as your linky, but ended up with a similar result. 1stly I shorted grn+blk to startup PSU2. Problem with that tho, was would always be running, even when main PC was off. But, then I added a small relay which I wired to my Box1 power button so that when Box1 turns on, it turns on PSU2 too, and same when it shuts down. I wired it in such a way that all I needed connecting box1 to box2 was a single molex power cable (rewired tho). Worked 100% and never had any problems with my HDD's. At one stage I was running 11 HDDs, 2+9 :D
Click to expand...

Nice! :)

I was going to go this route with the 2 boxes, then saw the Codegen S201 Jumbo case - effectively the same size of 2 tower cases joined together. Plenty room and more to spare!
 
Hi. What do you connect all your HDD's to? Do you have add on SATA cards ... and how many do you have, I mean say 6 SATA's on the PC, where do you connect the other 7 SATA HDD's
 
eitai2001 said:
Hi. What do you connect all your HDD's to? Do you have add on SATA cards ... and how many do you have, I mean say 6 SATA's on the PC, where do you connect the other 7 SATA HDD's
Click to expand...

Hi eitai - add-on cards used. My latest motherboard has 7 SATA (6+1) and I have two 4-port SATA cards that take care of the other HDD's. Two of the 15 HDDs are external. :)
 
Each Sunix SATA4000 cost about R326+VAT from Frontosa from what I recall - retail should be about R410?
 
I think it's just SATA1 - battled to find a decent priced SATA2 4-port! All the drives attached to these are used for data only, so speed isn't too important for me.
 
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