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Thread ID: 117349 2011-04-14 05:46:00 2 PSUs vs 1 Deimos (5715) Press F1
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1194487 2011-04-14 05:46:00 Anyone here got experience running dual PSUs? are there any pitfalls of such a setup?

I used to run 2 x 350W power supplies, one died so I switched to a 1200W silverstone a few years back, it recently died (I suspect it was because my UPS was on the fritz) and now I'm back to using 2, a 1000W and an 850W both silverstone.

The main reason I went back to 2 is because 1kw is much cheaper than anything bigger and I just happened to have a spare 850W kicking around.

Is it was overkill? I'm thinking hell yes but I really need it to be reliable as it is on 24x7x365.

Specs:

Q6600 @ 2.4GHZ with Prolimatech Megahalems
Asus P5Q Premium
Asus GeForce 7600GT
8GB ram
Dell PERC5/i with BBU
8 x 1TB WD Green Power in RAID 5
4 x 300GB WD RE in RAID 10 (for OS and VMs)
Deimos (5715)
1194488 2011-04-14 05:56:00 I would never even consider a dual PSU setup unless there was some insane machine with 3 GTX580s or something, a good 750w would run what you've listed there quite happily.

Afaik having two PSUs doesn't improve redundancy, unless you have a full on proper redundant PSU setup, which I've only even seen running once. If you're serious though, it could be worth looking into.

A good UPS is what I'd be looking at, and a 750w (or larger if you want) enermax, corsair or seasonic PSU.

What setup do you currently have for running two PSUs? often it can be a bit of a kerfuffle. :p
wratterus (105)
1194489 2011-04-14 06:24:00 I have a Silverstone TJ07 which has space for 2 PSUs and includes the cable for connecting them together.

It has space for redundant PSUs but they are super pricey.

I'm looking at upgrading to dual Xeons in the furture.
Deimos (5715)
1194490 2011-04-14 07:31:00 Jesus, a 1.85kW setup just for that????? A good 600W PSU would suffice!! And with dual PSUs is that the risk doubles - one PSU fail, and the system will shut off. qazwsxokmijn (102)
1194491 2011-04-14 09:28:00 Unless it's set up as a redundant power supply, it's just a waste of time, money, power, and increased risk of failure. Just get a single 850W Corsair or something otherwise. inphinity (7274)
1194492 2011-04-14 20:25:00 I'm back to using 2, a 1000W and an 850W

8 x 1TB WD Green Power in RAID 5
4 x 300GB WD RE in RAID 10 (for OS and VMs)

8 x 1TB drives? What the hell do you need that for? Nuts.
pctek (84)
1194493 2011-04-14 21:06:00 nvm icow (15313)
1194494 2011-04-15 00:03:00 Is it was overkill? I'm thinking hell yes but I really need it to be reliable as it is on 24x7x365.

It's no more reliable than 1 PSU. In fact, it's probably less reliable as you have twice as much stuff and thus double the chance of something breaking.

As others have said, if you want reliability, you need redundant PSUs, and a properly designed system to support them.
Agent_24 (57)
1194495 2011-04-15 01:33:00 Clock that KENTFIELD!!! SolMiester (139)
1194496 2011-04-15 05:08:00 hard drives don't use much power, all of these reccomendations seem over the top to me. extreme.outervision.com suggested 509W even with me being generous with parts. I would look at the best 600W PSU and UPS I could get rather than dual anything in the 800W + range myself. dugimodo (138)
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