DonationCoder.com Forum
Main Area and Open Discussion => General Software Discussion => Topic started by: superboyac on July 17, 2009, 09:09 PM
-
I ask for a lot of help here, so this time I present it as a challenge that I will pay for.
I have an external enclosure for my hard drive. Apparently, the power supply is too small (in Watts delivered) for the hard drive I am using. I need a bigger power supply in the range of 50W-80W, I'm not really sure. My enclosure also has a convenience Molex (male) plug on the back. Now, if I can somehow get a Molex cable 6' or longer, I can connect it to the PSU that's inside my computer case, which has plenty of juice for this.
The problem is that nobody makes a Molex cable for external use anywhere past 12" or so. I've been scouring the web for two hours now.
So, I will pay somebody to make me a 6' cable to do this. $20. Or if anyone has a better solution, I'll give you $10 of my donationcredits.
One of the other solutions I considered was buying an external power supply box (or brick) and connect that to my enclosure. But i ran into the same problem. I couldn't find any brick that had enough power and also had a Molex connector. Besides, it's just easier to connect to my computer's PSU anyway.
By the way, when I say Molex, I mean this:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
-
Are the electrical losses over such a length of cable (6 feet = about 2 meters) not too big? Or would a cable with that length impose a big strain on (one of) the power rail of the power supply?
Jumpstarting two separate ATX power supplies with one and the same button is easier...and in my point of view preferable.
-
I couldn't find any brick that had enough power and also had a Molex connector.
-superboyac
What kind of connector did you find? It might be easier to just buy an adapter like I had to do when I bought my Dell and wanted to use some older drives (it only came with ability to power SATA)
-
Darn, I should have read your story instead of glancing over it. Those connectors on the back are mainly for connecting a hard drive when an emergency occurs. Of course you can use it on a more permanent basis but I do not know how much power it can sustain like that.
With each power supply you see several bundles of cables coming out. Each of those bundles is also known as a rail and can only output a fraction of the advertised power (watts) mentioned on the power supply. I have to assume that the molex on the back of the power supply is connected to one of these rails and it is hard to tell which one without inspecting the circuit board of the power supply.
Now I don't know which power supply you have installed and how you have divided the load from the (enormous amount of) connected devices regarding the available rails. So when you use the back molex together with such a long cable, make sure that you don't overload that particular rail because you can be in for a nasty surprise.
It would not be the first time that dividing the load from a misbehaving PC differently has removed a lot if not all of the problems it had. Power supplies that have their load not evenly divided wear out more quickly as well. A little bit of common sense here works wonders.
-
You could get one of those adapters that connects a bare IDE drive to a USB outlet - they always come with an AC adapter that will power IDE drives which happen to have Molex connectors. Something like:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101
edit:
Oh - I see you already considered something like this and that it won't drive the watts/amps that you need.
-
I couldn't find any brick that had enough power and also had a Molex connector.
-superboyac
What kind of connector did you find? It might be easier to just buy an adapter like I had to do when I bought my Dell and wanted to use some older drives (it only came with ability to power SATA)
-app103
Well, that's the thing. I couldn't find any brick that had that much power (50-80W) with a connector that I would be able to convert to a Molex with an adapter of some sort. I looked for a long time with a bunch of combination, but didn't find any.
-
You could get one of those adapters that connects a bare IDE drive to a USB outlet - they always come with an AC adapter that will power IDE drives which happen to have Molex connectors. Something like:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101
-mwb1100
I don't see the specs for it, but I doubt it has enough juice to power this drive. The current power supply I had was 34W which is enough for most drives, but was not enough for mine. So I think I have to look towards more exotic solutions. The general external solutions will not work, I don't think.
-
Darn, I should have read your story instead of glancing over it. Those connectors on the back are mainly for connecting a hard drive when an emergency occurs. Of course you can use it on a more permanent basis but I do not know how much power it can sustain like that.
With each power supply you see several bundles of cables coming out. Each of those bundles is also known as a rail and can only output a fraction of the advertised power (watts) mentioned on the power supply. I have to assume that the molex on the back of the power supply is connected to one of these rails and it is hard to tell which one without inspecting the circuit board of the power supply.
Now I don't know which power supply you have installed and how you have divided the load from the (enormous amount of) connected devices regarding the available rails. So when you use the back molex together with such a long cable, make sure that you don't overload that particular rail because you can be in for a nasty surprise.
It would not be the first time that dividing the load from a misbehaving PC differently has removed a lot if not all of the problems it had. Power supplies that have their load not evenly divided wear out more quickly as well. A little bit of common sense here works wonders.
-Shades
I think I understand what you are saying. So what do you suggest?
-
I couldn't find any brick that had enough power and also had a Molex connector.
-superboyac
What kind of connector did you find? It might be easier to just buy an adapter like I had to do when I bought my Dell and wanted to use some older drives (it only came with ability to power SATA)
-app103
Well, that's the thing. I couldn't find any brick that had that much power (50-80W) with a connector that I would be able to convert to a Molex with an adapter of some sort. I looked for a long time with a bunch of combination, but didn't find any.
-superboyac
That was why I asked you, because maybe I can help you find the right adapter. (can't look if I don't know what I am looking for)
-
I'm no electrician, but sending 50-80W over 6' of that type of cable sounds like something that might be potentially hazardous (I'm not saying that it is - just that I'd look into that aspect). A fire's the last thing you'd want from your setup.
-
How come your drive is eating so much power to begin with?
My external HD enclosure came with a power supply that delivered 12Volt and 1.5Ampere as output. That would make 18 watt and it was not bigger than wall charger for a cell phone. Building a power supply with high voltage is rather simple and cheap, but if it has to deliver a decent amperage...
The hard drive in that enclosure was an IDE Western Digital Caviar 160GByte 7200rpm. Ran nice for four years with the original power supply (in ambient temperatures from 40 degrees Celsius and above). Putting a faster 10000rpm drive in an external enclosure seems overkill as you would hit the bandwidth limit of the USB channel you are using and it does not require that much more power.
50 to 80 Watts, it seems a lot to me. Dividing 80Watts with 12Volt results in a device that uses 4 to 6 Ampere. Has it a double function as electrical heater? Or as a cigarette lighter similar to the ones found in old cars? A standard ATX power supply like my own 350Watts power supply requires about 10Ampere (at full capacity) from the electrical grid it is connected to.
-
Hmmm...Shades, you bring up a good point. Why is the drive consuming so much power? Well, who knows. Actually, I'm an electrical engineer by profession, I should know the answer, but I don't know anything about how hard drives and stuff work.
Anyway, here's the deal. The enclosure is from Granite Digital, an excellent company with fabulous customer support. I love their products. I've been thinking about it and I believe I have come up with the best solution. I've asked them if i can return the enclosure I have for store credit and use it to buy a 2-bay enclosure of the same type. Why? Because, first of all, their 2-bay enclosure comes with a built in 300w power supply. Secondly, my enclosure cost about $70 and their 2-bay enclosure is on sale for $100. So it wouldn't cost me that much in the end anyway. I also have a couple of spare 500gb drives lying around that could be used. So, that's my solution.
As for the drive consuming a lot of power, the answer I got from Granite Digital is that the external power supply that comes with the unit can support most drives, but with the drives getting so big now 1-2TB, their power consumption is getting a little too big for these power supplies. The model of this power supply is listed for 34W, but I don't know what that actually means. I haven't read anywhere of a hard drive using 34W of power or even close to it, but the actual values of all these things are always vastly different than their listed values. So whatever.
-
Another idea that seems so obvious that I don't understand why it wasn't mentioned already:
You could mount the HD in one of your spare 5.25 inch bays using mounting brackets or an internal enclosure with a rack. Then you could hook up the HD directly to your PC's power supply and motherboard. This is assuming you have a spare 5.25 inch bay to begin with.
If there is an issue with it being a PATA drive and there only being SATA capabilities on your motherboard, then you can use a controller card to fix that problem. (there are also SATA controller cards, too, in case you have maxed that out already, and that was your reason for using an external enclosure)
-
Another idea that seems so obvious that I don't understand why it wasn't mentioned already:
You could mount the HD in one of your spare 5.25 inch bays using mounting brackets or an internal enclosure with a rack. Then you could hook up the HD directly to your PC's power supply and motherboard. This is assuming you have a spare 5.25 inch bay to begin with.
If there is an issue with it being a PATA drive and there only being SATA capabilities on your motherboard, then you can use a controller card to fix that problem. (there are also SATA controller cards, too, in case you have maxed that out already, and that was your reason for using an external enclosure)
-app103
Ha! Yeah, it wasn't mentioned because I want to use it as an external drive. I should have made that more clear. Believe me, my computer has PLENTY of 5.25 bays and plenty of spare SATA spaces on the motherboard. This is the super computer I built following the recommendations of everyone here at DC earlier this year. There's a whole thread on it.
No, I still think I'm going to go for that 2-bay solution. I'm just waiting to hear back from Granite Digital and I hope they'll give me store credit for this enclosure.
-
That kind of power consumption sounds like a big wtf to me - unless you're talking a NAS box and not just a simple USB/firewire/whatever enclosure. A WD MyBook draws 15W during spinup, ~8W during idle, and ~11W during read (didn't bother testing write). That bigger drives should require more power also sounds a bit silly, imho only faster rpm and (perhaps) more spindles would require more juice.
You say their two-drive enclosure is 300W? That's hopefully a NAS box with RAID functionality, otherwise I'd stay way clear of that company :)
-
superboyac,
Is this hard drive in this external enclosure IDE/PATA or SATA? The reason I ask is you are talking about molex connectors which are used nearly exclusively on IDE/PATA drives. Granite Digital's web site lists the enclosure you are wanting to exchange for as being SATA only. SATA drives almost exclusively do not use molex connectors.
Re: Granite Digital - there's nothing to fear from this company except their prices. They market their products exclusively to the Mac market so they tend to be made out of stylized aluminum that matches the Mac Pros & they are over-engineered with high prices to match their target audience.
-
That bigger drives should require more power also sounds a bit silly, imho only faster rpm and (perhaps) more spindles would require more juice.-f0dder
I think you meant platters unless there's something in the works about dual spindle drives :)
I'm with you, the WD RE4-GP 2TB HDD lists a read/write power consumption of 6.8W, startup isn't listed but I don't think I'm far wrong in saying it would be in the range of 15-20W since it's only 4 platter.
Power consumption for HDDs has generally decreased since they found that instead of more platters they can cram more bits on a platter.
My DNS-313 Single drive NAS PSU is rated at 36W, (12V @ 3A), and will handle anything I stick in it bearing in mind it also has to run a small Linux machine in there also.
300W for a dual drive external enclosure is just ridiculous even if it is a NAS, eg. the DNS-323 Dual HDD RAID NAS has a ~50W PSU.
-
300W for a dual drive external enclosure is just ridiculous even if it is a NAS, eg. the DNS-323 Dual HDD RAID NAS has a ~50W PSU.-4wd
And my DNS-323 has no problems at all powering the two Seagate 1.5TB drives it contains.
-
300w is overkill, but it's probably one of those things where it's easier to put in a 300w unit than a 100w unit or something. Also, I think they use the same 300w unit for the 4-drive bay. No big deal there. I've been reading, and it's not that unusual for a drive to use more than 30W power during initial spinup. So 60W for two drives is minimum, in my mind. Just to be safe, I would make sure to have minimum 80-100W just to make sure nothing crazy happens. I don't think that is overkill at all. That being said, the normal brick power supply will be undersized for this kind of thing. That's why i'm going to go with the 2-bay enclosure.
-
Staggered spin-up <3
300W sounds like massive overkill, perhaps they're using something horribly power-inefficient like a Pentium4 for the NAS system?
-
It's overkill engineering-wise, but you don't know business-wise. What if they have a ton of 300w units lying around? Why would they buy a 175W units for their new equipment?
-
Well, they must have seen the error of their ways.....
The one you're referring to must be old stock they want to get rid of, all their newer External 2 bay enclosures only have a 40, 50 or 80 watt PSU.
And at 10Kg for a dual bay external it's more an anchor than it is portable.....they've certainly lived up to the name Granite with this thing.
-
Well, they must have seen the error of their ways.....
The one you're referring to must be old stock they want to get rid of, all their newer External 2 bay enclosures only have a 40, 50 or 80 watt PSU.
And at 10Kg for a dual bay external it's more an anchor than it is portable.....they've certainly lived up to the name Granite with this thing.
-4wd
That's interesting. 40W for two big hard drives could be cutting it close, but I guess they've done their math. I'm getting the one on sale (already ordered it) because it's pretty cheap and it's still $60 cheaper than the stacked one. Yeah, their enclosures are pretty heavy, but that's what I like about them! These things are rock solid. I've used cheaper plastic ones in the past and they were fine, but little things here and there were evident that they were a little cheap. This one is seriously well made.
-
A friend and I now use these things instead of 3.5" external enclosures and carry around 2.5" externals instead.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Just slide a drive in and close the door, open the door and the drive gets pushed out.
Saves carrying around a lot of PSUs and cables, just the HDD in its transport pack - a lot lighter.
Plus, considering the amount of HDDs I've got lying around, it makes it easy to find out what's on them. Heaps better than those cradle things, they were an absolute PITA if you wanted to swap HDDs.
-
I have one of those as well. Obviously, I'm not getting the Granite Digital products for their portability. I like those things...you just slide the bare drive in and out like a floppy disk. I wrote a review about them a while back:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=7940.0
-
superboyac,
My question was unanswered & I'll ask again because I'm genuinely curious. Why were you asking about a molex connector extension when you are buying a SATA drive enclosure? The two just don't mix.
-
superboyac,
My question was unanswered & I'll ask again because I'm genuinely curious. Why were you asking about a molex connector extension when you are buying a SATA drive enclosure? The two just don't mix.
-Innuendo
The enclosure I bought has an alternative molex connection in the back. It's there for emergencies, I suppose. The normal connection for power is a mini-din plug that attaches to a brick power supply. Since the brick was not enough power, the molex could provide more power when connected directly to my pc's psu. That's why I was looking for a molex.
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
-
Pretty lousy quality picture, but that looks like a regular SATA power cable connector rather than the traditional IDE molex...
-
Just as I thought. The port's label even says SATA Power. If that were a molex connector it wouldn't be as wide and it would have been taller than the SATA power cable.
I do hope you're happy with your purchase, but if you don't require hot-swap you could have bought a D-Link DNS-323 for about the same price (if you shop sales) and would have gotten a lot more functionality for your money.
-
Ok...I thought I made it clear. Mine has a molex connector where the picture shows SATA power. I couldn't find an exact picture of it.
I've seen the DNS-323. The only think I didn't like about it was the plastic feel to it and the wobbly way everything connects. And I did want hot swap, very much so.
-
I feel your pain. I found your post because I was searching for a non-standard molex cable as well. I've searched high and low and only found one place so far. Here is what I found.
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/sidcuscab.html
You can buy male and female empty molex plugs and pins to make your own cable, which can be any length you want. They do make crimpers for the pins, but you really don't need them. Just stick the wire in the pin and pinch the end with some pliers. After that you just shove the pin in the plug and the little metal parts that stick out will keep the pin from coming back out.
The plug and pins will run you about $1 and you can get wire almost anywhere. I hope this is what you were looking for.
-
I feel your pain. I found your post because I was searching for a non-standard molex cable as well. I've searched high and low and only found one place so far. Here is what I found.
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/sidcuscab.html
You can buy male and female empty molex plugs and pins to make your own cable, which can be any length you want. They do make crimpers for the pins, but you really don't need them. Just stick the wire in the pin and pinch the end with some pliers. After that you just shove the pin in the plug and the little metal parts that stick out will keep the pin from coming back out.
The plug and pins will run you about $1 and you can get wire almost anywhere. I hope this is what you were looking for.
-S_O_B
Thanks for the website, I'll have to save it.
I was THIS close to making a cable. But i ended up buying a 2-bay enclosure that I talked about previously in this thread. I haven't connected it yet, I'm still waiting for my sata cables to arrive, but I'm happy with it. I tend to avoid doing DIY things unless I absolutely have to.
-
Ok...I thought I made it clear. Mine has a molex connector where the picture shows SATA power. I couldn't find an exact picture of it.-superboyac
How odd and non-standard. That's quite an oddity you have on your hands.
I've seen the DNS-323. The only think I didn't like about it was the plastic feel to it and the wobbly way everything connects. And I did want hot swap, very much so.
Only the front cover is plastic. The rest is metal & the way things connect you might think it would be wobbly, but it's very snug & efficient. There's no wobble at all. However, if you wanted hot-swap then you are right. The DNS-323 doesn't have hot-swap.
However, in its defense, the DNS-323 wasn't designed where hot-swap was a desired feature. It's a NAS rather than an eSATA enclosure. I bought the DNS-323 so I could hang it on my network & have central storage available to all the computers on my network without having to keep a PC on to access its attached enclosure.
I really like Granite Digital's aesthetics, but I know if I got one I'd spend too much money buying a PC case to match. ;)
Like you, I tend to avoid DIY things, especially when pre-built things with warrantees that exist that give you more features than you had & for not much money. That two-bay enclosure for $99 is a very good deal.
-
Ok...I thought I made it clear. Mine has a molex connector where the picture shows SATA power. I couldn't find an exact picture of it.-superboyac
How odd and non-standard. That's quite an oddity you have on your hands.
I've seen the DNS-323. The only think I didn't like about it was the plastic feel to it and the wobbly way everything connects. And I did want hot swap, very much so.
Only the front cover is plastic. The rest is metal & the way things connect you might think it would be wobbly, but it's very snug & efficient. There's no wobble at all. However, if you wanted hot-swap then you are right. The DNS-323 doesn't have hot-swap.
However, in its defense, the DNS-323 wasn't designed where hot-swap was a desired feature. It's a NAS rather than an eSATA enclosure. I bought the DNS-323 so I could hang it on my network & have central storage available to all the computers on my network without having to keep a PC on to access its attached enclosure.
I really like Granite Digital's aesthetics, but I know if I got one I'd spend too much money buying a PC case to match. ;)
Like you, I tend to avoid DIY things, especially when pre-built things with warrantees that exist that give you more features than you had & for not much money. That two-bay enclosure for $99 is a very good deal.
-Innuendo
Re the DNS, I thought the front cover was a little wobbly...it came off too easily for my tastes. But it's a decent system, I don't mind it much at all. I do like Granite Digital a lot. Even though they are expensive, I will continue to support them because of their amazing customer service.
I am curious as to what the power supply to the DNS is like. For two hard drives, it would have to be a little more than usual. By the way, I know a lot of people here are saying that it's unusual for me to run out of power and the Granite Digital stuff is overkill, but I've been cranking the numbers myself and the problem I ran into makes sense. I'm a licensed electrical engineer, so I like to think I know what I'm talking about. For a 2 hard drive system, I would recommend an 80-100W power supply, if you want to be on the safe side. I'm really wondering why other people are not running into problems with their enclosures. Just a little curious on my end.
Let me explain, maybe it will help someone who comes across this post. My enclosure came with a 40W power supply in the form of a brick-type. That's plenty for the most part. However, with these large drives, it's not that unusual for them to consume more than 30W at some instant (however rare that might be). I've heard that the initial spin-up consumes the most power. In that case, it is quite possible that 40W is not enough. With power, you never want to cut it too close to the specified values because all sorts of things can be going on. There can be dips and surges, whatever. I always go way on the safe side. In my case, it seemed like I didn't have enough juice to startup the drive and I could never get it going after a while. but with a larger power supply, it was fine.
-
Re the DNS, I thought the front cover was a little wobbly...it came off too easily for my tastes.-superboyac
Empty the cover is a little wobbly, but there are metal coil/spring type things on the back that provide pressure against the drives once they are installed and then there's enough positive pressure that there's no movement/wobble at all.
I am curious as to what the power supply to the DNS is like.
According to the DNS-323 Wiki:
(with two drives)
HDs spinning/powering up - up to 72 watts for 3 seconds
HDs up, high CPU, Gigabit network transfer via CIFS/SMB - 23-24 watts
HDs powered down (sleep), otherwise running - 7 watts
My power brick has the following writing on the bottom:
Jentec Technology Co, Ltd"
Model: JTA0512
AC Input: 100-240Vac/1.2A
50-60Hz
DC Output: +5V/3A, +12V/3A
According to Jentec's web site it's a "34-61 Watt Dual Output Switching Desktop Power Supply."
I've been running this unit for over a year now & it's been a solid performer. I bought this as something cheap to get me by till I could afford something better, but I've been really impressed. I'd definitely buy a second one to run alongside the first if I ever had the need.
-
So there you go. Those numbers still don't tell me everything, but enough to say that there are situations where power can insufficient. But again, for the most part, you will be fine. Same with me. I was fine for the most part, but the situation came up where I probably approached the limit and a random spike/dip caused a problem. That's why I never want to cut it that close. I'm perfectly happy with my new 300W power supply for my two HD's. I know I'll always have enough juice, and if it's overkill, I really don't care. The thing with power is that you only consume what the actual demand is. So if I have a 300W power supply, but I'm only using 20W of it, then I'm not being wasteful or anything. I'm only drawing 20W from the power company. So knowing that, I'd rather overshoot than try to get a right fit. Of course, this attitude is partly due to the fact that I've already experienced my previous problem. Normally, I just use whatever brick comes default.
-
So if I have a 300W power supply, but I'm only using 20W of it, then I'm not being wasteful or anything. I'm only drawing 20W from the power company.-superboyac
Not quite :)
Because the efficiency of your typical switchmode PSU depends on the output power load you might find that your 300W PSU is only running at 50%-60% efficiency at a load of 20W - so your actual input power might be around 40W from your power company.
When you get up near the full rated capacity of the PSU then you start to get near an 80%, (or more with the right PSU design), efficiency.
The 80 Plus Program (http://www.80plus.org/80what.htm) is trying to get manufacturers to use better switchmode designs:
The 80 PLUS performance specification requires multi-output power supplies in computers and servers to be 80% or greater energy efficient at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load with a true power factor of 0.9 or greater. This makes an 80 PLUS certified power supply substantially more efficient than typical power supplies and creates a unique market differentiation opportunity for power supply and computer manufacturers.
But even if the 300W PSU in your external has a 80Plus sticker on it, it's still not running at that because the 20W load, (6.7% of full load capacity), is well below the requirement for 80% efficiency at 20% load, which is 60W.
Thus a lower rated PSU would actually be more efficient.
-
OK, 4wd, you got me! I know about the 80 Plus, i was just hoping nobody was going to call me out on it.
Here's the thing. I don't care about that stuff primarily. My top concern is that the hard drive works, environment be damned. I really don't care if my little PSU uses more than optimum power. If I need to be a little wasteful to get my setup to work, so be it. I'll let the manufacturer's worry about the regulations and stuff. It's not my job (at least not at home...at work is a different story).
To be truthful, it's not that I don't care. This is just the solution for me, that's all. My "efficiently sized" power supply wasn't enough. I tried looking for a cable, or larger brick, etc. to replace the existing one. I couldn't find one that was affordable. However, I found a 2-bay drive just like the one I had for an extra $20. It happened to have 300W supply. Do I care? No. Why? Because my hard drive will work. So I got it. It could have been a 100W or 500W supply, I still would have gotten it for that price. My goal is a working hard drive.
-
superboyac, for some reason people seem to be obsessing about this 300W power supply. When I buy something like this the only two concerns in my mind are that it works and that it looks good sitting next to my other PC gear on my desk. I don't care about PSUs on devices like this unless internet reviews start popping up saying something is "woefully inadequate" or the like.
My thoughts on Granite Digital are I compliment you on your taste, good sir. Granite Digital has been around forever. It's just that most of us haven't heard of them because they are almost exclusively a Mac vendor & you can tell by the way all their stuff blends in with the styles of Mac Pros. And if something seems odd in a few of their designs chances are it was done to cater to their Mac customers because there was some kind of need for it.
As for me, although I really like the looks of Granite Digital's stuff I'm not going to buy anything of theirs as I know it will be the first step down a slippery slope towards me buying a $600 silver aluminum Lian-Li or Silverstone case.
-
As for me, although I really like the looks of Granite Digital's stuff I'm not going to buy anything of theirs as I know it will be the first step down a slippery slope towards me buying a $600 silver aluminum Lian-Li or Silverstone case.
-Innuendo
AHH!! This case is SO sexy. I need to get it:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=293&cl_index=2&sc_index=5&ss_index=13&g=f)
-
AHH!! This case is SO sexy. I need to get it:-superboyac
Must....resist....
-
superboyac, for some reason people seem to be obsessing about this 300W power supply.-Innuendo
I wouldn't say obsessing - just pointing out that it is a really poor design, (and actually, considering that their single drive version also failed to work properly - it was also poor design).
Considering the size of the case and the PSU, if I was willing to get one I'd be installing a Mini-ITX, Pico-ITX or Nano-ITX motherboard in it and turning it into a fileserver.
I don't care about that stuff primarily. My top concern is that the hard drive works, environment be damned.-superboyac
Now if you'd said you were a 'tree-hating, doze-in-a-greenie, there-ain't-no-such-thing-as-global-warming, screw-the-environment' kind of guy, well then............I would have been right up there with you :D
Personally I'd prefer the flexibility of the Addonics range:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (http://www.addonics.com/products/raid_system/ast4.asp)
Now if only I could afford them :(
-
4wd, in defense of Granite Digital, I don't consider it poor design completely. The only thing I fault them for is for not putting a large enough power supply to cover all cases rather than 80% of the situations people might encounter. But again, their customer service has been really great about it. Furthermore, I'm still not convinced all these other power supplies on other manufacturer's external drives are sufficient to cover all cases. Just because you or other people haven't experienced problems doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Again, according to the numbers, it seems reasonable that problems can occur.
I came across another website when searching for larger power supplies (I don't remember where) but they made power supplies for mini computers and there was a special note/warning in it saying that 80W may not be enough to cover some situations with multiple hard drives.
Anyway, I just don't think GD really did anything wrong. The only thing I would recommend is that they maybe warn users that larger drives may need larger power supplies, and/or they provide larger power supplies by default. Who knows?
By the way, i do like the Addonics stuff. I have one of them in my old computer. They have a lot of cool solutions for these things.
-
i'd like to point out what i like about the models 4wd posted -- which is that the opening is full 5.25 opening which holds exposed racks. i prefer this to a case with a door and internal mountings that wouldn't allow you to use a rack of your choosing. if you know you're never going to want to swap drives in and out then it doesnt matter of course.
-
They have a lot of cool solutions for these things.
-superboyac
Yes, I'm seriously tempted by this little gadget (http://www.addonics.com/products/nas/nasu2.asp) - very cool for plugging your external USB drive into the LAN at a meeting.
-
Yes, I'm seriously tempted by this little gadget (http://www.addonics.com/products/nas/nasu2.asp) - very cool for plugging your external USB drive into the LAN at a meeting.-4wd
That is so cool! Now I need about 5 of them.... :(
-
i'd like to point out what i like about the models 4wd posted -- which is that the opening is full 5.25 opening which holds exposed racks. i prefer this to a case with a door and internal mountings that wouldn't allow you to use a rack of your choosing. if you know you're never going to want to swap drives in and out then it doesnt matter of course.
-mouser
This is true. This is why i got Addonics stuff a while back. But it turned out that i swapped out my drives so infrequently, that it didn't matter (like you said). If I were to swap in and out a lot, I would definitely get a generic opening for flexibility.