Anyone got any recomendations? I'm building a home server based off the AMD64 architecture and am having issues choosing the PS.

I'll be using SATA drives, up to 5 max. What say the hive?

You can never go wrong with Antec.

Antec

yeah aaa  i just put 2 of those im my old pentium II computer, all that extra wattage makes it run faster right???          

Quoted: this is what i ordered for my amd64 4000+ system. pricey, but good. mmk www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151025

Quoted: You can never go wrong with Antec. Antec

Never used Antec's Power Supply's before. Have used there cases. I'll look into them.

Originally Posted By: madman_kirk: this is what i ordered for my amd64 4000+ system. pricey, but good. mmk www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151025

That looks interesting as well. I agree with you on the power supply issue. If your gonna spend thousands on hardware, don't get a cheap power supply unit. You'll regret it.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into both of these options.

I am using an Ultra X-Connect PSU in my build.

www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1028624&Sku=ULT31590

I like the round cables to allow better airflow through the case.

BigDozer66

Quoted: yeah aaa  i just put 2 of those im my old pentium II computer, all that extra wattage makes it run faster right???           Quoted: this is what i ordered for my amd64 4000+ system. pricey, but good. mmk www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151025

uhhhh....sure...as long as the power supply has a giant aerodynamic wing on the back and some "Type R" stickers..then it will be faster.  

We like power supplies that give good, clean, stable power, even when the temperature goes up.  Lights are a nicety...a quiet fan might be a consideration, but the PSU's job is to provide enough power and protect the components.

Name brand stuff is the conservative route...around 450 watts or so.  There are some "no-name" brands that have turned out to work quite well, the problem with that is that we'd probably go through a lot of crappy no-names to find a good one...plus sometimes a no-name brand might have a good model, then a crappy model.

Powerwise...you probably would just do quite fine with a 300 watt PSU, even with those HDD's.  A lot of current systems really only use about 175-200 watts.  And if you buy a brand new pre-built system, it may very well have a 250 or 300w PSU in it.  But those builders know exactly the parts they are putting in, the airflow properties of the case/fan setup they have, and they also know that it's unlikely that the average purchaser will add a bunch of crap.  As we add components, and with unknown airflow qualities, and as temperatures rise, that's where the higher-watt PSU's earn their pay.

I was just kiddin' by the way guys..  

I wasn't making fun, i was just being stupid!!!

Quoted: Quoted: yeah aaa  i just put 2 of those im my old pentium II computer, all that extra wattage makes it run faster right???           Quoted: this is what i ordered for my amd64 4000+ system. pricey, but good. mmk www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151025  run faster no. keep running yes. sorry but when i invest close to $ 2,500 in cpu,HD's ,MB etc..... the $19.95  peice of crap psu is not going into this box. mmk

Thanks for the help guys. I've always used Enermax... Antec looks interesting. Has anyone seen one of these before?

www.antec.com/us/pro_p_Phantom.html

They say they're 86% efficient at full load. It looks good... but thats not grounds to base a PS on. Anyone use one of these bad boys?

Quoted: They say they're 86% efficient at full load.

Efficicency for PSU's is a tricky subject.  PSU's are more efficient at higher loads and as they warm up.  Take a wittle-bitty 200 watt power supply and put it in a system that's pulling 160 watts.  Now swap out the power supply for a nice big 550 watt PSU on the same system...the 200 watt power supply was more efficient at that load (taking a few assumptions there).  For them to say 86% efficiency, they're also going with a few criteria...one of which is "at a full load" which is about a fair a comparison that one could make on efficiency for PSU's.  While a more efficient PSU does do a better job at not wasting energy into heat, it's more of a marketing phrase than a benefit that's seen in the real world.  If a person is "at full load" with a 500 watt PSU, I'd recommend that they go get a 600 watt to have some overhead rather than run their system near the edge.

Quoted: Quoted: They say they're 86% efficient at full load. Efficicency for PSU's is a tricky subject.  PSU's are more efficient at higher loads and as they warm up.  Take a wittle-bitty 200 watt power supply and put it in a system that's pulling 160 watts.  Now swap out the power supply for a nice big 550 watt PSU on the same system...the 200 watt power supply was more efficient at that load (taking a few assumptions there).  For them to say 86% efficiency, they're also going with a few criteria...one of which is "at a full load" which is about a fair a comparison that one could make on efficiency for PSU's.  While a more efficient PSU does do a better job at not wasting energy into heat, it's more of a marketing phrase than a benefit that's seen in the real world.  If a person is "at full load" with a 500 watt PSU, I'd recommend that they go get a 600 watt to have some overhead rather than run their system near the edge.

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the help. Let me ask you this. The system i am designing right now is pretty... well, Hefty. How would i got about finding out how much power i actually need to run the system? Basically we're talking about a Dual Xeon (changed my mind from AMD) system with 4gb of RAM, 5 SATA drives, RAID controller, and of course the system fans.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: They say they're 86% efficient at full load. Efficicency for PSU's is a tricky subject.  PSU's are more efficient at higher loads and as they warm up.  Take a wittle-bitty 200 watt power supply and put it in a system that's pulling 160 watts.  Now swap out the power supply for a nice big 550 watt PSU on the same system...the 200 watt power supply was more efficient at that load (taking a few assumptions there).  For them to say 86% efficiency, they're also going with a few criteria...one of which is "at a full load" which is about a fair a comparison that one could make on efficiency for PSU's.  While a more efficient PSU does do a better job at not wasting energy into heat, it's more of a marketing phrase than a benefit that's seen in the real world.  If a person is "at full load" with a 500 watt PSU, I'd recommend that they go get a 600 watt to have some overhead rather than run their system near the edge. Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the help. Let me ask you this. The system i am designing right now is pretty... well, Hefty. How would i got about finding out how much power i actually need to run the system? Basically we're talking about a Dual Xeon (changed my mind from AMD) system with 4gb of RAM, 5 SATA drives, RAID controller, and of course the system fans.

There's a lot of variance between brands, so without some testing equipment, we could only guess.

* CPU's can pull up to 100 watts for the power hungry P4's, however a number of modern CPU's are in the 60 watt range with the little Pentium M's somewhere around 21, IIRC.  2-3 years ago, most all CPU's were in the 40-50 watt range.
* AGP - typically 20-30 watts for a video card.  The AGP slot can give it's AGP card 50 watts...any more than that, then the video card will need an external plug
* PCI cards typically run around 5 watts, but they can give up to 20 watch each.
* Fans actually take very little....typically 1-2 watts for an 80mm fan, and maybe double that for a 120mm fan.
* Hard drives...can be 5-15 watts, maybe double that for a 10k rpm drive.
* Optical drives take a good chunk of about 25-30 watts as they start to spin, but taper off to around 10-15 during operation.
* Motherboard itself...usually 20-30 watts (not including PCI/AGP slot needs)
* RAM - typically 15-20 watts per 256MB

Go with an OCZ.  None of the others come close.

Keep in mind the spinup on 5 drives is going to such mucho juice.  You can never have too much power!