Reliable power supplies with LOTs of connectors

I need to power up about 9 or 10 hard drives in a tower case. Both
regular ide (molex) and sata. I could probably get by with about 500W
or above.

I've been using Antec Neo-series power supplies, but have had some
trouble with connector reliability. Which manufacturer's supplies
would be most reliable? Among the usual vendors (Rosewill,
Thermaltake, PC Power, etc), are there any to be avoided?

I'd also consider newer modular Antecs if they've improved connector
and electronic reliability.

On 28/06/2008 07:16, R wrote:

I need to power up about 9 or 10 hard drives in a tower case. Both
regular ide (molex) and sata. I could probably get by with about 500W
or above.

I've just fitted a Seasonic S12-II 500W PSU to a machine with 6 SATA
drives, 2 x IDE drives, quad core2 CPU, single low-end PCIe graphics
(without power lead) one SATA optical drive and 3xPCI cards.

The PSU sill has a few connectors to spare, it isn't modular, though
seasonic do a modular version as well.

The whole machine pulls about 330W during startup (drive spin-up is not
staggered) and settles down to 165W at idle and 230W with drives and CPU
being thrashed.

R wrote:
I need to power up about 9 or 10 hard drives in a tower case. Both
regular ide (molex) and sata. I could probably get by with about 500W
or above.

I've been using Antec Neo-series power supplies, but have had some
trouble with connector reliability. Which manufacturer's supplies
would be most reliable? Among the usual vendors (Rosewill,
Thermaltake, PC Power, etc), are there any to be avoided?

I'd also consider newer modular Antecs if they've improved connector
and electronic reliability.

Cooler Master have some nice efficient power supplies that seem well
made and in my experience the cabling is longer than most, which is
often a problem with many PSUs in a full size tower case.

One thing to consider is that many power supplies tend to be most
efficient in the midrange of their rating so buying one with approximate
rated capacity double the running wattage may be an advantage.

And the #1 rule: Avoid any power supply that you pick up and it seems
surprisingly light.


Marcus

If this machine is going to be on 24 x 7, you might pay some attention to
efficiency.

Although I have not used this PS, the PS line below looks like it might be
pretty interesting for many users because of it"s effiency at a wide
variation of loads
http://www.antec.com/us/pro_p_Signature.php
80 PLUS® Bronze Certified - 82% or more efficiency at 20%, 50%, and 100%
load

FWIW, I have been satisfied with multiple Coarsair PS.
I am not at all sure I would include Rosewill in any list of "quality" Brand
names.
===============
"R" wrote in message
...
I need to power up about 9 or 10 hard drives in a tower case. Both
regular ide (molex) and sata. I could probably get by with about 500W
or above.

I've been using Antec Neo-series power supplies, but have had some
trouble with connector reliability. Which manufacturer's supplies
would be most reliable? Among the usual vendors (Rosewill,
Thermaltake, PC Power, etc), are there any to be avoided?

I'd also consider newer modular Antecs if they've improved connector
and electronic reliability.