Re: Reliability of a standard PC power supply in a server envirornment
Ok, let me get my 2 cents in.
The thread title is wrong imho... you're questioning the reliability in a server environment. Well, that's wrong from the start as the fact the psu is running 24/7 does no make it a server environment.
"Server power supplies" are a bit different because generally, the ambient temperature inside a rack is sometimes higher than normal - you have up to 40 1U servers with small, noisy, high rpm coolers that cool the heatsinks inside simply by pushing air through the blades, you have also tightly packed power supplies that have small fans pushing (or pulling) air through them.
The power supplies have to be made to work at higher temperatures because the manufacturers don't know if the server they're in will be in a cold isle or a warm isle, how much load the server is constantly under (is the server used to serve pages which means the load fluctuates through the day or is it a database server where the load is constantly high)
And there's other factors involved which don't really matter than much for home use, like the ability of the psu to work on not so nice AC input (depending on what kind of UPS the datacenter uses) and other things.
For a Pentium 3 computer running 24/7 these above don't really matter. The ambient temperature will be relatively the same and relatively cool, the load on that p3 computer will be minimal so the power supply won't be "stressed".
IMHO, any power supply you'd use will run 24/7 for years with such a cheap system. I wouldn't really worry about it. I would however recommend spending 40-50$ on a new power supply, for the fact that the new power supplies, even with the so-so capacitors they have inside, are simply better efficiency designs and inherently not so warm.
A 200w oldie will do about 65% efficiency at the 60-80w the system will use, so you'll waste about 20-30 watts in heat... if the system is 24/7 running, that's about 1 kwh wasted every 3-4 days or so, or about 10 kWh a month... about 1-2$ depending where you like, I think. It's not much, but if you plan to have the system for a few years you'll get your money back from the psu in 2-3 years so you're not really throwing money away.
I'd recommend getting for example this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151086
At 40$ it's a great deal, with 3 year warranty, bronze efficiency, 120mm fan so little noise... what more would you want?
But in the end... it's a p3 you plan to use, even if the psu dies in it, why would you care... you can go to goodwill or some pawn shop or ebay or whatever and get a better system for 20-30$, it's not like you host critical stuff on that system. Having it down for a day probably won't matter to you.
ps. if it matters, I keep my home computer in my room, running 24/7 ... with occasional restarts when software requires it. Never had any problems with my power supplies, the cheap Sirtec (high power) or this more expensive Seasonic X-650 I currenly have.
Ok, let me get my 2 cents in.
The thread title is wrong imho... you're questioning the reliability in a server environment. Well, that's wrong from the start as the fact the psu is running 24/7 does no make it a server environment.
"Server power supplies" are a bit different because generally, the ambient temperature inside a rack is sometimes higher than normal - you have up to 40 1U servers with small, noisy, high rpm coolers that cool the heatsinks inside simply by pushing air through the blades, you have also tightly packed power supplies that have small fans pushing (or pulling) air through them.
The power supplies have to be made to work at higher temperatures because the manufacturers don't know if the server they're in will be in a cold isle or a warm isle, how much load the server is constantly under (is the server used to serve pages which means the load fluctuates through the day or is it a database server where the load is constantly high)
And there's other factors involved which don't really matter than much for home use, like the ability of the psu to work on not so nice AC input (depending on what kind of UPS the datacenter uses) and other things.
For a Pentium 3 computer running 24/7 these above don't really matter. The ambient temperature will be relatively the same and relatively cool, the load on that p3 computer will be minimal so the power supply won't be "stressed".
IMHO, any power supply you'd use will run 24/7 for years with such a cheap system. I wouldn't really worry about it. I would however recommend spending 40-50$ on a new power supply, for the fact that the new power supplies, even with the so-so capacitors they have inside, are simply better efficiency designs and inherently not so warm.
A 200w oldie will do about 65% efficiency at the 60-80w the system will use, so you'll waste about 20-30 watts in heat... if the system is 24/7 running, that's about 1 kwh wasted every 3-4 days or so, or about 10 kWh a month... about 1-2$ depending where you like, I think. It's not much, but if you plan to have the system for a few years you'll get your money back from the psu in 2-3 years so you're not really throwing money away.
I'd recommend getting for example this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151086
At 40$ it's a great deal, with 3 year warranty, bronze efficiency, 120mm fan so little noise... what more would you want?
But in the end... it's a p3 you plan to use, even if the psu dies in it, why would you care... you can go to goodwill or some pawn shop or ebay or whatever and get a better system for 20-30$, it's not like you host critical stuff on that system. Having it down for a day probably won't matter to you.
ps. if it matters, I keep my home computer in my room, running 24/7 ... with occasional restarts when software requires it. Never had any problems with my power supplies, the cheap Sirtec (high power) or this more expensive Seasonic X-650 I currenly have.
Comment