Power supply replacement for Supermicro chassis 808t

[Blubster]

Hi everyone!
I have a client that had two Supermicro Superserver 6016TT-IBXF (most probably) sitting in a rack unused, because they were supposedly no longer working.
One of them has a dead power supply (PWS-1K21P-1R), its led does not turn on when power is supplied, no fans are spinning, etc.
The other one has a working power supply PWS-981-1S) which it is loud as hell, even when no node is powered on. Otherwise the server was decommissioned because hard drives failed, no biggie.
I checked both chassis are working when using this power supply, so both are ok regarding the PDB.
I wanted to buy another power supply, if not two if i can find a quieter model.

After looking at this thread i had my eyes on this power supply : PWS-920P-SQ
I was pretty much about to buy a couple on ebay when i saw this thread where the question of the compatibility of the PDB was raised.
I have no choice for the PDB, it is the default one (PDB-PT808-S20).
Is it compatible with the SQ power supplies? If not what are my options for a quieter PWS?
Should i contact SM support for clues? I'm afraid they are going to give me the list of the officially supported PWS...

Thanks for your help!

 

[pgh5278]

Hi everyone!
I have a client that had two Supermicro Superserver 6016TT-IBXF (most probably) sitting in a rack unused, because they were supposedly no longer working.
One of them has a dead power supply (PWS-1K21P-1R), its led does not turn on when power is supplied, no fans are spinning, etc.
The other one has a working power supply PWS-981-1S) which it is loud as hell, even when no node is powered on. Otherwise the server was decommissioned because hard drives failed, no biggie.
I checked both chassis are working when using this power supply, so both are ok regarding the PDB.
I wanted to buy another power supply, if not two if i can find a quieter model.

After looking at this thread i had my eyes on this power supply : PWS-920P-SQ
I was pretty much about to buy a couple on ebay when i saw this thread where the question of the compatibility of the PDB was raised.
I have no choice for the PDB, it is the default one (PDB-PT808-S20).
Is it compatible with the SQ power supplies? If not what are my options for a quieter PWS?
Should i contact SM support for clues? I'm afraid they are going to give me the list of the officially supported PWS...

Thanks for your help!

Hello, the SM parts list for the server is a good friend. I have the same 1u twin server, the PDB has the narrower connections as opposed the the wider connections on the SQ models. I am using the 500 watt platinum power supply often mentioned in the forum. Much quiter and works for mining 4 @ E5 V2 CPU.

Have looked at cutting the plastic female connector on the sides where the PWS meets the PDB to accommodate the wider SQ models, but that is for anotehr day, the 500W is managing it OK.

 

[Blubster]

Thanks for your answer!
I did not take a look at the connector to be honest. I did now and i think the PWS-920P-SQ has the narrow connector, based on this picture on supermicro's store :

Compared to the 1.2kw model, which has a wider connector in this picture :

I don't need 1.2kw of power. I just need the cheapest and quietest psu for this model.
Based on what you said, the power supplies should work, and may require a physical modification on the female connector *if* i buy a wide connector PSU, am i right? But the 920w should not require modification and should work out of the box, if i am not mistaken.

What 500w model are you using if i may ask? PWS-501P-1R? I may want to upgrade the processors of the nodes (currently each node has two e5620), so 500w may not cut it with beefier CPUs (x5670 of x5675 hopefully, so 95w of tdp per cpu).
What server do you have? You said you had E5 V2 in it so it should be a different model than the one i have...

 

[Aestr]

Those 920P-SQ PSUs are definitely quiet, but they're also expensive. If you're using them in those 1U servers the chassis fans are going to be much louder than the PSU so you lose a lot of the benefit. In my experience the the gold rated PWS-1K21P-1R are reasonably quiet, at least compared to the noise of the counter rotating fans in your server connected to an X8 series motherboard. They're also a lot cheaper on ebay than the SQs, so worth considering what benefit you'll actually get from the pricier option.

 

[pgh5278]

Thanks for your answer!
I did not take a look at the connector to be honest. I did now and i think the PWS-920P-SQ has the narrow connector, based on this picture on supermicro's store :
Compared to the 1.2kw model, which has a wider connector in this picture :


What 500w model are you using if i may ask? PWS-501P-1R? I may want to upgrade the processors of the nodes (currently each node has two e5620), so 500w may not cut it with beefier CPUs (x5670 of x5675 hopefully, so 95w of tdp per cpu).
What server do you have? You said you had E5 V2 in it so it should be a different model than the one i have...

Hello, am using the platinum PWS-501P-1R, but pulled it out last night and replaced with the 920SQ, works good and quieter. I have the same chassis as you but replaced the 1366 boards with 2011 boards. The edge connector of the 500 and the 920SQ are the same width, the 1280 SQ is the wider one.

 

[Blubster]

Hello, am using the platinum PWS-501P-1R, but pulled it out last night and replaced with the 920SQ, works good and quieter. I have the same chassis as you but replaced the 1366 boards with 2011 boards. The edge connector of the 500 and the 920SQ are the same width, the 1280 SQ is the wider one.

Thanks you for your input! I'll check what the prices are for the different power supplies and if I find a good deal I'll get a couple of 920sq. Honestly the nodes are fairly quiet, I can't hear them over the current power supply so a quieter one should improve things.
I couldn't find any compatible motherboard just looking at the specs, which one did you get? Did you need to replace anything else like the backplane?
EDIT : I guess looking at the different motherboard, you opted for a x9drt? I'm very interested to know how much you had to replace to upgrade to this! The x10drt is another candidate with the same size.
EDIT2 : all right, i did some more digging and found that the standard chassis even for x10drt non hotswap motherboards is identical to the chassis for x8, including fans, pdb, backplane, cables, riser, etc. The compatible motherboards are :

• x9drt-f
• x9drt-ibqf
• x9drt-ibff
• x10drt-l
• x10drt-libq
• x10drt-libf

Here is the standard chassis for x9/x10 gen.
And here is the chassis i have for x8 gen.
The standard part list is completely identical. The optionnal part list differs only regarding the air shroud.
I like this, as it means down the road i can replace the x8 motherboards with x9 or x10, technically speaking (though it may cost a lot...), without having to replace all the chassis.