Finding that perfect power supply/watts/combo usage?

[x10qbl]

Hey guys,

Simply put, I'm going with the Supermicro X10QBL motherboard which needs to be fed the regular ATX12V 2.0 24 pins connector but also has 4 extra EPS12V 8-pin connectors on the board itself and I am having a hard time deciding which consumer brand PSU to go with and at wattage?

I've used several online calculators but they all are giving different answers which are drastically different from each other... anyways here goes the intended set-up:

- Quad socket CPUs are Xeons E7-4890 v2 which according to Intel ARK's are 155W rated each.
- System memory is now 16 sticks of 8GB DDR3 ECC Registered PC3-12800 (1600) with a physical limit of 32 banks to be filled sometime later this year.
- The system is intended to host one single PCIe card for now, a no-name Nvidia 980GTX card) but could be having an extra PCI 4 ports SATA card sometime later this year and more cheap drives down the road (I usually rely on Western Digital green drives, for the record).
- 1x single regular SSD for the operating system Windows 2012 R2 (most likely a Samsung 850 PRO).
- 1x optical drive, regular Blu-Ray drive which will be thrown out and replaced by a Ultra Blu-Ray drive as soon as they are available on the market.
- 1x data hard disk drive most likely a Western Digital drive (Green/WD60EZRX) then later on, more drives could be added later next year.
- 1 USB Keyboard.
- 1 USB Mouse.

The reported wattage from various online calculators is ranging from 1006W all the way to 1210W (therefore implying even a 1200W PSU wouldn't be enough).

If anyone could really enlight me, it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

TL;DR version: PSU minimum wattage for 4x 155W CPU, 1 SSD, 1 SATA, 1 Blu-Ray, Nvidia 980GTX no-name, keybd & mouse. thx.

Edited: Made a typo/mistake.

 

[T_Minus]

Wait, the board shows it accepts v2, and v3 xeon? And DDR3?
Is that correct? I didn't know they had some boards that worked with 2011 v2 and 3?!


Intel® Xeon® Processor E7-4850 v2 (24M Cache, 2.30 GHz) Specifications

shows CPU are 105w not 155w

 

[x10qbl]

Hey T_Minus,

Yes, that's correct, minding you a few caveats, this motherboard is suited for both v2 & v3 CPUs.

- v2's work out of the box without any specific tweaks.
- v3's work *if* the motherboard revision is +2.0.

In my case, mine is a 1.03 (I think), too lazy to check it out, board is in the next room and it's 4AM here, bleh.

Regardless, unless you order directly from Supermicro and talk to their sales representative directly; it's going to be a gamble to get a revision 2.0 board shipped to you.

In regards to the CPUs you are right, I got mixed up... they are E7-4890 v2 not E7-4850 v2 and indeed are 155W. My bad.

Still could use some help calculating the proper wattage requirements.

Thanks for your input.

 

[T_Minus]

That system requires a hell of a lot of power at full-usage then throw in that 980GTX and you need a good chunk more...

I would go 1250-1350 with the items listed but may even want to step it up to 1500w to give you more headroom.

What are you doing with that many cores and 1 video card?

 

[x10qbl]

Hey T_Minus,

Thanks for your precious help; I'm looking at this PSU at the moment:

LEPA - Products

It states it is 1700W rated and has *6* separate 12V rails, since the motherboard will require no less than four 8-pins delivering 12V to it on top of the regular ATX12V 24 pin connector.

What "worries" me a bit is that rails 1 & 2 are delivering 20A each, while the others 3, 4, 5 & 6 are delivering 30A each.

How do I tell whether 20A or 30A are enough for each CPU to be hooked up straight to the board itself? Will I risk frying anything? How to tell how much ampers do 155W CPUs exactly need, etc, etc, etc?

http://www.lepatek.com/files/LE_ProductBasic_eng/PB_File/LEPA MaxPlatinum datasheet-EN.pdf

 

[x10qbl]

What are you doing with that many cores and 1 video card?

Video encoding and bitcoin mining at the same time and a bit of "very light" gaming like 8 hours a week tops.

 

[x10qbl]

In my previous question, I'm specifically refering to this picture:

http://www.lepatek.com/userfiles/image/PM/PM1700.jpg

There are 6 red connectors which are labeled GPU/CPU/RAM.

Looking closer enough it shows from left to right:

12V3 12V4 12V6
12V3 12V5 12V5

Does that means the 12V on two ports labeled V3 are sharing the 30A? Same with the two named V5 are they sharing the 30A as well? If that is the case, how do I plug in my 980 GTX then?

 

[Keljian]

Ok my thoughts:

155W x 4 = 620W
980gtx = 165W
memory = 20W
Other = 30W

Total power? 845 W at peak

Assuming you're not running peak all the time, then you're likely to be running circa 400W most of the time (when you're not idling), which points to an 1000W power supply as you want peak efficiency around 450W as most PSUs are most efficient at 50% power, and good efficiency at idle which will likely be around 100-150W (whew).

If you are bitcoin mining, you can expect to run the 980 at full tilt (165W) + one or two cores at decent load (about 50W) + your ram (20W) + hard drives (15W)

So circa 245W (or 25% your max power - using rough numbers)

What you want is maximum efficiency at 25%-50% power.

This one looks good:
Enermax Platimax 1000W power supply Review

 

[x10qbl]

Hey Keljian,

Thanks for your input.

I did look at the suggested Enermax power supply review but then again looking at it's associated pictures, namely this one from the review:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules/NDReviews/images/Platimax1000W/DSC06476.jpg

How do I connect my 4 8-pin CPU 12v connectors straight to the board when it clearly shows there are only 3 red connectors? eh? And then what about the GTX 980? (although I suppose I could always go 2x molex to 1 PCIe converter, twice).

Once again, that monster of a motherboard has requirements of 4x 8-pins EPS12v connectors...

 

[x10qbl]

Okay well regardless, going out the house now, shooting for that LEPA 1700W (it's an Enermax affilated brand afterall, can't be that bad), 1700W should be plenty enough for my needs and I got a bargain for it from a local retailer.

Will let you know what's up tonight. It shalll be the first booting attempt ever, God I'm literally shaking. First time ever building a so big box. The stress, the chills are for real.

 

[Keljian]

I think you're crazy, 1700w isn't going to be efficient down the low side (200-500w) which is going to cost you more money in the long run.

To sort out the other connections I would have organised connectors/adapters.

 

[xnoodle]

What chassis? Supermicro hardware is fairly inexpensive. The SC848 lists PDB-PT848-6824 + PWS-1K62P-1R - those would fit your bill, 24pin ATX, 4x8pin 12V EPS, 8xmolex for your GPU/SATA (need to convert all these molex, or splice your own connectors).

 

[x10qbl]

Holy motherfu...

Super Micro Computer, Inc. - FAQ Entry

Question
MB "X10QBL" started up but freezed at boot message "System Initializing ..." with POST code “AF”.
I have Intel QEFU E7-4890 v2 processor, also tried Samsung & Qimonda memory pairs, but got the same failure. Please advise.

Answer
According to Intel ARK database, this CPU “QEFU” is C0 stepping engineer version, not the production processor.
Our official BIOS is disabled to support this kind of CPU. Please switch your CPU to production version.
If you really need to use ES CPU to produce your product, please get legal agreement from Intel, then we can build special BIOS for you.



I think the internet meme that applies to the situation is: PWNED.