Redundant PSU that fits into standard case - good or bad deal?

[Revil]

Thinking about dual PSU for my home server - this one looks like it'll fit into standard (large, E-ATX) case:

Redundant PSU 2x 700W PCI PIST1070-EPSH-80 Emacs Zippy iStarUSA -stand. ATX size | eBay

Doesn't need server rack chassis.

What do you think?

 

[hakabe]

Can't say if it's a good or a bad deal after the auction ends?

Looks interesting though!

 

[frogtech]

Those units are usually ridiculously loud and nigh-impossible to find replacement PSUs for.

 

[Stephan]

+1 for @frogtech mentioning noise. Those are 4x4 cm fans which means 2000 to 6000 rpm. You are in for some really high-pitched whine 24x7.

I recommend you get a good quality standard PSU with full cable management (everything including motherboard cable is detachable) well-specced 105°C caps, a single+quiet 14cm fan and good efficiency at 30-50% load. That should last some 8-12 years. Then buy a 2nd for cold standby and just forget it. If it fails, it will take 10 minutes to replace it.

 

[Aestr]

What are you trying to achieve with a redundant PSU? If you have two power sources and want to have redundancy in case of an outage for one then it could make sense, although I can't speak to the quality of the one in the auction.

More likely you're thinking about protecting against a PSU failure. If that's the case you're almost certainly better off getting a single high quality power supply as mentioned above. Since the power distribution board can still fail you just move the single point of failure.

If you're dead set on a redundant PSU consider buying something like a Supermicro tower chassis with redundant PSUs. They can be had pretty cheap on ebay and you know the quality is good, replacements are easy to source, and there are quieter model PSUs available if noise is a concern.

 

[Revil]

I have two UPSs and recently one of them went down when I plugged-in another computer. It wasn't overloaded so I'm not sure why that happened but I understand now why servers have redundant PSU.