5Vdc 2A linear psu - is it worth powering hdd with these - I am on a tight budget ;-)

[Deaf Cat]

Hi,

 

Just wondering... I have two linear psu's each gives out either 5Vdc at 2A or 12Vdc at 0.5A, possibly both supplying amps on both V outs, I am not sure..

 

I have an old Pentium D (I think), it is running win10 and slimserver with one hdd with the OS and another hdd with FLAC music.

 

From what I am reading, the 12V supply to the hdd's does the motor, however my linear psu's only output 0.5A and I am thinking to spin the drives I would be needing more like 0.8A.

 

This is when I wondered, would it be worth powering the hdd's with the dedicated linear 5V 2A, as I understand the 5V supply to hdd's only needs to be around 0.5A, as it is the electronics part and not the hdd motor...?

 

I guess it might help with audio just a bit..?

 

Audio out put is through ethernet cable so no usb is used apart from keyboard and mouse.

 

Maybe I shall save the psu's and use them for the router and ethernet switch once I move house... hmmm

 

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

Cheers ?

 

 

[Ralf11]

Lowest noise PS's should go closest to the DAC

 

and the DAC should be galvanically isolated from the computer

[jabbr]

2 hours ago, Deaf Cat said:

I guess it might help with audio just a bit..?

 

Audio out put is through ethernet cable so no usb is used apart from keyboard and mouse.

 

Maybe I shall save the psu's and use them for the router and ethernet switch once I move house... hmmm

 

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

Where does your audio go after Ethernet? i.e. what is the rest of your system?

 

If you are on a tight budget I wouldn't spend another penny tweaking your PC.

[Deaf Cat]

errm not sure what psu my dac has, I am not going to touch that as it is a modified TAG, far to valuable for me to tinker with that! ?

 

Just found the spec sheet, the psus I have are actually a triple output psu,

+ 5V 6A

+12V 1A

-12V 1A

So I am guessing I could use one psu for the +5V and +12V on one hdd

and the other psu for the other hdd

Should take some fluctuation out of the mother board supplies and smooth the hdd operation...??

 

hmmm 

[Deaf Cat]

28 minutes ago, jabbr said:

 

Where does your audio go after Ethernet? i.e. what is the rest of your system?

To Squeezebox touch digital out to TAG pre/dac, active crossover, powers amps, stereo speakers

 

If you are on a tight budget I wouldn't spend another penny tweaking your PC.

I have the power supplies, and so only spending time tinkering if it seams a reasonable thing to do... 

rest of system is as is, for a bit, until finances resolve themselves!

 

[jabbr]

LPS the squeezebox touch  

[Deaf Cat]

Already done ?

[sandyk]

6 hours ago, Deaf Cat said:

From what I am reading, the 12V supply to the hdd's does the motor, however my linear psu's only output 0.5A and I am thinking to spin the drives I would be needing more like 0.8A.

 

 Deaf Cat

I tried doing what you suggested using a low noise +12V to +5V voltage regulator powered from the +12V internal PSU and I didn't notice any worthwhile improvement.

However, if I do the same with my 2 internal SSDs it gives a VERY worthwhile improvement.

 Another problem when adding additional mains powered Linear PSUs is the possibility of earth loops, which may degrade or limit the increase in performance.

 

Alex

 

 P.S.

 Many older HDDs require >1A @ 12V

 Earlier external SMPS for HDDs were rated at +12V 2A and +5V 2A.

[Deaf Cat]

Cheers Alex,

Interesting result a!

I guess the SSD's may be more sensitive to irregularities in supply quality, given your findings! ...?

 

I was coming from the angle of keeping the hdd psu's as separate as possible from the pc psu, to lessen the electrical supply variation on the motherboard,/processor/ethernet etc sounds like your still using the pc psu but regulating it carefully.

 

May be worth a try, and then if I do get to try a SSD all should be better ?

 

Thanks for the figures.  I checked the spec lable on the hdd's as they sit outside the case on brass feet, and each uses less than 0.6A so I guess I should be fine, with the 12V only supplying 1A.

 

We shall see, how far I get.

 

Encouraging to know there is a VERY worthwhile improvement to be had... even if I am not in that area at this point in time ?

 

I may start looking for a relay that will be triggered by the hdd supply to switch on and off the linear psu's as the machine is generally asleep and gets woken once I press play, don't want the linear's  or hdd running 24/7.

 

Your input is much appreciated.

Cheers  

 

[sandyk]

5 hours ago, Deaf Cat said:

Cheers Alex,

Interesting result a!

I guess the SSD's may be more sensitive to irregularities in supply quality, given your findings! ...?

 

I was coming from the angle of keeping the hdd psu's as separate as possible from the pc psu, to lessen the electrical supply variation on the motherboard,/processor/ethernet etc sounds like your still using the pc psu but regulating it carefully.

 

May be worth a try, and then if I do get to try a SSD all should be better ?

 

Thanks for the figures.  I checked the spec lable on the hdd's as they sit outside the case on brass feet, and each uses less than 0.6A so I guess I should be fine, with the 12V only supplying 1A.

 

We shall see, how far I get.

 

Encouraging to know there is a VERY worthwhile improvement to be had... even if I am not in that area at this point in time ?

 

I may start looking for a relay that will be triggered by the hdd supply to switch on and off the linear psu's as the machine is generally asleep and gets woken once I press play, don't want the linear's  or hdd running 24/7.

 

Your input is much appreciated.

Cheers  

 

 Hi Deaf Cat.

 Not HDDs, but a CD/DVD  writer  was tried some time some time back in an external USB cradle, powered by a +12V 2A and +5V 2A low noise Linear PSU ,by myself and several members of another forum. One member reported a small improvement in SQ, with far fewer  rips needing correction for errors. He also reported that his writer was much quieter when ripping CDs.

 Incidentally,. with some (all?) +12V and +5 V  plug packs ONLY the +5V appears to have reasonable voltage regulation, with the +12V supply varying by as much as a little over 1V during operation.

Quote

I may start looking for a relay that will be triggered by the hdd supply to switch on and off the linear psu's as the machine is generally asleep and gets woken once I press play, don't want the linear's  or hdd running 24/7.

 

 There are powerboards that can do this where the main device, in this case the PC is the Master, and controls the power of the other devices plugged in. Whether or not this would still work in Sleep Mode is a different matter.

 

 I don't know what (if any) effect this would have on SQ though.

 

Regards

Alex