Server PSU form-factors, efficiency

[MotorMouth]

I'm working on a home server/NAS setup, and I'm concerned about power consumption. I've got an old server, but it draws a ridiculous amount of power and I want to cut it down. Obviously more power-efficient components will help, but it seems like a more power-efficient PSU will also be important.

Trouble is, buying server PSUs seems to be a totally different world than desktop ones, and I'm not sure where to begin.

They seem to come in all shapes and sizes, with no way to tell what the form factor is. Some are hot swappable, some are modular, some are not. Some are thicker or thinner or deeper...How do I know what fits my case?

(for reference, mine is 195mm * 40mm * 85 mm, with a wide connector on the end covered in conductors, which interfaces with a breakout thing in the case.)

 

In addition, I have found very few that are 80 Plus rated--I'm used to shopping by bronze, silver, gold, titanium etc, but server PSUs don't seem to have such a system. Some mention efficiency as a percentage, but not all.

 

So my questions:

- How can I know if the one I'm getting will even fit?

- How can I know if the one I'm getting is more efficient than what I have? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

What are the specs of the server, id say this makes a much bigger difference than psu normally.

 

Id get a desktop psu if its a normal atx case.

 

What model of server/case are you putting this psu in?

[MotorMouth]

2 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What are the specs of the server, id say this makes a much bigger difference than psu normally.

 

Id get a desktop psu if its a normal atx case.

 

What model of server/case are you putting this psu in?

The make/model is a little unclear. The case appears to be made by ZT, but I think this was built by Unix Surplus in Santa Clara--some aspects of the config suggest it was modified or put together from surplus parts.

 

As it's currently configured, it has two Xeon E5-2650 CPUs, some unknown Foxconn motherboard, and 128GB of ECC DDR3 RAM.

It came with enormous Blowiematron-style server fans.

I couldn't handle the noise--could hear it all the way from my bedroom at night, whining like a vacuum--so I replaced them with three Noctua NF-A8s.

 

But it also ran too hot when I did that, so I've got a pair of lower-TDP CPUs in the mail. Partially for heat reasons, partially for power consumption reasons, I'm switching from the  E5-2650s with a 95W TDP, to a pair of E5-2630L V2s with a 60W TDP.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, MotorMouth said:

The make/model is a little unclear. The case appears to be made by ZT, but I think this was built by Unix Surplus in Santa Clara--some aspects of the config suggest it was modified or put together from surplus parts.

 

As it's currently configured, it has two Xeon E5-2650 CPUs, some unknown Foxconn motherboard, and 128GB of ECC DDR3 RAM.

It came with enormous Blowiematron-style server fans.

I couldn't handle the noise--could hear it all the way from my bedroom at night, whining like a vacuum--so I replaced them with three Noctua NF-A8s.

 

But it also ran too hot when I did that, so I've got a pair of lower-TDP CPUs in the mail. Partially for heat reasons, partially for power consumption reasons, I'm switching from the  E5-2650s with a 95W TDP, to a pair of E5-2630L V2s with a 60W TDP.

Those systems are almost always a propriety form factor, and you probably can't get a more efficent psu in the system.

 

If you want to save power, Id really suggest a i3/i5/ryzen system. They will use much less power than any dual xeon system as there is just much less stuff to power. Probably 100w less at idle power. 

 

That 128gb of ram is also probably pulling a lot of the power here, ram can get pretty power hungry, esp if you have lots of sticks.

 

The tdp doesn't affect/low lower power consumption that much, its mostly the cap of max power consumption, which most home servers don't hit often.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

If the BIOS will allow it, and I have no idea if an enterprise grade server would, but if it does you can look at carefully undervolting the CPU.  It gets you the same performance for less power/heat, but you have to test that carefully cause as you inch lower in voltage, you inch closer to instability.