Score:-2

Power limit in a 2x1600W server

de flag

I have a server with two 1600W power supply units (a Gigabyte GS-R22PHL if that helps).

Should I assume the maximum rated power is 1600W, and that the second unit is for redundancy, or that the combined 3200W are available to the system? I apologize for the somewhat trivial question, but the manual does not mention anything either way, so I assume some standard practice is in play here.

in flag
The basic description alone states `80 PLUS Platinum 1600W redundant PSU` and answers your question.
de flag
Thanks Gerald. Makes sense.
Score:1
br flag

The maximum it CAN draw will be 1.6Kw, in reality you won't be able to do that even if you fit the most power-hungry components, in real terms you're unlikely to use 70% of that even if the server is 'pegged' at 100% utilisation of all components 100% of the time.

Most server manufacturers actually list their maximum and average power draws but I noticed that model doesn't list them like that so I'd go with Theoretical_Max=1.6Kw, Realistic_Max=1.12Kw but if you measure it I bet it's mostly pulling about 700-900w almost all the time.

de flag
Thank you. I thought as much, but I guess I was hoping ;-) Realistically, this server is going to use maybe 500W all the time, and only when the coprocessor expansion cards kick in push to 1200-1300W
br flag
Now I'm intrigued - "coprocessor expansion cards" - what's that?
de flag
That's what Intel calls the MIC/Larrabee/Knight's landing. Marketing name is Xeon Phi. I am using the term somewht liberally as these systems will have both PHI and GPU accelerators.
br flag
Oh I know larrabee well, we tested it as an engineering sample years ago, we never really took them into production and moved to nvidia tensor stuff for ML.
de flag
makes sense - but now a Larrabee can be bought for $40, it is interesting hardware to teach parallel programming with MPI on the cheap.
Score:1
cn flag
Bob

Generally systems with redundant power-supplies are designed for exactly that, redundancy. When one power-supply fails, is unplugged or whatever, the other must be sufficient to keep the system running by itself.

That means that the second power-supply is not designed to allow the system to draw more power than a single outlet/power-supply can provide.

de flag
Thank you. I thought as much, but I guess I was hoping ;-) Realistically, this server is going to use maybe 500W all the time, and only when the coprocessor expansion cards kick in push to 1200-1300W
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