I recently built a small home lab to start taking full advantage for my 2gig home internet (OPNSense Box, 48 port Switch, AP’s, NAS, etc.).
I am however having a small issue getting graphics installed on my NAS. I have a Lenovo SR650 v1 and was going to install a GPU for Graphics acceleration in Jellyfin and other computational tasks, but anytime I try to boot it throws a mainboard voltage error.
Come to find out, the PSU (1100w) will not run at full capacity unless it is connected to a 220v source, and as installing a dedicated outlet for that is astronomical, I was wondering if using one of those step up Transformers to run the device would work? Would it play nice with my UPS? Does it sound safe? Should I think about extra grounding just incase if I go that route?
Thanks all in advance! And please forgive formatting/catagory, I am on mobile atm.
It would be very unlikely for a step up transformer to work on the output side of most UPSes unless the transformer had some kind of power factor correction circuitry built in (almost none do). What is likely to happen is the super high inductance of the transformer will trip the UPS as it sags the voltage down too low upon startup.
very very bad advice:
you don’t happen to have two outlets in the room that are on opposite legs of mains, do you?
I potentially do (would have to test outlets) but don’t know how comfortable I would be merging the 2. I feel it would be easier just to get the transformer (60-80 usd for a 3000w which is overkill for my needs) and a UPS dedicated to the NAS.
There are definitely downsides to the redneck way, mainly that you’re loading two breakers at a time (although this isn’t inherently dangerous) and that you can’t run a GFCI “upstream” of the outlets you’d use (you can still run GFCI outlets “downstream” of the redneck’d extension cord outlets). Edit: another downside of the redneck way is if you trip over the cord and unplug it, you potentially have live voltage on a male pin which is a shock hazard.
If your UPS was big enough, it could probably handle the poor start up characteristics of the step up transformer without tripping, but I couldn’t tell you exactly how big of an UPS you’d need.
I’m not a fan of the consumer grade step up transformers, they have bad power factor, dubious grounding and they will buzz quite loudly under all load (and no load) conditions.
Respectfully this is the wrong approach. Get a better PSU if you really need it. Its job is to take the shitty power from your wall and make nice power for your computer. If you’re on a $0 budget, the redneck method will work, and if you’ve got a >$0 budget, the transformer is the wrong approach. imo. That’s good money chasing bad (ie. the sunk cost of the current PSU).
and even then, honestly, you’re overthinking it. 1100W at an 80% capacity gives you 880W usable (picking 80% out of thin air, you can redo the maths if that is wrong). My gaming desktop with a 4090 has an 800w total capacity PSU (albeit I live in a 220v country). Are you really going to be drawing more than 880W?
Edit: re-reading your post I see its actually a voltage error. I reckon that’s just a shit PSU. Your PSU shouldn’t be having bad voltages come out the DC side just because you’re on 110v AC. replace it.
At load with all HDD’s Spinning and both CPU’s maxed, (without GPU) the system easily hits ~500-600w. I actually have other PSU’s for this server (2x 900w units) and when they are installed and set to compound mode, the same issue reappears.
I use those PSU’s in redundant mode on a smaller 1u SR630 for proxmox virtulization.
I tried googling around and best I could find was that some server grade psu’s require 220v/240v to hit max rated wattage. (No idea if this is true, could be bull) and I could not find Lenovo documentation to support this claim either. So I am at a loss. I definitely don’t wanna yolo it, but I also don’t want to do something potentially damaging in the long run either.
220v allows the PSU to be more efficient, which allows it to hit a slightly higher peak wattage. It shouldn’t influence the DC voltages though. An acceptable PSU will produce stable 3.3v, 5v, 12v DC outputs from either 110v or 220v AC inputs - if it doesn’t, it fails as a PSU and should be replaced.
Don’t sweat it about the 220v vs 110v thing. It’s a marginal efficiency difference in 99% of cases.
I have a Tesla K80 that I was trying to setup as the GPU (2 physical gpus I can split for different tasks) I looked at the adapters I was using and re-read the Lenovo Documentation again and lo and behold: 225w per GPU power slot. and the K80 is 300w!
I also had the incorrect cables for plugging in pcie devices (they were eps connectors which would have been ok had the GPU not sucked back 300w and tripped the whole thing!)
I ordered the 2 correct cables and hopefully fingers crossed it will solve the issue!
Somehow I doubt you are looking at the right product. One rated for the amperage you need and the winding sizes will probably be closer to $400 for the transformer.
If you can have a NAS set up in a garage or basement then the cost to run a 240v circuit in the US will likely be only a few hundred dollars as well by a licensed electrician as your electrical panel is likely right there, and so they only need to run a very short distance and do nothing fancy for the wires through the house.
Another way to do it is to run conduit on the outside of the house to the room you want it in and spray paint the conduit the same color as the house. It is not very noticeable and will drastically reduce the cost to run a circuit (likely under $1000 and probably under $500 if you did all the conduit yourself)
Remember not all power come in at the garage, mine is on the opposite side of the house. But yeah being close to the breaker will deff make it cheaper.
I am going to be moving in a couple months and I do know that there will potentially be an open 220v 30amp breaker from an old dryer in the basement. So if I really want to I could make that work.
I am hoping that the proper adapters I purchased will allow me to connect the GPU and split the power required accross both GPU connections on the board.
UPDATE: After receiving the correct style adapters for the unit, it still produces the same error. I will try removing all the HDDs later on tonight after work to see if maybe it’s a load issue as thats all I can imagine at this point.
I have tried all manner of removing additional load from the server. looks like no dice. Sucks cause this particular server has all my data on it and runs my Jellyfin instance, really wanted GPU accelerated encoding.
Can you get a cheap $100 A310 Intel GPU that can be powered by the pcie slot only? That would give you quicksync (assuming jellyfin support QS on GPU and not just iGPU). Those GPUs are the best bang for the buck transcoding cards for plex type purposes right now. And honestly a K80 is probably way too old for the purpose as it does not offer any of the modern formats for acceleration (no h.265, HEVC, AV1, VP9) whereas the Intel GPU will do those. The K80 will only really get you AVC, h.264, and VP8