Intel Johnstown (D945GSEJT) ATX12V power

[FromageTheDog]

Recently bought a D945GSEJT motherboard for my FreeNAS box, but have been staring at it wondering what to do vis-a-vis power input.

There are 2 options -- a 12V DC input jack on the back panel, and a 2x2 ATX12V socket on the board itself. Since the on-board SATA power header is only specified to support 18W (i.e. only 1 of my 2 drives), I was hoping to pair the board with a small ATX PSU.

Problem is, since the board only has the 4-pin header, and not the full 24-pin power header, I'm wondering how to trigger the PSU to turn on. Would it be safe to trigger the supple by shorting pin 14 to ground?

If anyone else has run into the same issue, I'd love to hear from you.

 

[jdabbs]

It may be cheaper to forgo the PSU and use an external enclosure (preferably eSATA for performance). I've also used the SATA-AC power adapter included in this kit for bench work, but never for extended time periods.

 

[FromageTheDog]

Well, I've actually already got a nice enclosure on order (Chenbro 2-bay w/150W PSU), so it's not a matter of cost -- money's been spent already. I was so excited to see that Intel finally did the whole Mini-ITX Atom thing right, I went ahead and pulled the trigger without really thinking through the details...

I also have one of these AC-->Molex 4-pin power adapters lying around somewhere, but that seems like such a hack (unlike shorting the ATX power header! ).

Still hoping there's a solution that lets me use the internal ATX PSU with the board...

 

[bookmage]

I've powered on the psu by using a paperclip and jumpering the green with one of the black ground cables. Handy for not having a mobo around. However, I always took precautions to make sure not to touch the paper clip and power on the psu by a surge protector type thing. or u use a power supply with a power switch on the back.

you could use one of those psu testers with an on/off switch like this (ebay atx power supply tester)
or use an AT-ATX power switch like this (google atx to at power supply) should be under $10

On another note, I had not realized they had an itx mobo running only off the 12v... I wonder how many mobos I can run off a standard psu using the 4pin to12v adapters...

Cluster node on one psu? :-D
folding farm on 300w? hrm....

 

[FromageTheDog]

Solution, sort of...

So I ended up just hacking it, and getting a little lucky.

The case that I used, the Chenbro ES30068 (2-bay, cold swap) has a DPST pushbutton switch in back with the three attached wires terminating at a plug labeled "LED VCC." I soldered together the adapter shown in the photo below:



The switch shorts pins 14 and 15 of the ATX power header (nothing new here). While the switch itself looks really wimpy, I confirmed with a DMM that the current passing through the short is ~0.35 mA, so I'm sure the switch will be fine!

It's not obvious from the pic, but the red and white wires short when the switch is toggled to the "pushed in" state, and the green and white short when it is toggled off.

Interestingly enough, even with a constant 12V applied at the input, the motherboard powers up and down as expected when the front panel (instantaneous) power button is depressed, or on WOL (to turn on), or when shutdown from the OS. It looks like the ATX12V header and 12V barrel DC input connectors wire into the same pads on the motherboard, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

Hope this is helpful to anyone looking at this particular motherboard.

BTW, the power draw, with 2 1TB Seagate 7200.11 drives spun up, is ~35W. I'm a little underwhelmed, to be honest -- with 12W/drive max, that means the board is drawing ~10W min. It should be drawing virtually nothing, with the N270 and 945GSE combi...

Also, for the price, I'm pretty disappointed in the case. The lack of any documentation whatsoever (even on-line) is irritating, and much of the internal architecture seemed very clumsy. That said, the fans and PSU are quiet, the construction appears reasonably high quality, and the box itself looks very nice.

 

[Jay_S]

Resurrecting a slightly dead thread... I just noticed this board. This thing would make a perfect ultra-low-power single-drive NAS with a $19 60w power brick.

@FromageTheDog - terrific handle, BTW - I'd guess your observed 35W is due to PSU inefficiencies and the dual 7200 rpm drives. Are you using the 150W PSU that came with the Chenbro case? I can't find anything re: its efficiency. Let's assume it's 75% efficient at your load (assumption based on Chenbro not advertising 80+ for this model). So if you're measuring 35W at the wall, you're system is really pulling 26.25W DC. Deduct 12w for your drives @ idle and you're down to ~14W. That seems about right.

Other D945GSEJT reviews I've seen are using AC-DC bricks, which are typically more efficient that full ATX PSUs.

I get why you need a regular PSU though, those 1TB 7200.11 drives are rated for 3A spin-up draw? Holy smokes!

 

[sigelang]

Alternate brick PS

Can you use Sony's 19V/3A laptop power supply on this MB? Assuming the plug inside/outside diameter is OK.

 

[jdabbs]

Unlikely given 19V output.

 

[sigelang]

Is this motherboard mini-ITX? What are the dimensions? Please.

 

[FromageTheDog]

@Jay_S - totally missed this. You're absolutely right; I've since experimented with a DC supply and indeed, the reported power draw for the motherboard is right where it should be. The NAS has since transitioned to a ReadyNAS Duo, which hovers around 25W with the 7200.11 drives. It's slow as molasses compared to the Atom-based solution, but is almost Apple-like in how everything just works.

@sigelang: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=D945GSEJT

 

[assco]

Just got that one too...

Yeah just bought that same Intel mini-itx mobo. Pretty hard to find here in finland :O I was just wondering caus this is my first go at building a NAS with raid (second time overall) if i would be able to use "green" or low power hard drives?
I am going for a 2-disk raid1 setup, and i would love to get 2 WD green power 1,5TB hard drives for that. But i´ve googled some forum threads where people are advising not to use them and then some are saying there is no problem. Is it possible to configure the hard drives so that i can use them for a raid1?
I'm going to install ubuntu server and mdadm, as in the snb-article, on a flash-drive.

 

[FromageTheDog]

My personal experience with WD drives has been pretty abysmal. Now that Seagate has finally jumped on the "green" bandwagon with their Barracuda LP drives, I don't think there's any motivation at all to risk running WD hardware...

If you're wondering about whether or not it's a good idea to run two hard drives off the motherboard instead of just one, I'm afraid I can't offer any answers. You could look at the power characteristics of the LP drive compared to the standard desktop drives (Barracuda 7200.12 is the current model, I think).

 

[assco]

How about the Samsung F2 ecogreen 1,5Tb?

 

[FromageTheDog]

The Samsungs seem generally well regarded vis-a-vis reliability. I've just had very good experience with Seagate so tend to stick with that brand.

 

[assco]

Yeah, over here there is an over 20€ difference in price between the samsung and seagate, so i'd like to prefer samsung thanks for your help!

 

[Headcase_Fargone]

Thread necro #2...

Same boat as you folks. Bought the board thinking I could use my In Win case's internal power supply. No dice.

Like the user above I want to run two 1.5TB 3.5" green drives, though the ones I have already are Samsungs.

Will that 60w power brick be enough for the motherboard and two drives?

I wouldn't think so given that HDs require a goodly amount of power to spin up on boot right?