Cheap music server power tweak that is VERY good.

[ElviaCaprice]

My badThanks for making me aware

 

 

So a portable USB drive makes more sense as high capacity ssds way too expensive

 

Buy the 5V HDD's 2.5". Can get a 2TB one for under $90. Makes it easy to power separately from the motherboard power supply.

 

But I would only do this if using the SATA connectors, not USB and powering from the same motherboard supply on separate rail (all for simplicity of singular power supply). With USB use external enclosure with normal 3.5" HDD's and external power supply. For SQ, it's not going to matter what power supply your using as long as it's external (or separate rail) from the motherboard and the drives are only used for data.

 

Every once in awhile they go on sale.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M9T ST2000LM003 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 2.5" Internal Notebook Hard Drive Bare Drive - Newegg.com

[ElviaCaprice]

I want to connect it to a raspberry pi and so i will need to find something to convert usb to sata

So instead of this will prefer a USB portable hard drive

 

Are you connecting the hard drive (Data input) via USB or SATA? Is this hard drive to be an Operating System drive or DATA storage drive?

 

I wouldn't recommend powering a 5V HDD 2.5" via USB 5V motherboard power, not sure if any power spikes would play havoc on SQ.

 

If the drive is to be a data storage non operating system drive then power separately through enclosure or other non motherboard source for best SQ.

[ElviaCaprice]

A USB Cable has 1 black wire, while a SATA cable has 2 black wire. Could you please help in this regard? Tks

 

Note: Ted used an external USB source other than the motherboard USB when making this 5V power connection. Thus you only need the one ground.

 

SATA has both 12V and 5V with respective grounds.

[ElviaCaprice]

Hi

Its a data drive only. In a raspberry pi OS is saved on a micro SD card

That's what I am planning to do

Power the data drive buy a power bank. I will use a dual headed cable, one will connect to raspberry pi to get data and other to the power bank to get power

Also the raspberry pi will be powered by another power bank via GPIO pins, so fuse and protection circuit bypasses

 

If it's a battery operated power bank then you will want to have a 5V HDD 2.5" 2TB for lower power usage. Just use a normal Sata power connector even though your only utilizing the 5V power pin and the respective ground.

 

But how are you connecting the data lines to the Rasberry? Via Sata or USB? Personally I think it's a waste of effort to use a special power supply for this hard drive if it's data only drive. As long as your powering separate from the mobo supply, your good to go with whatever method works. The data can be streamed from memory via your media player.

 

Of course there are those who think non streaming data can become altered through transfer??? Goodness how? Once streamed then you need to take care.

[ElviaCaprice]

Awesome, Rikhav, sounds like your good to go. Don't understand why you need a dual headed USB cable? Isn't that for sending single 5V pin with the data? Why not just use a normal USB cable? Or separate the 5V with tape? The 5V data drive will still need power separate to the 2.5" drive. Both ground and 5V.

[ElviaCaprice]

Hi

I need a dual headed USB cable because as you would know the 2.5 HDDs take power from the host, in my case it would be a Raspberry pi

I don't want the raspberry pi to power the hdd. instead I want it to be powered by a separate power bank and so for that I will needed a dual headed USB cable

So one can get data from the Pi and other can get power from the power bank

Hope this clears your doubt

Rgds

 

Yeah, but that doesn't power the drive itself. And that 5V power comes from your power source going to the drive out with the data via USB. The 5V power isn't coming from the PI, thus you don't need it. Probably could just run the data connector only to your PI.

[ElviaCaprice]

Your talking of powering the PI itself or OS or USB card, not the external hard drives?

 

If powering external data hard drives, non OS, then the power source doesn't matter as long as it's separate from the streaming components power source.

[ElviaCaprice]

If the external HDD also contains stored music, and not just Data, the power source does matter.

 

I didn't know music was nothing but data before being streamed? Thus if not streaming from the HDD, then it's just data and the power source doesn't matter as long as it's not the same power source as the streaming components.

[ElviaCaprice]

I am not going to waste my time further arguing with you over this.

Many people have verified that Linear PSUs offer advantages with external storage devices, even those with CD/DVD writers inside, over the SMPS plugpacks normally supplied with them, or external storage cases. Many external SMPS plugpacks have very poor voltage regulation as well, with supplies having both a +12V and a +5V output typically only regulating the +5V output, with the +12V output often varying as much as 1V under varying load conditions.

Linear PSUs for external devices also result in much less RF/EMI being sent back into the AC mains sewer.

 

Who and where?? Your the only one I've ever heard make such claims on this forum. Well maybe a couple other folks, lol. I agree it's a waste of time arguing. I'm over it already.

[ElviaCaprice]

Most off the shelf PC's have crappy power supplies designed for gaming and electrically compromised MOBO's which introduce noise affecting real time system performance. Using a quality power supply helps for real time performance applications like audio playback.

 

What does this have to do with separately powered hard drives used for data only? Nobody here is disputing clean separate power for streaming components.

[ElviaCaprice]

Is there any risk in powering an SSD with a battery which delivers between 5.5 and 6V?

 

Why not just get one that powers from 3.3V for the OS. Then you could hook up a single battery and have that charged by a cheap switching power supply.

 

I thought about doing this but why? I really don't think your going to gain much if you already have great galvanic isolation and galvanic isolated power downstream of the PC. Just powering the SSD separately of the mobo with an LPS is sufficient.

[ElviaCaprice]

I already have a 6V Bakoon BPS-02 so I figured I would use it for the SSD. I want to be sure that the extra voltage won't be an issue. It only measures at 5.5V so I am hoping it is ok.

 

It's out of ATX specs, but I don't think it will hurt to do so. I would use a cheap SSD, which are more than sufficient for the OS.