Wonder how it handles power from two different breakers. Still i fo not know what use is there for something like this even if used somwhere where breakers are often tripped accidentally or intentionally. Even there a ups is probably better (mostly if the network also has one)...
UPS will be useless if the Power Supply Unit connecte to the motherboard fails. Hot swap PSU is very useful to people in the home with an always on HTC + Server combination, or some one working to a time sensitive work from home deadline like a Home youtuber or columnist writer. Even better if you have a lot of hardware that stressess the psu like threadripper 32Core proccessor with two rtx2080ti and two optane p4800x dedicated Sound Hardware, or a serious workstation with dual processors.
Long lead times like USA to newzealand for delivery could be a pain could cost that person there job, Pitty this wont help of motherboard fails, worse yet if the misses was watching her favourite drama and it fails, you will never hear the end of it, fate worse than death LOL.
OK, fair enough but that's severely niche. PS are in general if you buy quality parts, extremely reliable. If you use an UPS to filter power, then the odds of it failing is even lower.
Lots of things are single point of failure. These PSUs are worthless for your proposed setup. Not enough wattage.
The wife watches on the XBOX, ROKU, PS$, etc. I've covered that contingency LOL
I'd definitely agree that a UPS comes first, but UPSes also fail from time to time, especially those popular in the kinds of markets that are DIYing servers.
With a single UPS a user could hook port 1 up through the UPS, then hook port 2 up directly to the mains and thus be tolerant of UPS failures without operational interruptions. If multiple legs/phases are available where this is located, connecting the second input to a different one also provides tolerance against a few more kinds of failure.
Of course the ideal case has each input going to a separate UPS which is then fed from a separate leg/phase of the actual mains power, but at that point you're getting to a level where most users are just going to be buying an OEM server rather than looking for ATX-compatible redundant PSUs.
If your data or rig is that critical, you should run both through filtered power/UPS. You're last sentence is what Im getting at. At that point, you're buying enterprise level equipment.
The purpose of a product like this is not to solve all issues, and is not targeted to all consumers. The purpose is to avoid a system from shutting off due to a failed PSU, nothing else. The hot swappable PSU benefit is a feature in place designed to restore the redundancy offered by the main purpose.
For remedying other potential power issues, use should include each PSU being plugged into independent power sources, with a healthy UPS in between. Regular monitoring of the PSUs and UPSs is good practice, of course. None of that is required to use it, but are how you would make best use of it.
Use case scenarios would obviously vary. Mainly I see three things, though I'm sure there are others. Something on your PC is a source of income, and for it to function, it must remain on. You have some sort of data or service on your PC that must always remain accessible, but you don't want to host it on a cloud service. Or you're an enthusiast about technology and this interests you.
This isn't here to fix a failed motherboard or other unrelated potential issue. It's not a fix-all solution. Just one solution for one problem.
Just because it may not seem practical to you does not mean it won't have its uses or people's interest. I agree, this seems a fairly niche product. I don't have a use for it at this time. But I definitely like that it exists as a consumer option, and may want it eventually.
I understand what it does. I run mirrored servers for my data 24/7, separate power, UPS. If one server goes down for ANY reason, the other will continue on. This is also very niche, and I know this.
In my experience, if you do not take any of the other mitigations into account. You plug this into the same power. When/if the PSU does go out, you'll probably trip the breaker, burn the powerstrip/socket, etc and will lose power regardless. Looking at the causes for failure, the PSU being defective from an internal failure as the culprit is usually the least of your worries. most PSU failures come from mainly from lack of PME, brown outs, ie external reasons. They can be mitigated greatly with an UPS.
If you are in need of 24/7 always on/non cloud storage/processing, etc you're probably already looking at enterprise grade equipment to begin with which then makes me ask the question. Who is this for?
SFX power supplies are already half the volume of a nominal standard length ATX unit (0.8 liters vs 1.8). Like with redundant modules you pay a significant price premium for the reduced size. You also pay in more noise due to the smaller fans; SFX with an 80mm fan is still going to be better than the 60mm fan that's all there will be room for in the modular unit (assuming each module has its own fans for redundancy anyway).
The real point where ATX could go on a diet is the 24 pin connector. Unlike in the mid 90's modern boards use very little 3.3/5V power and most don't use -12V at all (basically just for RS-232 serial ports); you could drop about half the wires from the 24 pin (since you could also cut the number of ground wires back) without hurting anything needed in a modern PC. The problem is that as an innovation target the desktop PC is dead, which means that even just making half the wires optional for a more flexable wire bundle without defining a new smaller connector is never going to happen.
What a useless product, the point of a redundant power supply is to be fed from different power sources, who has that at home and if you do you can very easily afford a low end commercial server and support contract.
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Manch - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
I'm hard pressed to see a use case for this at home. An UPS would be a better off investment.LauRoman - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
Wonder how it handles power from two different breakers. Still i fo not know what use is there for something like this even if used somwhere where breakers are often tripped accidentally or intentionally. Even there a ups is probably better (mostly if the network also has one)...LauRoman - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
"Do" instead of "fo"DanNeely - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
At the enterprise level, connecting to a pair of nominally independent power sources is generally part of the point.Manch - Wednesday, January 9, 2019 - link
Dan, This isn't enterprise level. RTA and the comments you're replying to. This product is for consumer market.Computeruserman - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
UPS will be useless if the Power Supply Unit connecte to the motherboard fails. Hot swap PSU is very useful to people in the home with an always on HTC + Server combination, or some one working to a time sensitive work from home deadline like a Home youtuber or columnist writer. Even better if you have a lot of hardware that stressess the psu like threadripper 32Core proccessor with two rtx2080ti and two optane p4800x dedicated Sound Hardware, or a serious workstation with dual processors.Computeruserman - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
Long lead times like USA to newzealand for delivery could be a pain could cost that person there job, Pitty this wont help of motherboard fails, worse yet if the misses was watching her favourite drama and it fails, you will never hear the end of it, fate worse than death LOL.Manch - Wednesday, January 9, 2019 - link
OK, fair enough but that's severely niche. PS are in general if you buy quality parts, extremely reliable. If you use an UPS to filter power, then the odds of it failing is even lower.Lots of things are single point of failure. These PSUs are worthless for your proposed setup. Not enough wattage.
The wife watches on the XBOX, ROKU, PS$, etc. I've covered that contingency LOL
wolrah - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
I'd definitely agree that a UPS comes first, but UPSes also fail from time to time, especially those popular in the kinds of markets that are DIYing servers.With a single UPS a user could hook port 1 up through the UPS, then hook port 2 up directly to the mains and thus be tolerant of UPS failures without operational interruptions. If multiple legs/phases are available where this is located, connecting the second input to a different one also provides tolerance against a few more kinds of failure.
Of course the ideal case has each input going to a separate UPS which is then fed from a separate leg/phase of the actual mains power, but at that point you're getting to a level where most users are just going to be buying an OEM server rather than looking for ATX-compatible redundant PSUs.
Manch - Wednesday, January 9, 2019 - link
If your data or rig is that critical, you should run both through filtered power/UPS. You're last sentence is what Im getting at. At that point, you're buying enterprise level equipment.brettjp - Wednesday, January 9, 2019 - link
To the op and all the responses.The purpose of a product like this is not to solve all issues, and is not targeted to all consumers. The purpose is to avoid a system from shutting off due to a failed PSU, nothing else. The hot swappable PSU benefit is a feature in place designed to restore the redundancy offered by the main purpose.
For remedying other potential power issues, use should include each PSU being plugged into independent power sources, with a healthy UPS in between. Regular monitoring of the PSUs and UPSs is good practice, of course. None of that is required to use it, but are how you would make best use of it.
Use case scenarios would obviously vary. Mainly I see three things, though I'm sure there are others. Something on your PC is a source of income, and for it to function, it must remain on. You have some sort of data or service on your PC that must always remain accessible, but you don't want to host it on a cloud service. Or you're an enthusiast about technology and this interests you.
This isn't here to fix a failed motherboard or other unrelated potential issue. It's not a fix-all solution. Just one solution for one problem.
Just because it may not seem practical to you does not mean it won't have its uses or people's interest. I agree, this seems a fairly niche product. I don't have a use for it at this time. But I definitely like that it exists as a consumer option, and may want it eventually.
Manch - Thursday, January 10, 2019 - link
I understand what it does. I run mirrored servers for my data 24/7, separate power, UPS. If one server goes down for ANY reason, the other will continue on. This is also very niche, and I know this.In my experience, if you do not take any of the other mitigations into account. You plug this into the same power. When/if the PSU does go out, you'll probably trip the breaker, burn the powerstrip/socket, etc and will lose power regardless. Looking at the causes for failure, the PSU being defective from an internal failure as the culprit is usually the least of your worries. most PSU failures come from mainly from lack of PME, brown outs, ie external reasons. They can be mitigated greatly with an UPS.
If you are in need of 24/7 always on/non cloud storage/processing, etc you're probably already looking at enterprise grade equipment to begin with which then makes me ask the question. Who is this for?
namechamps - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
The size of each of the redundant modules shows we really need a new case/power supply/ motherboard connector standard. ATX is ancient and bloated.DanNeely - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
SFX power supplies are already half the volume of a nominal standard length ATX unit (0.8 liters vs 1.8). Like with redundant modules you pay a significant price premium for the reduced size. You also pay in more noise due to the smaller fans; SFX with an 80mm fan is still going to be better than the 60mm fan that's all there will be room for in the modular unit (assuming each module has its own fans for redundancy anyway).The real point where ATX could go on a diet is the 24 pin connector. Unlike in the mid 90's modern boards use very little 3.3/5V power and most don't use -12V at all (basically just for RS-232 serial ports); you could drop about half the wires from the 24 pin (since you could also cut the number of ground wires back) without hurting anything needed in a modern PC. The problem is that as an innovation target the desktop PC is dead, which means that even just making half the wires optional for a more flexable wire bundle without defining a new smaller connector is never going to happen.
taw6 - Tuesday, January 8, 2019 - link
What a useless product, the point of a redundant power supply is to be fed from different power sources, who has that at home and if you do you can very easily afford a low end commercial server and support contract.zodiacfml - Wednesday, January 9, 2019 - link
I guess small businesses without server class hardware?However, office files can be made redundant with the cloud or using Google for Business.
Here is I think a good one, storage. CCTV recorders made from off the shelf hardware. Small video rendering farms.