Power solutions needed for multi HD. How many hard drives can I power from an AX1200?

Hi folks, I've built a pretty hefty system that I can use for 4K video editing. One of the biggest challenges has been finding a way to setup all the hard drives I'm using. One solution was to setup two cases. One for the main motherboard, my OS drives, an ARECA Raid card with 12 3TB drives and a few other drives that are for storing everything else.

 

 

In the 2nd case setup right next to my main computer, is an old motherboard (only being used so the 2nd power supply can function), PSU and 8x3TB drives that are powered. I'd like to get rid of the spare motherboard/CPU that is constantly running in the 2nd case since its just wasting power always being on at the same time.

 

 

So the big question is what are some options out there? I've read that PSU's are only designed to work if they're plugged into a motherboard or something like that. I'm not interested in messing with jumping cables or anything so that's way I just plugged into an old mobo/cpu.

 

 

If I was to get an extension cable from my AX1200, how many 3tb 7200rpm drives can I safely power off of the one cable coming from the AX1200? Will the 8 drives in the 2nd case and 2 case fans be ok?

 

 

Here is the build as it currently stands:

 

MAIN COMPUTER:

 

Corsair Case (I can't find a model number or find it online but its this one here: http://www.legitreviews.com/corsair-designs-an-enthusiast-atx-case_916)

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

INTEL i7-3930K CPU (overclocked at 4.4GHz)

64GB Ram

GEFORCE GTX 680 vid card

SAMSUNG 840 PRO x 2 (RAID0) for OS

Corsair AX1200 PSU

 

ARECA 1882 RAID card in Raid 3 mode with 12x7200RPM 3TB drives (27TB total)

 

spare drives in main case:

 

2.5TB WD drive

750gb WD drive

1TB WD drive

2TB drive

 

 

The 2nd case is again only there to house 8 of the 12 ARECA RAID drives since there's not enough space in the main case.

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

That power supply would easily handle the drive load you are specifying. To determine the maximum number you'll need to know what each drive uses and do the math.

The Raid card, 12 HDDs and 2 Flash drives system will require approximately 250W (SATA interface).

 

If you're using SCSI/SAS interface will require more power.

 

You will have to calculate the AMPerage draw to see how many HDDs can be connected to one cable.

 

The 1200W PSU can handle everything in projected system without any issues.