First energy efficient build, Intel N100 or i3-12100

[Lolight]

1 hour ago, foo_fighter said:

Speaking of AOOSTAR, they announced 2 new NAS devices, available soon: https://aoostar.com/blogs/news/aoostar-pro-4-bay-nas-with-n100-n305-5700u-cpu

 

And this one -

 

https://aoostar.com/blogs/news/aoostar-new-diy-nas-metal-shell-mini-pc-with-6-hdd-bays-6-nvme-slots-10-gbe-ethernet-port-2-x-2-5-gbe-ethernet-ports-led-screen-and-a-ryzen-7-5800u-processor

[Iemand91]

1 hour ago, foo_fighter said:

Unraid can run on Terramaster and Asustor(x64) without too much hackery. It comes by default on the lincstation.

For the Lincstation I was going to add 3.5" drives via a USB 10gbs JBOD, 10gbs should be enough for 4 drives, either that or use SATA extension cables to a 4 or 5 bay sata hot swap backplane(That's admittedly a bit of a hack).

 

Speaking of AOOSTAR, they announced 2 new NAS devices, available soon: https://aoostar.com/blogs/news/aoostar-pro-4-bay-nas-with-n100-n305-5700u-cpu

 

The TPU can be installed in a E.key right? some of these systems come with wifi-bt in as an E.key module.

 

 

Those AOOSTAR cases look really cool, both this new one and the previous one with 2 drive bays. Price not bad either (at least, the 2 bay one, this new one is unknown).

However, the 2 bay has only 1 M.2 slot so no option for TPU (when m.2 in use for SSD).

The 4 bay case maybe; you *can* fit a TPU in the E-key slot, but you likely need a special adapter that is not (yet?) available.

See: https://github.com/magic-blue-smoke/Dual-Edge-TPU-Adapter

 

And I wonder if you can make those system as power efficient (BIOS settings) like you can with a well known motherboard brand.

 

And last but not least; AOOSTAR does not ship to Europe.😒

[Iemand91]

It's probably a typo, but on Aliexpress there are some N100 NAS/cases with 2 M.2 slots, instead of only 1.

For example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006248195092.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.60361ea3512QWF&algo_pvid=3bd61190-af04-4e4f-a5e8-8df7ba0ad013&algo_exp_id=3bd61190-af04-4e4f-a5e8-8df7ba0ad013-1&pdp_npi=4%40dis!EUR!293.88!205.72!!!309.71!!%40211b600c17022409276411817e3216!12000036459523229!sea!NL!143974031!&curPageLogUid=FfMB5h4wJFTJ

 

Like I said, it's probably a typo or at least incorrect, since all those builds look the same, so some having 2 instead of 1 M.2 slot seems unlikely.

 

Would make those systems a lot more interesting (possibility for both a SSD and Coral TPU). 

Still some concerns with these cases, I've seen an "interesting" build quality picture, no idea if you can play with BIOS/C-state etc. settings to make it as power efficiënt as possible, and the idea of the N100 is powerfull enough (compared to the I3-12100).

 

So, I'm not *really* in a rush, so still looking around....

Edited December 10, 2023 by Iemand91

[pkoci]

ITX motherboards with CPU N100 and N305 finally appeared on aliexpress. I mean the ones with two m.2 slots, 6x SATA ports and 4x 2.5g ethernet ports.

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006313184714.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.15.462b24ff0Zl0kN&algo_pvid=d5ac8f21-5945-49b7-9f6a-f4f7aa2fb1f8&algo_exp_id=d5ac8f21-5945-49b7-9f6a-f4f7aa2fb1f8-7&pdp_npi=4%40dis!CZK!10559.58!5279.79!!!457.38!!%40210388c917022402004374163e6632!12000036721962358!sea!CZ!0!AB&curPageLogUid=8NHNEKK0b4OW

[andrebrait]

Just be aware that the BIOSes those boards ship isn't very reliable and/or contains some pretty serious bugs (e.g. they often measure 10+W idle power consumption; won't boot from some SSDs; bad RAM compatibility; etc.) and they might not get updates at all.

[Iemand91]

Yeah, to make the system as power efficiënt as possible, you have to have the right BIOS settings, and that's what's holding me back for the most part.

Other than that, those N100 NAS builds look quite interesting...

[bagican]

My tip for very efficient mainboard for 13th gen Intel CPU is Asus Pro H610T D4-CSM. See my post about my machine with idle: 2—3 W (whole PC with Intel i3-13100).

If you really want very low idle power consumption you need to make some compromises. Less hardware components => less power consumption.

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by bagican

[Iemand91]

Yes, a 'bare' motherboard is often helpfull in making a power efficient system. That motherboard however has only 1 M.2. I would like to have 2, one for cache SSD and one for Coral TPU.

 

I saw this video today:

 

Again, N100 doesn't look al that power efficient. So basically, if you can stomach the extra cost for a I3 system, it would run just as efficient, if not better.

[andrebrait]

Well, on some great news, my i5-7500T on a Gigabyte GA-Z270N-WIFI with 1 stick of RAM, the WiFi module removed, 1 WD NVMe SSD and a PicoPSU + Leicke PSU is now hitting 8W on idle under pfSense.