Hi guys,

I've noticed over the past month or two, an excessive increase in my power draw from my server. Ive had everything stopped/spun down/disabled so it's the bare bare essentials running on the OS and it's still pulling upwards of 250w, I can't seem to identify why.

When everything is spun down, CPU is idling at 0-2% usage, there's absolutely nothing running but still just crazy high idle draw.

server specs:
Intel® Core™ i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz
NVIDIA Quadro P2000

64GB DDR4 RAM

1x 1TB 2.5" SSD for Cache.

1x 16TB 3.5" HDD for Parity.

For Array:

1x 16TB 3.5" HDD

7x 10TB 3.5" HDD

1x 4TB 3.5" HDD

Unraid Boot USB:
SanDisk Cruzer Fit 32GB

I've attached diagnostics logs generated at the time of posting this.

If there's anything else I can add that would assist please do let me know and I'll provided ASAP.

Thankyou very much!

diagnostics-20260129-1049.zip

Edited January 28Jan 28 by NotFreeman

Oof. That is high. Your solution will likely reside in bios. Need to get familiar with aspm, c-states and settings that allow for the OS to manage power. Also look for performance type settings and select the power saver options. Disable any overolting. Some might suggest an undervolt but I've found it to be negligible if unRAID is managing the power.

Within unRAID, you can play with powertop in the cli.

there is zero chance that system is pulling 250W idle... I dont even think it would pull 250W running full tilt (maybe but no way idle with disks spun down)

CPU is a 65W TDP CPU
GPU is 75W Max Power draw

Lets say 8W average per HDD is like another 80W

Were still under 250W with everything going at full tilt.

Couple of questions:

1. What size PSU and what power efficiency is it rated for?
2. How are you measuring wattage?

For comparison my system (hardware in signature) with 8x 12TB HDDs, 5x 1TB Sata SSDs, a bluray drive, and an Intel Arc A310 doesn't pull 200W and AMD 5800X is a 105W TDP CPU and this isnt idle (I see about 90W idle on my system which includes some things running on my UPS)

Edited January 29Jan 29 by MowMdown

9 hours ago, Veah said:

Oof. That is high. Your solution will likely reside in bios. Need to get familiar with aspm, c-states and settings that allow for the OS to manage power. Also look for performance type settings and select the power saver options. Disable any overolting. Some might suggest an undervolt but I've found it to be negligible if unRAID is managing the power.

Within unRAID, you can play with powertop in the cli.

Thankyou so much for the suggestions! I will dig into the BIOS and see if I can find anything there to assist. Fingers crossed!

4 hours ago, MowMdown said:

there is zero chance that system is pulling 250W idle... I dont even think it would pull 250W running full tilt (maybe but no way idle with disks spun down)

CPU is a 65W TDP CPU
GPU is 75W Max Power draw

Lets say 8W average per HDD is like another 80W

Were still under 250W with everything going at full tilt.

Couple of questions:

1. What size PSU and what power efficiency is it rated for?
2. How are you measuring wattage?

For comparison my system (hardware in signature) with 8x 12TB HDDs, 5x 1TB Sata SSDs, a bluray drive, and an Intel Arc A310 doesn't pull 200W and AMD 5800X is a 105W TDP CPU and this isnt idle (I see about 90W idle on my system which includes some things running on my UPS)

Tested the load draw by both my UPS UI, and also a smart energy monitor. Both are within 10w of each other so I'm 99% sure the readings are correct.

Its a Corsair RM750w Gold PS.

Yeah after doing some digging and seeing others with similar or even larger systems / higher wattage devices idles 3x lower than me, I figured something was very wrong...

You can use some tools to check CPU / GPU power state. I use Corefreq for CPU always.

Although the reading could be wrong for some CPU, but it still useful to know what power drawing from CPU, for exampe, we would found large power different when apply loading to CPU, it have 4 times differrent.

Edited January 30Jan 30 by Vr2Io

1 hour ago, Vr2Io said:

You can use some tools to check CPU / GPU power state. I use Corefreq for CPU always.

Although the reading could be wrong for some CPU, but it still useful to know what power drawing from CPU, for exampe, we would found large power different when apple loading to CPU, it have 4 times differrent.

I've downloaded an ran it, but I couldn't see anywhere that showed the power draw of the CPU? though, it did show me about 1% utilization..

You can press ESC and got the pull down menu and perform different checking.

Edited January 30Jan 30 by Vr2Io

14 hours ago, NotFreeman said:

Tested the load draw by both my UPS UI, and also a smart energy monitor. Both are within 10w of each other so I'm 99% sure the readings are correct.

Its a Corsair RM750w Gold PS.

Yeah after doing some digging and seeing others with similar or even larger systems / higher wattage devices idles 3x lower than me, I figured something was very wrong...

What else is plugged into your UPS?