Would these parts work well together?


eskro666

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Hi,

 

I´m the new one here :)

As I´m also going to build a NAS using the  ASUS C60M1-I and 3-4 HDDs. So I´m following your threads very closely. But one question comes to my mind: You all are using PSU´s with 360-500W. But according to 24-36W used for spinning-up an HDD wouldn´t be something like a 250W PSU sufficient(=more efficient) for a  ASUS C60M1-I with 4-6 HDD´s ?? Maybe even less with staggered spin-up ? (As during usual usage the power-needs of current eco-drives are stated with ~6W, so most 400W PSU´s aren´t running in a very efficient power-range).

 

I´m just thinking if it I shouldn´t aim for a 200-250W TFX PSU when going only for green eco-drives. Or am I missing something here ?

 

Cheers,

 

The PSU only draws as much power as it needs. How much power it draws for a given wattage depends on the energy efficiency of the PSU. All our PSU picks have an "80 PLUS" rating. Meaning its 80% or greater energy efficient. This in turn means that 80% of the power drawn from the AC wall outlet is converted to DC power for the computer system.

 

 

The lowest wattage PSU on Newegg is 275W APEX SL-275TFX 275W TFX12V which is only has an efficiency rating of 65%.

 

So any of our PSU's use less power than that 275W PSU for a giving wattage. At least that's my understanding. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

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Hmm,

from what I´ve read most PSU´s are mostly running at their maximum efficiency at around ~50% of their max wattage. So, if my unraid is consuming ~80W during normal operation, something like a 160W with "80 PLUS" rating would be perfect. Because even the "80 PLUS" rated PSU´s are losing their efficiency if running at only 20% of what they have been designed for.

Therefore I´m asking why not many smaller NAS-systems with 3-5 green drives are using smaller PSU´s like e.g.:

http://www.xilence.net/en/products/power-supplies/sfx-series/product/328015.html

 

But maybe I´m underestimating the wattage needed for spin-up etc..

 

Btw, does Wake-On-Lan and Standby work properly on the  ASUS C60M1-I ? I´m not going to run my NAS 24/7... and I´ve read something about problems with S3 in some other thread ?

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Hmm,

from what I´ve read most PSU´s are mostly running at their maximum efficiency at around ~50% of their max wattage. So, if my unraid is consuming ~80W during normal operation, something like a 160W with "80 PLUS" rating would be perfect. Because even the "80 PLUS" rated PSU´s are losing their efficiency if running at only 20% of what they have been designed for.

Therefore I´m asking why not many smaller NAS-systems with 3-5 green drives are using smaller PSU´s like e.g.:

http://www.xilence.net/en/products/power-supplies/sfx-series/product/328015.html

 

But maybe I´m underestimating the wattage needed for spin-up etc..

 

Btw, does Wake-On-Lan and Standby work properly on the  ASUS C60M1-I ? I´m not going to run my NAS 24/7... and I´ve read something about problems with S3 in some other thread ?

 

I'm not a power supply expert... However, my best answer to your question would be; availability, quality, and price. All three of the previously mentioned power supplies are readily available, of known good quality, and fairly priced. I really don't see any benefit to use the power supply you mentioned. The PSU dimensions might also be an issue depending on your case. Although a little tight, my PSU fits in my case. And as previously mentioned there's not much power saving benefit from running a 250w as opposed to a 400w PSU if they are of high efficiency.

 

WOL and standby I've never used on any of my computers. My NAS is no exception. I run it 24/7 so never needed to look into it but i'll see what I can find out. I'm more concerned about noise than power and my setup is very quiet...

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Ok, tanks for your explanation. I thnik I´ll stick with the Seasonic :)

 

For me, noise is no issue as it will run in the basement. But after I´ve calculated what ~40-60W for running an idle NAS 24/7 will cost me during the year, I definitly decided I´ll need something like standby-sleep etc.. This way I can invest the saved bucks into additional drives :)

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Update on WOL...

I had some time to play around with it and couldn't get it to work. At first I couldn't enter S3. Did some reading and realized I had to enable PME in BIOS. I was then able to enter S3 but unable to correctly wake with magic packet. System seems to power back up from S3 but there is no video, response from keyboard, and NIC doesn't come back up as I was unable to ping it. Same issue described here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=21019.msg187740#msg187740. WOL works from S5, however. Not really as useful as S3 though. I saw mention of an unRAID build with a 8169 NIC driver but not sure if that resolves issue. In the case of that thread, that user tried an Intel NIC and was still unable to get the WOL working with S3. Seems some WOL just won't work with some MBs. If you really want WOL working I look to a MB that is known to work with it.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Well, I didn't get to do all that I was planning but have worked with and been very happy with the Asus C60M1-I.  Threw a couple older hard drives in there for preclear.  Added to the array and moved a bunch of non-essential files over.  Don't have a parity drive installed yet as I'm waiting on a couple RMAs and a preclear.  Only possible issue that I know of is that I had a preclear stall on one drive but think it's probably a bad drive.  Started it again and it seems to be working fine now though. 

I've attached my syslog if you want to take a look.  Any questions you have, let me know.

I also have built a system using Asus C60M1-I. It works great! But I would like to monitor MB/CPU temperatures and the sensors command doesn't give much info. I guess the OS can't read all the sensors. Are there drivers to make that possible?

The only info I get from sensors is this:

root@MEDIA:~# sensors
k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:       +42.2 C  (high = +70.0 C, crit = +100.0 C)  

root@MEDIA:~# 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi folks.  Newbie here and very happy to have stumbled on this thread since I'm planning a mini-ITX unRAID build using this same ASUS C60M1-I board.  Wondering if any of you using it have any updates on how it's performing?  Particularly I'd like to know if there have been any issues with the Realtek NIC with unRAID v5?  I've got all my parts on the way and I'd read so many warnings about the NIC on NewEgg reviews etc. that I went ahead and ordered an Intel NIC for the PCIe slot too but now I'm thinking maybe I don't need it?  Seems from what I've read like whatever issues there were might have been cleared up by v5. 

 

Also as a first time builder I think I may have gone a little overboard getting 8GB RAM (2x4GB).  Not that more RAM ever hurts but would I likely even notice any difference if I just went with a single 4GB stick instead?  Just wondering since I can still return stuff I don't need.  My planned build:

 

Case: Fractal Design Node 304 mini-ITX

Mobo/CPU: ASUS C60M1-I mini-ITX / AMD Fusion C-60 2x1.0GHz (1.33GHz Turbo) 9W

RAM: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333MHz

PSU: Corsair CX430 430W modular 80 plus bronze

Hard Drives: 3 x 3TB WD Red (2 data, 1 parity)

 

BTW, should also mention that my planned usage is strictly as a media server to hold music for my Sonos and HD video to play to my TV through my dlna blu ray player and then later to a HTPC running openELEC XBMC (my next upgrade project as soon as budget permits).  No streaming to multiple devices, transcoding on the fly or any of that and no real interest in any plugins either except SimpleFeatures.  Also don't think I need sleep / WOL either since with such a low power setup I don't think it would save me much from just letting it run 24/7 anyway.

 

Appreciate any feedback.  Thanks!

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ElJimador,

 

On the 8 GB of RAM, I would just go ahead and install it.  Unless you can ship the return for free you'll be looking at some cost to return it.  I recently ate the cost of a 4 GB stick that was defective, just not worth the shipping costs and hassle when RAM is fairly cheap.  Of course shipping from Alaska is a little more expensive than most other places.

 

I've read that UnRAID will make use of the extra RAM, but you're probably right that any improvement is likely to be unnoticeable.  I just have a tendency to overdo the RAM, particularly if I think I might repurpose the system to some other use down the road.

 

OK, I just checked the price of your RAM and if you paid in the ballpark of $60 then I'd consider returning, although if you bought a dual channel kit you may not be permitted to return just one stick.  In that case maybe hold on to the 8GB to use in your OpenELEC system and make do with 4 GB in your NAS.

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ElJimador,

 

On the 8 GB of RAM, I would just go ahead and install it.  Unless you can ship the return for free you'll be looking at some cost to return it.  I recently ate the cost of a 4 GB stick that was defective, just not worth the shipping costs and hassle when RAM is fairly cheap.  Of course shipping from Alaska is a little more expensive than most other places.

 

I've read that UnRAID will make use of the extra RAM, but you're probably right that any improvement is likely to be unnoticeable.  I just have a tendency to overdo the RAM, particularly if I think I might repurpose the system to some other use down the road.

 

OK, I just checked the price of your RAM and if you paid in the ballpark of $60 then I'd consider returning, although if you bought a dual channel kit you may not be permitted to return just one stick.  In that case maybe hold on to the 8GB to use in your OpenELEC system and make do with 4 GB in your NAS.

 

Nah I'm going to send it back.  I paid $49.98 and it's worth it to me to save the $20.  There's a Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB with great reviews on Amazon for $26.98 and return shipping from the Bay Area to Vegas shouldn't cost more than a couple bucks.  That's a good suggestion to use it for the HTPC but I'd rather not commit myself to anything on that yet, particularly since there's a decent chance it will be a barebones that takes SO-DIMM memory instead.  Thanks for the feedback!

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