According to SPCR.com, your power supply is about 70% efficient at 8% loading (31W), so you are definitely below 70% efficient at 26W loading. If you had a power supply that was 80% efficient at that load, it would save you about 3W, and another 3W at 90%, which is what it would take to bring your power down to the 20W level that garycase has on his D525 build with 6 spinners.

 

I think your fans are consuming <2W total at idle.

 

From real world results, for a 6-drive unRAID server, the D525 system appears to have ~15%-20% better efficiency at idle over the C-60 system.

 

I would also say that C-60 idle consumption is very similar to G1610 for a similar build, and the G1610 is a more powerful processor.

 

We still don't have and unRAID user reports of the E-350 idle power consumption.  Anyone have that data to share?  I still expect it to be very similar to the C-60.

 

Cyan, you still with us?  Not sure if we've answered your question, but the best answer so far is that E-350 and G1610 idle power consumption should be very similar, probably within 10% of each other, but the G1610 has more horsepower, and the D525 beats both.

 

-Paul

[shadow=red,left]"We still don't have and unRAID user reports of the E-350 idle power consumption.  Anyone have that data to share?  I still expect it to be very similar to the C-60."[/shadow]

 

I've posted my findings here though:

 

Idle power consumption without any drives for E350 is about 28W on a standard ATX FSP-300 power supply.

I've posted my findings here though:

 

Idle power consumption without any drives for E350 is about 28W on a standard ATX FSP-300 power supply.

 

You're right, I'm sorry, I got lost in the thread.  Thank you.

 

I went back and looked at the X-bit article that reviewed the E-350 and claimed a 7W idle.  The power measurements were taken on the DC side, after the power supply, and didn't include the power supply's inefficiency.  The motherboard being tested was also a MSI unit with less features.  I looked at some user reviews for that MSI board, and one person claimed a 11W-12W idle using a Pico PSU, and others were in the mid-high 20's with normal power supplies.  So for an unRAID build using a regular power supply, I think high-twenties + drives + fans probably puts you around a 32-34W build on an E-350.  I think a G1610 can beat this by about 5-10 watts.

 

While my mini-ITX board + G1610 idles at about 17.5W, without drives or fans, my motherboard only has 2 SATA ports.  Once you get a motherboard that has at least 6 ports, I would expect power consumption to be a bit higher than mine.

 

So for idle efficiency:  D525 beats C-60, G1610 ties C-60, and E-350 comes up last.

ok, since no one selling e350 with 6 sata mobo in my country

I decide to get G1610 with 8 sata B75 mobo (I disabled the 2 asmedia)

with 3 fan, corsair CX400 (only 80plus I think).. idle around 40w.

I wonder if I should tweak something to lower the idle.

Hi Cyan, sorry to hear to have limited options where you are located.  Please take the time to answer the following questions and try the suggestions.  We're happy to help you address the idle power consumption.

 

The 40W idle, is that with hard drives or without? Was this running unRAID, and if so what version?

 

What specific motherboard did you get?

 

What are the details of the rest of your build? Memory size/speed/brand/model? Fan size/speed/brand/model?  Any add-in cards? 

 

On my motherboard, I disabled every peripheral I could: audio, serial/parallel ports, and more.  The only things you need to leave enabled for unRAID are USB and SATA and Network.  If you have multiple NICs, turning off the secondary NIC (which is controlled by extra chips on the motherboard) can save a good amount of power.

 

Since you got a motherboard that has 8 SATA ports, I'm inclined to believe you did not purchase a mini-ITX sized motherboard.  The small size of these motherboards prevents manufacturers from adding extra components that sap power.  I have not found a mini-ITX motherboard with 8 SATA ports, so I'm thinking you went larger.  That means more PCI/PCIx slots, more USB/FireWire headers.

 

There's also the question of how the motherboard manufacturer achieved 8 SATA ports.  The B75 chipset only supports 6 SATA.  That means the motherboard manufacturer had to install extra controller chips  to reach 8 SATA ports.  In reality, this is no better than an add-in card (as you had contemplated with the E-350 motherboards), as it consumes extra power.  We've seen time and time again, motherboard makers don't seem to care about power consumption, especially when adding extra controller chips for extra functionality.

 

In your BIOS, you should see an option to disable the extra SATA controller, dropping you down to 6 SATA ports.  You should try that and see what impact it has on idle power consumption.  Perhaps that is what you already did when you said you disabled the 2 asmedia?  Did you test the power consumption both with those enabled and disabled, and did it have an impact?  It might be that the motherboard didn't actually turn off the power to those chips.

 

Here are the capabilities of the B75 chipset; look at your motherboard carefully and identify any additional components beyond what the B75 offers - these extra components are sucking power:

• 6 SATA
  
• 1 Intel Gigabit LAN
  
• 8 USB 2.0
  
• 4 USB 3.0
  
• Intel High Definition Audio (which you should disable anyway)
  
• PCIe 2.0 x 8 Lanes

 

I hope some of this helps...

-Paul