Converting to Pure NAS Only : Low Power Build or Underclock?


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I did it folks. I pulled the trigger on my first proper server:

 

- Dell PowerEdge R720 SFF

- 2x Xeon E5-2680v's (2.8ghz 10c/20t ea)

- 144GB ECC

- 8x 2.5" Chassis

 

So, I'm looking to lighten my power bill via my UnRaid machine. Currently, it's running:

- Asrock 970 Extreme 3

- AMD FX6300

 

Would it be worthwhile to downgrade/swap to a lower hungry mobo/cpu combo? Or should I underclock my current rig?

 

I'm going to be moving all Dockers and VM's over to VMWare.

 

Thanks!

Edited by bmilcs
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Is your goal to save money, or save energy, or save the planet? Because buying different hardware to consume less power is probably going to have a VERY long ROI, way beyond the expected lifetime of the equipment.

 

In most scenarios the best long term is to run what you already have until it no longer performs the functions you need.

 

 

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Since the replacement unRaid machine will be basically idle all the time, the difference in power consumed at the wall will be minimal, and any savings will come more from how efficient the power supply is at low loads (most aren't very efficient) not the draw of the CPU at idle.  But, like @jonathanm states, the ROI on any investment to save power usually doesn't pay off.

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1 hour ago, bmilcs said:

My goal is to save money, not the planet, in the long haul.. on a monthly basis. 

Then your only play is to turn it off when not in use, and make sure only the drives needed are consuming power when it's on. How much free space is on the array, and how fast do you add media? Consider removing old small drives and fully utilize any newer high capacity drives, consolidating all actively used items to a single drive if possible.

 

Any power difference on the motherboard / CPU side from playing with settings is likely to be so small as to be unmeasurable.

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If you have power management enabled then the CPU should be undervolting and declocking itself when not under load so actual CPU idle in the range 5-10W.  The main impact you can have is ensuring the disks spin down when not needed.

 

Do you have a power meter to check actual power draw? If you're in the region of 50W idle then any gains are marginal, above 100W and it may be worth doing something different.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Decto said:

If you have power management enabled then the CPU should be undervolting and declocking itself when not under load so actual CPU idle in the range 5-10W.  The main impact you can have is ensuring the disks spin down when not needed.

 

Do you have a power meter to check actual power draw? If you're in the region of 50W idle then any gains are marginal, above 100W and it may be worth doing something different.

 

 

Right now, with my full gamut of Dockers running, I idle around 140-150w according to my Kill A Watt.

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17 hours ago, bmilcs said:

Right now, with my full gamut of Dockers running, I idle around 140-150w according to my Kill A Watt.

That is high, my E3 1225 idles at 54w with disks spun down but all the dockers running and an external 4 bay SAS enclosure.

 

Are your dockers doing a lot of work? What happens to power draw if you shutdown the docker service temporarily?

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1 hour ago, Decto said:

That is high, my E3 1225 idles at 54w with disks spun down but all the dockers running and an external 4 bay SAS enclosure.

 

Are your dockers doing a lot of work? What happens to power draw if you shutdown the docker service temporarily?

Funny you should sugggest this.

 

I just got an e-mail saying one of my shucked 8tb EasyShares is acting up.

 

I went ahead and disabled everything -- Dockers/VM's. 1 out of 5 HDD's is 'unmountable file system' and 1 ssd runningg = 120W.

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3 hours ago, bmilcs said:

Funny you should sugggest this.

 

I just got an e-mail saying one of my shucked 8tb EasyShares is acting up.

 

I went ahead and disabled everything -- Dockers/VM's. 1 out of 5 HDD's is 'unmountable file system' and 1 ssd runningg = 120W.

That's definitely on the high side, seems like there is no power saving going on. My recently retired WHS2011 server with a 3Ghz Athlon X4 640 idles at less than 50W with a few drives in it and a 10 core Xeon 2660 V3 idles under 40W with a Nvida 710 CPU.  I have 3 Killawatt meters + a UPS that are all in close agreement.

 

As above, underclocking, undervolt shouldn't make a difference if power saving is working so check that in the BIOS.

 

If you can't get much improvement then anything recent and Intel should be fine. 

Basic boards are best as less 'extras' to draw power.

 

New a B365 + Pentium G5400 is entry level, though any Dual or quad core Sandy Bridge or later would be ample for pure NAS if you pick up second hand deal.

 

 

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On 2/17/2020 at 6:33 PM, Decto said:

That's definitely on the high side, seems like there is no power saving going on. My recently retired WHS2011 server with a 3Ghz Athlon X4 640 idles at less than 50W with a few drives in it and a 10 core Xeon 2660 V3 idles under 40W with a Nvida 710 CPU.  I have 3 Killawatt meters + a UPS that are all in close agreement.

 

As above, underclocking, undervolt shouldn't make a difference if power saving is working so check that in the BIOS.

 

If you can't get much improvement then anything recent and Intel should be fine. 

Basic boards are best as less 'extras' to draw power.

 

New a B365 + Pentium G5400 is entry level, though any Dual or quad core Sandy Bridge or later would be ample for pure NAS if you pick up second hand deal.

 

 

I want to have optimal drive throughput and read/writes, but beyond that, low power is clutch.

 

Thank you for the suggestions.

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