Low powered server


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It's been a while since I've built a server (2011) so quite out of touch on the hardware side of things but I'd like some suggestions on some parts to build a server that will be on 24/7. So I would like it to consume as least power as possible when idle. 

 

It will need to to run a windows 10vm on virtualbox (2cpu, 4gb ram) whilst running plex streams. I don't have to transcode to often as the clients I have usually are able to play the videos in native format but possibly looking for a graphics card for transcoding for mobile devices. Plus apple time machine backup.

 

Looking to spend around £800

 

I have a Fractal Design Define Mini Case and an Antec EA-380GREEN 380W EarthWatts Green PSU - 80Plus Bronze already.

I would like the motherboard to have ipmi so I'm thinking and AS rock motherboard?

Before I used an Intel Core i5 2405S, which was a low powered i5 processor do Intel still make S models?

16gb ram

1 ssd for cache

4 x 4tb hdd's.

 

with the cache option is it possible to say download a large nzb movie file with sabnzbd have it extract to the cache quickly so i can play it straight away in plex then over time it moves to the hdd but maintaining the file paths?

 

Edited by parisv
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I Second the XEON route as the way to go if you are trying to save money and reduce power consumption.

All the data centres use them because they are low power and great for virtualisation.

 

If I were trying to save money I would get a refurbished workstation or tower server from an IT recycling company that wipes ex-lease business systems.

Then you have a 24/7 grade device likely to have IPMI and VM support.

Plenty of drive space and often a headerless USB port internal on the board.

 

One system I did was based on a Dell 7810 ex-lease with Dual E5-2600.

There are smaller models that are single socket also.

The one disadvantage of workstations over tower servers is there is not so many drive mounting positions if you are going 3.5" drives.

Also the tower servers often come with an LSI card for increased drive support.

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On 3/11/2020 at 7:02 AM, parisv said:

Before I used an Intel Core i5 2405S, which was a low powered i5 processor do Intel still make S models?

If you want to find low power CPU specs a good place to go is https://www.cpubenchmark.net/CPU_mega_page.html

There you can type for example i5 in the search, then narrow down by socket type of motherboard and TDP (power usage) of the CPU

Typically the processors ending with S or T are low power and no letter or K are high power when it comes to Core i5/7 processors

An S processor might be better then a T as they have higher clock rate for single thread tasks.

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On 3/11/2020 at 11:01 PM, parisv said:

plus the Xeon E-2244G

Oh and in the Xeon range processors ending in L are usually the low power models but often they are only supplied to server manufacturers exclusively for datacentres, but they often come up on ebay after they have done 2-3 years service and replaced by a newer server.

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TDP is a very poor measure of consumption over time for a specific workload.

 

TDP is there solely as a design requirement for how much heat shedding capacity is needed for the heat sink system. If you have airflow or overall package or harsh temperature environments, then sure, you need to be concerned with TDP.

 

For a home server, typically a low TDP version of an otherwise identical chip will likely consume MORE power in the long term, because CPU heavy tasks will be throttled to keep the TDP down while the drives are forced to stay spun up for a longer duration, vs the higher TDP processor completing quicker and allowing the server to spin down.

 

It's much more important to look at the overall consumption of the motherboard, RAM, HBA, and GPU than it is to focus on the processor TDP. Also, keeping the spindle count to the lowest possible number will help tremendously. Running 3 8TB drives straight off the motherboard is going to be hugely more efficient than running 9 2TB drives that have the same usable capacity but require a separate HBA because the motherboard only supports 6 SATA ports.

 

Designing a low power server is complex.

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7 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

TDP is a very poor measure of consumption over time for a specific workload.

Very valid point.

 

I have an i5-4460 that has a higher TDP of 84w in a GA-H97 board and 3*4TB in a badly laid out case but when it does a parity check only consumes 50w of power for the complete system. Drives/CPU/mainboard and cooler.

Not sure how it would perform for a VM though.

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