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Optimize power consumption (derpzilla.net)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So I have finally built my NAS. I used an N100 CPU because I saw it has low power consumption.

Right now I have 2 NVMe SSDs and 2 HDDs. I have installed proxmox on the 2 SSDs as RAID1. I have not partitioned the HDDs yet, they are just plugged in and powered on.

Just booting into proxmox, without any VMs or containers running, I am pulling 45W from the wall. This looks super high to me, and I’m afraid that starting to use the HDDs and running some VMs may double this…

I don’t have much references, but I have an Odroid with an external self-powered HDD, it is using 5W. I have a raspberry pi 4 with an external HDD, the raspberry is pulling 3W and the HDD 3W.

With these data, I was thinking I wouldn’t go over 20W. 45W is enormous and not something I can run 24/7, kind of a fail for a NAS…

Have I done something wrong or is it just how much it’s supposed to pull?

Edit: I have come across powertop. Using the auto tune, I was able to drop to 33-35W. I have unplugged the HDDs and dropped to 22W. I guess I cannot go lower, this may be because of the PSU or the 2 NVMe

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Monitor CPU usage and frequencies to ensure CPU is throttling down properly. Then start unplugging hard drives, ram, nic cable to see how they affect power usage. Servethehome shows an N305 idling around 10w in a minipc without HDDs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I guess I’ll do this if I don’t find a way to reduce the power consumption

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Troubleshooting can be difficult. I'll only say you'll save yourself alot of time and energy by establishing a baseline for power usage with just the essential components necessary for boot to see what you're working with. Then you can make better informed decisions.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Yes definitely. This is just that it was my first time assembling a PC. I had a bit of a hard time and I am not in a hurry to disassemble it 😅

That may change in a couple of days thought