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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 (1 children)

I was testing around 5 different PSUs (500-750W silver/gold) on the same machine and I was reading 20 - 35W from the wall. So yeah I think PSU plays a big role. They are most efficient at around half of the rated load and we are using them at <10%.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Listen to this guy! Spot on. When I built my server I spent more time researching and paying for the PSU more than any other single part. Ended up with a Seasonic PRIME FANLESS PX-450. Server idles around 25W with a ryzen 5600g and 40TB of storage.

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

Indeed, this seems to be the issue!

I’ve checked the PX-450 but it seems to be out of stock…

I’ll do more searches about PSU, thanks!

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

While more expensive, a fanless one is probably a good idea as it will be optimized to avoid excess heat, which is incidently the same as inefficient power consumption for PSUs.