[Nasa]

Hello,

I apologize if this is in the wrong forum; mods please move the post if it is.
I am not familiar with power consumption ratings and how to figure it out; so I figure I would ask.
In light of being green; I am trying to reduce my environmental footprint.
I currently have an old desktop (Dell Intel P4 3.2GHz) that I use as my file server; on 24/7
Would I benefit from building a new NAS in terms of power usage?
Cost of new NAS vs saving in power?

Thanks in advance
Nasa

[bmcclure937]

Yes. I am not sure the exact benefits of a new setup versus your current P4 3.2Ghz... but there are much more efficient options now. Your PSU could probably even help a lot if you got a newer, more efficient PSU.

It will obviously cost some money to get the new hardware and the savings will not make up for the purchase over night, or even over the course of one year. But you will have newer, cooler, quieter, and more efficient technology. Definitely beats the old hardware.

At the same time though, it is not a bad thing to recycle your old hardware. That may help the environment just as much! (if that is your actual concern)

[Nasa]

thanks bmcclure937; I was just reading how efficient the Atoms were and somehow I figured I would be better off building new. Your point is valid about recycling old hardware but maybe changing the PSU might be a good idea.

[bmcclure937]

Yes, but then you also run into the problem of trying to find compatible (old) hardware for a reasonable price. Heck, even DDR2 memory is starting to cost too much

The "good stuff" (DDR3) can be found for much cheaper than the older DDR2. So you may need to consider that as well. Just something to think about!

[thethirdnut]

FYI.

My i3-540, 4 GB RAM, 6 x 1.5 TB HDD, 80 GB boot HDD, and IDE DVDWR draws 110 W idle.

Similar hw before an upgrade from Atom 330 mobo was approx 80 W idle.

The i3 is at least twice as fast -plus- one other thing not well documented is that the Atom 330 chipsets work very well for small systems but they are really very limited as far as larger systems go...more components as in a server I mean.

I ran into IRQ conflict with one of the SATA cards + onboard graphics and couldnt resolve it on the Atom 330...other mobo settings were also very minimal.

This doesn't matter so much for an HTPC, but it does more so once throwing more hw into the mix.

Just some food for thought.

[jvdb]

I had an old P4 file server (it was actually a p4 celeron 1.8GHz). It had an Antec TruePower 2.0 PSU rated 70%+ efficiency and 2 x 7200rpm IDE hitachi hard drives on a 3ware controller. The system drew around 100 watts idle, but it's been a very long time so I couldn't give you super accurate numbers.

My newest file server was built for low power usage. It has an Intel D510MO board, Corsair 80+ bronze rated PSU and 4 x WD20EADS (green) drives on a promise TX4 controller. It draws around 43 watts idle, 57 watts under heavy load. (according to my tweet-a-watt)

Hope those numbers help.

[maxinc]

If you have real concerns about power usage, then you will have to replace old, power inefficient HW with new one. Problems is the replacement costs don't really cover the energy savings so I feel is a bit senseless to change them purely for the sake of power efficiently.

Of course there comes a time when every bit of HW needs replaced, so then it may be wise to choose power efficient bits rather than old SH stuff.

I have a 65W Celeron running my NAS and while an ATOM board would save me electricity worth about £3 / month, it would be about 5 years until it would have paid for itself and start making real saving. By that time, technology would have changed considerably and I would probably have to upgrade again.

[jvdb]

I have a 65W Celeron running my NAS and while an ATOM board would save me electricity worth about £3 / month, it would be about 5 years until it would have paid for itself and start making real saving.

While I generally agree with this, sometimes the savings aren't so easy to calculate. Here's an example:

Our tiered electricity rates are higher in the summer, so you really get screwed if you have something pushing you into the 3rd or 4th tier. While a couple of old computers may only cost $10/mo to run, they are also putting out a lot of heat, and AC is usually the most costly part of an electricity bill in the summer.

http://www.sdge.com/customer/rates/tierCosts.shtml

[BORIStheBLADE]

I went from a p4 to an atom board and it cut my idle watts consumption in half for my Nas.
It's a toss up... if spending money on a new system isn't going to hurt you wallet go for it.

Less power
Less heat
Less noise

[jmarshall]

Hmm, 8 posts and noone has mentioned the obvious:

Measure the damn thing! Power measurement devices are cheap as chips.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[bmcclure937]

Hmm, 8 posts and noone has mentioned the obvious:

Measure the damn thing! Power measurement devices are cheap as chips.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Maybe your obvious answer was not mentioned because it makes no sense!

How do you expect him to measure something that he does not have? He is asking how his current system would stack up against a theoretical build that he does not have in his possession. That is why people have responded the way they have.

As far as I am concerned, it does not hurt to re-use parts if they fit your needs. If you think you would benefit from the updated hardware, then it would not hurt as far as power, heat, and noise go. Upgrading would save you money in terms of power... but obviously not enough to cover the cost of the upgrade itself. Maybe over the course of time it would though.

Moral of the story is that you will need to upgrade sooner or later no matter what. You just have to find the right time for your budget and plans!

[maxinc]

Hmm, 8 posts and noone has mentioned the obvious:

Measure the damn thing! Power measurement devices are cheap as chips.

Cheers,
Jonathan

I actually did measure it and this is how I came up with the £3 / month saving which is the result of a 50W power save on idle between my Celeron setup idling at 80W compared to a atom based configuration which does it at only 30W. Data for the atom was provided on the unRAID forum by members who measured their setups.

My servers run in the loft and power consumption in linear throughout the year. Same is the electricity price in the UK so my predictions were +/- 10% accurate. As suggested above, different countries may have different rules so what works for one, may not work for everybody.