Looking for replacement of power hungry SAN

[ddaenen1]

This probably going to be my last post on this. I finally found time to pull the server out of the rack and swap out the X8SIL-F motherboard and X3430 CPU with the newer X9SCM-F and E3-1230. It booted instantly but i did experience network issues as the NIC's on the X9 are different from the X8 and since i was running the existing install, that didn't go down well. Doing a new install initially fixed this, but when uploading my config into TrueNAS, it was messed up again. Took me some time to figure out how i could get it to work through the shell. Now all is up and running really well. I am quite surprised with the noticeable performance improvement from the E3-1230 compared to the X3430. Both Plex and Nextcloud seem to running smoother and especially when playing 4K UHD movies through plex, the difference is huge. Where previously, a lot of buffering was needed and the film sometimes stopped to buffer again, all this is completely gone now.

I think i will leave this to run now for some time, unless ofcourse i bump into a Supermicro X11 motherboard and matching CPU for cheap

 

[ddaenen1]

Well, i am at it again. Since i had an EV charging point installed at my home as i went electric several months, that also came with a real-time power meter. I can now see my real-time power consumption and as we were away during x-mas, i noticed that my average daily power consumption when everything is on idle is around 10kWh per day. Makes sense when i had 5 kWh in the night after the mods i made last time but i also know now that 50% of that is my network consumption so about 5 kWh a day.

Now things are different: i own a limited company (LC) and any investments i need to make in the network, can be done through the company whereas the power consumption is private with a small portion charged back from the LC.

Which is making me wondering:

- What power consumption reduction would i gain from exchanging the four 3.5" SAS drives in the NAS by 2.5" SSD's?
- Would i really benefit from exchanging the current X9SCM-F and Xeon E3-1220v, X550-T@ combo in the pfSense box by something like a Supermicro X11SDV-8C-TLN2F board?
- Maybe time to swap out the Cisco WAP571's (although i am very happy with those) by Cisco 150AX AP's of which read they consume a lot less power?

Open to any suggestions and comments/remarks.

 

[Tech9]

Calculate what's the difference in electricity bill and how long it is going to take to recover your new hardware cost.

 

[ddaenen1]

Calculate what's the difference in electricity bill and how long it is going to take to recover your new hardware cost.

Well, that is in this case less relevant because for the LC the cost of a couple of thousand is really insignificant but any savings from reduced consumption go directly into my own pocket.

 

[Tech9]

You own the LC and the cost of new equipment still comes out of your pocket, no? If there is some tax play - do it.

 

[Tech9]

3.5" SAS drives in the NAS by 2.5" SSD's

All my data servers run on HDDs, upgraded in 2022.

Supermicro X11SDV-8C-TLN2F

Much faster, but not much power savings. Not needed for home setup.

Cisco WAP571's (although i am very happy with those) by Cisco 150AX AP's

May be worth it for Wi-Fi performance, but not much for power savings.

 

[coxhaus]

I don't run any high wattage CPUs anymore. I might have 1 if I was to game again. I also don't spin any hard drives as I buy SSDs. It all adds up. My rack is turned off. I tried a bottom of the line NAS but I had power problems after a while, so I am running a small Dell low wattage PC for my NAS now and it draws a little more power but no issues so far and it is using 2 SSDs, one for boot and another for storage. When it gets a little older, I may mirror the NAS SSD part.
I don't think swapping Cisco WAP571's for Cisco 150ax will save you much power. It will give you Wi-Fi 6.
My older Cisco WAP581 worked well and had better roaming. My Cisco Wi-Fi 6 150ax are faster but they drop a couple of words on roaming. They do not drop WiFi calls. It could be the Wi-Fi 6 spec as it is new. I don't know.

What I remember SAS drives pull some power so maybe there could be some savings there. They are designed for fast access for big networks at 10,000 rpm.

When I had my rack, I changed motherboards and CPUs all the time. I never bought servers, just motherboards and I used the same cases and power supplies. I only had one power supply die over many years, but I was not loading down the power supplies except for my hot swap 8 drive server. Nowadays I would not run that anymore as I am now more power conscious now like you.

I had a 20-amp dedicated circuit run for my rack and 220v circuit run for my Window AC to cool my rack. The room was too hot without a separate AC even though I had central AC for the house. I don't think like this anymore.

 

[ddaenen1]

You own the LC and the cost of new equipment still comes out of your pocket, no? If there is some tax play - do it.

Indeed there is. I work as a consultant through the LC so all the revenue goes into the LC and i pay myself a salary. As salaries are heavily taxed over here, it is more beneficial to to leave as much as possible money in the LC and pay as much as possible costs directly through the LC so it isn't taxed and you can recover VAT.

 

[Tech9]

I do it myself for number of things for the same reasons. Happy New Year!