Low Power NAS?

C

cphillips

n00b
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
52
Hi All

I currently have a P4 3GHz PC running 4x250Gb SATA drives in a RAID10 array. It's running Openfiler.

All is working well but the system is consuming around 110w of power, which is rather excessive!

I'm looking to replace the components (preferably just motherboard first, drives later) and was wondering what you would recommend? I've read about Atom's etc but not sure what way to go.

The system is on 24x7.

Look forward to your responses!

Regards
Colin
 
I'm assuming you have a RAID card already? If so and depending on your need (or lack thereof) for future expandability I'd just grab an Atom combo from Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...21399&cm_re=atom_combo-_-13-121-399-_-Product - Atom D510 w/ Intel mobo - Has GbE onboard

Or for a bit cheaper there is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...on=atom combo&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20 - Foxconn mobo w/ Atom D410 - Has GbE


Really 110w isn't all that bad though, especially for a P4.
 
The Zotac Atom 510 boards are nice coz many have PCI-express or even multiple. That would mean you can expand it in the future with a nice controller; highly recommended!

http://www.zotac.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=100026&lang=un

Take a look the DTX are the ones with Micro-ATX instead of Mini-ITX form factor (so longer) but have one more PCI-express x1 slot. Note that the PCI-express x16 operates at x4 i think; but that's still 1GB/s so good for future expansion.
 
Blue Falcon said:
I'm assuming you have a RAID card already? If so and depending on your need (or lack thereof) for future expandability I'd just grab an Atom combo from Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...21399&cm_re=atom_combo-_-13-121-399-_-Product - Atom D510 w/ Intel mobo - Has GbE onboard

Or for a bit cheaper there is this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...on=atom combo&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20 - Foxconn mobo w/ Atom D410 - Has GbE


Really 110w isn't all that bad though, especially for a P4.
Click to expand...

Hi Blue Falcon

Thanks for the reply, I'll look at the boards you mention. I don't actually have a HW RAID card at the moment (running the 4xdrives off the SATA connectors on the motherboard), but have been planning on getting a PERC card so maybe's the time!

I'm fairly confident I can get it alot lower than 110W, plus I have my ESXi server running alongside at 60W so it all adds up.

Colin
 
sub.mesa said:
The Zotac Atom 510 boards are nice coz many have PCI-express or even multiple. That would mean you can expand it in the future with a nice controller; highly recommended!

http://www.zotac.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=100026&lang=un

Take a look the DTX are the ones with Micro-ATX instead of Mini-ITX form factor (so longer) but have one more PCI-express x1 slot. Note that the PCI-express x16 operates at x4 i think; but that's still 1GB/s so good for future expansion.
Click to expand...

Hi sub.mesa

Thanks for your input, I will also look at these. Are they available in the UK do you know? Forgot to mention that I am in the UK in my original post!

Colin
 
cphillips said:
Hi sub.mesa

Thanks for your input, I will also look at these. Are they available in the UK do you know? Forgot to mention that I am in the UK in my original post!

Colin
Click to expand...

I have seen them on scan.co.uk a couple of times before, overclockers.co.uk used to stock the zotac boards as well.
 
The Supermicro atom boards are quite nice as well, and have native support for practically any OS :)
 
cphillips said:
Hi Blue Falcon

Thanks for the reply, I'll look at the boards you mention. I don't actually have a HW RAID card at the moment (running the 4xdrives off the SATA connectors on the motherboard), but have been planning on getting a PERC card so maybe's the time!

I'm fairly confident I can get it alot lower than 110W, plus I have my ESXi server running alongside at 60W so it all adds up.

Colin
Click to expand...

Not to be too argumentative, but "it all adds up" is really something you need to do the math for...

The quest for low power , is in some cases, more of a mental thing, then a real world thing, lets say you can get down from 110 watts, to 60 watts.
that is 50 watts, you save.

Lets express this in kilo watts, .050 kW.


Let us also say your unit will run for 24/7 all year. =365days*24hours/day. = 8760 hours, in a year.

so , you will use .05KW*8760hours = 438 KWH

my electrical rate is .07$ (7 cents)/ KWH, ..

There for 438KWH X .07$/KWH = 30.66cents.

SO- you will save about 31 $ a YEAR if you can manage to save that 50 watts, this assumes that you never turn it off, or have it go in to any "low power modes".

HOWEVER, you should also consider that if you live in a net cold, or warm climate, this number can change. Here in canada, we need to heat our houses, and the "extra" 50 watts is not lost; rather it is helping to warm our house, and then reduce out gas bill. I would say in canada, this would be about a 70% reduction in the cost effecivness. so I woudl guess about 10 $/year

The opposite is true if you live in a place that has air-conditioning running all the time. I would multiply by some 1.5 factor if that where the case. abotu 45$/year
 
kevinnem said:
Not to be too argumentative, but "it all adds up" is really something you need to do the math for...

The quest for low power , is in some cases, more of a mental thing, then a real world thing, lets say you can get down from 110 watts, to 60 watts.
that is 50 watts, you save.

Lets express this in kilo watts, .050 kW.


Let us also say your unit will run for 24/7 all year. =365days*24hours/day. = 8760 hours, in a year.

so , you will use .05KW*8760hours = 438 KWH

my electrical rate is .07$ (7 cents)/ KWH, ..

There for 438KWH X .07$/KWH = 30.66cents.

SO- you will save about 31 $ a YEAR if you can manage to save that 50 watts, this assumes that you never turn it off, or have it go in to any "low power modes".

HOWEVER, you should also consider that if you live in a net cold, or warm climate, this number can change. Here in canada, we need to heat our houses, and the "extra" 50 watts is not lost; rather it is helping to warm our house, and then reduce out gas bill. I would say in canada, this would be about a 70% reduction in the cost effecivness. so I woudl guess about 10 $/year

The opposite is true if you live in a place that has air-conditioning running all the time. I would multiply by some 1.5 factor if that where the case. abotu 45$/year
Click to expand...

Hi kevinnem

You have cheaper electricity in Canada than here in the UK! You're paying $0.07/KWh. In the UK I am paying £0.1214/KWh (that equates to $0.19) so quite a difference there just for that.

For my ESX Server to be on 24x7x365 costs me £66.99 per year at current rates.
If I had the 110W Openfiler PC on (but not the ESX Server), it would cost me £122.83 per year at current rates.

The total for both of them is £189.82 which is alot just for 2 PC's to be on 24x7.

I'm now looking at a D-Link DNS-323 or similar which draws at the most 25W, this would cost £27.91 per year.

My 250Gb discs currently in RAID10 are not power saving / Green drives. I appreciate with the DNS-323 I can only have 2 drives but I intend on buying 2x1Tb or 2Tb drives and mirroring them. I don't need something that can chuck vast amounts of data around all the while (if I did I wouldn't have been using an ancient power hungry P4 for my storage array!).

So just by switchin from the P4 Openfiler system to the DNS-323 which will do exactly the same thing, I can save myself £94.92 per year which is £23.73 a quarter (we get billed quarterly for our energy usage). £23.73 per quarter may not seem alot but as I previously said "It all adds up"!

I know I have the cost of initially buying the drives/DNS-323 but I'd have the cost of whatever I was going to buy so don't really see that as an issue.

So hopefully, as you can see, I have done my maths!!

Regards
Colin
 
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