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Server Power Consumption

H

Hudson187

n00b
Joined
Dec 1, 2009
Messages
36
Ladies & Gentlemen,

I recently purchased a Kill-A-Watt unit to monitor my household power consumption. My server setup along with a 24-port Nortel Baystack 10/100/1000 switch, battery backup system, and two USB external drive housings currently consume about 234kwh when idle. The power consumption was a little higher because I had two processors in the system, but I took one out since I really don't need the additional power. My server setup is:

Supermicro X5DPE-G2
4GB DDR2 ECC RAM
2x 500GB WD system drive in RAID 1 (one a Scorpio blue, the other is a RE)
3x Samsung 2TB HD204UI
1x Samsung 1TB HD103SJ
2x WD 1.5TB WD15EARS
2x Samsung 1.5TB HD154UI
4x WD 1TB WD10EADS
2x Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8
1x 3ware 9550SX-4LP Raid Card
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W

Any suggestions? I'd like to lower my overall power consumption. I have the server going into suspend mode for most of the day (when nobody is home) but that drops it down to about 200kwh.
 
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Yes, I'd like to reduce my overall power consumption. I have the server going into suspend mode for most of the day (when nobody is home) but that drops it down to about 200kwh.

I was wondering if getting a green switch would help - the 24port baystack is kinda overkill right now.
 
I would measure the power usage of the switch before that and consider the cost of replacement versus the cost of power.

As for power savings, I am not sure what your power rate is but the average in the USA results in about $1 / per watt for 1 year of usage so the 234 W idle would cost you around $234 to use if you pay the average rate and use the system 24/7/365. Although that is oversimplified because it does not account for the heat. I mean in the winter the heat produced probably should not be counted as much but in the summer when the AC is on it should be double counted.. Although for me (in Pittsburgh PA) the heating season is at least 6 months and the AC season is 2 to 3 months.
 
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i hope you missed the . in 234kwh if not then that uasage is thru the roof a kettle onlu uses 1.5kwh
 
I get screwed in CT - CL&P charges 9.482 ¢/kWh! I think my math is off, but it looks like I'm paying approximately $21.99 a day to keep it running... maybe I didn't read the Kill-A-Watt right when I looked at the kwh usage...
 
well my kettle electric oven and deep fat fryer only use 4.8kwh when onn so i think you missing a . or something is wrong with the meter i pay £0.13pence per kw
the system in my sig uses about 0.250kwh on idle
 
if your mesruing complate house hold usage then you server is using about 0.340kwh basicly 340watts
 
Hudson187 said:
I get screwed in CT - CL&P charges 9.482 ¢/kWh! I think my math is off, but it looks like I'm paying approximately $21.99 a day to keep it running... maybe I didn't read the Kill-A-Watt right when I looked at the kwh usage...
Click to expand...

Your math is definitely off. There is no way a single 115V 15A outlet could deliver that much power in a day.

Your 9.482 / kWh is 9.482 cents for 1000W running for 1 hour.

I get 55cents per day for 234W @ 9.482 cents per kWh

cents per hour = (9.482 x 234)/1000
 
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Using the 234kwh that is pulling around 325 watts. I agree with Hudson is that the Nortel switch is overkill. It is probably drawing more current then a green switch or desktop switch. One site I found listed the spec as 150w, but I kinda doubt it is drawing that much. I could see 40w-50w though.
 
if the swtich dose anything like mine they is a lower limit and a max limit to what it will use just depends on the work load
 
is this a unit that plugs into a socket then the aplinces plug into that or is it one that has a clamp that clamps around the mains cable comming into the house
 
Dasimpson said:
is this a unit that plugs into a socket then the aplinces plug into that or is it one that has a clamp that clamps around the mains cable comming into the house
Click to expand...

Kill-A-Watt is a device that plugs into the socket and you plug your devices into it. It has been shown that this underestimates the power usage for APFC power supplies.
 
yes but there is also wireless ones that masure the complete household usage or a single item i have a unit that dose my complete house
 
Hudson187 said:
I get screwed in CT - CL&P charges 9.482 ¢/kWh! I think my math is off, but it looks like I'm paying approximately $21.99 a day to keep it running... maybe I didn't read the Kill-A-Watt right when I looked at the kwh usage...
Click to expand...

fyi that price is only for generation. you still need to pay for transport too, so it's more like 15 cents per kwh. You should try switching electric suppliers too. I live in CT, you should take advantage of deregulation.
 
Hudson187 said:
Ladies & Gentlemen,

I recently purchased a Kill-A-Watt unit to monitor my household power consumption. My server setup along with a 24-port Nortel Baystack 10/100/1000 switch, battery backup system, and two USB external drive housings currently consume about 234kwh when idle. The power consumption was a little higher because I had two processors in the system, but I took one out since I really don't need the additional power. My server setup is:

Supermicro X5DPE-G2
4GB DDR2 ECC RAM
2x 500GB WD system drive in RAID 1 (one a Scorpio blue, the other is a RE)
3x Samsung 2TB HD204UI
1x Samsung 1TB HD103SJ
2x WD 1.5TB WD15EARS
2x Samsung 1.5TB HD154UI
4x WD 1TB WD10EADS
2x Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8
1x 3ware 9550SX-4LP Raid Card
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W

Any suggestions? I'd like to lower my overall power consumption. I have the server going into suspend mode for most of the day (when nobody is home) but that drops it down to about 200kwh.
Click to expand...

I think that's a lot for idle. I have similar server with 12 green drives and on idle it consumes 154W. (no RAID card)
 
Hudson187 said:
I get screwed in CT - CL&P charges 9.482 ¢/kWh! I think my math is off, but it looks like I'm paying approximately $21.99 a day to keep it running... maybe I didn't read the Kill-A-Watt right when I looked at the kwh usage...
Click to expand...

9.482¢/kWh? You consider that being "screwed"? Even if you add transport and it is 15¢/kWh as noted by osrk, that is still not being "screwed". Those rates actually put you at some of the lowest electricity rates in the entire country!

Try living in Northern CA, PG&E land. Here we have the "baseline allocation" at 11 ¢/kWh, but you'd have to be a candle-loving, blanket hugging eco-warrior not to exceed the "baseline" every month. It scales up quickly based on usage, reaching a penalty box rate of nearly 50¢/kWh!
 
My fileserver with 14x 2TB WD Greens / 16GB ECC RAM / 6core Phenom consumes 120W on idle and maxes at 200W while scrubbing the ZFS pool.
 
230w is a lot for a home server. Mine is in the low 100's. And I was not concerned about power usage.

But sometimes peak demands require a higher power consumption.
 
I'm not sure anybody in this thread understands what a kilowatt-hour is, considering nobody has taken time into account.

Running 1000W for 1 hour is 1kWh.
 
Per my thread in my sig - here are the idle wattages of your drives.

Hudson187 said:
Supermicro X5DPE-G2
4GB DDR2 ECC RAM
2x 500GB WD system drive in RAID 1 (one a Scorpio blue, the other is a RE) 0.85w, 8.5w
3x Samsung 2TB HD204UI 3x 5.1w
1x Samsung 1TB HD103SJ 6.3w
2x WD 1.5TB WD15EARS 2x 3.7w
2x Samsung 1.5TB HD154UI 2x 5.1w
4x WD 1TB WD10EADS 4x2.8w
2x Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8
1x 3ware 9550SX-4LP Raid Card
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W
Click to expand...

59.75watts for 18tb (advertised) is 3.32W/TB, not too bad.

But those Supermicro and 3ware cards burn some watts too, each adds about 10 watts. With disks + controllers that still is about 5W/TB.

Overall, I would suggest consolidating data on to larger drives as you can and remove drives that are offset (remove a controller card if you can), sell the 1tb drives off to help. Get rid of those external housings, place your Kill-A-Watt on them to see why. Replace that RE in the RAID 1 array with another Scorpio.

This thread on watts/tb might also be of interest.
 
[LYL]Homer;1036930359 said:
Per my thread in my sig - here are the idle wattages of your drives.



59.75watts for 18tb (advertised) is 3.32W/TB, not too bad.

But those Supermicro and 3ware cards burn some watts too, each adds about 10 watts. With disks + controllers that still is about 5W/TB.

Overall, I would suggest consolidating data on to larger drives as you can and remove drives that are offset (remove a controller card if you can), sell the 1tb drives off to help. Get rid of those external housings, place your Kill-A-Watt on them to see why. Replace that RE in the RAID 1 array with another Scorpio.

This thread on watts/tb might also be of interest.
Click to expand...

Thank you all for your suggestions! I will first start by getting rid of those external USB houses; I use them for server backups. I'm wondering if the CPU is too much; is there anything of that socket type that would use less power?
 
Jesse B said:
I'm not sure anybody in this thread understands what a kilowatt-hour is, considering nobody has taken time into account.

Running 1000W for 1 hour is 1kWh.
Click to expand...

That's what I was about to say... kWh is not a power unit. A POWER consumption of 100W will result in an ENERGY consumption of 876 kWh per year.
 
I assumed that the units were misstated. "KWh at idle" seems to be enough nonsense to infer a typo in the units. And 235w seems to be a reasonable power consumption given the problems attributed to the Kill-a-watt. (I trust my kill-a-watt numbers.)
 
Jesse B said:
I'm not sure anybody in this thread understands what a kilowatt-hour is, considering nobody has taken time into account.
Click to expand...
Ahem:
thefreeaccount said:
You guys just blew up the mars polar lander
Click to expand...


"KWh at idle" seems to be enough nonsense to infer a typo in the units.
Click to expand...
No, no. The OP put the dongle on and saw 234 kwh, so he typed in 234 kwh. The kill-a-watt displays the total energy consumption since it was plugged into the wall, so the measurement is meaningless.
 
I don't think it's a reading error, more likely the OP mixed up kill-a-watt and kilowatt when mentioning both 234 and 200 kwh... ^-^
At 200 watts idle, the server costs only $166 per year to run ($0.09482 x 0.2 kilowatts x 24 hours x 365 days,) maybe $200 including the uptime, it is not worth optimizing for now, but definitely consider a low power CPU when it's time to replace it. Data storage for home use don't require Xeons.

9 cents/kw is a good deal, it's 11 cents in many states, although there's not always a fixed price, there could be 2 or 3 ranges, with the first n kw being cheaper, the next m kw a little more expensive, then anything above is at a fixed price. Messy...
 
The Lynnfield Xeons consume nearly nothing while idling. There is a good chance that the SAS controllers consume more than the processor at idle.

EDIT: I just saw that the OP is using Socket 604 processors. Even if they are 45nm (Dunnington) they don't have a really low idle power consumption.
 
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This is what my server reads when in suspend mode:
2011-03-05_14-55-56_818.jpg


This is what it reads when Windows is booting:
2011-03-05_14-59-04_764.jpg


At one point, it hit 304. Perhaps I am misreading something...
 
There are 1000 watts in a kilowatt. Your meter is reading watts, not kilowatts. Your cost is based on kilowatts. Divide by 1000
 
thefreeaccount said:
No, no. The OP put the dongle on and saw 234 kwh, so he typed in 234 kwh. The kill-a-watt displays the total energy consumption since it was plugged into the wall, so the measurement is meaningless.
Click to expand...
The original poster siad the number was 230 and then after some changes it went down to 200.

KWh never goes down.

The only numbers that vary and might be in the range of 200-230 are voltage and watts.

----

But in any case: There is never a good economic case for replacing computers to reduce electrical usage. The repay period is on the order of the useful lifetime of the components. And of course, I have better things to do with the time it takes to install a new computer.

The proper time to do an economic analysis is when the system is being specified. I start with the CPU - one that is sufficient for the task, followed by a motherboard and graphics card. I usually find that a motherboard with integrated graphics is the best choice.
 
FWIW, all this combined uses just under 190W idle (everything powered up and running normally).

External Devices:
APC SmartUPS 750 XL + extra battery pack
HP Procurve 1800-24G 24port gigabit switch
Netgear GS108 8 port gigabit switch
2 Silicondust HDHomerun HDTV tuners
Motorola Cable Modem

Server:
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P LGA775 motherboard
Intel E5200 Core2Duo CPU
16GB DDR2-800 memory
2 x Intel 80GB G2 SSDs
2 x Seagate ST31000333AS 7200RPM HDs
8 x Samsung 2TB HD203WI 5400RPM HDs
Dell PERC 6i SAS RAID card
Asus Geforce 8400GS (PCI, yes old PCI) video card
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX power supply
2 Optical drives
PS2 Keyboard & trackball
 
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