Mini PC OMV NAS : KODLIX GN41 (OMV power consumption record in the PC category ?)

  • Hello,


    Since June 2019, I am using a mini PC named KODLIX GN41 as my first NAS, it works very well and I am fully satisfied with it so I wanted to share that on the OMV forum.
    I know that this kind of solution is not widely used, and it is hard to find any feedback on such hardware.


    Hardware = KODLIX GN41 (170€)
    Intel Celeron N4100 quad-core
    GPU – Intel UHD Graphics 600
    No fan / no noise
    RAM 4GB
    58.24 GiB eMMC
    2.5″ SATA bay (1 x 2.5inch HDD up to 2TB)
    2.5″ SATA bay (1 x 2280 NGFF M.2 SSD up to 512GB)
    micro SD card up to 256GB
    USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x USB type C port
    Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2
    Video Output – 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x VGA
    Audio – Via HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack


    Storage :
    The SATA 2.5 slot is occupied by a "Samsung SSD 860 QVO 1TB" (100€)


    OS :
    OMV 4.1.24 (without plugin) installed on the 58 GiB eMMC drive.


    Only one drive :
    The main limitation here is that it is not a RAID solution, I didn't wanted RAID because I prefer to sync my data on several devices and several places (more robust in my opinion).


    Fanless :
    There is no propeller into the mini PC which make it very silent, and the same for the drive which is a SSD.


    Power consumption :
    The power is measured with a "Perel E305EM6".
    I was surprised by the power consumption which is very low when nobody is accessing the NAS : 2.1 W (varying between 2.0 W and 2.2 W)
    This is measured with default OMV settings, ethernet cable, no wifi, no screen, no mouse, no keyboard, SSD mounted.
    SMB and SSH services active


    Performance :
    The read speed is > 10 MB/s.
    This value is NOT relevant because I am accessing the data trough a 100 Mb router and 100 Mb ethernet cables.


    Architecture : amd64
    I wanted to avoid ARM hardware because I don't like the fact that there is still no enumeration/discovery service. The day they provide that I will think about ARM. Remark : On the opposite, the Bios of that mini PC is shitty and don't expect any update on that side.


    Total price : 270 €


    The price is probably high for 1 TB of storage.
    This is probably the price for a flexible hardware which can also be used as a Windows/Linux desktop computer or a media server.



    What is your opinion on that ?

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Only one drive :
    The main limitation here is that it is not a RAID solution, I didn't wanted RAID because I prefer to sync my data on several devices and several places (more robust in my opinion).

    I agree. This is a much better utilization of disks and multiple devices provide a much safer backup solution.

  • I´m also looking into a power efficient NAS setup but I would question the measured values a lot. Only 2.1W is really low. I don´t want to say it is not possible but 2.1W is really a value which seems not possible nowadays for a connected standby NAS...


    just checked some specs of the cpu


    • TDP 6 W
    • Scenario Design Power (SDP) 4.8 W

    which confirms my theory about the wrong values...

    • Offizieller Beitrag


    Architecture : amd64
    I wanted to avoid ARM hardware because I don't like the fact that there is still no enumeration/discovery service. The day they provide that I will think about ARM. Remark : On the opposite, the Bios of that mini PC is shitty and don't expect any update on that side.

    What is "enumeration/discovery service" and why is that important?

  • What is "enumeration/discovery service" and why is that important?

    For a simple user, that's what makes the main difference between ARM and PC architectures.


    PC : A bios/efi code runs at boot and provides information about the hardware. Bad point is that if your computer is not compatible with coreboot you will never get bios updates and the security flaws of the processor has to be covered by the Linux kernel. Good point is that you can install anything on it with generic ISO images.


    ARM : There is no central bios, the OWM or any OS installer can't know which hardware is present. A hardware specific ISO image has to be forged. There is no hope with existing hardware as any way to try to identify the hardware has a potential risk to damage the hardware. You have also maybe see that shitty situation on the Android Lineage side. I am not sure if there is a valid reason for that, could be related to the power consumption ? or maybe just nobody has the place to take that decision ?

  • I´m also looking into a power efficient NAS setup but I would question the measured values a lot. Only 2.1W is really low. I don´t want to say it is not possible but 2.1W is really a value which seems not possible nowadays for a connected standby NAS...


    just checked some specs of the cpu


    • TDP 6 W
    • Scenario Design Power (SDP) 4.8 W

    which confirms my theory about the wrong values...

    I was also surprised by that number when I saw it the 1st time.


    I re-did the measurement at the moment and I still get the same numbers 1 or 2 minutes after reboot : varying 2.0W <-> 2.1W <-> 2.2W , most of the time 2.1W .
    The PC is not in some kind of hibernation mode, as I can SMB mount the disk instantaneously from an other computer.


    The TDP of 6W is the max power consumption.
    The SDP of 4.8W is the power during an Intel unknown benchmark.
    Then, there is the idle consumption which is maybe around 1W.


    I know that the Bluetooth and WiFi drivers are not included with Debian, that helps.


    I have no idea about the accuracy of the measurement device "Perel E305EM6".
    I just know that it gives the good value on my ADSL internet provider router : 11.0 W.


    I think we have here the lowest PC electric consumption of the OMV forum ?



    Edit : I found a similar PC with the same processor and a similar power consumption.
    https://www.notebookcheck.net/…i-PC-Review.334258.0.html

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    OK! Nothing for me to care about then. I see my ARM boxes (Odroid HC2/RPi4) mostly as an efficient way to make storage on big HDDs available on my LAN.


    I expect that storage and or network technology will obsolete my current setup, several small GbE ARM boxes and huge SATA3 HDDs, long before I experience problems with upgrades and software availability.


    I understand that you see lack of a bios, and generic distros, as a problem that makes you avoid ARM. But I still don't quite understand why, in practical terms. What is the use case where that actually might be a problem?

  • OK! Nothing for me to care about then. I see my ARM boxes (Odroid HC2/RPi4) mostly as an efficient way to make storage on big HDDs available on my LAN.


    I expect that storage and or network technology will obsolete my current setup, several small GbE ARM boxes and huge SATA3 HDDs, long before I experience problems with upgrades and software availability.


    I understand that you see lack of a bios, and generic distros, as a problem that makes you avoid ARM. But I still don't quite understand why, in practical terms. What is the use case where that actually might be a problem?

    It is about flexibility and recycling hardware.


    I have already 2 mini PC and I am planning to use a new one as a multimedia TV box which would run on Windows10.


    - Could be that I switch hardware in the future, the Kodlix machine is powerful enough to run Windows at a reasonable speed.
    - This also for example let me setup a Ubuntu server if I need one.


    Maybe I will never do that and the usage will stay the same, I don't know, it is a just a gamble on the future.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I think we have here the lowest PC electric consumption of the OMV forum ?

    No. I think we have the most inaccurate power measurement of the OMV forum. ;)


    A AC power supply and a simple AC power meter can give wildly wrong measurements of AC power. I suspect it would be much better to measure the DC power and assume a 80-90% efficiency of the PSU. Unless you have access to a certified "True RMS" multimeter.

  • I had similar values with my old, cheap energymeter. After reviewing a few from friends I realized that the Voltcraft meters are quite accurate. At the moment I have 2 Voltcraft SEM6000 and one different older model which in my opinion report reasonable values.


    Maybe you are right with your values but if you can get one of these in your hands I would be interested in the results.


    In case your values are correct congrats for this efficient setup!!!

  • No. I think we have the most inaccurate power measurement of the OMV forum. ;)
    A AC power supply and a simple AC power meter can give wildly wrong measurements of AC power. I suspect it would be much better to measure the DC power and assume a 80-90% efficiency of the PSU. Unless you have access to a certified "True RMS" multimeter.

    I don't have better hardware for measurements.


    But you are fully right about the accuracy.
    I measured the consumption of a night bulb which is supposed to be ~0.3W, the "Perel E305EM6" says that the consumption is 0.0W while the light is switched on.
    That power meter is a big disappointment !

  • I have now received my Kodlix GN41 with 8GB Ram. Did some first tests as a “headless Server", so only power supply and gigabit ethernet connected. Power measurements were done in idle with a Profitec KD302 power meter, which was tested with good accuracy.



    Kodlix GN41, Windows 10:1,8 W
    Kodlix GN41, Ubuntu 19.10 Desktop:1,4 W - 1,5 W
    Raspberry 3B, Raspian Buster:1,8 W
    Raspberry 3B+, Raspbian Buster:2,8 W



    The Raspberry 4 should consume more power than a 3B+. Other „high performance“ arm sbc devices with 4GB ore more Ram like RK3399 devices show also a idle power consumption in the range of the raspberries.


    So it seems they made a nice, power efficient design with the motherboard used in the GN41. In different tests, boxes using the same motherboard ore a variation of it, show also a low power consumption.
    Other implementations of the same intel chipset show higher power consumption in different tests like the Zotac ZBox CI329.

  • wow that are really low values. Most surprising is the Win10 value. Maybe MS figured it finally out how to make windows efficient...the formfactor seems good. So it is easily possible to build a case on top or below the main unit but a showstopper for me are the missing sata ports.


    @Ex3c Thanks for sharing

  • Thank you Ex3c for the accurate measurements. That's good news.

    I am at the moment trying to reinstall OMV (openmediavault_6.0.24-amd64.iso).
    The Debian installer get stuck during the install process, some seconds after selecting the ethernet connection.
    Do you get the same bug ?
    For the moment, I have no idea what to do, there is no error message.
    Maybe I should try to install an older OMV version.

  • Thanks for your tips,
    I can now confirm that KODLIX GN41 is still compatible with OMV (openmediavault_6.0.24-amd64.iso), without any specific modification.

    My main hypothesis is that the bug was coming from the fact that the hard-disk was not well formatted (by my fault). (GPT disk with an invalid EFI partition)

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