Objectives:
- Move my noisy NAS-type HDDs outside my living room(PC). Both the Seagate NAS and WD Red have a metallic sounding spinning noise that I can't stand any more.
- Lower power consumption by 20-30 watts when watching a film off those hdds (my desktop is using 40-45 watts in idle).
Normally only the right door is left ajar (its natural position anyway :D). A more elegant solution will be considered in future.
What I used:
(only new parts were mobo, ram and psu)
- Motherboard: Asrock J4105-ITX
Only 4 SATA ports. Enough for now but on the long term I might get a PCIe-SATA card for extra 2 or 4 ports (4 might be a stretch with only 1 pcie lane available).
- RAM: 1x 8GB Corsair CMSO8GX4M1A2133C15
- Boot SSD - Intel 530 120GB
- HDDs: 1x Seagate NAS 2TB + 1x WD Red 2TB. Will probably add a 6TB or 8 TB one later.
- Case: Cooler Master Silencio 550 + Scythe 120mm fan
- PSU: Be Quiet TFX POWER 2 300W (80 Plus Gold)
I really geeked it out here!
I wanted to get energy efficiency close to what commercial NAS-es get so I rummaged the Internet for "high efficiency at low load" ATX PSUs (I'm reluctant to try pico-psu types).
So I got this PSU specifically because it was touted as having very high efficiency even at low loads (see this review: https://translate.google.com/t…bequiet-tfx-sfx-300w.html)
Of course I had to improvise a bit to install a TFX psu in an ATX case (drilling a few holes and using a metal bracket, plus a cardboard "shroud" (since they're in fashion anyway, lol) to cover any open spaces and direct airflow.
Alternative PSUs I've considered:
-Silverstone ST30SF v 1.0 (not v2!) - 80 Plus Bronze - cheaper but somewhat lower efficiency figures: https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog…-sfx-300w-power-supply/3/
-Corsair SF450 - 80 Plus gold/platinum, same or better than the BQ but more expensive.
https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog…f450-450w-power-supply/3/
The results:
Power consumption (AC 230V, with a cheap power meter):
-Idle (boot SSD only): 10-11 watts
-Idle (2 HDDs spinning but idle): 16-17 watts
-One active read from 1 HDD (aka watching a film): 16-17 watts (yes, same as idle)
-Data transfer on both HDDS + heavy network activity: 19-23 watts
Max Temperatures I've seen, heavy transfers and network traffic (in the closet, one door slightly open)
- HDDs: 37C and 39C
- CPU: lower 50s
Things might change in the summer when I'll get an extra 5C in the room. Thinking of a vent in the shelf above to help the warm air go to the upper shelf.
Extra things I've learned:
- The more "desktop" alternative would've been an Intel B360/H370 mobo with a Celeron/Pentium CPU. Would have gotten an extra 5 watts of power consumption but 6 SATA ports out of the box
- The
Intel
T CPU variants seem pretty useless. No difference at idle. Here's a comparison: https://translate.google.com/t…ie_und_effizienzvergleich
- NTFS writes are horribly slow in Linux? I was getting 50-60 MBs from 1 HDD to another. After converting to EXT4 I'm getting 110-120, double and close to the max for Gbit LAN anyway
- I tried a SATA-USB adapter for the boot SSD in order to have an extra SATA port available. To my disappointment this ate 2 extra watts which is as much as I'd assume a pcie-sata adapter would use (according to official specs)
- LSI/SAS adapters seem nice but their power consumption is more in the range of 5-10 watts which would defeat one of the purposes of my build
- PSU 80 plus gold is not enough, it also need to be lower power and not overkill! Even 80Plus Platinum only has requirements for 10% load. So At 5% load, a 450W psu , giving 22-23 watts, would be less efficient, more in the range of 75, rather than 80+. With Bronze it gets worse, dropping even under 70.
