How to power saving?

Hello

I got Dell T320

  • Xeon E5-2430L v2 (60 W)
  • 48 GB DDR3 ECC
  • 8x2TB WD Purple (2 x RAIDZ1, ~ 33.1 W)
  • 1x128GB SSD (boot)
  • 2x750W PSU (full redundancy)

This server is used for torrents and SMB share, 1 user is using it

Power consumption jumps from 70 W to 84 W

It’s possible to lower power consumption ?
My plan to change 8x2TB HDD to 4x4TB HDD (it will saves ~ 12.7 W) and add 2x256GB SSD (move app pool to SSD from HDD)(but it will cancel power saving from changing disks)
What i can do more ?
It’s reasonable to add more RAM (up to 192 GB) and then configure HDD spin down ? (like i got 192 GB ram and all active torrents fit in it so there will be no actions to HDD ? or it’s not working that way ?)

UPDATE: Power consumption jumps from 70 W to 84 W and weekly Average Usage is 81W

you should be right, some good tips HERE. But in your place i would avoid spin down, if you don’t have the total control on data access.

Reducing the number of disks is also a good point, but calc the price difference on the watt reduce gain… probably is not that worth if you plan this upgrade just for that (you will not gain any more space).

also the Xeon E5-2430L v2 is not an “idle” power saver monster, is kinda old, ok is an L but this series gain something on full use, not in idle. Most benefit will probably come with a newer architecture.

My 6gen system (look signature for detail) idle around ~40w, with a better PSU i will probably gain something more (i think you are run headless too, you didn’t mention a vga). I realize the difference from a 7gen is totally negligible, so i pointed to a cheaper and “fresh” L v5.

In my experience, SSD will consume really low energy anyway in truenas… but in case you can add only 1, and replicate nightly the data on the rust disks for an easy warm backup.

I’m using pre own disks so it’s not so expensive (got 4x4TB HDD for 100$)
i know that my system is old but it was cheap so i stick with it (for power savings i replace CPU with Xeon E5-2430L v2)

so as i assume i’m already do all for power savings and there no magical settings to decrease power consumption more

You might be able to safe a few Watts by changing your CPU governor.

Here are some resources to get info:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling#Scaling_governors

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i have tried myself the Flo tip, and seems i’m already in powersave mode :smile:
Afaik there is no much to do about it. Everything else i know can impact stability if not well done, and require a lot of testing/attempt >> undervolt CPU and RAM. Or probably, sacrifing a bit of power, disable some core from bios (if this option is available).

Imho (but is just for say): having spent 100$ for change disks, if the reason was only the watt improve, keeping same total capacity, considering the watt improve… is not neither worth. Making some simple calc (applyng price in € for my country), i don’t go over the 2€ of save for months… really too much time to cover the expense.
In the past i have made same consideration when was time to change PSU… i buy a bronze one instead of a gold because the price difference/watt gain was odd in favour of the bronze one (2.5 years to compensate)… but i keep pay a bit more on months electric bill :rofl:

You can configure HDD spindown. Read this thread it explains it in detail :

Yea I’m in the same boat, my NAS consumes around 150€ per year in electricity (Consumes around 85W avg). Which may sound like a lot but over the course of a year I rather pay 150€ than to spent hours to safe every Watt possible TBH.

you can easily save 150 euros a year but not having extra coffee every day

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Agree. At beginning i was triggered a lot more on power consumption, probably because i wasn’t using the Nas so much… Actually the most compromise i have done Is removing the VGA without an ipmi… 15w saved for literally do nothing (no transcoding, no VM, no AI).