thorgim

It seems like putting the ThinkPad X230 out of its docking station (which is blocking the exhaust fan) seems to help keep the temperatures 10 degrees Celsius lower and prevents the idle injection temperature control mechanism from kicking in. Therefore most of the available CPU remains for the video processing and the 1080p60 video is played back smoothly. So no reason to get a new laptop yet. Thanks @Dutch_Master, your hint to run top as root and to check dmesg lead me to spot the idle injection. I was suspecting something like that but never found evidence. If I still run into issues, I'll make sure to leverage the plugins @redteam4ever pointed to, thanks for that as well.

Seems to be temperature related afterall. Let me improve the cooling situation of that closed laptop resting in a docking station (which weirdly enough is sort of blocking the fan exhaust). I'll get back to you in a bit.

@redteam4ever thanks for the explanation with the codecs, that makes a lot of sense (also why my phone has no issues with 1080p60 playback ). The h264ify addon makes a difference but it's not enough it seems to fully prevent stutter due to reaching max load on the CPU. I'm checking the non-free driver options now. Meanwhile, I'm wondering about this "kidle_inj" process and the potentially matching "Start idle injection to reduce power" in the dmesg output.

top for 1080p60 scenario Tasks: 387 total, 5 running, 300 sleeping, 0 stopped, 3 zombie %Cpu(s): 48,2 us, 37,2 sy, 0,0 ni, 12,4 id, 1,1 wa, 0,0 hi, 1,1 si, 0,0 st KiB Mem : 16118044 total, 398896 free, 6787532 used, 8931616 buff/cache KiB Swap: 16494588 total, 16429176 free, 65412 used. 7198064 avail Mem PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 22394 user1 20 0 9586992 595416 204656 R 100,6 3,7 43:39.33 Web Content 29278 root -51 0 0 0 0 R 49,4 0,0 11:56.47 kidle_inj/0 29281 root -51 0 0 0 0 R 49,4 0,0 11:56.38 kidle_inj/3 29279 root -51 0 0 0 0 R 49,0 0,0 11:56.40 kidle_inj/1 29280 root -51 0 0 0 0 S 49,0 0,0 11:56.39 kidle_inj/2 3477 root 20 0 712404 194272 148592 S 21,4 1,2 759:16.29 Xorg 4413 user1 20 0 1680952 340024 72512 S 15,3 2,1 601:59.59 compiz 4012 root 20 0 729756 37588 14380 S 12,0 0,2 83:08.92 snapd 20356 user1 20 0 1155956 386004 336132 S 8,4 2,4 17:34.15 GPU Process 20325 user1 20 0 3689916 511956 166092 S 5,8 3,2 30:54.64 firefox 4434 user1 20 0 941572 47308 40368 S 4,2 0,3 164:27.42 pulseaudio 20548 user1 20 0 32,661g 250992 112540 S 3,6 1,6 7:23.08 WebExtensions 25199 user1 20 0 3000628 276876 148388 S 2,9 1,7 3:26.11 Web Content 25891 user1 20 0 826372 75232 18752 S 2,9 0,5 12:12.96 plugin_host 29065 user1 20 0 549392 65140 42392 S 2,9 0,4 1:41.56 gnome-system-mo 14160 user1 20 0 1258636 233612 103772 S 1,3 1,4 2:45.16 Discord 27183 user1 20 0 1012432 299080 141936 S 1,3 1,9 17:52.77 signal-desktop 13597 user1 20 0 3021936 229604 116088 S 1,0 1,4 2:06.31 spotify 678 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,6 0,0 2:48.62 dmcrypt_write 30186 root 20 0 43608 4016 3296 R 0,6 0,0 0:00.09 top 663 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:47.08 kworker/3:1H 728 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,3 0,0 2:53.64 jbd2/dm-1-8 3444 gnunet 20 0 30740 2728 2452 S 0,3 0,0 4:10.44 gnunet-service- 4264 user1 20 0 1610088 61056 37460 S 0,3 0,4 17:37.96 unity-settings- 20445 user1 20 0 3251680 300524 196144 S 0,3 1,9 7:21.01 Web Content 25865 user1 20 0 1640980 395804 66076 S 0,3 2,5 1:08.14 sublime_text 27110 user1 20 0 1539184 769416 107088 S 0,3 4,8 5:45.38 signal-desktop 27151 user1 20 0 540256 116576 88012 S 0,3 0,7 12:44.05 signal-desktop 27187 user1 20 0 2718416 189728 109468 S 0,3 1,2 0:36.46 Web Content 27728 user1 20 0 2866572 287488 197004 S 0,3 1,8 1:26.86 Web Content 28142 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:10.58 kworker/u17:2 28885 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:00.24 kworker/0:2 29087 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:01.90 kworker/3:2 29285 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:02.94 kworker/u17:4 29358 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:02.74 kworker/u17:3 1 root 20 0 185984 6676 4088 S 0,0 0,0 0:20.43 systemd dmesg for 1080p60 scenario [587252.575681] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359847.373:298966): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/7982/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587252.576068] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359847.373:298967): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/15679/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587252.577142] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359847.377:298968): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/27861/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587252.577415] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359847.377:298969): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/30981/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587257.573869] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359852.373:298970): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/4054/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587257.573876] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359852.373:298971): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/4059/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587257.577331] kauditd_printk_skb: 1 callbacks suppressed [587257.577334] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359852.377:298973): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/6431/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587257.577607] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359852.377:298974): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/7982/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587257.578280] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359852.377:298975): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/15679/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587257.579610] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359852.377:298976): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/27861/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587257.580101] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359852.377:298977): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/30981/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587262.572175] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359857.369:298978): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/4054/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587262.572192] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359857.369:298979): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/4059/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587262.572609] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359857.373:298980): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/4252/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587262.574242] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359857.373:298981): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/6431/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587262.574363] audit: type=1400 audit(1591359857.373:298982): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" profile="snap.discord.discord" name="/proc/7982/cmdline" pid=14160 comm="Discord" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0 [587288.700691] intel_powerclamp: Start idle injection to reduce power [587292.705577] intel_powerclamp: Stop forced idle injection [587312.726351] intel_powerclamp: Start idle injection to reduce power

Trying to enjoy the occasional Twitch stream or YouTube video in 1080p60 in Firefox or Chromium on my Ubuntu ThinkPad with an i5-3320M and 16GB of RAM, I run into the issue that all four CPU cores are at maximum load. Is this a driver issue, am I having issues with en-/disabled hardware encoding or is this simply the limit of the CPU with its integrated GPU that I'm hitting? When I reduce to 720p60 the four cores are sitting around 80-90% load but also causing some stuttering. sensors output is as follows, so warm but not crazy, I'd say coretemp-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter Package id 0: +80.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C) Core 0: +80.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C) Core 1: +77.0°C (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C) acpitz-virtual-0 Adapter: Virtual device temp1: +82.0°C (crit = +103.0°C) thinkpad-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter fan1: 5464 RPM Let me know if I can provide additional information.

Just for the record the setup of my previous post is the one I went for and it's OP but I like it, HDDs seem to make the largest difference in power consumption.

End of day favourite system (I'm going to sleep over it and look forward to you proving me wrong, showing me something that is competitive in terms of price / energy efficiency ratio and low noise): CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1220 v6 (~230€) Mainboard: ASRock Rack C236M WS (~200€) RAM: Transcend DIMM 8GB DDR4-2133 (~60€) PSU: Seasonic Platinum Series Fanless 400W (~120€) NIC: Connectx-2 PCIe SFP+ (~50€) HDD: 3x WD UltraStar 12TB (ZFS, RAID-Z1, ~1050€) Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black (~100€) Cost: ~1800€ The used budget alternative of that setup with higher energy consumption would be with a Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3 and Supermicro X10SLL-F for ~1500€. The closest competition in terms of ready built NAS systems should be the QNAP TS-832X-8G, right?

Thanks, this seems to be more performance for the money, indeed. Currently, the price / power consumption sweet spots seems to be with these two setup I described above, what do you think? I also looked into Supermicro A2SDI-H-TF (with Atom C3758 and 10G Base-T NIC) as an alternative to that in terms of low power consumption, but am so far not convinced that the cut in performance and increase in price actually provides a significant reduction in power consumption. EDIT: Actually, let me update the Intel Xeon E3-1200 series v5 CPU with the Kaby Lake v6 version, which is similarly priced and more energy efficient.

and also potentially the following Xeon Bronze based setup, which is worse in terms of single core performance but should be competitive in a multi tasking context. CPU: Xeon Bronze 3104 Mainboard: Supermicro X11SPM-TPF (incl. 10G SFP+ NIC) RAM: Kingston Server Premier DIMM 8GB, DDR4-2666, CL19-19-19, ECC Idle: ??? W Cost: 640€ Even though it's a bit pricier it is for sure more upgradable (probably unreasonably upgradable ;))

@mariushm, with import taxes and shipping the offer isn't as convincing anymore. But thanks a lot for the recommendation, for folks in the states this sure is a sweet deal.

I contacted them anyway to find out. Thanks for pointing me to that option, although it's probably rather noisy (unfortunately I don't have a sufficiently well networked dark closet to stow this away in).

Thanks for clarifying the TDP issue. For building with new hardware I'm now looking at these options: Mainboard: ASRock Rack C236M WS (thanks @Windows7ge, that's a nice looking board) CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 v5 or E3-1230 v5 RAM: Transcend DIMM 8GB, DDR4-2133, CL15-15-15, ECC (TS1GLH72V1H) NIC: Connectx-2 PCIe SFP+ Idle: <40W (here they say only ~55 W max under load) Cost: 530€ Mainboard: Supermicro X11SDV-4C-TLN2F (with Xeon Processor D-2123IT and 10G NIC) RAM: Kingston Server Premier DIMM 8GB, DDR4-2400, CL17-17-17, ECC Idle: ~50W Cost: 600€ Mainboard: Supermicro X10SDV-4C-TLN4F (with Xeon Processor D-1518 and 10G NIC) RAM: Transcend DIMM 8GB, DDR4-2133, CL15-15-15, ECC (TS1GLH72V1H) Idle: ~20W Cost: 610€ Given that I want to spend the money, the last option sounds like the most energy efficient (and silent, given the passive cooling). I guess buying a used system won't get me anywhere close in terms of power consumption. What do you think?

You should have enough onboard sata to not need this. So the onboard SATA controller is not expected to be worse than a dedicated PCIe HBA card?

The energy efficiency and noise issues were also something that made me sceptical about the used server market. Noise can probably be dealt with through exchanging fans and coolers but these Xeon server CPUs seem to be crazy power hungry looking at their TDP, or does it look worse than the actual mostly idling CPU will be effectively? EDIT: The Intel Xeon E-2278GEL doesn't actually look to bad in terms of TDP. EDIT2: But is expensive EDIT3: Maybe the Intel Xeon E3-1240L v5 instead

Hi LTT community, I'm excited to join the forum after gaining so much insight from the LTT videos on YouTube during my research phase in preparation for my next build. Brief background, feel free to skip this part: I'm currently running a dated HP Proliant Micro Server (the very first version), with 4x2TB drives in RAID-Z1, 8GB of 800Mhz ECC RAM and FreeNAS. This has already led me to work with external hard drives for my video files, because the HP's specs say it can handle max 4 x 2 TB, which are full. Goal Build a home server that is as energy efficient and silent as possible, mainly functions as a NAS (to edit 4k videos from, store backups and serve my media to the LAN), potentially host some light weight containerized services for home automation and if I accidentally end up with enough juice also a Windows VM (not a priority at all). Network 10G Ethernet with the "MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN" switch and "Connectx-2 PCIe SFP+" cards as well as matching 10G SFP+ DAC cables for the short distance connections I need to cover. NAS Hardware Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black HDD: 3x 12TB WD UltraStar SATA (ZFS, RAID-Z1) Host Bus Adapter (HBA): LSI 9211-8i from eBay Power Supply: Fractal Design ION+ 560P RAM: 16GB ECC ??? Mainboard: ??? CPU: ??? Still open is the choice of CPU, mainboard and RAM, because I'd like to go with ECC RAM but was super confused with the compatibility and availability with low cost CPUs. I'm especially interested in suggestions about these components. I was inspired by LTT's recent NAS build video about going Ryzen because of their unofficial ECC RAM support, power efficiency and price, but got lost when trying to find a matching mainboard and compatible RAM. The only solution I found so far is an "AMD RYZEN 5 2600", "ASUS ROG Strix B450-F" with "16GB Kingston Server Premier RAM (KSM26ED8/16ME)", which seems to be the only ECC RAM listed by ASUS in their supported hardware PDF. However, this feels like overkill for my use case. I'm also considering to get a used workstation with a Xenon and ECC RAM, which might bring down the cost because it gets me a case, mainboard, CPU, power supply and potentially RAM. As a third alternative I consider an "i3-8100T" that apparently supports ECC RAM with a microtec board, if I can find one that allows me to use my two PCIe x8 cards (10G NIC and HBA). What do you think about the options that I'm considering, do you have a recommendation in this scope or am I even missing a completely different angle?