(energy efficient) NAS build in 2022

[NeilOfThings]

Hey all!

First time posting, long time fan!

 

Given that power tarrifs in Europe in late 2022 is through the roof, almost double what it was earlier in the year.  I'd love to discuss best (cheapest) options for NAS builds.   

 

So back story, I'm a photographer, videographer, while for some, it may seem little, for me, it's a lot of data I keep archived. 

 

I have 2 NAS:

 

1) a Synology 4 bay DS413j, that happily sips on the power (31W), but is limited to 12TB. I use this for work archive. 

 

2) I turned my old workstation into another NAS (mostly for Plex) but also some archival storage:

• Mobo: ASrock P67 Pro3
• CPU: i7 3770
• RAM: 4 x 8GB 
• HDD - 3x - Seagate 3TB IronWolf - 7200rpm (left over from upgrading the Synology). 
• SSD - Sandisk 240GB 
• GPU - PNY Nvidia NVS 300 512MB - very cheap on ebay, draws 18W
• PSU - OCZ 650W 

After jumping into a PSU calculator I can see my old workstation TDP is 252W  (not sure what idle draw is).  But anything over 50W seems a bit criminal. 

 

I'm keenly interested in economy, and thus I have my units running schedules.

 

So my quesiton: 

What options to further economize the running cost of my NAS setups do you guys recommend?

 

From looking at my DIY build calculation, an easy power fix would be to tweak the BIOS for the CPU, take half the ram out, and replace HDDs.

 

I've jumped down various rabit holes of looking into mITX motherboards with SoC and then looked at getting into Pi.  But all these options have compromises such as: transcoding, needing further HBA expansion cards, or simply that the economic pay-off doesn't equal the investment in the near foreseeable future. Then again buying another used Synology could be just as cheap as a DIY build.

 

Can anyone shed some light on what options to drive down?

 

[Blue4130]

15 minutes ago, NeilOfThings said:

Hey all!

First time posting, long time fan!

 

Given that power tarrifs in Europe in late 2022 is through the roof, almost double what it was earlier in the year.  I'd love to discuss best (cheapest) options for NAS builds.   

 

So back story, I'm a photographer, videographer, while for some, it may seem little, for me, it's a lot of data I keep archived. 

 

I have 2 NAS:

 

1) a Synology 4 bay DS413j, that happily sips on the power (31W), but is limited to 12TB. I use this for work archive. 

 

2) I turned my old workstation into another NAS (mostly for Plex) but also some archival storage:

• Mobo: ASrock P67 Pro3
• CPU: i7 3770
• RAM: 4 x 8GB 
• HDD - 3x - Seagate 3TB IronWolf - 7200rpm (left over from upgrading the Synology). 
• SSD - Sandisk 240GB 
• GPU - PNY Nvidia NVS 300 512MB - very cheap on ebay, draws 18W
• PSU - OCZ 650W 

After jumping into a PSU calculator I can see my old workstation TDP is 252W  (not sure what idle draw is).  But anything over 50W seems a bit criminal. 

 

I'm keenly interested in economy, and thus I have my units running schedules.

 

So my quesiton: 

What options to further economize the running cost of my NAS setups do you guys recommend?

 

From looking at my DIY build calculation, an easy power fix would be to tweak the BIOS for the CPU, take half the ram out, and replace HDDs.

 

I've jumped down various rabit holes of looking into mITX motherboards with SoC and then looked at getting into Pi.  But all these options have compromisessuch as: transcoding, needing further HBA expansion cards, or simply that the economic pay-off doesn't equal the investment in the near foreseeable future. Then again buying another used Synology could be just as cheap as a DIY build.

 

Can anyone shed some light on what options to drive down?

 

If you can live with it's limitations, there is the topton NAS motherboard. 6 or 12 sata ports on board, plenty of 2.5g ports and under 12 watt idle if I recall. BUT don't expect it to transcode much... Great for native files though.

[Kilrah]

Would start by buying a power meter to see what the machine's currently drawing for real, maybe not much needed.

Try removing the GPU and seeing if the iGPU can transcode the media you have, although 3rd gen is definitely long in the tooth.

 

Other than that in general avoid GPUs so if you buy something get a modern low end Intel chip, use few big drives instead of more smaller ones, and find an appropriately sized PSU (a 650W unit tends to have terrible efficiency when you only draw 30W on it).

 

[jaslion]

Get a power meter. Youd be surprised how little it could be consuming.

 

Taking the gpu out would also save a ton but you do have to keep in mind you need power for transcoding still.

 

[NeilOfThings]

8 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Would start by buying a power meter to see what the machine's currently drawing for real, maybe not much needed.

Try removing the GPU and seeing if the iGPU can transcode the media you have, although 3rd gen is definitely long in the tooth.

 

Other than that in general avoid GPUs so if you buy something get a modern low end Intel chip, use few big drives instead of more smaller ones, and find an appropriately sized PSU (a 650W unit tends to have terrible efficiency when you only draw 30W on it).

 

 

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Get a power meter. Youd be surprised how little it could be consuming.

 

Taking the gpu out would also save a ton but you do have to keep in mind you need power for transcoding still.

 

Thanks for the replies, I intend to get a power meter (in a smart plug, let me know if that's a daft idea). 

 

As for the GPU, sadly the board doesn't have an iGPU and will not boot without a discreet card, hence why I bought this piddly NVS card. 

 

What are your feelings on Synology/Qnap vs a m/b with SoC? 

[jaslion]

11 minutes ago, NeilOfThings said:

 

Thanks for the replies, I intend to get a power meter (in a smart plug, let me know if that's a daft idea). 

 

As for the GPU, sadly the board doesn't have an iGPU and will not boot without a discreet card, hence why I bought this piddly NVS card. 

 

What are your feelings on Synology/Qnap vs a m/b with SoC? 

Wont do plex thats for sure.

 

 

[Timotheus2]

 

[NeilOfThings]

54 minutes ago, Timotheus2 said:

 

I cannot stress how usefull this was, while a lot of the m/b he mentioned don't seem to be available in my part of Europe, the spreadsheet he mentioned has a great resource for working out my next moves.   

[Frederic Truslow]

Yup. Wolfgang also made this follow up video

 

And here is the aforementioned spreadsheet

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LHvT2fRp7I6Hf18LcSzsNnjp10VI-odvwZpQZKv_NCI/edit?usp=sharing