Rack mount server (power efficient)?

[Psittac]

I have 3 various servers all with multiple HDD's in them.

 

Dell r710 6x3TB

Dell r510 12?x1TB

Gaming PC w/ 5800x 8x4TB

 

None of them are running though because they're power hog's.

 

I wanted to get advice on the best way to get a NAS VM and Plex machine all in one, I will probably run some game servers on it too like minecraft valheim and probably DCS.

 

I'm looking at a refurbished Dell for about $2kusd from servermonkey as I know they're a great company because I got my r710 from them on the cheap.

 

My question is, what should I consider for a power efficient server?  I'm more than willing to put together a consumer grade rack mount for about the same price I just want something that doesn't make me think about money going through the wall at all times.  I'm willing to do all new storage as well on top of this.

 

I have been trying to do this for a few years but finally have my basement finished and a location for a rack while having a complete gaming setup that is permenant, I've been moving and changing my setup for years, now it's static and the overall goal has been a server rack.

[Electronics Wizardy]

If you want power efficent get a desktop platofrm like 1700/am5 or older versions. Get the server boards if you want IPMI and other server featres. Skip most of the dell servers as there fairly power hungry. Those platforms shoudl still have more than enough CPU power here.

 

 

 

 

[Psittac]

7 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If you want power efficent get a desktop platofrm like 1700/am5 or older versions. Get the server boards if you want IPMI and other server featres. Skip most of the dell servers as there fairly power hungry. Those platforms shoudl still have more than enough CPU power here.

 

 

 

 

Thank you, should I be worried about power draw of my 8x4TB hdd's?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Psittac said:

Thank you, should I be worried about power draw of my 8x4TB hdd's?

Yea. I'd estimate there about 10w from the wall per 3.5in hdd. So I'd get something like 3x24TB drives for much less power draw.

[Needfuldoer]

I paid less than half that for an R540 on eBay.

 

Haven't fully migrated to that chassis yet, but my current 12-bay R730XD draws a little under 200 watts at idle.

 

The Rx10 generation really were power hogs. You really don't want to bother with anything older than Sandy Bridge.

 

The two problems with modern desktop platforms are the relatively few PCIe lanes (which you'll want if you're running an HBA and high speed networking) and you can't use all the cheap registered ECC RAM that's out there. (I paid under a buck a gig for DDR4-2666 for the R540.) 

[mariushm]

Go socket AM4 for cheaper prices compared to AM5  ... the differences in power efficiency (from cpu and mobo) will be quite small.

 

Replace both Dell machines with a Ryzen with 65w TDP cpu (5700x for example, or even plain 5600x)  ... replace the 12  1 TB drives with 4 x 4 TB if you want RAID5 , or  if you use unRaid (or TrueNAS ), go with a 2-3 x 8-10 TB drives.

 

Yeah, your cost is 6-10 watts per drive ... so if you replace those 12 1 TB drives with 2-3 drives, you'll save at least 60 watts.

 

You can get 4U rackable cases that support 6 or more 3.5" drives ..

 

ex 139$ for 4U case that does 7 x 3.5" and 2 x 5.25" (where you could put 2 more drives) :  https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rsv-r4100u-black/p/N82E16811147332?Item=N82E16811147332

 

159$ for 4U server case with 11 x 3.5" and 3 x 5.25" : https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rsv-r4200u-black/p/N82E16811147335?Item=N82E16811147335

 

 

You could go maybe for a 5600g / 5500g to have integrated graphics and use the pci-e slot for an extra HBA card or a 10/25/40g network card

But you could also just plug a cheap video card in a x1 or x4 slot and use the slots with more pci-e lanes for stuff that needs more lanes.

 

[Psittac]

One option I just threw together https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jRbP28

 

I'm going to compare to an AM4 platform but it looks like I get 2 more cores for the same tdp on AM5 and they're better cores, guess that'll come down to total price difference.

 

Then use one of the cases that @mariushm mentioned and what about psu?

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, Psittac said:

One option I just threw together https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jRbP28

 

I'm going to compare to an AM4 platform but it looks like I get 2 more cores for the same tdp on AM5 and they're better cores, guess that'll come down to total price difference.

 

Then use one of the cases that @mariushm mentioned and what about psu?

I'd go with 2x32gb dimms to add more later on. 

 

Otherwise looks fine. You can tweak bios settings to lower medium load power usage.

[mariushm]

That 9700x won't be cooled well by a 20$ cooler. Also have to keep in mind that a rack case will sit horizontal and you're limited in height.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MHLVt8

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MHLVt8

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($233.46 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($116.91 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($102.49 @ Newegg) 
Total: $452.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-09-19 15:37 EDT-0400

 

Add a 30-50$ cooler.

 

The 5900x has higher TDP but in multithreaded stuff, about same performance as 9700x .... if it idles it will reduce its power consumption and will consume maybe 10-20 watts more than a 9700x? Not sure.

 

The motherboard I selected has 6 sata ports (2 will be disabled if you use the 2nd M.2 port though) , and has pci-e 4.0 x16 and 2nd pci-e x16 with 4 pci-e lanes, and two pci-e x1 slots that are open ended (so you can plug x8 or x16 cards into the x1 slot and have the rest of the connector floating in the air)

 

If you don't need a powerful video card to do transcoding on the fly using video card, then you could plug any old video card into a x1 slot and use the bigger x16 slots for other things.

 

For example have an 8 port HBA adapter card into the x4 slot and maybe a dual 25g card in the x16 slot.

 

example : HBA card with 16 ports (4 x 4 sas/sata) from $30 (more if you also buy the cables) :  https://www.ebay.com/itm/405167116255

 

If you want wireless, a decent option is gigabyte b550 aorus elite ax v2 at $140   https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Vb3mP6/gigabyte-b550-aorus-elite-ax-v2-atx-am4-motherboard-b550aorus-elite-axv2

There's some downsides, only 4 sata ports  (plus the one in the second m.2 connector) and you do get 3 pci-e x16 slots, but they're x16 , x2 , x1 ... so no 4 lanes. Still, the two lanes are plenty for a hba card, you won't do more than 1.8 GB/s with mechanical drives. It would also be enough for a dual 10g ethernet card.

 

The price difference is enough to get the case AND a 100$ gold efficiency 600-750w power supply, but get one that can output 20A (or more) on 5v if you want to install a lot of drives - each drive will consume around 0.5A from 5v, so you want the psu to handle 10+ drives if you decide to install so many.

 

 

[Jarsky]

You can see my all in one server specs in my signature which i replaced my 3 x Dell R710/R610 cluster with. 

If you want it rack mounted get an ATX compatible rackmount case such as from Rosewill

 

Something like a 5900X; B550 Motherboard and 3200Mhz DDR4 (you could save $$ here second hand as gamers upgrade their gaming systems)

Rosewill RSV-L4000

beQuiet Pure Rock 2 cooler should fit (its 155mm tall + board and standoffs and the case is 178mm tall)

A Gold+ Certified PSU; probably something around 650W

 

And upgrade your drives to larger capacity; max out the 8 disks.

Currently the EXOS 16TB Drives from Amazon Renewed are a good price; they come with a 90 day warranty to cover DOAs. 

With this config; running a RAID6 / RAID-Z2 (2 disk parity) will give you an extra 33% of free space

 

Going with a Ryzen you can also use PBO & Curve Optimiser for some noticable efficiency gains and power savings. 

Swapping to less disks will give you substantial savings in power as well. 

 

Personally I run UnRAID on mine; so individual disks can spin down which gives me more power savings as unlike a proper RAID they dont need to be spinning all the time. 

[Psittac]

Ok, so here's a curveball.  I'm going to build a new gaming machine at the middle or end of next year, I'm currently using a 3900x system with 32gb of ram.  The other system is a 5800x  Also I will have a spare 2080S for transcoding, but I need to see what the power draw is on that thing at idle, perhaps I can just get an Intel Arc gpu for transcode or just under Volt the 2080s?  Maybe I should load up ryzen master and test what I can get for idle power draw.  Also I have a spare 750w Gold psu, a high end Corsair off the recommended psu list.  I was just wondering if a smaller less efficient psu would be better because it'll be in it's peak efficiency vs a 750w barely being used.

 

Questions/Food for thought

1. Is a gpu worth it for Plex transcoding? Which gpu?

2. Would a smaller psu be smarter for idle power draw?  I don't expect a lot of heavy load but who knows

3. 3900x underclocked or 5800x underclocked?

4.  What file system? What raid card or HBA?  I like that unraid lets disks spin down when not being used.  I don't care a ton about data integrity, all of the important stuff can be in cold storage.

5.  What systems allow for easily adding drives?

6. What's going to draw the least at idle between the cpu's gpu's and drives I have or can be bought?  I'm all for saving a buck but if the idle can be drastically cut down I'll buy new hardware.

 

I don't know why underclocking never entered my mind, probably because the system that's acting as my server now is multi-purpose being a gaming system when people come over and I don't want it underclocked.

 

Thank you everyone for the insight, this is huge.

 

*edit: I just messed around with this system and got the gpu to idle at 7w (2080S) and the cpu to idle at 43w so 50w idle isn't bad, throw in 4x14-24Tb drives and if I use unraid..... that's looking at under 100w idle with some grunt to kick up if needed

 

**edit: awesome, my master plan is taking hold.  I need another CPU to build my friend a gaming machine out of parts so I'm upgrading this to a 5950x and then I'll have a spare cpu plus when this goes to server duties it'll be able to handle more and underclock more at the same time.

[Bersella AI]

On 9/20/2024 at 5:52 AM, Psittac said:

1. Is a gpu worth it for Plex transcoding? Which gpu?

2. Would a smaller psu be smarter for idle power draw?  I don't expect a lot of heavy load but who knows

3. 3900x underclocked or 5800x underclocked?

4.  What file system? What raid card or HBA?  I like that unraid lets disks spin down when not being used.  I don't care a ton about data integrity, all of the important stuff can be in cold storage.

5.  What systems allow for easily adding drives?

6. What's going to draw the least at idle between the cpu's gpu's and drives I have or can be bought?  I'm all for saving a buck but if the idle can be drastically cut down I'll buy new hardware.

1. Yes, especially when power efficiency really matters. The 2080 Super GPU may somewhat be too hungry with power (see reviews in TechPowerup), and an integrated GPU would help a lot in efficiency. Intel GPUs are preferred by Plex.
2. Yes, a lower power efficiency is expected under less than 10% of load with all ATX power supplies. Without a discrete GPU, you may pick one rated between 300~500W (depending on estimated maximum power consumption as well as market availability), and with at least 80PLUS Bronze certified (Gold recommended).
3. Depends on which has better value. However, 3900X has a worse latency across its core complexes, which may affect some specific workloads. I would rather pick up an Intel processor with an integrated GPU.
4. Any file system works with just file storage, while ZFS and BTRFS have additional features like snapshots and file checksum.
   An HBA is intended for drives more than what the motherboard itself is capable of (i.e. SATA ports), and since power efficiency matters first, no more than 4 spinners would be expected, and no HBA would be required (since RAID can be built with software).
5. Unraid, and TrueNAS Scale (with upcoming 24.10 release).
6. Hard drives would draw almost nothing if set to spin off in idle, but when they are spinning, the processor is expected to draw the least in idle.