my cheap 28 Watt setup for home users

[buechling]

Hallo,

for everyone interested, here is my energy-saving setup which has enough performance for the home user:
- disk-encryption
- windows filesharing
- emby plugin for media streaming
- owncloud plugin for backups etc..
a home NAS is idle most of the time, so energy consumption is important!

i measured 28 watt at the wall in idle mode, it also is nearly noiseless.
under load only 10 Watts are added ( compare that with a "real" cpu: 50 watt )
you then can add WD red HDDs each 4 Watt... ( if you use one drive with 6 TB you consume way less than 3 drives each 2 TB )

Mainboard inkl. AMD-Processor (AES-NI): 60 USD
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/QC5000-ITXPH/
Power Supply 80 plus: 35 USD
http://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/325
8 GB RAM: 50 USD
cheap case: 20 USD
USB stick: 10 USD
plus WD Red HDDs...

after 2 weeks of testing, i am quite happy with it:
windows files copy with 90MB/sec ( with activated encryption! )
media files stream fast

limitation: ssh / scp protocol is quite slow.. ( 5 MB/sec )

a hint for freenas installation on those cheap mainboards: do not use a blue "usb 3"-port, use a black "usb 2" port. also you have to deactivate "UEFI" and boot over the standard bios... otherwise the installer will not find his files..

i also tested an old ATX PSU without certificate.. it used 38 watt.. so you save 2 USD electricity cost every month!

 

[Ericloewe]

enough performance for the home user

And just enough reliability to temporarily fool people into thinking it's a viable solution for storing data.

If data is worthy of being stored, it deserves better than a bottom of the barrel motherboard with underpowered CPU, no ECC and a dubious PSU.

 

[Bidule0hm]

More than dubious... just by curiosity I searched a review of this PSU and you guessed it: no MOV, chinese caps (and only 180 µF 85 °C rated for the main one...), almost out of the ATX spec ripple on the 3.3 V rail, very short cables, ... I wouldn't use this PSU in a desktop, let alone a server...

 

[ChriZ]

Lol... Even my popcornhour's crappy back alley cheap Chinese (etc, etc..) PSU, at least has (surprisingly, TBH) 105 °C capacitors...

P.S.: To be fair, the hard disks are on the recommendation list. And if data is not that important, CPU and mobo plus the lack of ECC, are all acceptable IMHO.. But why, oh why cheap out on the PSU? People don't seem to accept that a good PSU is like having good tires in your car. It may be the best and safest car in the world, but crappy tires will lead to its destruction...

 

[jgreco]

This is the system the Grinch warned you about.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Lol... Even my popcornhour's crappy back alley cheap Chinese (etc, etc..) PSU, at least has (surprisingly, TBH) 105 °C capacitors...

As this one is 80+ Bronze certified (even if I don't know how it can meet the specs... in fact, yes I know, keep reading -->) I guess they've cut corners on everything which doesn't matter for the 80+ Bronze certif to keep the money for the things that matter for the said certif.

Mouarf, missed something the first time, but look at that: http://www.tech-review.de/uploads/reviews/a2IMG_0265.jpg isn't this cable tied cap lovely? you've got to be kidding me... Ah, and of course no heat-shrink tubing on the mains connections... I can't see how the earth wire is connected exactly but it looks like the crappy way (soldering the wire to the PCB and using one of the stand-off of the PCB as a connection...). And were's the fuse? there's maybe one hidden under the toroid on the mains wires but I can't see it on any of the pictures, mhhhh...

To be fair, the hard disks are on the recommendation list.

The irony is that you can put desktop consumer grade drives in a proper server without any problem (you'll just to have to replace more drives per year...)

But why, oh why cheap out on the PSU? People don't seem to accept that a good PSU is like having good tires in your car. It may be the best and safest car in the world, but crappy tires will lead to its destruction...

Yep, exactly.

 

[anodos]

As this one is 80+ Bronze certified (even if I don't know how it can meet the specs... in fact, yes I know, keep reading -->) I guess they've cut corners on everything which doesn't matter for the 80+ Bronze certif to keep the money for the things that matter for the said certif.

Mouarf, missed something the first time, but look at that: http://www.tech-review.de/uploads/reviews/a2IMG_0265.jpg isn't this cable tied cap lovely? you've got to be kidding me... Ah, and of course no heat-shrink tubing on the mains connections... I can't see how the earth wire is connected exactly but it looks like the crappy way (soldering the wire to the PCB and using one of the stand-off of the PCB as a connection...). And were's the fuse? there's maybe one hidden under the toroid on the mains wires but I can't see it on any of the pictures, mhhhh...



The irony is that you can put desktop consumer grade drives in a proper server without any problem (you'll just to have to replace more drives per year...)



Yep, exactly.

The advice I always give people building their first system "don't skimp on the PSU."

 

[Ericloewe]

And were's the fuse? there's maybe one hidden under the toroid on the mains wires but I can't see it on any of the pictures, mhhhh...

Doesn't seem to be.