Settings for AsrockRack E3C226D2I

[@lexmae]

i'm looking to upgrade my nas server to something that supports ecc ram.

current machine is an undervolted AM1 3850, 8gb ram, silverstone 300w bronze PSU, running 2x 3TB in mirror mode, manual weekly rsync to an external drive.
Idles at around 25-28, load at <33watts.
When prices for 6TB drops, I'll run the 3x 3TB in software raid5.
Low heat and power is important. There is only one intake fan for the hdds during summer, rest of the time it is passive cooled.

I'm considering the ASRock E3C226D2I or ASRock E3C224D2I with a G1840 and 8gb compatable kingston ecc ram.
or would a Avonton C2550D4I be better for power consumption? (Is it possible to remove the stock passive heatsink?)

requirements:
low power consumption (lower than 30w)
Currently only 2 hdds, might have up to 4 in the future.
passive tower cpu cooler

 

[MrToddsFriends]

or would a Avonton C2550D4I be better for power consumption? (Is it possible to remove the stock passive heatsink?)

The Asrock Avoton boards consume more power than other Avoton boards because of the onboard PEX 8608 PCIe bridge. If you don't need the extra SATA ports provided by the Marvell controllers the C2550D4I will not be the best solution for you. Removing the passive heat sink is not an option, you should rather think about adding a (small and silent) CPU fan if your case isn't vented well.

If I were in your situation I would go the socket 115x route or wait for Deverton boards (Avoton successor) to appear.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10489/spot-the-denverton-atom-c3000-silicon-on-display

 

[@lexmae]

thanks for the reply.
I guess I'll go with the ASRock E3C224D2I with a G1840 since I can mount a standard heatsink on it.
What sort of power usage can I expect with it? Are there any voltage controls with that board?

ASRock E3C224D2I
G1840
Silverstone ST30SF or pico 150xt
2x 3TB WD Blue
1x 8GB Kingson

 

[nojohnny101]

that board has an awful low max RAM limit. Sure you want to box yourself in with low RAM?

 

[Stux]

Maybe consider a Xeon D?

Whole point is power usage.

 

[@lexmae]

I got the E3C226D2I board. Just waiting for the Kingston ram to arrive.
In the meantime, I'm currently importing my config to my new NAS.

idle power consumption with no hdds with just the board and CPU and 1 stick of 1.4V ram is 26watts at the wall.
I ran the command "sysctl dev.cpu |grep cx" and it seems the highest Cstate supported is C2 only on the first core.
Is it possible to enable higher Cstates? I thought Intel systems were better supported. Performance is not a high priority for me.

 

[m0nkey_]

I have the C224 version. You can set C-state C3 via sysctl, in my case, switching to C3 saved me around 8 watts. Results may vary.

 

[nojohnny101]

@m0nkey_

I currently use my ASRock c2250d4i as a replication target, can you point me in the correct direction for modifying this value to save power? The box is sitting idle 23h30m out of the day and is still pulling 33w at idle.

 

[MrToddsFriends]

I currently use my ASRock c2250d4i as a replication target, can you point me in the correct direction for modifying this value to save power? The box is sitting idle 23h30m out of the day and is still pulling 33w at idle.

The Atom C2000 SoC family only supports only a limited set of ACPI S and C states. See pages 125 and 154ff in
https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/d...tasheets/atom-c2000-microserver-datasheet.pdf

I would be surprised if there is much room for energy savings via tunables on this platform. Please keep us posted if you find something out.

 

[m0nkey_]

@m0nkey_

I currently use my ASRock c2250d4i as a replication target, can you point me in the correct direction for modifying this value to save power? The box is sitting idle 23h30m out of the day and is still pulling 33w at idle.

33 watts, is that it? I doubt very much you're going to get less than that.

 

[nojohnny101]

Yes I'm not complaining ;)

 

[@lexmae]

I have the C224 version. You can set C-state C3 via sysctl, in my case, switching to C3 saved me around 8 watts. Results may vary.

The highest I can set to is C2.

With 2 hdds idling (no spindown), I get around 36watts.
If I disable iKVM service, I can save around 4 watts.

I'm going try a 150w picopsu to see if I can get better efficiency.