Use PC as Server BUT Energy Efficiently?

bikefreakvinnie

Hi folks,
I want to set up a home server and i've tested the server software on a laptop. Most of the time the programme i want to run does not need a powerful computer, however occasionally it does, say once every few hours.

I've got the perfect PC in terms of power for the job (in fact I'm sure a lesser machine would do). However when this PC is turned on at all it seems to use (I haven't actually measured its use) a lot of power with fans going 90 in there. They never stop.

I wonder could anyone advise me is there anyway I could reduce its energy usage significantly or is it a dead loss!

I have the PC open here beside me and I can answer any questions about it, its:
A Custom PC from about 2005 i think
X 86
AMD Athlon 64 X 2 Dual Core Processor 48000+ 2.41ghz
4gb memory as far as I know although on Win 7 its showing up as 3.25
Power Supply is HYPER Type R 480w (from 2004)
Graphics Card Radeon X 600 Pro

The only thing i've done so far is to enable the CPR smart fan control, I could not find a BIOS update for it...

Thanks for any help

Supermensch

What chipset is your motherboard? You can find out by running CPU-Z.

http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php

bikefreakvinnie

Thanks for that Supermensch - CPU-Z is very handy!
Here are the results of the chipset from it:
Capture2.JPG

Now I know for sure which one it is i'll double check if there is a BIOS update, do you have any other ideas Supermensch!

Cuddlesworth

bikefreakvinnie wrote: »

I wonder could anyone advise me is there anyway I could reduce its energy usage significantly or is it a dead loss!

Its a dead duck for a number of reasons.

Power supply's are not 100% efficient. In recent years this has improved, but if I remember correctly the Hyper series were not the best. So a 150watt system draw could be 200 watts at the plug.

An honest answer would be around 200watts at idle with just the main parts powered up.

That's about 600 Euro's a year to run.

If you need to run something 24/7, I'd take a serious look at some modern low power systems(atom chips or similar variants) which cost a small amount to buy and only use 20-40 watts in operation.

Or just take Amazon up on their free year of hosting offer.

http://aws.amazon.com/free/?tag=dealnewscom

bikefreakvinnie

Thanks for the reply Cuddlesworth - I instinctively believe that its a dead duck too! Everything about it reeks of poor energy consumption (the hot air out the back etc!). I was wondering how much power it might be drawing so its great to get an approximation pointed out to me so concisely!

Suppose there's no point in looking into replacing the power supply with a more modern one?

And would you recommend any low power system off the cuff!

Supermensch

From looking up the board on Gigabyte's site it looks like it has a bios setting allowing underclocking and undervolting, which you could do to reduce heat and power usage. I do this when I want to download something over night.

The exact procedure will vary from board to board, but basically you'll need to find a setting pertaining to the voltage of your processor, and then bring it down in small increments. Then boot into Windows and test your system for stability with Prime95.

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103/

If your system is stable, reduce the voltage a bit more and repeat. You can reduce the clock multiplier as well, though this will decrease performance (Which might not matter if you're using this as a server).

But as Cuddlesworth said, a desktop will use a lot of power. If you're not reliant on the performance, certain io or the X86 architecture, you might consider the Raspberry Pi.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Cuddlesworth

bikefreakvinnie wrote: »

And would you recommend any low power system off the cuff!

New psu will only help improve a bad situation, same with underclocking.

Only low power system I'm aware of at the moment is the HP microserver, but the fundamentals are the same for anything with similar specs. The important thing to remember is that although the proc(atom/turion) is not that powerful, its processing power to energy consumption ratio is off the charts in comparison.

I would consider the Amazon offer if you could. Its pretty amazing.

Monotype

If you want something with bit more processing power, a celeron G530 is a quite powerful 2.4GHz dual core that would be much better than your A64 X2. Paired with a mini-ITX mainboard, you can have an expandable system but stay quite efficient with no need for dedicated graphics.

uberpixie

bikefreakvinnie wrote: »

And would you recommend any low power system off the cuff!

HP microserver: http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=ECE2285739

Prob the best out of the box small, low power, low noise, low footprint box you can get.

Not sure how much performance you need, but I have has a slightly older model HP microserver for a few months as a file and media server and it performs the job perfectly...

Measuring from the wall with a cheap power meter: 35W running x2 harddrives and an optical drive is use.

Server will take 4 hard drive in the front bays and a 5th if you skip the optical drive. (some people on line have managed to fit x2 harddrive in the optical drive bay using a sata splitter and a drive bay adapter).

You can also use an internal usb port to run your os off a usb stick.

Big Lar

Its a dead duck for a number of reasons.

Power supply's are not 100% efficient. In recent years this has improved, but if I remember correctly the Hyper series were not the best. So a 150watt system draw could be 200 watts at the plug.

An honest answer would be around 200watts at idle with just the main parts powered up.

That's about 600 Euro's a year to run.

I dunno about that, I have a Dell optiplex here, tink its a dual core. Consumes About 95watts on average and I calculate that to be €9 -€10 per month.

Cuddlesworth

Big Lar wrote: »

I dunno about that, I have a Dell optiplex here, tink its a dual core. Consumes About 95watts on average and I calculate that to be €9 -€10 per month.

Good point, I had screwed up my calculations and doubled up the months. Cost per year is closer to 300. Still a fair amount of money for running a pc.

I have a slim model dell 745 with a E4200 Core2Duo and the medium sized 755 with a E6600. Both average in around 140watts on idle at the plug and move up to 240 watts at load, the 755 running about 10 watts higher. The older AthlonX2 coupled with the old psu will pull around 200 watts. I have a similar system here with one of the Optys of that gen and was for a time using it as a NAS.

Big Lar

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Big Lar wrote: »

I dunno about that, I have a Dell optiplex here, tink its a dual core. Consumes About 95watts on average and I calculate that to be €9 -€10 per month.

Good point, I had screwed up my calculations and doubled up the months. Cost per year is closer to 300. Still a fair amount of money for running a pc.

I have a slim model dell 745 with a E4200 Core2Duo and the medium sized 755 with a E6600. Both average in around 140watts on idle at the plug and move up to 240 watts at load, the 755 running about 10 watts higher. The older AthlonX2 coupled with the old psu will pull around 200 watts. I have a similar system here with one of the Optys of that gen and was for a time using it as a NAS.

Well I moved my phone to voip and have 3cx installed on the server so I reckon that the savings on the phone far outweigh the power costs of the server, also have an IP camera recording and using it also a shared drive for my media player, so all in all 10 bucks a month works for me.

bikefreakvinnie

Thanks for all the replys!

What i was planning was ubuntu server for a file share, and a cctv programme called zoneminder (which i'd like to be able to leave running if i went away for a couple of wks etc...) It seems to need a slightly powerful computer..

-I'm going to buy a power meter for a start to check out exactly what the usage is.

Since my old computer has so many feckin fans and such a high wattage powerful supply i was thinking of checking to see if an old Del - like a Dimension model would be more energy efficient? - I'm sure it'd be up to the job, I don't think i can stretch to buying a home server but this one as Uberpixie pointed out does look great!
http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.as...ode=ECE2285739

Cuddlesworth

bikefreakvinnie wrote: »

Thanks for all the replys!

What i was planning was ubuntu server for a file share, and a cctv programme called zoneminder (which i'd like to be able to leave running if i went away for a couple of wks etc...) It seems to need a slightly powerful computer..

-I'm going to buy a power meter for a start to check out exactly what the usage is.

Since my old computer has so many feckin fans and such a high wattage powerful supply i was thinking of checking to see if an old Del - like a Dimension model would be more energy efficient? - I'm sure it'd be up to the job, I don't think i can stretch to buying a home server but this one as Uberpixie pointed out does look great!
http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.as...ode=ECE2285739

I have the n40L, I keep it running 24/7. Its a good little machine. I'd put the proc at the equivalent to a pentium D. Not too far off the X2 you have tbh.

I'd watch out for those cheap power meters, they tend to be well off the mark when using them. I ended up using a quite expensive piece of kit in work doing power readings and it was coming up with quite different results to a 30 quid model.

Lastly, newer stuff is more energy efficient. Its been a real drive in tech over the last six years.

Big Lar

bikefreakvinnie wrote: »

Thanks for all the replys!

What i was planning was ubuntu server for a file share, and a cctv programme called zoneminder (which i'd like to be able to leave running if i went away for a couple of wks etc...) It seems to need a slightly powerful computer..

-I'm going to buy a power meter for a start to check out exactly what the usage is.

Since my old computer has so many feckin fans and such a high wattage powerful supply i was thinking of checking to see if an old Del - like a Dimension model would be more energy efficient? - I'm sure it'd be up to the job, I don't think i can stretch to buying a home server but this one as Uberpixie pointed out does look great!
http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.as...ode=ECE2285739

Check out vitamin D video for the CCTV