Be Quiet! PSU vampire power

[AndyFL77]

Hi,


I recently built my first FreeNAS server. I wished I’d had one years ago. The installation worked first time and I am getting throughput beyond my gigabit network limits. Very happy with FreeNAS!


My only disappointment was with the power consumption of my server when ‘off’. The server will remain off for most of the week so I was hoping for single digit vampire power. 28W seems too high although I initially put this down to the BMC running. After researching the BMC controller, I realised that this couldn’t be the cause. It’s only an ARM processor and LAN chipset after all.

Cutting a long story short, I ended up with only the Be Quiet BN180 PSU powered up but not connected to anything and still consuming 26W. What is more worrying is that with the PSU power switch turned off I’m still reading 14W at the wall.

(Yes I checked my meter is reading Watts and not VA. I double checked by readings against my home electricity meter. Pulling the power lead out of the PSU does correctly result in a 0W reading).

The Be Quiet website claims to have a standby drain of 0.3W. Should I be expecting to get anything near this? What is considered acceptable vampire power these days?

I can’t figure out if the PSU is faulty, poorly designed or what. Can anyone recommend a reliable PSU that is efficient when off?


Many thanks!

 

[jgreco]

...with the PSU power switch turned off, it's reading 14W?

It's an actual rocker switch?

 

[Bidule0hm]

Maybe it's after the PFC? But even if it's that, 14 W? seriously?!

But yeah, one more reason to don't use crappy PSUs...

 

[Ericloewe]

That's crazy. No way in hell that would meet energy star with that kind of consumption.

Can you check your power meter against another small load, like a phone charger?

 

[jgreco]

That's crazy. No way in hell that would meet energy star with that kind of consumption.

Can you check your power meter against another small load, like a phone charger?

Yeah, something's feeling kinda wrong here. I can't really recall having ripped apart a PSU with a rocker switch and not found it tied directly to the inlet.

 

[anodos]

Maybe it's after the PFC? But even if it's that, 14 W? seriously?!

But yeah, one more reason to don't use crappy PSUs...

How can it be a crappy PSU? It looks snazzy and is branded with an "!". It also has German quality control.

 

[Agi]

Bequiet are definitely not crappy power supply's. I highly doubt that the draw values you're seeing are accurate. Just use common sense, with the switch off, if you see anything greater than 0w it's clearly wrong.

 

[AndyFL77]

Yes, a good old fashioned rocker switch.

I would expect to see some loss from a PFC circuit but 14W seems extreme.

I have checked the meter against other devices and I’m pretty happy that the meter is giving reasonably sensible values.

• Seasonic SS-500HT (switch on) 12W
• Seasonic SS-500HT (switch off) 0W
• Home phone charger 9.5W (adapter claims 45ma @ 230V = 10.3W)

Be Quiet is supposed to be a good brand. The problem with PSUs is that they are rarely manufactured by the company who sell them. Most are rebranded Seasonics or CWTs, etc. No idea who actually makes the BN180.

I guess I’m mostly just frustrated that this is still an issue. People have been complaining about this for a long time. Here and here for example. I bet if the 1 watt initiative covered PSUs then this problem would get fixed in no time.

Does anyone have a PSU they can recommend that shows low consumption when off? This seems to be something that most reviews don't cover and is not listed in PSU specifications.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yes, a good old fashioned rocker switch.

I would expect to see some loss from a PFC circuit but 14W seems extreme.

I have checked the meter against other devices and I’m pretty happy that the meter is giving reasonably sensible values.

• Seasonic SS-500HT (switch on) 12W
• Seasonic SS-500HT (switch off) 0W
• Home phone charger 9.5W (adapter claims 45ma @ 230V = 10.3W)

Be Quiet is supposed to be a good brand. The problem with PSUs is that they are rarely manufactured by the company who sell them. Most are rebranded Seasonics or CWTs, etc. No idea who actually makes the BN180.

I guess I’m mostly just frustrated that this is still an issue. People have been complaining about this for a long time. Here and here for example. I bet if the 1 watt initiative covered PSUs then this problem would get fixed in no time.

Does anyone have a PSU they can recommend that shows low consumption when off? This seems to be something that most reviews don't cover and is not listed in PSU specifications.

When I get home, I'll get you some measurements from a Seasonic G-550 and an X-650.

 

[tres_kun]

I have Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W
And the old meter was rocking 70W consumption with the PC off
And about 30W with the power switch off
It gave me quite the heart attack

But the problem is actually the meter
It is an electronic characteristic of the components making old meters unable to get a good reading
There are capacitors and other circuits even before the PSU switch so there is a 0.1W power draw
Powered of a new PSU connected to a new motherboard should be below 1W
Will not apply to servers :)
Get another meter
That one is not good for this job

 

[yourmate]

When I get home, I'll get you some measurements from a Seasonic G-550 and an X-650.

It is a long walk indeed ;)

 

[jgreco]

It is a long walk indeed ;)

He sometimes gets lost on the way.

 

[Ericloewe]

It is a long walk indeed ;)

You don't even know how right you are. Can't get you the G-550, but the X-650 draws 7-ish watts with IPMI running off the 5V standby rail (X10SML+-F).

 

[yourmate]

You don't even know how right you are. Can't get you the G-550, but the X-650 draws 7-ish watts with IPMI running off the 5V standby rail (X10SML+-F).

You had a very lucky escape* but it seems it was more of a long run rather than a walk ;)

*in September 2001 I hadn't: long story short, I always play around with newly released Win opsys, change settings, try out features. Then I make a 'real' install from scratch and set up everything the way I like it. With XP I've tried out EFS on my live data. (stupid#1) Then I reinstalled XP but forgot to export the key for the encrypted data(stupid#2). No problem, I have a backup. Next day I've found out that although most of the backup was OK several years of MS Money financial data was corrupt (not checking your backup? stupid#3) No problem, I have all those data on my loved Psion S5mx. Of course I didn't have 10 minutes to hook it up to the PC and save it off(stupid#4) and two days later I have accidentally dropped my Psion and it went with all the data(stupid#5)
BTW is EFS breakable yet as I still have the ghost image backed up ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

You had a very lucky escape* but it seems it was more of a long run rather than a walk ;)

I'd like to think that two years of spending way too much time on this forum and 6 000+ posts* contributed to the relative success of the recovery.

*The forum literally lost count. You can blame cyberjock for that. :p

 

[anodos]

The forum literally lost count. You can blame cyberjock for that. :p

I thought that was comeuppance. :p gotta be careful... Might happen again

 

[jgreco]

I thought that was comeuppance. :p gotta be careful... Might happen again

Oh, y'know, maybe one day someone'll reset cyberjock's post count.

 

[AndyFL77]

Thanks for checking guys. I’d be very happy with 7W consumption. A 1000W PSU is overkill for my build so I’ve been looking in the 300-400W range. Not much there these days and even less available in the UK. I’m trying an Enermax, wish me luck.

tres_kun, Be Quiet tech support did suggest that it was the inductive nature of the supply that was causing an incorrect reading but their terse response read more like “go away and don’t bug us with this”. I’ll see if I can find a better meter.

 

[Ericloewe]

inductive nature of the supply

Talk about lame excuses.

Especially because the thing must have power factor correction.

 

[yourmate]

and even less available in the UK

Well, tell me about it... I think 400W will be on the weak side though.
I was looking into the be quiet! myself but this kind of took my appetite away ;)
I've bought a Corsair HX750i for cheap but I'll definitely do a test run with an XFX Pro 550 lying around.