Currently have a Supermicro X10SL7-F - is it a waste to get another for my backup box?

[RichTJ99]

Have you considered used server parts? You can get a dual E5-2600 V2 board with 64GB of ram with processors for under $500 delivered. Add a Rosewill 15 drive case (not hot swap but hey - it's your 2nd back up) for $120, whatever power supply you want and a $50 HBA and be up and running for under $750. Jjust a thought.

I am not against using older hardware but the noise/power do concern me. Someone on the board suggested this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-...508377?hash=item5683dd5699:g:msoAAOSw5VFWFvJa

With a M105 HBA (might have the model wrong) HBA for my 6tb WD red sata drives.

I am trying to scale down some of the 24/7 towers I have running for various tasks with VM's to minimize the electric bill & noise/heat - so I am not sure if this is a great idea.

I am also looking for a reliable backup - so I dont know if something used is more or less reliable - new & old things do break.

 

[ChriZ]

Well, realistically speaking, the cost difference between used and new stuff most of the cases is more than the power savings at least for 5 years, if the old parts are not ancient, of course.
But new stuff is always, er.. new and shiny...

 

[danb35]

E5-2600-series parts aren't that old--they'd still use an X9 board or newer. Intel has made incremental improvements in efficiency since then, but nothing like the previous few generations. The system you linked to is a generation older than that.

 

[AVB]

Noise is more related to the fans and the drives and not the board and CPU. You know that used sets are proven, especially the E5-2600. Lastly, a backup box really shouldn't need to be on 24/7 but only when you make backups.

 

[RichTJ99]

So what is a decent E5-2600 server / that would fit my needs for being SATA/Freenas compatible?

 

[AVB]

So what is a decent E5-2600 server / that would fit my needs for being SATA/Freenas compatible?

Well, this one would certainly work. You'd still need to buy a case that will handle the amount of drives you want. This is an SSI EEB size board but most server cases should handle it.

 

[RichTJ99]

What would you expect that the typical cost per watt per year should be on something like this?

I was running an older server box for my PBX and when I did a kilowatt test on it I found out it was costing me a couple hundred dollars a year it around what I thought was a free computer

Part of what made me want to go with a new platform that's energy-efficient is the longer-term running over the course of a number of years as it will be a 24/7 box

 

[AVB]

Not a clue. Besides you said this was a backup box, why would it be on 24/7?

 

[Ericloewe]

I was running an older server box for my PBX and when I did a kilowatt test on it I found out it was costing me a couple hundred dollars a year it around what I thought was a free computer

Couple hundred? What's that, dual Pentium 4s with full banks of FB-DIMMs and a truckload of 10k+RPM HDDs?

 

[danb35]

Couple hundred? What's that, dual Pentium 4s with full banks of FB-DIMMs and a truckload of 10k+RPM HDDs?

I don't know where @RichTJ99 is from or what his power costs, but I'll work the math at my cost of US$0.13/kwh. At that rate, $200 equates to 1,538 kwh. There are 8,760 hours/year. The system would average 175 watts to cost $200/year, with my power cost. Both my current system and my previous one idle(d) at more than that (and turning on BOINC on my current system increases my consumption by about 150 watts).

 

[Ericloewe]

Both my current system and my previous one idle(d) at more than that

Phew, I knew dual/quad Xeon boards were not optimized for power consumption, but 175W+ sounds crazy, since Xeon E3 idles at 50ishW.

 

[danb35]

The last one was an E3-1230.

 

[Ericloewe]

The last one was an E3-1230.

So how'd you accomplish that? What on earth would make a Xeon E3 system idle like that with only twelve drives?

 

[danb35]

Now you have me second-guessing myself, but I remember that system drawing ~ 180W at idle. Hardware is:

• SuperMicro X9SCL-F
• Xeon E3-1230 (might be 1230v2)
• 32 GB RAM
• M1015
• 1 Hitachi Deskstar 2 TB
• 2 Seagate Barracuda 2 TB
• 3 WD Red 3 TB
• 6 WD Red 4 TB
• Chelsio T420
• SuperMicro CSE-SC826TQ-R800LPB

I have no idea how efficient the redundant 800-watt power supplies are--the product page says "high efficiency", but they don't spec an 80+ certification or anything like that. The case fans no doubt draw a bit, I recall hearing about 10 watts for the M1015, and about the same for the Chelsio.

If I can down the new server in the next couple of days, I'll plug the drives back in to the old machine and hook it up to the Kill-A-Watt again.

 

[Ericloewe]

I'd guess the PSUs and their monitoring stuff account for ~10% more power than a single, smaller 80+ Gold unit. So ~160W. 140W minus 10GbE and SAS. 20W could be fans, depending on the ear protection required around the server during operation.

Still, it seems a bit high.

 

[Kevin Horton]

You guys are making me feel pretty good about my 57W at idle with my G3258, X10SL7-F and 5 x 4TB WD Red drives. At one point I was bummed out about how much more power it was using than the previous Synology box (which had about as much processing power as my watch). But not any more.

 

[AVB]

This rig was pulling 140W at idle with only one spinner. Bit-Tech has it at 202W for their tests. I've got to be over 200W with 18 spinners, 2 HBAs, and 6 fans howling like banshees.

 

[RichTJ99]

Sorry - I spoke to Google voice to text that & didnt make it back until this morning.

The PBX is an older I7 - It shows 160 watts @ .15cents per KW (my electric charges vary by time of day - this is the average). My killwatt said it was about $200 per year.

While this is going in a different direction I have the following (why I am looking to virtualize as much as I can when possible - hence the Xeon thinking for repurposing later):

Server room #1:
Modem, 3 switches, CCTV power box, 2 amps, receivers, etc: 400 watts - close to $525 per year

Server room #2:
Box 1 - 175 watts - $230 per year
Box 2 - 150 watts - $197 per year
N40L (freenas) - 70 watts - $88 per year
I5 box - 40 watts - $52 per year
Xeon - X10SL7 - Main freenas box (Xeon) 8 drives -idle 85 watts - 111 per year
Xeon 110 II powered (3 VM's running on ssd) - 25 watts - $33 per year
Rich Main desktop - 74 watts - $97 per year
Older POE Switch - 100watts - $131 per year
newer poe switch - 60 watts - $78

This thread has gone a whole different direction but my switch & other electric components electric usage is roughly $1,500 per year recurring (and likely growing).

Of course the ESXi gives me a chance to try to get the operating costs down.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Dice]

This thread has gone a whole different direction

ESXi gives me a chance to try to get the operating costs down.

This is inspiring. I've just spent the last days being interested in all sorts of "older server gear" (after I found 48gb dd3 ecc reg at less than 90 usd) ...power consumption is ..a real deal to deal with (see what I did there?).

joeshmuck went the ESXi route recently which is super inspiring to see what can be done. I'm labbing/learning ESXi / vSphere as we speak, on a little testrig to be a lot more comfortable when the big <moving day> comes ;)
(we'll all end up on virtualization sooner or later. just get on the damn bandwagon x) )

 

[Dice]

to get the operating costs down.

Have you considered not having all your backup boxes online at the same time?
ie, some of the backupstuff could probably be powered on say, once every week for the 2nd line backup and even less frequently for the last line of defense?