minimize idle power draw - 35 watt reasonable for Intel Core i5-4460 with 32 GByte RAM, no HDD / pool connected?

[flashdrive]

Hello,

since my TN Core system will be running in idle mode for most of the time I want to have as low as possible of a system power usage.

Here are my current figures:

• 54 Watts for System > UEFI menu entered, no HDDs connected to the PC
• 35 Watts TN Core loaded, idle, no HDDs - same as above

Can the 35 Watts still be optimized?

I know that my 10 GBit HP network card (PCIe) will draw around 10 Watts alone.

Other than that nothing else but the USB thumb drives, 1x 1 GBit LAN, 1x 10 GBit LAN are connected.

I need to check the UEFI setup for

• IGPU of the Intel CPU
• CPU values - currently at "Auto"

 

[jgreco]

Hard to know specifically, but it is likely to be close to optimal with what you have. Depending on the efficiency of the existing PSU, you might be able to shave off a handful of watts if you can find a titanium-rated PSU, but you are unlikely to recover the large up-front cost in electricity savings over time.

There are no HP network cards I know of that work well with FreeNAS. The Intel X520-SR2 has been observed here to consume around 9-12 watts, while the Solarflare SFN6122F rolls in at about 6 watts. People have reported the 6122 works fine with FreeNAS.

 

[Redcoat]

People have reported the 6122 works fine with FreeNAS.

I am one of those people. I have experienced no issues with two 6122’s, one in each of my two FreeNAS/now TrueNAS boxes and a direct connection between them.

 

[jgreco]

I am one of those people. I have experienced no issues with two 6122’s, one in each of my two FreeNAS/now TrueNAS boxes and a direct connection between them.

Oh, thank you for that. I love these cards under ESXi 6 (won't work on ESXi 7 alas) but I think previous FreeNAS confirmations had come from sources with only modest reputation/credibility. These cards may well not be quite up to the Intel or Chelsio levels of excellence, but I expect Mellanox-class or better, given how much all these companies have invested in developing their respective drivers. It's amazing that we can get these cards for thirty bucks on the used market.

 

[flashdrive]

The NIC HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 533FLR-T (using an adapter) is good enough for my home usage, I am running the latest Marvell driver from 2020.