Mobo Reccomendation

[nitrobass24]

Looking to upgrade / consolidate my server and storage footprint and lower overall power consumption.

Currently have a Syno with 8x8TB that is 85% full, mostly Media items for Plex.
My server is a Supermicro X11SSH-F w/ 64GB of ECC and an Intel E3-1245 v6.

Starting point for me a motherboard, looking to get a mATX sized board with 10gbe lan onboard. My main question is what should I be looking at CPU wise to maximize power consumption. I run about 10 docker containers for various home workloads. Plex is probably my biggest workload, but Im assuming any modern CPU with built-in iGPU will be fine.

Onboard NVMe/SAS connection for a a 4-bay u.2 enclosure would be a plus but I can just use an AIC too.

 

[CyklonDX]

depends on motherboard, and since you run linux, get cpu with most TDP you can get - that can run highest clocks that will maximize power consumption.

ok on serious note, get best cpu of that range you can afford, and simply allow P states, and lock the max clock to low enough freq where performance is acceptable, and disable excess of cores you do not need. This will result in much lower wattage power consumption vs cpu's that come in with already low tdp of same series.

if you want lower memory wattage, go with 3ds memory ~> single stick of 64G ~> if mobo you are using supports it.

 

[6c352e2e-f287-445a-9cd3-d]

I think it might help to figure out how the current power consumption comes about and to specify how much power you would like to save. I suspect that changing the board wouldn't change much. You could use less memory and a low power CPU like a E3-1505L v6 (if you can find one), and you may save maybe 20W if you're lucky. Depending on what you have, perhaps you can use a different PSU that's more efficient.

If cost is not so much an issue, you could replace the disks with larger ones. 4 disks instead of 8 may save another 20W unless the disks are sleeping most of the time.

Maybe you can utilize some solar panels and use your own power. (Here you can get some panels to connect to a power inverter which you can plug into a standard wall outlet. It's kinda plug and play for a reasonable price, only you need to install the panels somehow. The idea is to put them on/around your balcony if you have one. More than 800W are not allowed here because they don't want people to fry the wiring and cause fires, but different countries have different limits.) However, this doesn't exactly fall under 'reducing the footprint', but over time, you'll save money and it's nice when you make your own power and use it.

Older switches can be awfully power hungry, like 75W for 48 ports. Newer ones are more like 20W, so that's 50W easily saved right there. It pays out to have and use a Watt-meter so you can figure out the power consumption. Some network cards are specified at about 20W, so if you plug in a 10GB card, check power consumption before and after ... Fans can also be an issue.

All that leaves the question if it's worthwhile. Given a certain workload, there's only so much power you can save.

 

[nitrobass24]

Thanks all. I guess what I am trying to do is just get an effecient platform thats going to last me another 10-years. I dont know what my current consumption is and wont measure it, but just want to run cool since I dont like hearing fans.

I also feel like I am on borrowed time with my current setup and am bored so wanting to do a refresh. Budget is not really a consideration here. Ill probably start with 3 or 4 24TB drives plus a handful of NVMe I have laying around. Right now my 8Tbs never sleep because they are running the docker workloads.

Maybe I just need to get a new case that I can put my storage into and move the Syno offsite as a backup.

 

[CyklonDX]

i'd recommend building a ryzen 7000/9000 platform in that case. *(matx mobo's typically come with 2 pcie ports x8 or x16 so a sas controller and potentially gpu for transcode will do well -> if they support P states then they won't be idling with high wattage - and its always better to crunch things faster on more powerful device than sleeze away on weak 'energy efficent' part for longer - an a2000 ada will do just about fine for transcode.)
You can run with single ddr5 ecc stick), if you get decent x3d cache cpu and lock frequency low (maybe even disable 1 chiplet) you will be using least power, and still be able to handle things just fine.

Notes:
sas disks typically do not support sleep states

 

[BlueFox]

Are you wanting copper 10GbE or SFP+?

I think it might help to figure out how the current power consumption comes about and to specify how much power you would like to save. I suspect that changing the board wouldn't change much. You could use less memory and a low power CPU like a E3-1505L v6 (if you can find one), and you may save maybe 20W if you're lucky. Depending on what you have, perhaps you can use a different PSU that's more efficient.

Xeon E3-15xx CPUs are BGA only, so, you're stuck with whatever motherboard they're attached to.

 

[6c352e2e-f287-445a-9cd3-d]

Xeon E3-15xx CPUs are BGA only, so, you're stuck with whatever motherboard they're attached to.

BGA? Does that mean soldered to the board?

I just looked at the list of CPUs for the socket and there were two lower power ones. Perhaps the other one isn't stuck.

 

[BlueFox]

BGA? Does that mean soldered to the board?

I just looked at the list of CPUs for the socket and there were two lower power ones. Perhaps the other one isn't stuck.

Yes. Not sure what list you were looking at since there are no LGA1151 Xeon E3-15xx CPUs. As previously mentioned, only available soldered to a motherboard.

 

[6c352e2e-f287-445a-9cd3-d]

Yes. Not sure what list you were looking at since there are no LGA1151 Xeon E3-15xx CPUs. As previously mentioned, only available soldered to a motherboard.

Sorry, I don't remember what list it was and how I came up with the E3-15xx. The idea was to possibly use a low power CPU, but when there are none available that could be plugged in, the idea won't work.