Power consumption at idle - really any benefit?

[kapone]

That's way too expensive for a part that should coat 3-5 bucks.

It DOES cost 3-5 bucks. That doesn't mean you can buy it for that...

 

[Evan]

Haha yeah but the SM power bricks are also not cheap, can get quality 12v ones for a lot less.
Also they only make to 80w, probably need closer to 150w to be safe with a decent e5 like 2640v4 or 2680v4 that I was thinking to use with a few ssd.

 

[K D]

The SM brick cost about $80. It is an FSP oem part. Doesn't even have any SM branding on it. The same one is $34 on Amazon. :-/

 

[Terry Kennedy]

As a datapoint on i3s...I'm running a few i3-3220 on Dell Optiplex motherboards (Very nice, sparse motherboards, very little extra fluff) with 8GB (2x4GB) Ram, SSD and just a CPU fan (which hardly runs with the i3).

Which Optiplex generation? Dell uses non-standard front panel connections, though at least in the Optiplex x010 and newer they're down to one board for audio / USB / activity LEDs, but the only way the motherboard indicates errors is with their proprietary power button / multi-color LED board.

In theory even better than the pico psu would be the boards that take 12v (or other voltages) directly. SM has some sever boards like this (eg x10srm)

The Dell Optiplex x020 (and presumably newer generations) are 12V-only (sort of- there's another power supply connector w/ 5V for the SATA ports, PS on/off, and power good signals) motherboards. The stock power supply is a rather wimpy 290W.

 

[kapone]

Which Optiplex generation? Dell uses non-standard front panel connections, though at least in the Optiplex x010 and newer they're down to one board for audio / USB / activity LEDs, but the only way the motherboard indicates errors is with their proprietary power button / multi-color LED board.

The Dell Optiplex x020 (and presumably newer generations) are 12V-only (sort of- there's another power supply connector w/ 5V for the SATA ports, PS on/off, and power good signals) motherboards. The stock power supply is a rather wimpy 290W.

These are the 7010 motherboards. And all their "proprietary" crap is easy to fix. In the role they are being used (low power server duties), a simple jumper on the front panel connector takes care of the error, and no front panel devices are actually used.

The propreitary power cable is easy to fix as well. One more jumper.
The stupid 5 pin fan connectors are easy to fix as well.

On the plus side, these are sparse motherboards with two pci-e slots (x16 and x4), 4 RAM slots, Intel 82579 LAN, and take a standard ATX PSU.

Oh and they can be had for <$10 a pop if you look carefully or buy a few together. With IB i3 and i5s so cheap (I bought the 3220s for $10 each), they make a pretty decent machine. The i3-3220 is 3.3.GHz 2C/4T and can be given up to 16GB on these boards.

A true server type platform where I can dedicate that kind of horsepower to each VM, is gonna cost more than running multiples of these physically. The total power consumption of let's say 5 of these, is slightly higher than 5 equivalent VMs, but chances are, the performance is higher as well.

 

[SLS]

I have an optiplex 7010 motherboard which I amd using in a standard atx case. I have been searching for any mods to bypass the warnings on post. Any mods even bios mod I would be grateful for!

 

[Diavuno]

Is there really a difference in the idle usage of the L vs Non L CPUs? I thought the L ones were gimped on the high side to maintain the power envelope low.

In my experiencethey draw the same at idle. (within the same architecture)

 

[Joel]

Haha yeah but the SM power bricks are also not cheap, can get quality 12v ones for a lot less.
Also they only make to 80w, probably need closer to 150w to be safe with a decent e5 like 2640v4 or 2680v4 that I was thinking to use with a few ssd.

That might also be a good reason to get an "L" SKU.

 

[Evan]

That might also be a good reason to get an "L" SKU.

E5-2640v4 is only 90w tdp. Not too far on an L and to be honest if going for an L may as well go Xeon-D and finished.