Power Consumption of HBA Controllers: Dell Perc H310

[awolf]

Hello.
I'm trying to build a (reasonably) low power NAS for home use utilizing a Fujitso Futro S920 (AMD G415GA, 4GB, PCIe 2.0x4, Debian 12).
I used a Dell Perc H310 (cross-flashed to IT-mode) and my idle(!) power consumption measured from the wall jumped from 6-7 Watt to 14-16. Heat spreader on the H310 got really hot. (could not touch it anymore, so >60°C)
To emphasize: This is all idle, no drives connected.

In general the setup works. The connected drives are recognized. Transfer speeds are OK-ish.
But... I wonder:
- Is this normal? Can anyone confirm the power consumption of these (or similar) controllers?
- Are there other other HBA SAS Controllers out there that consume less power? Perhaps native IT-mode without a cpu for raid?
- Would I be better off with an ASMedia Sata Controller?

Would really appreciate any input on these issues.
Thanks in advance.
Andi

 

[jei]

7 W for HBA sounds pretty normal to me. Even a little bit low.

 

[[Nobody]]

That's normal. You can try to optimize IT with ASPM

 

[rtech]

Asmedia ASM1166 PCIe gen3 x2 (1970MB/s) - 2w
2 xHDD 565MB/s
3 xHDD 565MB/s
4 xHDD 445MB/s
5 xHDD 355MB/s
6 xHDD 300MB/s

Asmedia does have issues althoug i have read updating resolves at least some of them
How many drives do you have?

 

[awolf]

Asmedia ASM1166 PCIe gen3 x2 (1970MB/s) - 2w
...
How many drives do you have?

I plan to connect 2x8GB and 2x4GB permanently but want to have the ability to expand with used (cheap) SAS-drives. Also I plan to connect a backup (cold storage) device once or twice every month. (Hot plug)
Transfer rates aren't that interesting to me, because: home NAS with two users and mostly small files/backup/videos. Will be >90% idle.

2W against 7-8W sounds...

I come at this as a noob concerning SAS HBAs. After looking into this for the last two days it seems to me that the main power draw of these cards are the CPUs (mostly PowerPC?) for the RAID functionality. But I don't need nor want RAID. Which pins do I have to de-solder so that they run with only half their frequency? /joking

 

[BLinux]

8-10W for a LSI SAS2008 based controller is about right. Those are just single core PowerPC 533Mhz CPUs. There's nothing you can "disable" to save power. The newer gen controllers consume even more power and generate more heat, but they will provide the IOPS for performance if you care about that aspect.

 

[fd1]

8-10W for a LSI SAS2008 based controller is about right. Those are just single core PowerPC 533Mhz CPUs. There's nothing you can "disable" to save power. The newer gen controllers consume even more power and generate more heat, but they will provide the IOPS for performance if you care about that aspect.

There are newer controllers that consume less power and generate less heat (6 W!). That was the whole reason why I recently ditched a 9300-series HBA and bought a Broadcom 9500-8e (fanless with heatsink); it idles at 38-40 C in a compact Supermicro 1U embedded case.

 

[BLinux]

There are newer controllers that consume less power and generate less heat (6 W!). That was the whole reason why I recently ditched a 9300-series HBA and bought a Broadcom 9500-8e (fanless with heatsink); it idles at 38-40 C in a compact Supermicro 1U embedded case.

That's awesome! thanks!