So I have finally built my NAS. I used an N100 CPU because I saw it has low power consumption.
Right now I have 2 NVMe SSDs and 2 HDDs. I have installed proxmox on the 2 SSDs as RAID1. I have not partitioned the HDDs yet, they are just plugged in and powered on.
Just booting into proxmox, without any VMs or containers running, I am pulling 45W from the wall. This looks super high to me, and I’m afraid that starting to use the HDDs and running some VMs may double this…
I don’t have much references, but I have an Odroid with an external self-powered HDD, it is using 5W. I have a raspberry pi 4 with an external HDD, the raspberry is pulling 3W and the HDD 3W.
With these data, I was thinking I wouldn’t go over 20W. 45W is enormous and not something I can run 24/7, kind of a fail for a NAS…
Have I done something wrong or is it just how much it’s supposed to pull?
Edit: I have come across powertop. Using the auto tune, I was able to drop to 33-35W. I have unplugged the HDDs and dropped to 22W. I guess I cannot go lower, this may be because of the PSU or the 2 NVMe
Another way of reducing your overall power consumption: Do you need a NAS to be on 24/7?
My NAS is a NAS - just storage. It comes on and spins the 5x HDDs for a few hours in the day then shuts down. It’s a NAS, I don’t need to access my files at night when I’m asleep.
My VM host is a low power box with passive cooling which uses a SSD and runs my (mostly idle) VMs 24/7 for a few Watts.
So, maybe splitting up your requirements might save some power?
I planned to share it with my family. As I won’t be the only user, this is not ideal. Besides I run automatic backup and planned to also store them in the NAS. So again if it’s off half the time, this is not ideal.