Eco Power Build - Building a Powerful, Energy Saving 4 Bay Unraid Server

[@DrunkenSquirrel2]

Congrats on the sponsor dude, energy efficiency is definitely a huge factor now, energy prices are mad.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Thanks. Yeah electricity certainly expensive over here in Europe.

[@HGulp]

I just built my first UNRAID server, fitted into the bottom section of a Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 case, same Gigabyte H610I DDR4 Motherboard with 32GB RAM, Same cooler too, but with an i3 13100. I also used the M.2 slot for a 6x SATA expansion card, so a total of 10 SATA Ports. I'm loving it so far, and this channel has been my go to resource for all things UNRAID. Excellent stuff, keep up the good work!

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Hey @HGulp. What a good idea to use the m.2 slot for a sata expansion card. I may do that myself and swap the nvme for 2 sata ssds in a zfs mirror :)

[@HGulp]

@@SpaceinvaderOne Yep, I have 2x 2TB SATA SSDs data protected for the cache. The only negative I would say about the Gigabyte board is the lack of 2.5Gbit on board networking, easily replaced with a USB one though. I'm running a VM of Mojave too, and would be interested in learning how to get the audio working, I have a Khadas Tone1 External Sound Card which I might attach to a PCI blanking plate if I can get it working.

[@JorgeBoado]

I just built my first UnRaid server on the Microserver G8. Modifying the power supply and the base of the case for holding a N5105 nas motherboard. I'm quite happy with the case it can hold 4 drives in the bays, one 3.5" on the side and 2 SSD on the top + the nvme on the MOBO. It's been a good budget building for the first one. Now I'm thinking about the next one 😅

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

That sounds super cool. Re using the old case :)

[@richardharnwell3331]

Ooh, that sounds awesome. Did you document the modifications- I think a lot of people would be very interested!

[@JorgeBoado]

@@richardharnwell3331 No, sadly I didn't document all the mods. It was mostly just trimming the back and putting in the standoffs for the new MOBO. The most complex part might be the wiring, but that was a bit of a tinkering with a tester so I could use the FrontIO. Then to use the 4 front bays is through an M.2 to 8086 adapter.

[@scruffy3121]

Finally a face to that voice. Thanks for all the great tutorials over the years!

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

You welcome. Check out the Uncast show were i interview various guest. Most recent guest being Tom Lawrence kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpuXnXanhsiekK8 🙂

[@stiibunyozomita3536]

No no I’ve seen that face before (borrowed from Grace Jones) 😀

[@jimmyscott5144]

I believe the back switch is a chassis intrusion switch. It's not common on most pcs but more common on servers and enterprise devices

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Ah right. Yeah strange on a small form factor case

[@chuckthetekkie]

That rear switch may have been for chassis intrusion detection. Also my mom worked for a company as a bookkeeper in the 1980's and somehow managed to fry one of the computers she was using via static discharge. It was replaced and later on the same thing happened. The solution was to give her a huge plastic rolling chair mat as it was the carpet that was charging her up.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Ha really yeah some carpets can do that. I remember when i was young at a friends house their carpet was like that and i would touch things and get a shock!

[@JadeMonkee]

I, too, have a Gen 8 Microserver with a Xeon (though it's the E3-1265L V2), but I've managed to cram 4x 3.5" HDD, 3x 2.5" HDD, and 4x 2.5" SSD. Absolutely loaded. Maybe one day I'll upgrade. Was particularly interesting seeing the Passmark score for a modern i5 vs my old Xeon...

[@marsb3306]

I can only assume the 26w is without the drives, as those should be around 5w each. Just for reference, a 14700 runs about 22w with the nvme, with a few containers running (home assistant vm, Plex lxc, portainer (with a few docker thing running there as well). I found it better suited me to have an extremely fast machine for all the services (with no need for ECC ram since this machine is backed up on a NAS anyway), and a separate NAS for storage only. The NAS does the file sharing and that’s it. Make sure you turn off audio, enable all c states and aspm options. With that cpu you should be in the 20w range. A 14100 cpu was running 18w, the 14500 was 20w, all before I switched to the 14700 at 22w. I kept the performance governor as well…

[@JonnyBillings]

I'm not entirely familiar with how efficiency works, but for something like the 14500, it says its tdp is >60. How did you have it running at 20w?

[@marsb3306]

@@JonnyBillings TDP is a thermal measurement for dissipation of heat. Doesn't mean a 60w TDP will run at 60 watts. What the system draws will depends largely on load. I hover around 1% load at idle (basically running home assistant lxc, an alpine lxc running portainer/plex and a few portainer dockers (duckdns, wireguard, etc.)), so power draw goes between 24-27w with that load. When the system gets a work out, it'll spike to 120w+ fairly easily, but it's generally for a very short period of time. Plex transcoding usually gets it to about 35-37w average. I'm using a Noctua L9x65 cooler btw.

[@CampRusso]

Great video. Making me want to build another rig. 😁 "Party foul" on the CPU install. You're supposed to leave the black plastic cover on. Then make it pop off when you latch it. 😉🤣

[@thesecondrategamer]

Great thinking, funny enought its almost the same setup as myself now i picked up the 13500 erlier this year as the local power prices where i am have gone mad.

[@rallygallery]

Great video as ever Ed. Great build. Keep ‘em coming bud!

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Thanks some good ones coming up.

[@jeffseward8589]

You sir, are a legend. Thanks for everything you do

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Thankyou for the kind comment 🙂

[@wagnonforcolorado]

I purchased a CPU cooler from Amazon Warehouse, as well...and the thermal past tube was pretty much empty. Amazon needs to check consumables when they put an item in their warehouse section. At 12 cents per Kwh, it works out to just over a dollar a year. So, by saving 20 watts average power draw over the course of a year, thats ~$21. However, in Europe, typical energy costs are higher, so adjust the math to fit your actual power rates. A handy value to know, when you are concerned about trimming your electricity bill.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Yeah I dont think they really check much with the warehouse deals. The guys in the warehouse i bet are super pressured to go fast, fast fast. I quick once over i think is all they have time for.

[@FrankZlöbl]

I'm really looking forward to see your energy efficient build - can't wait ;-)

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

lol. This build is quite energy efficient but I found best tip to make super efficient. When i press and hold the power button on the front it uses no power at all 🤣

[@FrankZlöbl]

@@SpaceinvaderOne yes, that is very much true - but you did spoiler a view times your very efficient build with the n100 and a 4tb m.2 - and I'm just curious for your build for Homeassistant / pfSense and Emby (sync) - this would be even better, as a main unRAID which stays on all the time

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

@@FrankZlöbl That will be soon for sure I really like the n100 cpu. Its cheap and very capable cpu. I promise i will get the video out soon. keep checking the channel and thanks for watching :)

[@FrankZlöbl]

@@SpaceinvaderOne I will do that - keep up the good work, it's really great how much effort you put into your videos. You did help me a lot with unRAID.and what it can do ;-)

[@hagner75]

Whenever possible, do more videos like this. It's really nice. Even though you look at bit uncomfortable in the beginning. Good job nonetheless! :D Also, this build would be epic for my cache server with my 10 Gbit networking I'm upgrading to. Thanks!

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Thanks, glad you liked it. Nice, good luck with the network upgrade :)

[@chrisumali9841]

Awesome, thanks for the demo and info, have a great day

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Your welcome. Thanks for watching :)

[@sisakamence]

live long and data saving for gen8🖖my favorite little server☺

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Yeah I love the gen 8 too. I feel a bit of a traitor replacing it !! But i will find another role for my gen8 🙂

[@NedFlanders1983]

What is the tool used to monitor your power consumption? I need that for my unraid

[@ShadowManceri]

There is VAT outside of UK. In many places it is MORE than in UK. So it's not ever "cheaper". You just have to pay it later.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Good point especially European countries. But I think for people in USA they can order from abroad and pay no additional tax when it comes into their country if value is below $800. Maybe someone in USA who reads this can clarify ?

[@ShadowManceri]

US doesn't have VAT afaik. But state can place a sales tax (in retail) and most states have it with different amounts. That's why you see prices without tax in a shop, but you pay the tax at the checkout as added price. It makes this illusion of it being cheaper. While in UK/EU for example you see vat already in the price itself. Not sure about import taxes that likely is going to be the thing to pay. Or I guess it could be called import/customs duty as well. It's also somewhat common for companies (in EU for example) to buy things at 0% tax from other companies. It too is bit of an illusion, as you still have to pay the tax in most cases but it just isn't done at the moment of purchase. It's rather complicated stuff but who would not like overly complicated bureaucracy.

[@IEnjoyCreatingVideos]

Great video Ed! Thanks for always sharing with us!💖👍😎JP

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Your welcome. Thanks for watching :)

[@IEnjoyCreatingVideos]

@@SpaceinvaderOne 😎

[@montymole7114]

Always loved the Atari 800XL

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Ah me too 😁 The one you see in the video is actually only the shell of an 800xl. I stripped everything out and put modern components in it. It runs my pfSense firewall and Home assistant. Only uses about 10 watts too !!

[@a88pockets]

I've been looking to do something like this for like 2 years. My dual x5680 2U SuperMicro build running unRAID is way to loud, hot, and expensive to keep running 24/7.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Ah yeah that must be a hungry server to feed !!

[@destronger5313]

The outside of the bag for the Mobo may not be resistant to static. Better to install the CPU on the box. C - Common NC - Normally Closed NO - Normally Open

[@rolliseventeen]

i just bought today another Gen 6 intel boards, i hope to save just another 1-2 Watts with a new combination. then i sell the rest like always. what a dumb hobby, but i like it.

[@dblabs]

Thats the case I've been using for years 😂. Must be some where around 10 years at this point. Started life as a Hyper-V server and is now an Unraid server. Did have to replace the PSU at one point.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Really wow !0 years old. I hadnt seen it before so I assumed it was quite a new thing. Thanks for watching :)

[@kawertz]

FWIW the rear switch is intrusion detection and depressed when the rear cover is installed.

[@zach_ry]

Are c states and platform powered enabled in the bios? Curious your experience on dealing with power management from gigabyte bios

[@brubakerjm]

Awesome video. I have purchased disks for a new backup server for my primary Unraid, but haven't started on other components yet. Do you have a video (or a simple description) of how you accomplish the backup between the two servers? Thanks!

[@peterr.4768]

Do you see some instability with the i5-13500? It seems there are alot of news around on Unraid being unstable with the Efficiency Cores.

[@Nelix1287]

Hi I’m new into all of this home server setup. I am after a plex media server with storage. Originally I was looking at a mini PC + NAS. But I’d assume this setup is more than powerfull for up to 4, 4K transcode and better long term?

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

8:30 This is the "long lost" format called Micro-DTX. It was sort of created to be compatible with Shuttle-PC cases, but it's essentially Mini-ITX with two expansion slots instead of one. 11:25 The problem is the external part of the anti-static bag is not anti-static, so you risk building a charge by simply manipulating the board on top of it. You'd be just fine putting the motherboard on top of the mouse mat or its cardboard box, since those two are non-conductive. On brand new board, you can put it on top of the foam that's usually inside the anti-static bag with the board. 14:18 All Intel SKUs that finish with a "K" don't come with coolers. For AMD, it's the SKUs that end with "X" or "X3D."

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Ah right thanks for the info @BrunodeSouzaLino -- Micro-DTX I hadnt heard of that form factor before.

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

To me, that board looked wider than DTX... I just looked it up. Apparently, it's 226x178mm, so part way between mini-DTX (203x170mm) and standard DTX (203x244mm), so that's a really unusual size, and certainly bigger than the mini-ITX size of 170x170mm that the case was probably designed for.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

@@GodmanchesterGoblin These measurements put the board closer to being Flex ATX, which is smaller than Micro ATX, but bigger than Mini ITX.

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

@BrunodeSouzaLino Agreed. That's a new one on me, but it's been around since 1999 apparently.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

@@GodmanchesterGoblin There's also Mini ATX, which is smaller than Mini ITX at 150x150mmm

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

The curve on the DDR4 RAM... I am not sure about that video clip. The real (and relatively obvious) reason is that it allows the RAM to be inserted with the contacts not having to deflect all at once, which would be the case if the edge of the RAM circuit board was straight. The clever thing is that this design allows reduced insertion force without reducing the contact pressure when the RAM is in the socket.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Yeah its pretty cool the curve. But see what you mean about needing less force. I had never noticed it before making that video !

[@gacpac]

way better than the verge lol

[@MO22731]

Can i ask, any reason why you chose 13500 and not 14500?

[@azamshad8602]

Nice !

[@scooterjes]

The Intel K(and S I think.) chips don't have the stock cooler almost all the other ones do. Since those are the "overclocking" chips they expect you won't use a stock cooler on them anyways.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Yeah that makes sense.

[@bub_sy]

I worked in electronics production for 30 years, the latter 10 of which was hand placing prototype SMT boards. I never wore an esd strap I'm pretty sure it's b*llocks tbh. I was told though that rather than an immediate failure of sensitive parts you're shortening the life of them. Still think it's bs lol

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Ha lol awesome.

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

No, it's not BS. These days, many ICs have input protection networks able to withstand 4kV or so discharged from a human body. In the old days, the protection on the inputs and outputs of some ICs was very much less capable. In the 70s, early MOS devices were far more susceptible to damage, and a static discharge of a few tens or hundreds of volts could cause damage. And partial damage from static discharge is still a thing, although again, modern devices are far more robust than those from 30 or more more years ago.

[@tri_sb]

Would love to hear (or not😂) about the noise: is it compatible for the living room?

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Its fairly quiet. the cpu fan is barely audible. The fan at the back of the case is not loud but is audible. You could change that fan for a quiet one I have the server in my office and i dont hear it. For living room I dont think it would bother you but noise is subjective. You could always turn up the tv volume if too loud lol !! 🤣

[@tri_sb]

@@SpaceinvaderOne thx! Sounds like the HDDs are the main noise.

[@war4peace1979]

I wonder if the N100M fits well in a 1U rackmounted case. My plan is to finally migrate from my Raspberry Pi-based Home Assistant and the N100M looks like a great option, but it needs to sit in a rackmounted case.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Um that would be interesting. Looking at the board the heighest part is the io shield. Standard io shields being about 1.75 inches (44.45 mm) in height and 6.25 inches (158.75 mm) in width. The internal height of a 1u is 1.75 inches (44.45 mm) in height So it should fit !!

[@ascario]

I actually wanted to use the n100m in a 1u chassis as well. It fits perfectly in a chenbro rm146. The n100m seems very picky with PSU's though, couldn't get it to boot with the 1U PSU.

[@MarcoRagonesi]

Hi, I know maybe is power efficient but I was wondering if there’s a gpu small enough to fit there and power enough to run local llmm ( home assistant local voice control) Thanks

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

you could fit something like a quadro p2000 in there okay

[@stm91]

Kind of surprised this isn't more efficient at idle. Mine is based on a 4th! Gen I5 and idles at 28w.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Ah really. Yeah you would think 13th gen would be a bit better then. My old gen8 from 2013 was using 30 watts at idle too with same drives. I should probably test with no 3.5 drives. Also I could test with a high end PSU (actually more expensive than the whole case !) and see if the PSU is not as efficient in the case as it could be?

[@GodmanchesterGoblin]

Yes, it often depends on the power supply. Unless you go high-end (platinum or titanium ratings), most PC power supplies have relatively poor efficiency below 50 Watts or so, and even when trying to save another 10 Watts at idle, the cost of a better supply is not always worthwhile.

[@konnorj6442]

@konnorj6442 0 seconds ago NC and NO on the rear switch are fir normally open and normally closed Which you clipped off that was your hidden reset switch function

[@01burnii]

Why is one drive btrfs, one zfs and 2x xfs? Is there a reason or....? Is it better to have a cache as ZFS rather than BTRFS?

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

I reckon ZFS is better for the cache pool than Btrfs. My setup's got a Btrfs disk in it just because it's a backup server and I was only testing it out when i first used that drive and just left it. For my main array, I stick to XFS but I always keep a ZFS drive in the array too, so I can use it for ZFS replication if I need to

[@botteur]

Thanks for this video! What about Plex transcoding with the IGPU?

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Its great. The intel iGPU is excellent for transcoding. The 13400 has the UHD 730. Its transcoding performance is excellent.

[@NickJones-u4w]

@@SpaceinvaderOne I have a UHD 630 and would love to know what the difference would be, in terms of Plex transcoding ability, if I upgraded to something like the 730 if you have any idea?

[@bansh3]

My G8 running on a E3-1280 v2 use less than 30w on idle, but not always is idle as is running at least one VM up to 4 at one point and i need to switch to 10G as this one cannot handle that ammount of traffic.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

The Gen 8 is a great machine.

[@giacomosiiii]

Anyone know how how he's displaying power consumption?

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

I use a tasmota smart plug. You can flash tasmota firmware on some devices. like some sonoff. I bought mine preflashed from here www.mylocalbytes.com/products/smart-plug-pm

[@TangoEchoAlphaUK]

04:47 - hey Spaceinvader One, do you have a husky yourself? Any chance of seeing it in a video, I love huskies.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Hey I sure do. Maybe she will do a guest appearance :)

[@TangoEchoAlphaUK]

@@SpaceinvaderOne That would be amazing! 😍

[@LucS0042]

NC = normally closed, NO = normally open

[@user-kg6uj6ji5p]

I have seen this case on asia region and branded as INWIN

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Hi. Yes it is In-Win IW-MS04-01 - Mini-ITX NAS Case

[@Haldi4803]

Timestamps would be nice...

[@zyghom]

why to spend money on cache drive if LAN is 1Gbps?

[@shephusted2714]

people would probably be better off waiting for zen5 or doing zen5 mobile - honestly - even more efficient

[@TheTrulyInsane]

C is Common, NO is Normally Open and NC is Normally Closed

[@ariveloutsos2492]

Ryzen 3950x 128GB ddr4 and 78TB

[@PremacyMazda-j5p]

Да Вы вандал!!! Зачем было провода то отрезать? можно было кнопку просто демонтировать.

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

Я бы всё равно выбросил кнопку. Так было быстрее!!

[@traewatkins931]

That case is Out of Stock :/

[@SpaceinvaderOne]

check back soon they sell out quickly there. you may find other sellers its an In-Win IW-MS04-01

[@RenardThatch]

I just use a script on my main to power on my backup unraid server and sync over the directories i want an then it powers off after an hour of idle time.... Backup hardware guzzles 150 watts at idle an im too cheap to replace it. I think this would be an excellent solution to running a steam cache 24/7 though...