Power consumption on Soekris and other systems
I just had so much fun!
I had the fortune of getting water in my server room :-( - not really that great, but the water heater broke and let water on the floor of the room where I keep my home servers ... but I did a lot of cleaning up ;-)
While cleaning up the cables and since all servers where unplugged I could start taking some measurements using my Sparometer digital power meter, search google or go to http://www.dongenergy.dk to read more about that device. I got the one with serial port connectivity, but haven't used it that way yet.
Since I took a lot of measurements with things around the house I thought I would share it - but remember this is NOT a scientific test and you might get other results. Everything was measured with normal Danish 230Volt outlet.
Network equipment
I took some measurements:| Description | Initial burst | Booting? | Idle/running |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16-port Ethernet switch Greycom GC-1416 Blue | 10w | ||
| 16-port Ethernet switch Greycom GC-1416 Brown |
4.2w | 2.9w | |
| 24-port Ethernet switch Greycom GC1424F |
4.4w | ||
| APC 7920 power control bar | 3.3w | ||
| Linksys SRW-2016 16-port Gigabit |
19w | 17.5w |
|
| Zyxel Prestige 2602R-61 DSL router |
8.7w | ||
| Apple Airport Extreme, flat square model |
4.3w | 7.0w | |
| Apple Airport Express |
1.5w | 3.1w | |
| External disk enclosure with one Maxtor disk |
25.9w | 12.8w | |
| |
Notes:
- Nothing was connected to Ethernet switches
- Nothing was connected to Ethernet switches nor USB in Airport Extreme
- Airport Express was in running state green and being used when measured
- The blue GC-1416 is newer than the old brown one
- The power adapter for the external disk used 3.5w alone, before the disk was turned on!
- The power adapter for the Apple Airport Extreme used 0.1w alone, before connecting and turning on device
- I would imagine that the extra power used on the Airports are from configuring the wireless network card and starting to transmit?
Computers and servers, including Soekris
I took some measurements:| Description | Initial burst | Booting? | Idle/running |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Soekris net4501 |
7.2w | ||
|
Soekris net4801 |
10.7w |
|
7.3w |
| Soekris net5501 |
12.6w |
8.2w |
|
|
Betty VIA M-10000 based server 1GHz with 2*3.5" HD |
80w | <60w |
<60w |
| Fiona VIA CL-10000 based server 1GHz with 2*3.5" HD |
85w | 65w |
52w |
| Fluffy Athlon64 based server with 6*3.5" HD |
162w | 134w | 133.5w |
| Sunny Athlon64 based server with 2*3.5" HD |
105w | 87.3w | <65w |
| Flaffy Athlon64 X2 based server with 2*3.5" HD |
115w | 89w | 105w doing OpenSSL speed, idle ~89w |
| Sylvester Shuttle Athlon64 |
87w | 80w | 61w |
| Thinkpad X31 with battery removed, model 2673-PXG PentiumM 1600MHz |
29w | 27w | 22w, with 31w at 100% OpenSSL speed test |
Notes:
- Soekris net4501 did not have CF-card and no HD
- Bursts in Soekris and others are the HD spinning up
- Soekris net4801 and net5501 have exactly the same type of disk from same batch
- Soekris net4801 has crypto accelerator, but I don't think that matters much
Household appliances
I took some measurements:| Description | Initial burst | Booting? | Idle/running |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playstation PS2 Thin black model |
19w | 15-18w | 16.3w |
| Playstation PS2 Silver model, updated old PS2 |
28w standby 2w |
|
25w |
| Old Compaq 15" CRT monitor |
standby 15 w |
|
45-50w runing, but 15w in powersave |
| Fujitsu Siemens Activy 300 Pentium III (I think) HTPC |
standby 4w |
62w |
44w |
|
Thecus N4100 NAS with 2*3.5" HD |
45w |
45w |
45w |
|
Combined TV, PS2 and Satbox |
15.7w |
satbox turned on 20,5w - the usual idle state |
TV and satbox turned on - hmmm 200-300w meter goes up and down? |
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Notes:
- I know the monitor is not really a household appliance, but its not a server ;-)
Conclusion
It seems obvious that a Soekris makes for a nice server/router at home and can even pay itself back pretty soon compared to an "old PC". I really should also consider moving my mailserver from Sunny onto a Soekris 5501.I was happy that some of the equipment like PS2 and Activy 300 weren't burning as much as I would have thought.
Also buying an Apple Airport Extreme and plugging a few things directly into that might save another 10w from not running a switch. It is intended as being your router and has 3 LAN Ethernet ports and 1 WAN port for the internet - but I use a soekris as my firewall with OpenBSD :-)
