i7700K - Yay or Nay - low idle consumption?

[frantiseksram]

Hello Folks, 

I was waiting for HexOS to become available, and later build NAS for shared data storage, 2 gaming PC backups, Phone backups. Now that I've seen the Plex app, I like that as well, and probably use it too.

Got old hardware from gaming PC build, just unsure if it's a good idea to use.

CPU i7700K

32GB of DDR4 memory

MSI gaming ATX motherboard Z270

PSU 650 80+ gold from EVGA

So I plan to use integrated graphics, buy a small case, 3 or 4 HDD, then small boot SSD, and if this is a thing, maybe larger SSD for cache?

Not worried about the performance, think the CPU should handle Plex transcode (think) for 4K telly. What I'm not sure about is how low can the idle draw be? I don't want anything drawing 60W draw on idle. Under 10W idle draw would be OK. Don't want a massive bill for electricity. And I just don't know if that's achievable on this platform.

Also do I need ECC memory? This CPU does not suport it.

Also contemplating UPS just for the NAS. Recomendations? Can my hardware even receive a signal from UPS to shut down? Never played with that.

Thanks.

[Almeda]

> What I'm not sure about is how low can the idle draw be? I don't want anything drawing 60W draw on idle. Under 10W idle draw would be OK. Don't want a massive bill for electricity. And I just don't know if that's achievable on this platform.

You'd have to measure how much it draws.

> Also do I need ECC memory? This CPU does not support it.

There's definitely benefits from having ECC memory but it's not a requirement.

[Mobius]

With just 1 ssd you might be hitting anywhere between 8-20w idle. Each hdd can add 3-6w idle depending on how beefy of a hdd you use. Like a 24tb 7200rpm exos drive will have a higher power consumption than some smaller drives.

From what i hear more ram is more useful than a "cache ssd".

Assuming you mean the intel i7 7700k, it should be more than capable for what you mentioned 

you don't need ecc memory.
Truenas which HexOS is built on top of supports nut for ups shutdown commands. I imagine HexOS will support the same but i can't say for certain. I'm also interested in finding a ups for my server.
if it helps this is a list of ups that has a supported nut protocol but it goes over my head.

[frantiseksram]

17 hours ago, Almeda said:

> What I'm not sure about is how low can the idle draw be? I don't want anything drawing 60W draw on idle. Under 10W idle draw would be OK. Don't want a massive bill for electricity. And I just don't know if that's achievable on this platform.

You'd have to measure how much it draws.

Yes, can measure it once it's built. But I'm in the planning stage. If I need a different motherboard to get low power draw, different PSU, then this will affect my case selection decision. So i'd rather gather some knowledge before that.

[frantiseksram]

17 hours ago, Mobius said:

With just 1 ssd you might be hitting anywhere between 8-20w idle. Each hdd can add 3-6w idle depending on how beefy of a hdd you use. Like a 24tb 7200rpm exos drive will have a higher power consumption than some smaller drives.

How do people got sub 10W power draw, what do they boot from if not SSD?

17 hours ago, Mobius said:

From what i hear more ram is more useful than a "cache ssd".

Thanks, good to know. Might as well not bother, 32Gb RAM is plenty as a cache

[Mobius]

38 minutes ago, frantiseksram said:

Yes, can measure it once it's built. But I'm in the planning stage. If I need a different motherboard to get low power draw, different PSU, then this will affect my case selection decision. So i'd rather gather some knowledge before that.

here is a spread sheet on psu efficiency and here is another spread sheet on idle power draw but they seem like best case scenario

38 minutes ago, frantiseksram said:

How do people got sub 10W power draw, what do they boot from if not SSD?

Its all about getting higher C states from what i can tell, which is dependent on what your hardware supports but also if you have thing preventing reaching higher c states. 
here is another spread sheet on different pc components builds and their idle power consumption

People would be booting from ssd.