After having had a custom server running in my office for almost 6 years, I decided to plug-in a Watt meter the other night to measure exactly how much power it was drawing. I was shocked ..

Before I reveal what happend afterwards let me first explain that I always used my “old” gaming rig as base for a server. So when my main computer was upgraded, the old parts were usually moved into the server, except for graphics card card. I always had a low profile, passive cooled, low-end in the server, as it would be accesed using remote desktop anyways. The server was also always set the server op for power saving mode, so when it wasent used it ould almost go into sleep mode. Rough server specs were:

CPU: q6600, RAM: 4 GB DDR2, SSD: 1x 40 GB, HDD: 5x 500 GB, 1x 750 GB, 3x 1000 GB, PSU: 650 Watt ,FANs: 5x120mm (Including the one for CPU cooling)

Back to the Watt meter, it showed 153 Watt when IDLE! At boot up it would consume 330 Watt!
So, how much is that a day? Or per year?

153 Watt * 24 Hours = 3672/1000 3,672 KWH a day
Current pricing where I live is 1,69 kroner per KWH, so
3,672*1,69 = 6,20 kroner per day or 6,20*365 = 2263 kroner per year!

2263 kroner a year, just in power!

I had for some time been looking at the “Nas World” and never found any good reason because I would be limited in what i could do with my server then. If i had a Server running on a “2nd generation high-end PC” i would always have extra power for hosting a game server. Now i was a t a point where i had to reconsider if i needed that freedom at all.

I made a quick calculation on what a NAS would cost pr. year running. I found a QNAP TS-419P+ Nas that looked to be able to offer what i really needed, or more correctly, i had everything i knew i would want, and then some. Two main things were posibility to have lots of space and low power consumption. It can handle 4 disk of up to 3 TB a piece, so a total of 12 TB and according to its specs it peaks at 31 Watt ( although thats with 4 x 500 GB disks ). Running cost per year with 31 Watt constantly would be:

31 * 24 = 744/1000 = 0,744 KWH a day
The price of a KWH is still 1,69 kroner per KWH, so
0,744*1,69 = 1,25 kroner per day or 1,25*365 = 456,25 kroner per year!

Thats a yearly saving of 2263 – 456,25 = 1806,75 kroner per year! Do note that i calculated the NAS running cost as if its working all the time, and the Sever calculation was made while the system was idle.

Since i got the NAS, i discovered that i actually dont need all the things I used to convince my self i should have a powerfull server for. Also, i have found numerous cool small things to install on it, like iStat, CrashPlan, TwonkyMedia just to mention a few.

On top of this Im starting to love this whole SSH Console thing, so trying to move away from the, otherwise, pretty webGUI the Qnap comes with.