Estimating power usage without installing an OS
From: Dan Lyke via chugalug ------------------------------------------------------ Friend dropped this HP Z800 Workstation older (2009-2010, seems to be) 128G dual Xeon machine on me, if I could use it. Plugged it into an ammeter, turned it on, and presumably going into BIOS it's sucking 1.5 amps. Not sure I need a machine in my house that draws 180W at idle, unless it'll be substantially less when it boots into an OS (and I'd need to put a drive in it to test that). Anybody got words of wisdom that would convince me to dig up a drive and install an OS on this and maybe it doesn't really draw that much at idle? I my home server right now is a cheapass Dell circa 2016, with 32G of RAM. I don't really do anything that needs more, though I do occasionally think about loading up a database to play with things that lots o' RAM would help with.=============================================================== From: Aaron welch via chugalug ------------------------------------------------------ Nah, I sell =E2=80=9CMicro Servers=E2=80=9D to folks with similar horsepowe= r that sips 35W max. Send it off to the recycler and save money on power. Aaron Welch Chief Mechanic @ Geek Ventures 423-505-9999 n2nightfall@gmail.com "Enabling people to do great things with their own ideas." to a . k lp
=============================================================== From: "Jeffrey A. Wormsley via chugalug" ------------------------------------------------------ Dual Xeon and Low Power don't belong in the same sentence, do they? Worm to a . k lp
=============================================================== From: Stephen Kraus via chugalug ------------------------------------------------------ *Laughs in Dell VRTX power usage* nto t a ? y
=============================================================== From: Aaron welch via chugalug ------------------------------------------------------ That is still better than my stack of R540/740s=E2=80=A6 Aaron Welch Chief Mechanic @ Geek Ventures 423-505-9999 n2nightfall@gmail.com "Enabling people to do great things with their own ideas." into ut a d e? ly
=============================================================== From: Stephen Kraus via chugalug ------------------------------------------------------ It's actually very efficient, but still mote than a desktop d into put a t lly
=============================================================== From: Dan Lyke via chugalug ------------------------------------------------------ So I plugged it into my "Spartan Power" 110v meter. It's a dual 2.6GHz Zeon with circa 96G of RAM and a slightly older NVidia graphics card (that needs the external power connector). Just turned on and on the "you need to plug in the power connector" message on the video card, it draws 186 watts. Booted into Ubuntu 24.04 from a Flash drive, 130-160 watts. My current home server, an i7-6700 at 3.4GHz with 32 G of RAM and an SSD and a spinny disk draws about 22 watts in Linux at idle. So it's not gonna replace the home server. Considering what to do with it, because I have definitely had tasks in the past dealing with mapping data where that much RAM would be really nice. On Sun, Dec 28, 2025 at 8:36=E2=80=AFPM Dan Lyke wr= ote: to a . k lp
=============================================================== From: "flushy flushy.net via chugalug" ------------------------------------------------------ At any meaningful load, my systems are pulling ~900W split across 2 UPS (that's including switches). I calculated that for every 100W of power of the rack, that's about $10 per month in my electric. Of course, this is winter, cooling will be more expensive in the summer, I figure about an additional $50 per month in the summer. At full bore, they're easily consuming 1800W though. I ended up replacing one of my GPUs with a lower power one, and that saved me about 300W.
=============================================================== From: Aaron welch via chugalug ------------------------------------------------------ I am going through this calculus right now for my home network and test lab for work. I have all these tiny 10" micro racks that I use for product demos with Dell/HP/Lenovo micro "servers" and I keep trying to figure out how to scale down the full rack of gear in the test lab to make it portable. I have a few 5-6 port 2.5G/10G switches, but no one really makes a small form factor 8 port 10G managed switch. -Aaron --=20 Aaron Welch Chief Mechanic @ Geek Ventures 423-505-9999 n2nightfall@gmail.com "Enabling people to do great things with their own ideas."
=============================================================== From: "flushy flushy.net via chugalug" ------------------------------------------------------ I've started to see a lot of Sodola. I'm not sure how good they are, but I did just see this on ebay: SODOLA 12 Port 10Gb Managed Switch, 8x10G SFP+ & 4x10GBase-T Ports https://ebay.us/m/4LWDh6 Looks like a great price, but I'm not in the market for a 10G switch ATM, since my EX2500 is still doing great.
=============================================================== From: Aaron welch via chugalug ------------------------------------------------------ These are for 10=E2=80=9D racks, so that is just slightly too big. I have 2= Sodola switches in my collection and they work great for 2.5/10G dumb switches. Aaron Welch Chief Mechanic @ Geek Ventures 423-505-9999 n2nightfall@gmail.com "Enabling people to do great things with their own ideas."