[SOLVED] Power consumption of a NAS (well, music storage)

[chuffedas]

Can I just check some numbers to see if i am somewhere near?
Or if I have missed anything.
(Not done this before)

I am setting up a machine to work as a hub for my music (not positive that is still called a NAS) to stream music to other devices around the house.
I don't think I will be using it for anything else just now.

I have an intel atom d410pt mini ITX desktop board. which I have played with and put OMV on it to try it out.
It uses next to none of its resources (5% cpu, 7% ram).
It has a noisy fan on the 120W psu.

So I was considering seeing if i could get a silent lower power psu for it and carry on using it.
However, it currently draws 30W at idle. I look it up and the CPU TDP is 10W, then the psu is using power and the fan, plus the mobo, right?
So, I am thinking that I will be unlikely to be able to get that much lower would I?
Or would I?

The other option is a Pi4 for example.

Which seems like the idle is around 4W.
Plus a couple of watts for an ssd (OS) and 2.5" hdd. Totals 6w max idle.
which works out at about £7-8 per year.

The itx is more like £42 per year at idle. The difference being the cost of a Pi4.

I understand that there are other benefits to the pi over the itx board as well.

Have i missed anything obvious please?
Thank you.

 

[Cj-tech]

Can I just check some numbers to see if i am somewhere near?
Or if I have missed anything.
(Not done this before)

I am setting up a machine to work as a hub for my music (not positive that is still called a NAS) to stream music to other devices around the house.
I don't think I will be using it for anything else just now.

I have an intel atom d410pt mini ITX desktop board. which I have played with and put OMV on it to try it out.
It uses next to none of its resources (5% cpu, 7% ram).
It has a noisy fan on the 120W psu.

So I was considering seeing if i could get a silent lower power psu for it and carry on using it.
However, it currently draws 30W at idle. I look it up and the CPU TDP is 10W, then the psu is using power and the fan, plus the mobo, right?
So, I am thinking that I will be unlikely to be able to get that much lower would I?
Or would I?

The other option is a Pi4 for example.

Which seems like the idle is around 4W.
Plus a couple of watts for an ssd (OS) and 2.5" hdd. Totals 6w max idle.
which works out at about £7-8 per year.

The itx is more like £42 per year at idle. The difference being the cost of a Pi4.

I understand that there are other benefits to the pi over the itx board as well.

Have i missed anything obvious please?
Thank you.

I literally just finished setting up a Plex server on my Raspberry Pi 4 about 30 minutes ago. I would recommend using a Raspberry Pi. Plex allows streaming from my iPhone to other devices through an app (there is an Alexa skill that is not very helpful). However, it mentions that playing music directly on my phone would be limited to 1 minute (unless I pay a one-time $4.99 for a premium option). So far I have streamed over smart speakers without a problem.

There is also a more advanced plan that has a lifetime purchase price of ~$120. It’s free to use though without a plan.

If you just want file sharing, I’d suggest Samba Server. It’s pretty simple to setup as well. On my Pi 4, I have both Samba and Plex setup.

You can probably use Ubuntu (or other Linux flavors) on your current system and do the exact same thing. If you have Windows installed, I don’t know of any similar software.

If you need some good guides for either option, I have some great ones saved.

 

[chuffedas]

Thank you for this.
Loads of options.
I think you are right, I just need file sharing.
So a light OS and Samba is the way forward eh?

I can use it for other things as well then can't I?
Then add other things when I have the urge later.
Shows that I don't know what a NAS is really do I?
I just need to share files.
Thank you.

I want to maintain music quality, I am thinking that if I use wifi it compresses it, so will go Ethernet cable.

Oh, I tried running a 2.5" HDD from a pi4 before and it did not like it.
So I need to work out the powering of it.

What is the best way to set this up please?
USB hub?

 

[DSzymborski]

Wifi does not change the contents of music files. Whether it's lossless or lossy depends on what the file itself is.

Whether you need a NAS or something standalone or simply a shared folder in a spare PC really depends on what features you need for this sharing.

 

[chuffedas]

Wifi does not change the contents of music files. Whether it's lossless or lossy depends on what the file itself is.

Oh, ok, thanks. I misunderstood something I read somewhere then.

Whether you need a NAS or something standalone or simply a shared folder in a spare PC really depends on what features you need for this sharing.

Thanks.
I just want to store the music in a central location to allow me to play them in three or four locations around the house via my local network. Some via wifi, another via ethernet (because I thought it was better quality)

 

[Cj-tech]

Thank you for this.
Loads of options.
I think you are right, I just need file sharing.
So a light OS and Samba is the way forward eh?

I can use it for other things as well then can't I?
Then add other things when I have the urge later.
Shows that I don't know what a NAS is really do I?
I just need to share files.
Thank you.

I want to maintain music quality, I am thinking that if I use wifi it compresses it, so will go Ethernet cable.

Oh, I tried running a 2.5" HDD from a pi4 before and it did not like it.
So I need to work out the powering of it.

What is the best way to set this up please?
USB hub?

The Samba server software doesn’t take up too many resources on my Pi 4, so I doubt it will take up very much on your system (leaving plenty of resources available for other projects). I have both Plex and Samba at the same time.

If you setup a Samba server, you can connect to it from any device that has internet capabilities and can connect to file servers. I also agree that the files won’t be affected by Wi-Fi or Ethernet. However, Ethernet might be a better option depending on the strength of your Wi-Fi signal.

I have a 2.5 inch HDD connected to my Pi4 over a SATA to USB adapter right now. It doesn't need anything else. You only have to mount the drive to your Pi. I have mine setup to mount it at reboot. A command like this is placed in the /etc/rc.local file before the line that says exit 0:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /path/to/mount

In the above code, /dev/sda1 would be your hard drive. The /path/to/mount is where you want your files to be saved (for example, /home/bill/Music). Use the command lsblk to list all drives that are connected then copy the correct path based on the amount of storage.

Example lsblk output:

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda           8:0    0  74.5G  0 disk
└─sda1        8:1    0  74.5G  0 part
mmcblk0     179:0    0 238.3G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0   256M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0   238G  0 part /

Since I know the drive I want has 80GB (it has some data on it so it is 74.5GB), it is sda1. So the path is /dev/sda1.

Edit: This guide is a great help in configuring a Samba server. It is mainly for the Pi, but should work in most Linux variations. There are better ways to mount USB hard drives, if that doesn't mount consistently at reboot, I'll share another method.

 

[chuffedas]

The Samba server software doesn’t take up too many resources on my Pi 4, so I doubt it will take up very much on your system (leaving plenty of resources available for other projects). I have both Plex and Samba at the same time.

If you setup a Samba server, you can connect to it from any device that has internet capabilities and can connect to file servers. I also agree that the files won’t be affected by Wi-Fi or Ethernet. However, Ethernet might be a better option depending on the strength of your Wi-Fi signal.

I have a 2.5 inch HDD connected to my Pi4 over a SATA to USB adapter right now. It doesn't need anything else. You only have to mount the drive to your Pi. I have mine setup to mount it at reboot. A command like this is placed in the /etc/rc.local file before the line that says exit 0:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /path/to/mount

In the above code, /dev/sda1 would be your hard drive. The /path/to/mount is where you want your files to be saved (for example, /home/bill/Music). Use the command lsblk to list all drives that are connected then copy the correct path based on the amount of storage.

Example lsblk output:

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda           8:0    0  74.5G  0 disk
└─sda1        8:1    0  74.5G  0 part
mmcblk0     179:0    0 238.3G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0   256M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0   238G  0 part /

Since I know the drive I want has 80GB (it has some data on it so it is 74.5GB), it is sda1. So the path is /dev/sda1.

Edit: This guide is a great help in configuring a Samba server. It is mainly for the Pi, but should work in most Linux variations. There are better ways to mount USB hard drives, if that doesn't mount consistently at reboot, I'll share another method.

Thanks loads. I will be a little while getting to it.

I remembered a possible cause for it not liking the hdd in the past. (it clicked a lot).
So I have gone round in circle thinking that there was not enough power for the hdd.
I think that (in hindsight) the adapter was faulty.
At the same time I was trying it in my main pc as well.
Something destroyed an ssd, a usb torch that was plugged in charging and a little optical card on my pc.
Other strange things were going on at the same time, a dac board would switch off if i touched it.

Anyway, I think it was that adapter as things are back to normal since.
Well, apart from a strange change in the house power.

 

[chuffedas]

So, with a bit of backwards and forwardsing, I decided what to do.
I realised that I often leave my big pc on and that was using 50-80W,.
I tend to leaveit on during the day when i am in as well.
I treated myself to a Geekworm X829 (the last adapter I bought cost me a few quid)
So, I have set up my RPI as a desktop for basic tasks. I can always use the big one when I need to, but the Pi is fine for emails and internet type stuff.
It is set up to boot from a small SSD which is lovely.
Then I have another SSD underneath it which is my music.
This is shared files that I can link to with everything else.
I am dead pleased with it.
It does what I need it to. Top whack, it uses about 7W.

Thanks for the input. It was very helpful.

 

[Cj-tech]

So, with a bit of backwards and forwardsing, I decided what to do.
I realised that I often leave my big pc on and that was using 50-80W,.
I tend to leaveit on during the day when i am in as well.
I treated myself to a Geekworm X829 (the last adapter I bought cost me a few quid)
So, I have set up my RPI as a desktop for basic tasks. I can always use the big one when I need to, but the Pi is fine for emails and internet type stuff.
It is set up to boot from a small SSD which is lovely.
Then I have another SSD underneath it which is my music.
This is shared files that I can link to with everything else.
I am dead pleased with it.
It does what I need it to. Top whack, it uses about 7W.

Thanks for the input. It was very helpful.

Sounds pretty cool! Glad it worked out well for you.