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    Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Official Netgate® Hardware
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      Powerd will lower the CPU clock speed and voltage when it's under low load. It does it dynamically all the time if enabled.

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      • N
        NOCling
        last edited by

        My 6100 use 14-16W, 1G WAN and 2 * 1G LAN as LAG, SSD and depends on load.

        PowereD is adaptiv, it's a nice low Power high throughput device.

        Netgate 6100 & Netgate 2100

        C keyserK 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • C
          Cabledude @NOCling
          last edited by

          @NOCling said in Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100:

          My 6100 use 14-16W, 1G WAN and 2 * 1G LAN as LAG, SSD and depends on load.

          PowereD is adaptiv, it's a nice low Power high throughput device.

          Thank you :-)
          So may I assume that these figures are with powerd daemon enabled?

          Pete
          Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
          Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
          Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

          keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • keyserK
            keyser Rebel Alliance @NOCling
            last edited by

            @NOCling I thought PowerD didn’t matter with newer Intel based CPUs as they are far better and faster at C-state jumping than software is, and thus has no effect.

            Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

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            • keyserK
              keyser Rebel Alliance @Cabledude
              last edited by

              @Cabledude I don’t think it does matter to be honest. My 6100 measures about 14 watt with two 1Gbe ports active (both using SFPs) and a 512Gb SSD installed. I do not have PowerD enabled.

              Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

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              • C
                Cabledude @keyser
                last edited by

                @keyser Thank you for that, very helpful. Just curious: the 6100 Max offers a 128GB SSD but you say yours has 512GB. Is that DIY? I think I read another topic that concludes 6100 DIY SSD upgrade is not possible or at least Netgate discourages it.

                Pete
                Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

                keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • keyserK
                  keyser Rebel Alliance @Cabledude
                  last edited by

                  @Cabledude Yes, I installed a 512Gb SSD myself because I wanted to be sure not kill the built-in eMMC after noticing how hard/much I was writing to the filesystem with pfBlockerNG, NtopNG and Syslog-NG installed. It would have killed my eMMC in less than a year :-)

                  It’s very easy to install a SSD yourself - they discurage it because you have to be a little carefull when taking it apart - It you just tear it open, you migh break the lightemmiting plastic rods that brings LED light from the MB to the front of the chassis.

                  Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

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                  • C
                    Cabledude @keyser
                    last edited by

                    @keyser said in Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100:

                    @Cabledude Yes, I installed a 512Gb SSD myself

                    So does your 6100 now has two active storage entities? Or can there be only one active?

                    Pete
                    Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                    Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                    Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      It only boots from one, unless you install as a mirror but I wouldn't recommend that across dissimilar devices.
                      pfSense only has any built in handling for one drive. Some users have added scripts to allow a separate drive for caching or logs etc but that's all custom stuff.

                      Steve

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                      • R
                        raystn @keyser
                        last edited by

                        @keyser I want to make sure I purchase the correct/compatible SSD. If you don't mind, can you please provide the brand/model of the 512Gb SSD you've installed? Thanks in advance.

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                        • keyserK
                          keyser Rebel Alliance @raystn
                          last edited by

                          @raystn said in Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100:

                          @keyser I want to make sure I purchase the correct/compatible SSD. If you don't mind, can you please provide the brand/model of the 512Gb SSD you've installed? Thanks in advance.

                          Transcend 512GB, M.2 2242, PCIE GEN3X2, B+M KEY (TS512GMTE452T)

                          Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

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                          • R
                            raystn @keyser
                            last edited by

                            @keyser Thanks, I appreciate it.

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                            • C
                              Cabledude @stephenw10
                              last edited by Cabledude

                              I just looked up the TDP for the 4100's CPU C3338R (10,5W) and the 6100's CPU C3558 (16W). I am not a CPU geek so how does this work? Just based on the TDP's the 4100 should consume 5,5W less than the 6100 but that's not the case.
                              6100 readings below are all in the 14W-15W range.
                              A buddy of mine has a 4100 and it's consuming 14W on his meter, two 1G ports in use, eMMC and very basic config.

                              So how does TDP translate to real world energy consumption?

                              @stephenw10 said in Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100:

                              With the internal devices removed (wifi, modem, SSD), only an single 1G link and powerd enabled I see ~11W. That's at idle.

                              So 11W for a 16W TDP, this means that the CPU doesn't necessarily reach its TDP value in real action.

                              @stephenw10 said in Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100:

                              A spot figure for a 6100 I have here is 15W with only 1x1G and 2x2.5G NICs linked but that also has other internal devices.

                              @keyser said in Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100:

                              @Cabledude I don’t think it does matter to be honest. My 6100 measures about 14 watt with two 1Gbe ports active (both using SFPs) and a 512Gb SSD installed. I do not have PowerD enabled.

                              I hope you don't mind me hammering on about this, but energy consumption is very important to me and if I could save 5W (4100 vs 6100) it would be an important aspect to consider.
                              You know I think the 4100 is beefy enough for me now, but I am considering the 6100 for only 200 more just in case I need it later.

                              Pete
                              Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                              Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                              Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by stephenw10

                                Thermal Design Power simply means the power the cooling system must be able to dissipate. So the maximum power it might consume.

                                So at low loads neither CPU should consume anywhere near that.

                                Also bare in mind those plug-top style power meters are not that accurate, they are uncalibrated. And that that includes the PSU which will be less efficient at low loads.

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                                • C
                                  Cabledude @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10 said in Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100:

                                  Thermal Design Power simply means the power the cooling system must be able to dissipate. So the maximum power it might consume.

                                  So at low loads neither CPU should consume anywhere near that.

                                  Okay I see. I just looked up TDP for the Celeron J4125 (my Synology DS720+ NAS) is 10W, but at idle that unit, including two Samsung 250GB SSD’s, consumes 6W total.

                                  Also bare in mind those plug-top style power meters are not that accurate, they are calibrated. And that that includes the PSU which will be less efficient at low loads.

                                  Yes good point. Still, measuring my buddy’s 4100 vs. my (future) 6100 using the same meter should give a pretty good indication.

                                  Pete
                                  Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                                  Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                                  Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • C
                                    Cabledude @keyser
                                    last edited by

                                    @keyser said in Power consumption of the 6100 vs 5100:

                                    How about getting a SG-2100? It’s the same as 1100, but has 4Gb RAM and an additional NIC with allows a good deal more peak throughput (about 600’ish Mbps).
                                    So it will handle the 500Mbps if you do not enable NTOPNG. If you enable that, expect the throughput to drop to 250-300Mbps peak.
                                    Most importantly: power consumption is very very low,

                                    Dear @keyser ,
                                    Have you ever measured the power consumption of your SG-2100? And do you have the Base (eMMC) or the Max (NVMe SSD) version?

                                    Thanks so much!

                                    Pete
                                    Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                                    Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                                    Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

                                    keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • keyserK
                                      keyser Rebel Alliance @Cabledude
                                      last edited by

                                      @Cabledude

                                      My 2100 was bought as the standard version and I used it as such initially (230v Europe supply).
                                      Back then i did some measurements on it and it idle’ed at about 4,2 watt when using two RJ45 port, and would go to 6w under “heavy load”

                                      I later upgraded it with a 480Gb SSD and a 1000base-bx20 SFP for direct fiber Connect of My ISP WAN, and it then idle’ed at about 5,3w and could reach 8.5w under “heavy” load that also incurred a lot of writing to SSD.
                                      If less writing was done, it peaked at about 7,5w

                                      So a Very power efficient - But not Very powerfull - device.

                                      Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

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                                      • N
                                        NOCling
                                        last edited by NOCling

                                        My SG2100 with 32GB SSD use 6W, EU 230V.

                                        Netgate 6100 & Netgate 2100

                                        keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • keyserK
                                          keyser Rebel Alliance @NOCling
                                          last edited by

                                          @NOCling Note the difference in 110v US vs 230v EU supplies - US supplies will cost you .2 to .4w more power because of the less efficient transformation

                                          Love the no fuss of using the official appliances :-)

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                                          • C
                                            Cabledude
                                            last edited by

                                            Thank you both for your insights.

                                            @keyser may I ask why you decided to get a 6100 despite being so pleased with the 2100?

                                            Kind regards,

                                            Pete
                                            Home: SG-2100 + UniFi + Synology. SG-1100 retired
                                            Parents: SG-1100 + UniFi + Synology
                                            Testing: SG-1100 w/ 120GB SSD via ext USB (eMMC dead). Works great

                                            keyserK 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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