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namesarenotus t1_j42tm54 wrote

Reply to comment by ledow in Intel breaks the 6GHz barrier with $699 Core i9-13900KS processor by Avieshek

Curious to know, what’s the load rating for each server under normal conditions? Even though the PSU is rated at 1400 watts I assume they are not running at full capacity. Crazy to think that home Computers can possibly run at the same draw rating as a household microwave.

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ledow t1_j42vjo3 wrote

A blade server I had used to pull 3KW under average load. Full load required 4 separate 13A 220V mains plugs. It would literally "dial down" if you only had 2 or 3 plugged in.

But even that just ran off four normal 13A sockets in two double-sockets that were installed in an office ring main.

Generally you don't have servers unless they're pulling power... or entirely idle. Even a redundant server is churning along doing everything the same, ready to take over at a second's notice if it needs to. 800-1000W draw isn't unusual for a single server, 1400W if it's being stressed (and all servers get old enough to be stressed, when you then start trying to pitch for upgrades).

Hell, I have network switches that individually pull 700W during operation (usually PoE switches powering phones, cameras and wireless points).

A small rack of basic networking equipment can easily max out two 13A 220V plugs (don't forget, you'll have a UPS on that, so it's only 90% efficient before you even start).

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namesarenotus t1_j42ws46 wrote

Well shit that’s a lot of power. I knew Xeons were not that efficient but I had no idea they drew that much consistently. Gotta get those I and O requests completed.

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ledow t1_j42y9rd wrote

The chip might be one part... but now consider a dual-processor setup, plus fans, plus cards (RAID, multiple 10Gb/40Gb networking, GPUs for some loads, etc.), plus storage (e.g. a server with 12+ drives in it is pretty standard, nowadays NVMe is pretty standard but the internal storage is often still 12 x 15K spinning disks), plus a TON of RAM (the last servers I bought have 32 DDR5 RAM slots - 16 per CPU - and can take several Tbytes of RAM).

Plus PSU losses, redundant PSUs (again... never completely idle), etc.

Dual NVMe boot drives + multiple 10GbE SFP ports + internal RAIDs on the order of 10Tb is pretty much standard "small school / office" hardware for servers nowadays.

And then you have multiple of them, usually in multiple locations, and that's just your on-premise stuff.

The small school I work for has 10Gb leased lines.

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