OK so what draw through would a prodesk 400 or similar system run? I figure it can’t possibly run any lower than 40W. a N100 based board with ram, the NVME, the NIC should come in around 20W.
so let’s say 20W savings, 24x7x365. For me power is 0.12KwH.
so 20W per day, 24 hours x 7 days x 365 = 1,226 KWh * 0.12 = $147. Roughly.
So prodesk with Nic and probably more or new ram etc - 120 once in your hands, give or take.
N100 board thing, ram, nvme, nic - 240-260, or get a netbox from ali express, or amazon… (topton, cwwk, etc). also around 250 but more than 2 ports. after the first year of electric use - cost comes even or better, and after that it’s just gravy.
So I have to admit after typing that I got the maths wrong. Note despite how the phraseing goes. 24,7 365 math wise it’s just 24x365
so 24 * 365*20W = 175.2Kwh leading to 21 dollars a year.
ok so 5 year payback, roughly
As a router how much underload do you think it would run most of the time with IDS/IPS active? I have to imagine it would be 50% load most of the time.
A pfsense box based on a Prodesk 400 G4 is at about 1% cpu utilization at any given time, far as I’ve seen.
Don’t know about continual IDS/IPS but at the same time is that actually a thing you need?
Additionally, % cpu utilization will not correspond directly to % power draw. There isn’t a lot of sense in trying to drive down power utilization in a system that’s going to run in the neighborhood of 12-20w