Hardware won’t live until the end of time

Home Server Cluster 2025 index

Hardware has a finite amount of time that it will stay working. It varies from component to component but still, in the end it will die.

A CPU or RAM stick, when cooled properly and running 24/7 can probably last you between 10 and 20 years without a problem.

But something like a fan or harddisk (HDD) that has spinning motors, those will have a much more finite lifespan. In my person opinion and experience, it can be expected to last at least 5 years but beyond that wear and tear is going to start taking more and more of a toll. Disks will start to fail more and more often but there is also the energy usage factor to consider, let’s dive into that!

Leaving it running can become more expensive then buying new!

This might sound counterintuitive, especially for people who enjoy older enterprise hardware, but leaving older hardware running at some point will become more expensive vs buying new hardware and transplanting what you do with it.

CPU performance and power usage

First off, a time period of 5 years within the IT space is quite long, available performance and power usage can change drastically.

As an example, the current main large server (called “pvebigboy”) was initially built with a Ryzen 1700x, a super modern processor when the system was built. It will be replaced with a system using a Mobile Ryzen 7940HX processor.

The Ryzen 1700x was an 8-core chip with a TDP of 95w
The Ryzen 9 7940HX is an 16-core chip with a TDP of 75w (max)

The Ryzen 1700x has a max boost frequency of 3.8Ghz
The Ryzen 9 7940HX has a max boost frequency of 5.2Ghz

(I realize max boost is something different then all-core boost, but still, it’s to illustrate a point. Let’s say all-core boost for the 7940HX is 4.0Ghz only (it’s more when properly cooled))

As you can see in the above comparison, even if IPC (instructions per clock tick) would have remained the same and we do a quick and dirty calculation then we see the following:

8x 3.8Ghz = 30,4Ghz of processing power available
16x 4.0Ghz = 64Ghz of processing power available

So even without any improvements in IPC (which there have been, good for generally up to 50%!) the new 7940HX is easily twice as fast for compute tasks as the old 1700x and it does so while consuming less power. In reality it’s likely up to 3 to 4 times as fast!

Even if you don’t need the processing power this new chip brings and you are fine to wait, there is a different side to it. It will do your current tasks much faster and it will do them faster while using less power doing so. This means using instead of taking 20s while using 15w to unpack a file it now takes 10s while using 10w. That quickly starts to compound and will result in a lower energy bill.

HDD power usage

Modern HDDs have also become much more energy efficient. I already mentioned this I think during the original server build or with the DIY backup solution project but rising platter sizes combined with Helium filled drives has made a massive difference in energy usage for HDDs.

A comparison again:

8TB Seagate IronWolf “air” uses ~7,8w idle, ~10,1w working
16TB Seagate IronWolf “Helium” uses ~5,1w idle, ~7,3w working

Let’s say we have an array of 8 drives:

8x 8,95w “air” = 71,6w power usage on average (assuming 50% busy time)
8x 6,2w “helium” = 49,6w power usage on average (assuming 50% busy time)

If we total that over a years time we see the following:

71,6w x 24Hr = 1718,4Wh x 365 days = 627kWh of power usage for a year
49,6w x 25Hr = 1190,4Wh x 365 days = 434kWh of power usage for a year

Where I live energy costs about $0,25 per kWh so totals look like

8TB “air” = $157 energy costs per year
16TB “helium” = $108 energy costs per year

That might not seem like a huge difference but we said this setup would run for about 5 years:

8TB “air”= $157 x 5 = $785 to keep the storage running 24/7
16TB “helium” = $108 x 5 = $540 to keep the storage running 24/7

Looking at this just by using more modern energy efficient helium filled drives, even if they would have been the same size you would size $245 of running costs.

But that wasn’t the only difference! The cheaper disks in regards to energy usage were also twice as big! So if you didn’t need more storage you would be able to run roughly half of the disks with 16TB vs 8TB disks! In theory you’d then have $270 of running costs vs $785 making it a difference of $515 over 5 years!

So as you can see, even a disk that might still feel fairly modern being 8TB can cost you more then you actually realize if you also look at the energy you are paying to keep everything online and running.

*I realize this article doesn’t take into account the price of buying new hardware vs leaving it running but I partly wave that argument away with the argument I made above that I want to replace my hardware after 5 years.

Energy cost has to be a factor

For something that you are going to leave running 24/7, energy costs have to be factored in. We’ve all heard the stories that you should replace a 15 or 10 year old fridge or freezer with a new one and that you’d make the cost of the new one back over the next few years.

IT hardware isn’t much different. Even though that older hardware might still be functioning fine, especially if it’s older Enterprise gear, replacing it with some modern and much more energy efficient can really help keep costs down or even pay for the upgrade itself!