this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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Need to expand local storage for local media streaming. Running a regular desktop on linux.

I am willing to spend money on "the best" for streaming purpose while and hopefully something I can keep reusing down the road if it lasts.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (4 children)

Power costs would have to be bonkers for it to matter.

8TB NAS HDDs are <$200, so even if it uses 15W vs 3W, that's 12W difference, or 8-9kWh/month. If you pay a ridiculous $0.40/kWh, that's $40/year. That means the SSDs would pay for themselves after ~15 years, and I'm guessing you'd replace/upgrade them long before then.

But NAS drives use a lot less than 15W, usually around 4-6W idle. So the payoff period is probably closer to 30 years... My electricity is more like 0.12-15/kWh, so it's never going to pay back for itself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

My SSDs use negligible power at idle, I only noticed a 1w increase when I installed two. Almost 'free'. Also your 0.14kwh is almost certainly just the cost to generate the power minus the delivery fees. Where I live the delivery fees double my true per kWh cost. Double check your bill and divide your monthly consumption by your monthly payment to find the real cost.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Here's my current bill:

  • usage - 420 kWh
  • total - $58.86 (mix of winter and summer usage)
  • stated rate - $0.09-0.10/kWh for "block 1", 0.10-0.12 for "block 2" (they charge more the more you use)
  • calculated average rate (inclusive of all fees and credits) - $0.14/kWh

And here's my previous bill (all summer usage w/ AC and whatnot):

  • usage - 522 kWh
  • total - $80.17
  • stated rate - $0.09/kWh for "block 1," $0.117/kWh for "block 2"
  • calculated average rate - $0.154/kWh

That's why I gave the $0.12-0.15/kWh range, because it depends on time of year, total usage, etc. It'll probably be closer to $0.12/kWh next month since we'd use hardly any electricity (we use natural gas for heat).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Thats friggin bananas. Do you live somewhere with lots of hydro power? Your cost is less than 1/3 mine....

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Nope, I live in Utah, US, which is mostly coal, natural gas, and solar, in that order, and we've been scaling coal back significantly and replacing it with gas and solar (and a little wind). We're about average for the US:

The average cost per kWh in the U.S. as of January 2024 is 15.45 cents

That said, I heard that our local electricity company wants to hike rates, and that seems to be about $0.03/kWh. So my range would go up to $0.15-0.18/kWh, which still isn't that crazy.