Dell EMC PowerEdge T140 Power Consumption
We used our Extech TrueRMS Power Analyzer 380803 to take measurements at different points of the Dell EMC PowerEdge T140 use on 120V power in the embedded lab. Tower servers tend to spend more time at the edge in offices rather than in higher power data centers, hence why we do our testing at lower voltage. Here are the figures:
- Power off: 5.1W
- Idle: 33.8W
- STH 70% Load: 88.2W
- STH 100% Load: 121W
- Max power observed: 153W
These are great power consumption figures. If you use lower-end CPUs than the top-bin Intel Xeon E-2186G that we are using here, power consumption decreases under load.
STH Server Spider: Dell EMC PowerEdge T140
In the second half of 2018, we introduced the STH Server Spider as a quick reference to where a server system’s aptitude lies. Our goal is to start giving a quick visual depiction of the types of parameters that a server is targeted at.
The Dell EMC PowerEdge T140 is designed to be compact, yet not necessarily dense. The Intel Xeon E-2100 platform is designed for lower costs and high single threaded performance instead of expandability.
Final Words
The Dell EMC PowerEdge T140 is a great low-cost and low power tower server. Its diminutive footprint means that it fits in places the PowerEdge T340 simply cannot. From a competitive standpoint, it undoubtedly sits above the HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 and closer to the HPE ProLiant ML30 Gen10. For a lot of SMB customers, and enterprise customers with edge locations, the Dell EMC PowerEdge represents a simple value proposition. The PowerEdge T140 is a low-cost server that delivers excellent performance in a well-designed package.
From a performance perspective, the Dell EMC PowerEdge T140 is an enormous generational leap. As we have discussed in our looking back at Intel Xeon E3-1200 V1-V6 to the new Xeon E-2100 piece, and in our various CPU reviews such as with our Intel Xeon E-2146G benchmarks and review, this is the first time in almost a decade that the top-bin parts in this segment have received a core count increase. We strongly urge our readers who may be looking at the quad-core parts to consider upgrading their PowerEdge T140 configurations to the Intel Xeon E-2136 or E-2146G CPUs as they are offering a value not seen in this line for years. This is one time when the incremental cost to upgrade is dwarfed by the additional performance one gets.
Small features like detailed labeling help solve real-world problems like having a non-IT specialist perform maintenance. Utilizing iDRAC 9 allows enterprises to manage their edge servers with the same Open Manage tools that they would use to manage large servers like the Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 or even the In-depth Dell EMC PowerEdge MX. For organizations, these are the small features that drive down TCO when an on-site tech visit can cost more than the server itself.
Hello,
How about hdd cooling fans ? Had temperature issues with 4 hdd’s in my T20. Had to switch to another case.
How many SATA connectors are there? The case/mobo looks like poweredge T110 II which we really like at our Uni. Unlike this one, in the T110 II the front 5.25 bays could be replaced by 3 or 4 hdd for ZFS mirrors (pool) by adding a small PCI-E sata card. I do hope that the PCI-E lanes support some basic gfx card (at least a nvidia Geforce GT1030) to get remote “ssh -X” for some virtualisation software. (PE T110 II has tons of issues with any gfx card as there is a kind of < 20W limit).
When the third image in a server review is a latch, you know you’re reading one of STH’s crazy in depth reviews. Nothing says hands on like featuring a part meant to put a hand on.
Any word on whether an inexpensive StarTech M.2 adapter can be used to accommodate a Samsung 983 DCT (MZ-1LB960NE) M.2 NVMe drive and have the T140 boot from it? I think Dell removed such NVMe boot ability from the T30.
Recently built a T140 for a client needing a bare metal SQL box with some solid per core grunt and the Xeon E’s are top of the class in that dept. Basically the T140 is a single socket Xeon workstation with iDRAC bolted on. That’s fine, because there’s always been a server line in that class and they’ve always been good value. I went with Intel SSDs in RAID 1, but with the BOSS card the server can do Intel VROC, which is NVMe RAID native….at least according to Dell.
Is there any advantage in having a Xeon E-xxxxG processor on that machine? Will the graphics capabilities of the chip be used for anything, or is there any wiring to make it available?
Hi Paulo – not for display output, however, you can use features like Quick Sync
I bought myself one, it’s really nice.
One thing that annoys me though is that the E-2136 I bought it with is capped for some reason at 4.18 GHz instead of going all the way up to 4.5 as it should have. And it doesn’t hit the 80W while testing single thread so it doesn’t throttle. I’m testing all this with intel extreme tuning utility to get the whole picture.
Dell capped it for some reason.
Actually the limit is exactly 4.2 under Linux, under Windows I only got to 4.18, but under linux, running cooler (70C) + undervolting and on a half an hour compiling it stays at 4.199 or 4.2 GHZ, never passing that, even by 1 Mhz, which is annoying as nowhere is written that you’re limited by Dell.
Preciso colocar mais HD SATA, ja usei uma CADDY HD/DVD e coloquei um SSD. porem tenho mais um disco SATA 1TB para adicionar além dos 4 existente.
qual a sugestao?
Hello
I just got the T140 with Intel 2126G (80 W), H330 controller and 1x 1 TB HDD.
My config should consume less power than the one you tested, since your config includes the Intel 2128G rated for 95 W
My power meter says:
220 V \ 50 Hz
51 W
Power factor 0.87
0.26 A
Why you have just 35 W when idle?
Hello, we just got one T140 with 2126G, 1TB HDD and 8GB DDR4 ECC for a client. Working upgrade:
3x8GB Samsung DDR4-2666 CL19 ECC (M391A1K43BB2-CTD -> 32GB)
Gigabyte Nvidia GT 1030 Low Profile 2G (GV-N1030D5-2GL, integrated video disabled)
Samsung 860 Pro 1TB SATA SSD (HDD for backup)
Will be used as an entry server-workstation with dualdisplay.
With iDRAC9, is an additional license required to get remote desktop capabilities, like with iLO?
Licenses are needed to get Idrac9 on a T140 to show the console display. I had to buy a vga-to-hdmi adapter to get a view of the console, for installation. A little disappointing for a server. Noise-level is low, but too much for a living-room.
Hello;
I am in between to choose this one for HPE ML30 Gen10. Which one would you choose and why?
Regarding CPU Turbo issue:
I’d guess its a deliberate BIOS limit on this board, any E-series Xeon i’ve seen is running max at its all-core Turbo frequency.
A comment above says that iDRAC9 as included with the T140 does not include a remote console feature. Is there an upgrade or license that adds that? And if so, does it ruin the economics of the server as is the case with the ProLiant servers that are a notch above the MicroServer Gen10 Plus?
Configured one of these for various test loads and have few comments. First of all it indeed does not support NVMe boot which is a bit odd for 2019s machine, not a real problem since I can always use a boot loader from USB to continue booting from NVMe.
The option to use Dell BOSS card also means you are limited to the two older SSD models BOSS supports and the card itself is just few bulk components for hefty price. Obviously if you already have a fleet of Dells and can acquire these things cheaply it’s a different situation and it also enables things in IDRAC and so on.
Also while the machine has multiple PCIE slots it considers most of the cards “third party devices” and automatically ramps up fans up to painful levels. Now there is a switch that can be used ignore “3rd party device fan control” via racadm. But for some reason my NVMe wasn’t considered third party PCIE card but a PCIE SSD meaning there was nothing to do. I found out that by downgrading iDRAC to 3.30 you could manually control the fans via undocumented IPMI codes (disgusting) so I tried downgrading. And in the end just installing 3.30 fixed the issue without any manual tuning, fans are set to auto and not running as 100% even with the unholy non-Dell third party PCIE device installed.
The decision to set fans at 100% when encountering “unknown devices” is just stupid. What’s the point of PCIE slots if you are not going to allow standard compliant devices to run easily? Is the case so badly designed that a typical PCIE device power draw could cause issues?
Is it make sense to buy xeon based processor in 2021? As now ARM servers can come soon with less cost better performance? Please suggest what do you think ? Thanks.
I really think this review missed out on a critical limitation in this series of Dell PowerEdge servers. Even though it was/is offered with the G series of E-2100/2200 processors, the use of the graphics engine is disabled. It does not allow the quick sync to be used for hardware transcoding. I found this out the hard way after building a TrueNAS Scale system on this server, upgrading the CPU from a 2124 to a 2126G only to find that it doesn’t work.
Digging back through Dell’s documentation, it says this in the Tech Guide:
“NOTE: We do not support graphics with E-2100 and E-2200 processors, Graphics cannot be enabled on Dell EMC servers using this processor due to technical restrictions.”
What technical restrictions? The chipset supports it, but the BIOS doesn’t have it enabled?