Using a RAMdisk

[TDatta]

So ive been using BI in a VM for a few years and had some issue with the igpu, so now I have moved it to a dedicated machine, which happens to have 64 GB of RAM. But of course now I have an additional machine using more power. So in an attempt to save power I thought about trying a RAMdisk.
My normal config was to record only to new on a spinning disk and delete as space hit the limit. This means that the disk is always spinning.

I just tried a new config where I created a 32 GB RAMdisk and put "new" there. I have have settings for limiting files sizes (from my 11 cameras) to 2 GB and moving to stored (on a mechanical drive) after 1 hour, in practice this means the files get moved shortly after they hit the 2 GB limit.
So far this is working flawlessly. The power consumption of the computer has decreased by about 5W (from 40W continuous to 35W), and the disk only spins up every now and then.

Thoughts about why this might be a bad idea? I guess one consideration would be the spin up spin down on the mechanical drive will increase since it doesnt just always stay on.

Another point why this might be a good idea is for things like AI, I imagine that have the current video on the RAMdisk makes things faster when trying to perform computation on the video.

 

[fenderman]

The hdd would always keep spinning because the new would keep filling and have to overflow to the hdd...
Too much effort to save a few watts...if your new machine is efficient its pulling maybe 15-20w at near idle anyway without the drive...
Also your ramdisk will lose all the data upon power outage. Also on reboot unless you set it up to backup the data before the reboot - wasting time at every reboot.

 

[TDatta]

The hdd would always keep spinning because the new would keep filling and have to overflow to the hdd...
Too much effort to save a few watts...if your new machine is efficient its pulling maybe 15-20w at near idle anyway without the drive...
Also your ramdisk will lose all the data upon power outage. Also on reboot unless you set it up to backup the data before the reboot - wasting time at every reboot.

so the HDD only spins up every now and then. This is the cause of lower power consumption. New is not overflowing, the move settings are such that the files get transferred as soon as they hit 2 gigs.This results in a few transfers every hour.

But your points are very valid regarding the rest of issues re data.

The machine pulls about 30W at idle, it’s an older server board and has BMC which uses quite a bit of power.

it does seem like a lot of effort for small power savings ($2/month).

 

[fenderman]

so the HDD only spins up every now and then. This is the cause of lower power consumption. New is not overflowing, the move settings are such that the files get transferred as soon as they hit 2 gigs.This results in a few transfers every hour.

But your points are very valid regarding the rest of issues re data.

The machine pulls about 30W at idle, it’s an older server board and has BMC which uses quite a bit of power.

it does seem like a lot of effort for small power savings ($2/month).

hdd is using 5w or so..it will spin up constantly as the ramdisk offloads data, it will likely never get a chance to spins down...
New is always overflowing...regardless of size, its always hitting the 2gig limit and moving...if you set your clip sizes large it may wait to move at the end of a clip, however with multiple cams you are always going to have constant movement.
You will likely save a few pennies if anything.