Server Upgrade 2024

The server started having issues, and I noted that the operating system, Ubuntu server, just had a major long term service release. The server was begging me to perform a major release upgrade (do-release-upgrade). Two years ago was the last time that I tried to make this to happen, the server config was fouled up so badly that it would not boot. I have backups, but was very unhappy with the process.

The server had Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS, and Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS was just waiting to be installed. The server has a J3060 CPU which uses about 7 Watts of power. Yes you read that right, my server doesn’t do that much heavy lifting. The J3060 was made in 2016, and benchmarks 679/636 on passmark. However, I have a backup server sitting in a box that has a J4025 from 2019 which benchmarks 1467/1139 on passmark (higher number better!).

So I decided to bite the bullet, and build a fresh new server using the new hardware. After a day and a couple evenings setup, the new server is only using about 3.5 Watts when performing the same tasks. The lower power usage is simply astonishing to me. I’m eyeing off some newer hardware with an N100, but realistically, I don’t need any more performance for what I am currently doing. Clearly I am not hosting a game server on this thing, mostly just web things.

The main point here is that a server performing the same tasks, uses half the power, and is noticeably faster. Twice as fast? Maybe, I have no operational benchmarks – just that I am very happy with the upgrade.

Old server J3060 CPU, ~7.2 Watts (6.0 to 8.2).
New server J4025 CPU, ~3.4 Watts (3.0 to 7.5).
Note that I have external power meters, so the above measures are the wattage pulled into the computer, not just the CPU power consumption. Both servers have 8Gig RAM and an SSD drive (exact same make/model drive if memory serves).

I have a mini PC with an N95 that is pulling ~14 Watts but it is running Microsoft Windows. My desktop pulls about 70 to 120 Watts while doing nothing in particular, and significantly more when under load.