Thoughts on Passive Heatsinks for Home server build?

[thecoffeeguy]

Pretty straightforward. I have had to move some stuff around in my home office lately and my current SuperMicro server fan seems to have a little bit of a fan whine that i can hear and tend to focus on.

Quick summary of my setup:

ESXi server for testing:
Supermicro MBD-X10SRL-F Server mobo
Intel Xeon E5-2603 vs Haswell 1.6ghz
64gb memory
(2) 1 TB SSD Drives
4 port Intel NIC added on

It sits in a 3U chassis where i replaced the stock fans with much quieter Noctua 80mm.

Lots of room in the chassis.

I am open to suggestions for reducing the the fan whine (i tend to be OCD and focus on it..ahahah).

The thought of a passive heatsink came in as i am pretty confident that the CPU fan is the culprit (even thought it is pretty quiet). I have a Dynatron: Dynatron | R24

Anyways, just thought i would get some suggestions here. Pros. Cons.
Maybe adjust what i have?

Thanks as always for the great community here.

Cheers!

 

[K D]

For 3U you can use NH-D9L which is pretty silent

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Very cool. I will definitely take a look at that. Might be the stock fan on the Dynatron has that high pitch whine i can hear.
On the SuperMicro side, isnt there a utility that i can use to see how fast the CPU fan is spinning (IPMIView maybe?) I could be wrong, but thought that was it.

Thx!

 

[Nugget]

I've been really happy swapping out fans for Noctua fans with virtually no loss in thermal performance. Stock fans are never any good because most customers are just going to rack the device in a data center so noise is not a factor at all.

You can almost certainly significantly reduce the noise with better fans without taking any more drastic measures.

 

[Netwerkz101]

IPMI direct will work too .. ip of the IPMI NIC in a browser is all you need.

Another option as if all you need is a fan replacement:
NF-A6x25 PWM

Any other fans in the case that may be causing the noise?? power supply fan??

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Good points mentioned above. I made a mistake on my CPU fan in my first post. Here is the one I have:

Dynatron | R14

I dont think i can replace this fan?

And for the PSU, this is what I have:

SeaSonic SS-500L2U 500W Single 2U Server Power Supply - 80PLUS Gold - Server Power Supplies - Newegg.com

Thoughts? Maybe start with CPU heatsink/fan replacement?

And as for IPMI, yea, have that setup...can boot up, shut down the server...but cant seem to see the FAN RPM speed. On the sensors, the PSU, fans are 'blank'...hmm...any ideas there?

Thx

 

[Netwerkz101]

I see what you mean about the active HS/Fan not being removable - at least not easily.
It looks like they are riveted instead of screwed in (going by stock pics from your link).

IPMI - your fan is 4pin according to specs so it should be showing RPM - maybe a BMC/IPMI re-flash the latest???

Matter of fact... i'd try this as maybe the fan is running faster than it needs to and is therefor louder??? Not sure - just a possible.

I mentioned the PSU strictly to check it for noise ... don't want to replace fan/heatsink to find out it's the PSU fan making noise.

Passive heatsink would probably be okay for your E5-2603 (V3?) @ 1.6Ghz ... I'd still want a fan somewhere moving air in/out/across components.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

I see what you mean about the active HS/Fan not being removable - at least not easily.
It looks like they are riveted instead of screwed in (going by stock pics from your link).

IPMI - your fan is 4pin according to specs so it should be showing RPM - maybe a BMC/IPMI re-flash the latest???

Matter of fact... i'd try this as maybe the fan is running faster than it needs to and is therefor louder??? Not sure - just a possible.

I mentioned the PSU strictly to check it for noise ... don't want to replace fan/heatsink to find out it's the PSU fan making noise.

Passive heatsink would probably be okay for your E5-2603 (V3?) @ 1.6Ghz ... I'd still want a fan somewhere moving air in/out/across components.

Ya, i do not think i can remove it (without brute forcing it...hehe)
I am going to order that Noctua because they are such good products and the fans are quiet (the (4) 80mm in my chassis are near silent). I did narrow down the sound to my CPU fan. Just a small whine, but enough to drive me crazy.

So i did update my IPMI to the latest version. I am embarrassed to say I was pretty far behind on versions. in IPMI i can control the CPU fan speed now which is great. However, I am not seeing anything on the 'sensors' tab under fans (or PSU for that matter). Maybe something I am missing. It definitely appears that my CPU fan is quieter now. Still testing, but seems to be better.

Do agree i would like some sort of fan on top of my CPU, just for the extra cooling.

I think that should do it for now. Just need to get my new heatsink and fan.

Many thanks!

 

[thecoffeeguy]

Just out of curiosity, would a heatsink like this work for my setup? (slightly confused because mine is LGA2011 narrow):

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - CPU Cooler with 4 Direct Contact Heatpipes - Newegg.com

I would replace the fan with a very quiet PWM fan.

i have narrowed down the whine to the CPU fan and i can not seem to drop it below 2200 RPM right now, even through IPMI.

Just trying to figure out how to get that fan whine down...driving me up a wall at the moment

i am open to any and all suggestions as well.

thx

TCG

 

[Netwerkz101]

That Cooler Master you linked to is likely taller than 3U - double check your measurements.

See KD's post #2 above: Thoughts on Passive Heatsinks for Home server build?

Edit: Better check ILM fitment on that one...... you need Narrow ILM i think....looking.

Looks like Narrow ILM ..so I guess you can spend a little more and do what I did:


Heatsink:
====================
Supermicro SNK-P0048AP4 CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink for Socket LGA 2011
Supermicro SNK-P0048AP4 2U Active CPU Heat Sink


FAN:
====================
Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM A-Series Blades 60x25mm SSO2 Bearing Premium Fan
NF-A6x25 PWM

NOTE: I would not use that fan with a CPU that has >85 TDP and you know you are going to have high CPU utilization.

 

[K D]

That Cooler Master you linked to is likely taller than 3U - double check your measurements.

See KD's post #2 above: Thoughts on Passive Heatsinks for Home server build?

Edit: Better check ILM fitment on that one...... you need Narrow ILM i think....looking.

Looks like Narrow ILM ..so I guess you can spend a little more and do what I did:


Heatsink:
====================
Supermicro SNK-P0048AP4 CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink for Socket LGA 2011
Supermicro SNK-P0048AP4 2U Active CPU Heat Sink


FAN:
====================
Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM A-Series Blades 60x25mm SSO2 Bearing Premium Fan
NF-A6x25 PWM

NOTE: I would not use that fan with a CPU that has >85 TDP and you know you are going to have high CPU utilization.

I have this config with a dual E5-2695v4 system in a 2U chassis. With one cooler using the stock SM fan and the other with a Noctua. I see the noctua idling at 5 degrees more than the stock SM. I know I won't have heavy loads on this and plan to replace the other fan also with a Noctua A6.

If using a 3U chassis I definitely recommend the bigger noctua cooler. Better performance with lower noise than the supermicro.

 

[thecoffeeguy]

I have this config with a dual E5-2695v4 system in a 2U chassis. With one cooler using the stock SM fan and the other with a Noctua. I see the noctua idling at 5 degrees more than the stock SM. I know I won't have heavy loads on this and plan to replace the other fan also with a Noctua A6.

If using a 3U chassis I definitely recommend the bigger noctua cooler. Better performance with lower noise than the supermicro.

Good to know. I am going to order. And that noctua cooler above, fits my mobo (LGA2011 narrow)?

Thanks.!

 

[K D]

Yes

SecuFirm2™ mounting system
Noctua's SecuFirm2™ mounting systems have become synonymous with quality, safety and ease of use. Supporting Intel LGA115x (LGA1150, LGA1151, LGA1155, LGA1156), LGA2011 (LGA2011-0 & LGA2011-3), LGA2066 and AMD (AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, FM2, FM2+), the SecuFirm2™ mounting included with the NH-D9L guarantees perfect contact pressure and maximum convenience on all current sockets.

 

[ljwobker]

I have that mobo, and you absolutely need the narrow ILM. I bought this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007UXPIX4 and it works in my "regular tower" case with a few inches to spare. I used the links below to figure out the IPMI and made some notes I've pasted here... in my setup I run linux on it, and just put the ipmi settings into the root's crontab file so when the box boots it resets the fans. I ran hours of stress testing even with the CPU fan completely disconnected and it never exceeded 60C on the CPU, so for my build I don't even really need it, but it varies by case and other specific things. I have an E5-2660 v3, which is a 105W TDP part. My case lives in an airconditioned office, so the ambient never exceeds about 25C. At those temps even cranking on every core you don't need to spin the fan. I have just a couple of 120mm case fans that turn pretty slowly but it's enough to circulate a little air through the case. If you use a higher power CPU you might need to bump up the fan speeds somewhat.


Good stuff for fan speeds here:
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?resources/supermicro-x9-x10-x11-fan-speed-control.20/
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...f-bypass-ipmi-and-allow-os-fan-control.15473/
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...icro-x9srl-f-ipmi-fan-speed-assistance.19125/


For my supermicro board I ended up just putting this into root's crontab:

# these two set the fan speeds for my supermicro X10SRL-F
@reboot sleep 5; ipmitool raw 0x30 0x70 0x66 0x01 0x00 0x16 >/dev/null 2>&1
@reboot sleep 5; ipmitool raw 0x30 0x70 0x66 0x01 0x01 0x16 >/dev/null 2>&1



and at some point I changed the thresholds (which appears to be persistent through reboots, etc)
ipmitool sensor thresh FAN2 lower 300 400 500
ipmitool sensor thresh FANA lower 300 400 500

To get into IPMI without logging in (requires physical access to boot something...)
https://www.servethehome.com/reset-supermicro-ipmi-password-default-lost-login/