Supermicro fans - FAN-0104L4 - anyone used these?

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FlashEngineer

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Jan 27, 2016
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I'm going crazy finding some decent fans that are not too loud but can pull enough air through my SC836 with 16HDD.

It's not that the stock fans at 40% are "loud" but it's the tone of the fans, they sound pretty annoying.

I've tried the 0074L4 and they aren't any better than the 0126L4 I have from stock. The only 2 fans that are in the SQ chassis towers are the FAN-0104L4 and FAN-0105L4 (92mm).

The 104 is probably quiet at 2800-3000rpm but is the static pressure enough to pull air through the HDD?

Does anyone have those SQ towers to see how loud these fans are?ee
 

FlashEngineer

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Jan 27, 2016
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Yes my SC836 is a newer model has the SQ power supplies, I hear nothing from those. It's the main 5 fans. The rear fans are annoying but it seems they don't really help for cooling the front HDD's, I think they are more for the mainboard area or something.

I was running Noctua 80mm ones in the front 3 than using 100% fan mode which made the 2 stock rear at 100% which didn't do anything for HDD temps. So the rears I can probably use some lower speed ones without issues, so just front 3.
 

FlashEngineer

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Jan 27, 2016
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I just bought 20 of the FAN-0044L4 for my 836's. I have only installed them in my unRAID box for now, and they cool just fine, but much quieter. I have all 16 drive bays full, and my temps went up ~2-3 degrees.

4 SuperMicro Fan-0044l4 12v 0.30a 80x80mm Case Fan Nidec UltraFlo T80t12ms1a7-57 | eBay

I bought 6 for $8/each and 14 more for $7/each.
Hmm these 44L4 are in my 822 stock, they are actually annoying sounding at 100%. They are actually louder than the stock fans on the 836 throttled down to 40%.
 
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FlashEngineer

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Jan 27, 2016
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Specs on this fan says it's 3700RPM.. though I was using this chassis with an intel board, shows like 2100rpm. I gotta test this fan again on my supermicro board. Maybe sounds like crap at lower RPM?
 

FlashEngineer

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Jan 27, 2016
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I've ordered 5 of these 104L4 fans, lets see how quiet and how much air they flow.

Maybe I'm also being too paranoid, I was reading an article showing the failure temps of HDD< they recommend keeping the HDD at around 35C, and not too cool like 25C etc, might cause early failure.

Most of my HDD are at 33-36C idle so maybe it's ok? It's not like it's idling at 45C and load is 60C or something crazy.
 

fmatthew5876

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Mar 20, 2017
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I've got an SC743TQ-1200B-SQ that comes stock with FAN-0104L4 and FAN-0103L4. Its sitting in my living room and runs silent.

@FlashEngineer how did it go? Did these fans quiet down your case without overheating your drives?
 

james23

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Nov 18, 2014
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@FlashEngineer did you every try those 5x fans? (the 104L4) im in the same boat currently and wondering what your results were. thanks
 

james23

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Fan 104L4 and SQ power bricks made a big difference in reducing noise levels in my SC745 Case.
ill bet they did! those are 0.13a fans (the lowest of any). problem (for me/many) is those fans as sold wont slide into the common/normal SM 2u or 3u cases. (they will drop right into normal SM 4u cases though)

Also that excellent 0.13a fan itself cant be swapped over to the fan holders that do fit in the 2u/3u's (unless you do ALOT of dremmel -ing, which i did recently on a 80x80x25mm fan just like yours - not suggested due tot he amount you have to cut ).
its the 25mm fan depth that kills this possibility, as the 2u/3u fan holders have a finger holder notch in the square shape, this eats out ~32-34mm in depth, thus you need deeper fans (like the stock 80x80x38mm), unfortunately.
tks for info/reply
 

svtkobra7

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Jan 2, 2017
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  • I'm really surprised the FAN-0104L4 managed to get the job done.
  • They are rated at 0.14 in H20 static pressure.
  • My 836 incorrectly shipped with the "Lower SP Fans" below and those could only hold 40°C with the Full Speed Fan Mode. Those fans were rated at 0.85 in. H20 (backplane).
  • Replacing the "Lower SP Fans" with "Higher SP Fans" made a huge difference - its all about the static pressure.
Code:
FAN                RPM        CFM        SP            dBA
                   (Max)                 (in H20)
FAN-0104L4         2800       32.9       0.14          24
Code:
FAN                RPM        CFM        SP            dBA
                   (Max)                 (in H20)
FAN-0126L4         7000       72.5       1.09          53.5
FAN-0125L4         6700       59.6       0.68          47
Code:
FAN                RPM        CFM        Static        dBA
                   (Max)                 (in H20)
FAN-0094L4         6300       90.3       0.85          51
FAN-0062L4         5000       59.1       0.49          47
Graphs comparing the two configs over various ambient temps and fan modes shown below ... Tested with 16 x HGST Deskstar NAS - 6TB (7200 RPM drives):




Reference: SMCI fan specifications = Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Support | System Fan Matrix
 
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sovking

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Jun 2, 2011
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Anyone has tried to put a 120mm fan in the middle wall of SC836, modding a little bit the wall ?
 

svtkobra7

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Jan 2, 2017
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@svtkobra7, how did you manage to put FAn 0104L4 in the midplane of a 836?
  • I didn't - sorry to give the wrong impression - the code tags for the FAN-0104L4 are there to call out the low SP rating ...
  • ... as compared to the my first config with FAN-0094L4 + FAN-0062L4 and later config with FAN-0126L4 +FAN-0125L4