Accoustics of MSX6036 for homelab

[bryan_v]

Hi everyone,

I'm contemplating getting a Mellanox SX6036 to act as a 40G core switch paired with CX3 QSFP cards for my VM hosts and storage nodes, however I'm concerned with the acoustics of the switch.

The data room in my house draws in air from the hallway next to my office, so I've replaced all my servers that had blower fans with either ducted noctua fans or watercooling.

I'm also trying to determine if I've reached the point where I need to add a sound suppressing air channel to the air intake similar to a gas power plant.

Cheers,
Bryan

 

[i386]

The 6036 is awesome, but it's an enterprise switch and the fans sound like jet engines...

If you want to have 40GBE connectivity and a somewhat "silent" switch get something from arista and set the fans to run at 30% in eos.

 

[bryan_v]

Yea that was what I was worried about. The Arista switches all shot up in price since 2020 so not that many cost effective options left.

Would you say the Arista DCS-7050 is the equivalent Arista QSFP+ switch or should I be looking for another switch that can be silenced?

 

[saratoga]

Stock it's too loud for home use. You'd hear it two rooms away. However, you can pretty easily swap out the fans for low flow noctua or similar. Actual power draw is ~35w excluding the fans, so not that much air flow is really required if you aren't using dozens of 40g ports at once.

 

[LodeRunner]

Yea that was what I was worried about. The Arista switches all shot up in price since 2020 so not that many cost effective options left.

Would you say the Arista DCS-7050 is the equivalent Arista QSFP+ switch or should I be looking for another switch that can be silenced?

DCS-7050QX-32S would be nearest equivalent to a 6036, obviously sans IB and 4 fewer ports.

 

[bryan_v]

Stock it's too loud for home use. You'd hear it two rooms away. However, you can pretty easily swap out the fans for low flow noctua or similar. Actual power draw is ~35w excluding the fans, so not that much air flow is really required if you aren't using dozens of 40g ports at once.

@saratoga were you referring to the Mellanox SX6036 or Arista DCS-7050?

 

[LodeRunner]

Both of them really. They’re expected to be parked in a data center or server room where acoustics don’t much matter.

Both are PWM with thermal control; the Arista has an override command to set PWM at a fixed speed. I don’t know if the 6036 has an equivalent; probably not which is why people fan mod them.

I know my Arista 7050QX-32S draws more than 35W idle, so I’d assume the comment was specifically about the 6036.

 

[bryan_v]

Yeup, if the SX6036 can be fan modded, it's probably preferred since it's cheaper by 40% compared to the Arista 7050QX-32S.

 

[saratoga]

@saratoga were you referring to the Mellanox SX6036 or Arista DCS-7050?

SX6036 is what I was referring to. I didn't notice you asking about the 7050.