AMD EPYC DIY server cooling advice?

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gradinaruvasile

New Member
Jun 29, 2017
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Hi,
I am exploring the feasibility of using a lower cost AMD EPYC server made of parts:
- Gigabyte MZ01-CE0 mobo+ EPYC 7281 + 128 GB RAM
For the moment i am looking at a 4U rackmount case ( Inter-Tech IPC4U-4408 ).

Now, the question:
For cooling, i was looking at the Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 cooler.
But it seems that the Threadripper TR4 sockets (the main tagret of this cooler) have the socket "vertically" whereas the EPYC board has it "horizontally". So the fan on this cooler would blow the air "downwards", perpendicular to the front-back airflow of the case (the case has 2 built in fans to help with this).
As i looked at the specs, i seen nowhere mentioned that the cooling fins could be re-repositioned at 90 degrees on the cooler.
I supppose this would cause cooling issues, especially with a CPU like this?

PS I asked our vendor to look into the Supermicro Store 4U Active CPU Heat Sink Socket OLGA4094 cooler's availability.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Would probably work fine, not 100% ideal but have done like this in a workstation no issues, server is not much different
 

ttabbal

Active Member
Mar 10, 2016
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Noctua coolers are easy to flip the fans around on, so you could have it blow up or down. I'd aim it at the closest exhaust fan to try to move CPU heat out.

I have the largest one on my Threadripper. You can't reposition the fins to change the alignment 90 degrees. You can move it a little up/down along the long axis, 3 or 6 mm, but that does move the heat plate over, possibly uncovering part of the top of the chip. I doubt it matters much, but it's something to be aware of. It can help on TR boards to move the heatsink away from the top PCIe slot. In your case, I expect it would just make it interfere with the RAM slots on the other side.