Attaching fan to A1SRi-2758F HS

[ullbeking]

As much as I'd love a c3000 to run pfsense, it'spremature at this point.

C2758 needs a silent, low profile fan on its HS and I have to put the whole thing into into a very low height case with decent ventilation. 4omm chassis can be added if necessary.

Can somebody recommend a fan? What are some appropriate Noctua models and sizes? Methods of attachments? The keyword is quiet. Thanks!

 

[Evan]

I would think what some of us use on Xeon-D
NF-A6x25 PWM

I think the heat sink size is same... but double check that !

 

[BLinux]

As much as I'd love a c3000 to run pfsense, it'spremature at this point.

C2758 needs a silent, low profile fan on its HS and I have to put the whole thing into into a very low height case with decent ventilation. 4omm chassis can be added if necessary.

Can somebody recommend a fan? What are some appropriate Noctua models and sizes? Methods of attachments? The keyword is quiet. Thanks!

are you seeing temperature problems? my 5018A-FTN4 has a passive heatsink and the only airflow is from the tiny chassis fan. it runs fine like that in a warm server room for over a year now.

 

[ullbeking]

> are you seeing temperature problems?

I'm not seeing any problems yet because I am still planning this still system, which will be placed in a well ventivilated, SFF mini ITX chassis.

> my 5018A-FTN4 has a passive heatsink and the onlyairflow is from the tiny chassis fan.

Ok, so I have two options... direct CPU fan (suggestion given above for 60mm fan) or chassis fan (I think this chassis has space for mounting a 40mm chassis fan).

I would like to choose the quieter, simpler, and more effective of the two options:

* active HSF implemented by attaching a fan to the CPU heat sink

* passive heatsink with smaller chassis fan

Do you have any suggestions as to which is the better of the two options? Thanks!!

 

[BLinux]

> are you seeing temperature problems?

I'm not seeing any problems yet because I am still planning this still system, which will be placed in a well ventivilated, SFF mini ITX chassis.

> my 5018A-FTN4 has a passive heatsink and the onlyairflow is from the tiny chassis fan.

Ok, so I have two options... direct CPU fan (suggestion given above for 60mm fan) or chassis fan (I think this chassis has space for mounting a 40mm chassis fan).

I would like to to choose the quieter and more effective of the two options:

* active HSF implemented by attaching a fan to the CPU heat sink

* passive heatsink with smaller chassis fan

Do you have any suggestions as to which is the better of the two options? Thanks!!

Theoretically, a larger fan can run slower, and hence quieter. Not knowing the specific fan model you're going to pick, I can only respond with basic principles.

That said, my 5018A-FTN4 system is designed by Supermicro, and it is a 1U short depth system with a tiny 40mm fan, specifically this model:

Supermicro FAN-0100L4 40X40X28MM 1U-4-Pin PWM

The fan is connected and controlled by the PWM controller on the motherboard. And honestly, it is almost completely silent. If I put my ear 3 inches away from the back of the chassis, I can hear it just slightly. During start up when the fan spins to max RPM for a few seconds, it's a little bit louder.

In my 5018A-FTN4 system, I even added a 2nd fan to blow some air over the PCI-E slot as I have a 10Gbe card there, and it's still just as quiet. I don't really consider these 5018A-FTN4 systems to be noisy ones and don't concern myself much with noise reduction as it's already really quiet.

In case you're not aware, my 5018A-FTN4 has the A1SRi-2758F system board in it.

 

[funkywizard]

A 40mm fan is rarely going to be quiet, especially if it's more than a decoration. They need to run faster to push the same amount of air as larger fans. This creates more noise, and, even more importantly, the noise they create is way more --annoying--. The higher RPM = higher pitched noise.

If you really care about noise, ideally you'll want to get a case that can accommodate a low rpm 120mm or 80mm fan (3u and 2u respectively). If space is the bigger constraint, a 60mm fan directly mounted to the cpu heatsink sounds like your best tradeoff here.

Personally I would go with a lower powered 40mm exhaust fan like Blinux mentioned, set to a low RPM via PWM, but it depends on your noise tolerance. If there's ambient noise in the room anyway you might well not notice.

 

[BLinux]

A 40mm fan is rarely going to be quiet, especially if it's more than a decoration. They need to run faster to push the same amount of air as larger fans. This creates more noise, and, even more importantly, the noise they create is way more --annoying--. The higher RPM = higher pitched noise.

If you really care about noise, ideally you'll want to get a case that can accommodate a low rpm 120mm or 80mm fan (3u and 2u respectively). If space is the bigger constraint, a 60mm fan directly mounted to the cpu heatsink sounds like your best tradeoff here.

Personally I would go with a lower powered 40mm exhaust fan like Blinux mentioned, set to a low RPM via PWM, but it depends on your noise tolerance. If there's ambient noise in the room anyway you might well not notice.

I agree with the principle about fan noise vs size. However, for systems like these that don't require a lot of cooling capacity, you really can have a 1U system with tiny fans that is almost silent. in my workbench area, which is pretty silent as there aren't usually machines running 24/7, my wife (hint, hint, to those looking for wifey approval) has been surprised more than once and commented, "is that thing on?" when I'm messing around with the 5018A-FTN4 machines.

i also recently received a Dell R430 1U machine from a client to work on a project. it's installed in my rack, so that room is not silent (ambient noise level is about 39-40 dbA.), I cannot hear the R430 after the initial spin up during POST. it does seem like many modern servers are not as loud as previous generations.