Convert dell r415 server very noisy into a silent workstation

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linesguapo

New Member
Sep 20, 2019
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The first thing to apologize for my English ... my native language is Spanish, so if I make linguistic mistakes please forgive me

In my DataCenter, a dell R415 server has been removed. I want to use it to turn it into a silent workstation, integrated into a worktable. I already did a similar job with supermicro. But in the case of Dell I face the problem of the fans, they are very noisy and non-standard, I want to replace them with some quiet ones but apart from modifying and adapting the fans to the Dell spceial connector, I have to hack the fan control firm as indicates on this site:

How to adjust the fan thresholds of a Dell PowerEdge | tüfteln

Has anyone tried this with this server model?

https://www.dell.com/bg/business/p/poweredge-r415/pd

I'm also seeing the possibility of cheating the motherboard with fan emulator PCBs that are used in mining to remove all fans from a server and immerse it in novec or similar, but I can't find those PCBs for Dell's special connectors

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G7GXX2R/ref=ox_sc_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2CZTDJTS77U7N

If anyone has achieved this before, I would appreciate good advice, in any case I will be stating my progress in this post in case it can help other people in the future
 

weust

Active Member
Aug 15, 2014
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If is has iDRAC you could also look at IPMI based fan control.
Could make them run a lot slower.

I don't have experience with such an old server, but worth looking into.
 

Spartacus

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2019
788
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Austin, TX
If is has iDRAC you could also look at IPMI based fan control.
Could make them run a lot slower.

I don't have experience with such an old server, but worth looking into.
This, I have used fan IPMI control with an R420 similarly, that being said those tiny fans have a hard high pitched whine even at a reasonable 1k-1.5k rpm.
 

weust

Active Member
Aug 15, 2014
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I have a R230 at home running at 21% profile. It's in another room and it's fine in general, but every 30 seconds to a minute (not exactly sure) it ramps the fans up for a second or 2 and then slows down again.
Still need to figure out ipmitool for that.
 

Spartacus

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2019
788
328
63
Austin, TX
I have a R230 at home running at 21% profile. It's in another room and it's fine in general, but every 30 seconds to a minute (not exactly sure) it ramps the fans up for a second or 2 and then slows down again.
Still need to figure out ipmitool for that.
I had that happen too, do you have non-dell parts in it? I replaced my 10g generic nic with a Dell part number and it stoppped.
 

weust

Active Member
Aug 15, 2014
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I do. I think my quad port NIC was added later, but the SSD's are in from the beginning.
 

weust

Active Member
Aug 15, 2014
353
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28
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Hmm, OK. Then pulling just my NIC won't help then.
IPMITOOL it is then.