Fan mounting in Supermicro SC813M

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Markess

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May 19, 2018
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In short: Any tricks for replacing the 40x28mm fans with 40x20mm (i.e. Noctua or similar)?

I bought an SC813M on Ebay that arrived with the fans lose inside and without the mid-plane fan holder that was in the original listing photos. The seller gave me the option of keeping as is or sending it back.

Since I had planned on replacing the fans anyway, I'm leaning toward keeping it. It's going to be a low power setup, so I didn't want four 50db fans screaming away in a ~30w system. Even without the fan tray, it was a good price. I can buy a fan tray on Ebay and still be ahead, but I'm not sure it would be easier to use one if I was replacing 40x28mm with 40x20mm fans.

Thought I'd ask though, if anyone had any tricks for "re-faning" these? My thought was to 3D print (or laser cut) something to mount over the existing lugs and/or through holes in the chassis, but if anyone had a clever workaround that didn't require me to spend hours designing something (I'm slow with CAD!), then even better!
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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Any chance you have space for "blower" type of fans? The ones in my pic are from Dell machines, but there are smaller fans that are not too loud.

IMG_0058.jpg
 
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Markess

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May 19, 2018
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Any chance you have space for "blower" type of fans? The ones in my pic are from Dell machines, but there are smaller fans that are not too loud.
That's certainly an idea. I'll have to take a look. The 813M was pretty shallow though, so I'm not sure if there will be room with an MATX motherboard.

I have to ask, what is that? I'm seeing a mining breakout board, a couple thin miniITX boards and an ATX board with a pico PSU, so I assume its not some OEM "Three Headed" server or anything. Too bad...they could have called it the Cerberus.
 

kapone

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It is indeed 3x systems in a single 1U chassis. This was my experiment in trying to to see if it'll even work (and it does! very well.).

The two ITX boards take direct 12v in and so does the picopsu, hence the mining power board which can use an HP power supply. The only output from the mining board is 12v. everything runs off of that.

The ATX board is a Supermicro X9SRL-F, that I use as a low power VM host for "critical" functions. Basically, this chassis is my "core" system(s), with a bare metal pfSense firewall, bare metal Windows DC and a low power ESXI host that runs a few critical functions.

Cooling worked great, even though there's a lot of hardware crammed in there.
Power efficiency was great. The entire thing (3x complete systems) idles at ~60w! That's with 3 motherboards, 64GB+8GB+8GB RAM, two CX3 10g cards and a few SSDs and USB sticks.
Space usage was obviously great. 3x systems in 1U!
Functionally, everything is accessible, with the two ITX systems from the front, and the Supermicro from the back.

I might eventually 3D print a few things to make this "cleaner", making add-in cards a bit cleaner with brackets, a bit sturdy (I had to remove almost everything from the chassis, it's just a big aluminum box now, with almost no support and flexes a bit), but it works as such.
 
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Markess

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It is indeed 3x systems in a single 1U chassis. This was my experiment in trying to to see if it'll even work (and it does! very well.).
I'm in the process of reworking & updating my home set-up..but I guess I'm pretty unimaginative, because each "metal box" contains only one motherboard inside. I feel so.....inadequate ;)
 

Markess

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@kapone , so now I have questions. Hope its OK to ask? I'm straying off topic, but since I'm the OP, I guess its OK! I have a couple ITX boards and a third that's a little larger, but not quite MATX, that I'm adding to the setup at home and your approach is intriguing. Putting all three in a single 3/4u chassis with larger, quieter, fans would be nice over the noise of three 1U or space taken up by multiple 2/3U boxes.

How is the noise on the HP PSU? I can't imagine there's a lot of load on the PSU so probably never spins up too much? Even platinum ones are dirt cheap, so if not too loud, may be a cheaper and externally tidier option than multiple power bricks.

Is the PSU always on or can the power button connected to the/a motherboard trigger the PSU to start?

What CPU do you have in the X9SRL? I'm guessing its thermally capped (an "L" model) to work safely with a Pico PSU?

Are you happy with that breakout board, and if so what model is it?

Sorry for all the questions :) . I love gadgets.
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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How is the noise on the HP PSU?
It is practically (and literally) silent.

I can't imagine there's a lot of load on the PSU so probably never spins up too much?
There isn't. This is a 460w platinum PSU, but it hardly sees anything over 100w.

Even platinum ones are dirt cheap, so if not too loud, may be a cheaper and externally tidier option than multiple power bricks.
They are. I got ten of them for $70 shipped. :)

Is the PSU always on
It is.

can the power button connected to the/a motherboard trigger the PSU to start
Each motherboard does have it's own power button(s) - You can't see that in the pic. The PSU has to be always on, because it is essentially a 12v power source.

What CPU do you have in the X9SRL?
An E5-1620-v2... :) Look carefully. The EPS CPU power connector on the X9SRL-F is not connected to the pico-psu. It's straight from the miner board. The X9SRL-F can essentially never turn off. If you turn it off by the power BTN, it'll turn off and just turn back on. I could get a better/higher power pico-psu which will solve this "issue", but it's way back on the back burner.

Are you happy with that breakout board, and if so what model is it?
I am. It's the cheapest HP compatible board from parallelminer. I think it was ~$9 shipped.
 
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