Fans for Supermicro 846

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AlbertH

New Member
Aug 13, 2020
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Hi, I recently acquired a Supermicro 846 chassis and need it to be quiet as possible (I'll be sitting 6 feet away from it). I was looking into doing a full fan swap of the current FAN-0127L4 to the much quieter but much weaker FAN-0104L4. I've also seen some suggest the FAN-0074L4, but I notice that it runs at a higher RPM. Would the FAN-0104L4 suffice with cooling (I'm not interested in removing the fan wall and adding 120mm fans)? Also, what can I replace my rear fans with? Thanks!
 
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i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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What mainboard/cpu do you plan to use? Add on cards? Cpu cooler?


I have a 846 ( 846BE1C-R1K28B) with an x10srl-f + e5 1630v3 + 2u active heatsink + airshroud.
The seeking noise of 7.2k rpm hdds is louder than the system, chassis and fpu fans...
 

AlbertH

New Member
Aug 13, 2020
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I'm planning on using a Supermicro X11SCZ-F with either a Xeon E 21xx or a simple 9th gen i3 or i5. Will probably opt for an active Noctua cooler.
 

ramblinreck47

Active Member
Aug 3, 2019
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I have a fan wall of FAN-0074L4's and two back fans of FAN-0104L4's in my Supermicro 836. It definitely quiets the whole thing down and still pushes quite a bit of air. I'm actually finding the regular fan noise form my Supermicro 835 very bearable at lower RPM's so I'm thinking about selling the 5 fans in the 836 and going back to the regular fans. Would you be interested in purchasing 3 x FAN-0074L4's and 2 x FAN-0104L4's? If so, we can probably work out a deal (they're expensive buying from Supermicro's website).
 

AlbertH

New Member
Aug 13, 2020
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I have a fan wall of FAN-0074L4's and two back fans of FAN-0104L4's in my Supermicro 836. It definitely quiets the whole thing down and still pushes quite a bit of air. I'm actually finding the regular fan noise form my Supermicro 835 very bearable at lower RPM's so I'm thinking about selling the 5 fans in the 836 and going back to the regular fans. Would you be interested in purchasing 3 x FAN-0074L4's and 2 x FAN-0104L4's? If so, we can probably work out a deal (they're expensive buying from Supermicro's website).
That sounds great. My only concern is that the FAN-0104L4 seem to fit the midplane on the 846, and not the rear exhaust housings. Also, how did you find the noise for the FAN-0074L4s from about 6 feet away?
 

vangoose

Active Member
May 21, 2019
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That sounds great. My only concern is that the FAN-0104L4 seem to fit the midplane on the 846, and not the rear exhaust housings. Also, how did you find the noise for the FAN-0074L4s from about 6 feet away?
I have FAN-0074L4, attempted to replace quiet FAN-0104L4 but I rolled back.
FAN-0074L4 is noisy at full speed (5000 rpm), to make noise acceptable, I have to set fan profile to standard. Mind you, I'm sitting in the next room, once I set fan profile to full speed, I can hear fan spool up.

FAN-0104L4 at full speed (2800 rpm) is more efficient and quieter.

If you don't care about noise, FAN-0074L4 is a good option. If you are sensitive to noise, then use FAN-0104L4 and set fan profile to full speed.
 

i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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Why standard (50%) or full speed (100%)? These settings run the fans faster than the optimal (30%) settings...
 

i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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Maybe it's just me, but I would be very uncomfortable to run a system with fans at 100% and no capcity for fan failures.
 
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vangoose

Active Member
May 21, 2019
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Maybe it's just me, but I would be very uncomfortable to run a system with fans at 100% and no capcity for fan failures.
I have 4 midplane fans and exhaust fan. One failure will not cause big issue. I also have multiple spares plus monitoring/alerting.
 

msg7086

Active Member
May 2, 2017
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2 things to consider. Does CPU and PCH overheat? And, does your hard drive wall overheat?

The hard drives are more of a problem. To deal with CPU temperature you can retrofit an active cooler on it, especially on a 4U. Put a noctua on the heatsink and you'll see that immediately. For hard drives however things can be tricky. My 825 with 2000 RPM fans simply can't keep the bottom row drives under 50C. When in doubt, fill some hot drives together (such as 7200 air drives), let it run for about 15 minutes, and check the temperatures.