Has anyone here attempted to improve the cooling on Dell Precision T7910 workstation?

[BLinux]

I just picked up a T7910. It has 2x E5-2678v3 I got from the deals thread here at STH. Under sustained CPU load (running sysbench cpu) the 2nd CPU easily hits 75-80C, and the 1st CPU is not far behind. I'd like to see if I can lower those temps more.

So, before I go experimenting myself, I just wanted to see if anyone has tried some aftermarket CPU coolers (Noctua?) in a T7910 and how well that worked out, or what challenges you might have encountered.

How about case fan swaps?

Or, any other kind of modifications to lower temperatures?

TIA

 

[sherwood]

I have a T7600 (v1) that I swap the cpu fans. I did try taking the Noctua route and also tried the Supermicro 4U.

The biggest issue was that the case lid got in the way since the handle sits out into the case. The other problem was the cpu socket bracket had to be swap to work.

See:
Solved: Precision T3600 / T5600 / T7600 heatsink alternatives - Dell Community

and for Noctuas:
Upgrading the heatsinks on Dell Workstation (T7600) to Noctua = better temps - Dell Community

You can remove the lid and add a custom like that. I didnt want to do that.

I ended up just swapping the fans with Dell Optiplex 780? (I think) fans. They are super thicc and move a lot of air. Forget the model number though will have to check later. I believe its a 80mm but like 30ish thiccc.

Also the Dell bios sets all the fans to auto and since the fan curve is terrible they never ramp up well. I sent mine to medium and temps with the thicc optiplex fans are 34cish - 40c for the cpus. Of course the second cpu will always be warmer. At load they will hit 70cish depending on what is running.

All the Dell tower servers/workstations have terrible fan curves and crap air flow. If you search around you will see users complaining. I think Wendel (Level 1 Techs) posted a vid about the tower servers pointing out this issue as well. Letting us set a proper fan curve might help but these things dont have idrac.

Your T7910 seems to have a similar layout to the T7600 you probably would just need the v3 bracket if you want to swap the coolers.

 

[Deslok]

I'm not sure how much this applies to the 7600/7910 but my 7500 had terrible thermal paste on it replacing whatever dell used with some thermal grizzly kryonaut helped me a ton when I upgraded to higher tdp cpu's.

 

[BLinux]

@sherwood Wow, that's a lot of great info! I've been searching for a few days now, and didn't find those resources. Thanks a lot!

I'm not sure how much this applies to the 7600/7910 but my 7500 had terrible thermal paste on it replacing whatever dell used with some thermal grizzly kryonaut helped me a ton when I upgraded to higher tdp cpu's.

Yeah, since I installed my own CPUs (got the T7910 barebones), I've already applied my own thermal paste. What do you have in your T7500?

 

[Deslok]

@sherwood Wow, that's a lot of great info! I've been searching for a few days now, and didn't find those resources. Thanks a lot!


Yeah, since I installed my own CPUs (got the T7910 barebones), I've already applied my own thermal paste. What do you have in your T7500?

X5690's on the cpu side which is as high as the T7500 can go, the kryonaut is good paste(just shy of liquid metal in my experience) but needs high mounting pressure(which s fine for big xeons) I've been contemplating getting a T7600 lately though so I can reuse my memory at least.

 

[sherwood]

@sherwood Wow, that's a lot of great info! I've been searching for a few days now, and didn't find those resources. Thanks a lot!


Yeah, since I installed my own CPUs (got the T7910 barebones), I've already applied my own thermal paste. What do you have in your T7500?

No problem!! It took be a bit of searching to find anything. The Optiplex Dell fan part number is PVA080K12H-P01. That is 38mm so it will not fit in the holder over the cooler. I use some rubber mounts and ties to mount mine .

You will need that 5 wire cable if you dont use a Dell fan, unless you feel comfortable modding the wire.

 

[Deslok]

does the T7600/7910 have multiple heatsink options as well? I need to upgrade the primary on mine to the bigger U402F from the simple aluminum hunk it shipped with.

 

[BLinux]

does the T7600/7910 have multiple heatsink options as well? I need to upgrade the primary on mine to the bigger U402F from the simple aluminum hunk it shipped with.

The T7910 i have has an active cooler with a fan sandwiched between the fins that are fed by heatpipes. i think the CPU cooler is decently designed... maybe just upgrading the case fans will be enough to cool it.. idk... also, the CPU1 hot air goes into CPU2 is probably not great... maybe I'll make something to divert the hot air ...

 

[Deslok]

yeah cpu 1 and 2 sharing airflow is fairly common on ATX style dual socket boards, you can see a ton of examples of that from supermicro as well. EX X10DAL-i | Motherboards | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.