How to make SuperMicro 946ED-R2KJBOD quieter?

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soulmachine

New Member
Apr 28, 2021
8
0
1
Sunnyvale, CA
I bought a SuperMicro JBOD 946ED-R2KJBOD from eBay a few days ago, this machine is insanely noisy, since it has 4 built-in PWS-1K04A-1R PSUs and 5 FAN-0161L4 fans at the rear.

How to make it quieter?

First, I want to replace 4 PSUs with quieter ones. I searched in this forum and many posts recommend PWS-920P-SQ as a quieter PSU, but this PSU has different dimension with PWS-1K04A-1R, so PWS-920P-SQ can not fit in the PSU slots. Are there any quieter PSUs with the same dimension as PWS-1K04A-1R ?

Second, I'd like to replace the 5 FAN-0161L4 fans with quieter ones. FAN-0161L4 is a 80x80x80mm fan, but it actually has a 80x80x38 fan attached to the cube. Can I replace it with a quieter fan such as FAN-0074L4 ?

Any suggestions? Thanks!
 
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ari2asem

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
745
128
43
The Netherlands, Groningen
just out of curiousity...how much did you pay for this unit ? totall price including taxes ??

these units are designed for datacenter. that means very noisy, because datacenter is always noisy ;)
 

tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
873
400
63
Japan
Ohhh boi this is so fun to read. Questions like "How do I make J79 jet engine quiet" or "what is the type of fuel to power jt8d?". o_O
 
  • Haha
Reactions: T_Minus

Aestr

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2014
967
386
63
Seattle
Have you considered building a shed? :D

But also somewhat serious. As mentioned the only good way to make these quiet is to put a lot of material and space between you and them.
 

kapone

Well-Known Member
May 23, 2015
1,095
642
113
This machine is NOT designed to be quiet. You're trying to cool SIX deep rows of HDDs, with only the fans in the back in a pull configuration. Those fans HAVE to run serious static pressure and rpms to pull air through something that deep and with just tiny slots between the drives.

I have two (heavily modified) Chenbro NR40700 chassis at home that are "only" 48 bays each (three rows of 16 drives per row), and they have 6x 120mm fans in a push/pull config (3x in front of the drives, 3x in the mid plane). After a lot of fiddling and testing I managed to make them "quieter", but they are certainly not quiet. They just can't be. These kinds of chassis require lots of airflow. And that's when the PSUs in my chassis' (HP platinum PSUs) are whisper quiet.

My two chassis are filled with HGST 8TB helium drives (~375TB per chassis) and with all those fans, still hit ~42-43 (which is perfectly fine) during heavy activity.

With the density that you have in your chassis...quietness just aint gonna happen.
 

soulmachine

New Member
Apr 28, 2021
8
0
1
Sunnyvale, CA
This machine is NOT designed to be quiet. You're trying to cool SIX deep rows of HDDs, with only the fans in the back in a pull configuration. Those fans HAVE to run serious static pressure and rpms to pull air through something that deep and with just tiny slots between the drives.

I have two (heavily modified) Chenbro NR40700 chassis at home that are "only" 48 bays each (three rows of 16 drives per row), and they have 6x 120mm fans in a push/pull config (3x in front of the drives, 3x in the mid plane). After a lot of fiddling and testing I managed to make them "quieter", but they are certainly not quiet. They just can't be. These kinds of chassis require lots of airflow. And that's when the PSUs in my chassis' (HP platinum PSUs) are whisper quiet.

My two chassis are filled with HGST 8TB helium drives (~375TB per chassis) and with all those fans, still hit ~42-43 (which is perfectly fine) during heavy activity.

With the density that you have in your chassis...quietness just aint gonna happen.
Thanks for sharing! I realize that I have to quit the idea of making it quiet.
 

soulmachine

New Member
Apr 28, 2021
8
0
1
Sunnyvale, CA
Have you considered building a shed? :D

But also somewhat serious. As mentioned the only good way to make these quiet is to put a lot of material and space between you and them.
Agreed, making a server shed in my garage by using soundproof foam might be only the feasible way.
 
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