HP Prodesk 600 G3 SFF with I350-T4 cards for pfsense

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indothai

New Member
Jun 18, 2022
2
0
1
Hi All,

I've got a HP Prodesk 600 G3 SFF and currently have 2 Intel Pro/1000 VT cards and plan on replacing them with two I350-T4 cards. Should I be worried about the heat these NICs give off?

With the two Pro/1000 VT cards, pfsense reads 49 Celsius, which I believe is just the CPU reading. I've just recently took a cheap IR temp reading off the heatsinks from the Pro/1000 VT cards and reading 60-65 Celsius.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Why did I go with the HP SFF? = I bought it used from a local online store, and also wanted the small footprint for my pfsense.

Sample picture of the HP Prodesk 600 G3 SFF below.

HP Prodesk 600 G3 SFF.jpg
 

oneplane

Well-Known Member
Jul 23, 2021
844
484
63
Should be fine, depending on your load. I'm not sure about pfSense anymore, but in OpnSense you can read the NIC temperatures just fine.

If you do seem to have hotter cards than you'd like you can get perforated PCI plates and add a small low-rpm chassis fan in your SFF. Even a crappy 40mm at a low speed will be fine as the point would be to replace the air instead of letting the cards cook. Technically your PSU might already be doing that for you.
 

indothai

New Member
Jun 18, 2022
2
0
1
Should be fine, depending on your load. I'm not sure about pfSense anymore, but in OpnSense you can read the NIC temperatures just fine.

If you do seem to have hotter cards than you'd like you can get perforated PCI plates and add a small low-rpm chassis fan in your SFF. Even a crappy 40mm at a low speed will be fine as the point would be to replace the air instead of letting the cards cook. Technically your PSU might already be doing that for you.
Thanks for the input. I've decided to take the cover off and place a Noctua 120mm fan blowing over the NIC cards. Hate how it looks now, but it'll have to do.

I'll eventually go with a bigger case with proper air flow or get one of those Topton mini-pc's. STH did a review on a 4-port 2.5GbE and I'm considering getting a 6-port version, still undecided.