Making Supermicro SC743 more quiet

[ca3y6]

but I am not sure if it is a good idea to change it. But the fan is attached just by screws, I could probably remove it and replace it by something more quiet?

I don't see why not, airflow is airflow, and I usually have no problem connecting noctua fans to a supermicro motherboard.

It's the case fans I usually have problems replacing with noctua, the SM motherboards tend to cycle through high then low mode. I know it is fixable by playing around with a script on the BMC, I just prefer to connect the fans to a separate physical fan controller.

On windows you can also set the max cpu usage in the power options. There must be something similar in linux based OS. That's another way to ensure it doesn't go all the way in term of TDP even under load.

Not a bad idea to log the temperature of your different components (MB/CPU is accessible via ipmitools, HBA via storcli, disks via smartctl), so you can measure the long term impact of what you do.

Also lots of people add an additional fan pointed at the PCIe cards: HBA, 10gbe NIC and AIC SSDs will benefit from it. It allows to make up for less airflow from powerful case fans if you replace them with quieter fans.

 

[luckylinux]

I don't see why not, airflow is airflow, and I usually have no problem connecting noctua fans to a supermicro motherboard.

It's the case fans I usually have problems replacing with noctua, the SM motherboards tend to cycle through high then low mode. I know it is fixable by playing around with a script on the BMC, I just prefer to connect the fans to a separate physical fan controller.

On windows you can also set the max cpu usage in the power options. There must be something similar in linux based OS. That's another way to ensure it doesn't go all the way in term of TDP even under load.

Not a bad idea to log the temperature of your different components (MB/CPU is accessible via ipmitools, HBA via storcli, disks via smartctl), so you can measure the long term impact of what you do.

Also lots of people add an additional fan pointed at the PCIe cards: HBA, 10gbe NIC and AIC SSDs will benefit from it. It allows to make up for less airflow from powerful case fans if you replace them with quieter fans.

Airflow is Airflow as long as you have enough Static Pressure to push that required Airflow though .

If you don't have enough Static Pressure, your Airflow will drop like a Stone to basically Zero. Which could be a major Issue for Cooling of HDDs (to a less extent the CPU if you have a beefy CPU Cooler).

Ask me how I know .

 

[ca3y6]

Airflow is Airflow as long as you have enough Static Pressure to push that required Airflow though

That’s if you were to replace case fans on a 1u/2u server, where the fans have to be powerful as they have to pull air from tiny gaps between the hard drives and onto the motherboard, where the CPU(s) usually have no fan attached to their heatsink.

Here we are talking about a fan directly attached to a heatsink. Don’t think that calls for a fan any different from a regular desktop computer.

 

[luckylinux]

That’s if you were to replace case fans on a 1u/2u server, where the fans have to be powerful as they have to pull air from tiny gaps between the hard drives and onto the motherboard, where the CPU(s) usually have no fan attached to their heatsink.

Yes. And I found out while letting a SMART TEST run in the Evening (Idle Temps were normal) .

Here we are talking about a fan directly attached to a heatsink. Don’t think that calls for a fan any different from a regular desktop computer.

In principle yes, it should NOT be a Problem for most Fans unless you have a very high Density of Fins such that the air struggles to go through (and maybe the Heatsink full of dust or whatnot) .

 

[tcpluess]

hello, I just came home and quickly opened my server to check the CPU fan. For test purposes, I shortly disconnected the fan cable from the mainboard and realised that almost all noise is solely coming from the CPU fan! so this needs to be fixed. I wanted to remove the fan from the heat sink but I don't understand yet how this is attached. It's not screws but some weird snap-in mechanism. I wonder if it is even possible to remove at all without destroying something...

 

[BlueFox]

It is a torx screw, which you can see on top.

 

[luckylinux]

hello, I just came home and quickly opened my server to check the CPU fan. For test purposes, I shortly disconnected the fan cable from the mainboard and realised that almost all noise is solely coming from the CPU fan! so this needs to be fixed. I wanted to remove the fan from the heat sink but I don't understand yet how this is attached. It's not screws but some weird snap-in mechanism. I wonder if it is even possible to remove at all without destroying something...

Close-up of the "snap-in" ? Isn't that similar to what the Intel Stock CPU Cooler locked itself on the back of the Motherboard ?

 

[i386]

I wanted to remove the fan from the heat sink but I don't understand yet how this is attached. It's not screws but some weird snap-in mechanism. I wonder if it is even possible to remove at all without destroying something...

You can unscrew the assembly with a t20 (torx) screwdriver (or the epyc/threadripper pro wrench) and then remove the pins that hold the 92mm fan in place.

 

[tcpluess]

Hello,
sorry for my late reply! yep, I also found this out and removed that screw. Fan pops off easily. However, my replacement fan (Noctua, also 92mm) is apparently not strong enough, as the CPU quickly goes to >40°C, a bit warm for my taste. So this is probably not good.
I am considering replacing the heat sink with one of these very large Noctua heat sinks that are made for the LGA4189, for example something like this:

NH-U14S DX-4189

Noctua’s DX line CPU coolers have become a default choice in premium grade quiet cooling solutions for Intel Xeon processors. The NH-U14S DX-4189 features a larger, custom-designed contact surface for LGA4189 platforms. Based on the proven, 140mm size NH-U14S heatsink and equipped with Noctua’s...

noctua.at