Need fan? (Supermicro C3000)

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snakyjake

Member
Jan 22, 2014
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I'm looking at the Supermicro C3000 motherboard/processor series, and many do not come with a CPU fan, just a CPU heatsink.

The models without the fan, do they require a chassis fan?
Or do these models not produce the heat, therefore the heatsink is all that is needed?

Thanks.
 

BlueLineSwinger

Active Member
Mar 11, 2013
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Pretty sure there's at least a chassis fan or two, and possibly a duct leading from one to the CPU heatsink.

On the page for a given mainboard, Supermicro will usually list what systems it's included in. This should give you some idea of what kind of cooling you'd need to employ.
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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You can run the C3338 with little to no chassis airflow. The C3958 / C3955 certainly need a chassis fan over a passive heatsink. I would suspect many of the lower-end models will as well.
 

ullbeking

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Jul 28, 2017
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If you want to want to run one of the models with a greater number of cores, therefore, higher power, I've heard that you will need very good chassis airflow, and if you don't have that then you'll need to put a fan on the heatsink. @Patrick had a recommendation or two for a particular fan model or series, or at least a vendor who sold the right sort of fans... IIRC. Am I mistaken in this recollection... Patrick?
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Oh do the Xeon-D trick and just glue, zip tie, whatever a fan on TOP of the heatsink should also do the job for minimal cost and effort.
 

ullbeking

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Jul 28, 2017
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Oh do the Xeon-D trick and just glue, zip tie, whatever a fan on TOP of the heatsink should also do the job for minimal cost and effort.
Yes, that is exactly what I meant. But what fan exactly? Must one purchase a Supermicro-branded Xeon-D CPU fan? Who sells quiet fans with the right dimensions, and what model would one be looking for?

I'm potentially looking to do this for a C2000-series CPU.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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I used a NF-A6x25 I think, 60mm anyway.
But c2000i know has been mentioned as similar or same size heatsink ?? Sorry I don’t have one to know but I think it’s been mentioned as similar.
 

funkywizard

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Jan 15, 2017
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Eyeballing a photo of the supermicro heatsink, it looks roughly 60mm on a side (a little smaller than half the length of the dimm slot, which should be around 130mm, so I figure probably 60mm). Based on that, either 40mm or 60mm should work I would think.

I would expect one of these to work fine: DC Cooling Fan for Model Railroads or Ham Radio Equipment 15 CFM Ball Bearing | eBay

FFB0412VHN -- only uses about 2 watts at maximum speed. Should be a reasonable volume when running at a lower speed, but if you want it to be especially quiet, you're going to want a bigger, slower fan instead. I've used a pair of these to cool 95w TDP E5-2660's at full load, so one of them should be fine for the atom.