Quanta LB4M 48-Port Gigabit Switch Discussion

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RKDigital

New Member
Dec 31, 2015
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FAN's and Noise

Okay, I have reviewed what everyone has sent so far, and most seem to be trying to change the power supply fans by dropping the airflow rates using external inline controllers, that is never proper in my book for the long life of the power supply or reliability. But that is not where the noise is coming from, 75% of the system noise on these units comes from the 3 primary fans for the unit itself. Simple test, fire up the unit without the 3 fan tray in the back, discover for yourself.

I'm working on a solution to use 3 fans of a much larger size, but without the noise level associated with the factory installed fans. Once I have the solution, I will share. Most of us have plenty of room in the rear of the rack to have an air movement device added, and this switch is not that deep. No where near the depth of a full server, so most everyone will have plenty of room.

I just need to know interest, as once I design and produce this for myself, I need to know if anyone else would be willing to pay for the same solution??? I can do the AutoCAD and find a supplier to print the part, but need to know what kind of volume (which I know will be very low) to estimate to the supplier. Look guys, I'm not looking to make a profit here, I just want to share, and I don't want to misrepresent myself to the supplier.

Please understand, dropping airflow across silicon chip heat sinks is a very BAD idea, you say "it only increased two or three degrees C", but in my field of failure analysis, that's several years of life shaved off the silicon. So the key to noise pollution control would be to enlarge the fan tunnel, use larger fans (that are whisper quiet) and move the same volume (if not more) of air. The cooler you can keep the silicon, the LONGER it will live! Just go look up HALT failure analysis, that should enlighten those that want to learn. Just my 2 cents.
 

RobertFontaine

Active Member
Dec 17, 2015
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Winterpeg, Canuckistan
There are plenty of fans designed to be quiet and push air. The ones you are looking for are commonly matched with water cooling radiators and are the ugliest shade of beige brown on the planet. Great quiet bearings and blades designed to push air without the buzz.

To be wife safe will likely require extreme measures. A combination of quiet airflow, heatsinks/pipes and watercooling are in my plans for these noise machines.

If you are just trying to be office safe I suspect sound proofing the server room would be easier and cheaper than the cost and effort of silencing the boxes.
 

Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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So how hot is too hot? I used the inline resistors and temp is 46c. Was 38c without resistors.
 

PGlover

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Nov 8, 2014
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I highly doubt its the switch that is causing your file access latency. Its much more likely its your hard drives on your storage medium. Do you have them set to power saving? That will cause tons of initial latency.
Are there any power management settings in the BIOS that should be turned off? I have the SuperMicro X10SRH-CLN4F motherboard.
 

RKDigital

New Member
Dec 31, 2015
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So how hot is too hot? I used the inline resistors and temp is 46c. Was 38c without resistors.
Good Question: Anything over 25C (77F) ambient temp is going to start the degradation process, it's a matter of how fast. This is not a linear scale, and varies depending on a variety of factors that are way beyond the scope of this discussion.

As the default alarm temperature is set for 45C(113F), so I would say 46C(114.8F) is definitely too high. since you are reporting a temperature above the alarm threshold, I would say you would want to consider changing your fan arrangement.

Personally, and in my opinion, I would say to stay at a minimum of 5 degrees C below the alarm threshold. Another factor to consider is, how much network traffic was running across the switch when you pulled those temps. The higher the bandwidth and more ports active, the higher the temp will rise. Especially if the 10G ports are being used as well. To give some perspective, I have both power supplies installed and running, with 18 of the 1Gig ports running, and 1 of the 10Gig ports running. Under idle load (low network traffic), I'm at 41C (all stock fans) with an ambient of 23C. That tells me I'm at an 18 degree rise over ambient. I have not had the chance to run tests with the network under full load yet to see how far the temp will rise above that.

Other things that have not been considered yet:
  • Removing heat sinks, and placing new thermal compound (I may test this weekend, have new silver compound coming in Saturday, I'll take photos to show)
  • Larger heat sinks (more surface area for heat to dissipate into, may be difficult to find correct sizes)
  • And as pointed out, water cooling (way more expensive, don't know if I would go that way)
  • The last one, use electrical Peltier plates to cool chips, but they require heat sinks, and external power, way more complicated.
Hope this helps.
 
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Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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I wonder if the heatsinks are glued on. If they are it might be problematic to get them off.

I ended up removing the fan resistors for a second time, partly because of the temp rise and partly because the emitted a low pitched whine that was, to me, more objectionable they when they run at normal speed. Think I'll just live with the noise. I can close the door if others find it objectionable. I'm somewhat used to it so it doesn't bother me as much.
 

spyrule

Active Member
If asthetics arnt a problem, get a pair of pwm 80mm fans. Cut two holes in the hood, the replace the two fans in the psu with some 40mm fans set to pull air from within the chassis. Make sure to install the two 80mm fans blowing inward. This is what i did, and i cant hear the thing (and its literally 8" from my ear).
 

bonkersGER

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Jan 20, 2016
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Hello folks,

i just got my Quanta LB4M :)

i need to find this firmware v1.0.2.17 / VxWorks5.5.1 - switching, WebUI - Operational Code Date: Wed Jul 28 20:44:43 2010

can some one upload that one for me?
 

Fritz

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Apr 6, 2015
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Somewhere, in this thread I think, is a link to all the available firmware versions. If nobody else chimes in I'll figure out where to upload it so you can get it.
 

Matt C

New Member
Jan 26, 2016
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Ok... I bought two L4BM's... One has the HTTP interface, the other doesn't... I grabbed the 1.0.2.17 FW and attempted to load it via the boot menu with XMODEM, it got to block 24xxx / 68000 or so before dying, thereby wasting ~2+ hrs of my time...

I see you can load an image to the backup portion of the switch via TFTP, etc..

However following the syntax it claims is...

copy code backup tftp://192.168.200.254/l4bm.1.0.2.17.bin

For whatever reason it craps out with invalid input starting with the start of the TFTP url...

Any help??

Cheers,

Matt.
 

Matt C

New Member
Jan 26, 2016
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Ok... I bought two L4BM's... One has the HTTP interface, the other doesn't... I grabbed the 1.0.2.17 FW and attempted to load it via the boot menu with XMODEM, it got to block 24xxx / 68000 or so before dying, thereby wasting ~2+ hrs of my time...

I see you can load an image to the backup portion of the switch via TFTP, etc..

However following the syntax it claims is...

copy code backup tftp://192.168.200.254/l4bm.1.0.2.17.bin

For whatever reason it craps out with invalid input starting with the start of the TFTP url...

Any help??

Cheers,

Matt.
Just tried to do it with Xmodem via a Telnet session with ExtraPutty and still doesn't like the syntax...???
 

Matt C

New Member
Jan 26, 2016
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Just tried to do it with Xmodem via a Telnet session with ExtraPutty and still doesn't like the syntax...???
Nevermind... The damn documentation I'm pretty sure is written by Yoda...

Got the FW (backup) flashed via...

copy tftp://192.168.200.254/lb4m.1.0.2.17.bin backup
 

Fritz

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2015
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Glad you got it sorted out. As I understand it, the downloadable pdf manual from the Internet doesn't match these switches. I had a similar problem and the manual was of no use. A kind soul here provided me with the correct syntax.
 

Matt C

New Member
Jan 26, 2016
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All good now... Booted into the Boot menu, hit 11 I believe to activate the backup flash... Switch properly downgraded from VxWorks 6.6 to 5.5.1 and got the HTTP admin portion back...
 

RKDigital

New Member
Dec 31, 2015
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Nevermind... The damn documentation I'm pretty sure is written by Yoda...

Got the FW (backup) flashed via...

copy tftp://192.168.200.254/lb4m.1.0.2.17.bin backup

If you get seriously stuck PM me, I think I've performed almost every mistake that can be made.
 

RKDigital

New Member
Dec 31, 2015
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I wonder if the heatsinks are glued on. If they are it might be problematic to get them off.

I ended up removing the fan resistors for a second time, partly because of the temp rise and partly because the emitted a low pitched whine that was, to me, more objectionable they when they run at normal speed. Think I'll just live with the noise. I can close the door if others find it objectionable. I'm somewhat used to it so it doesn't bother me as much.

To answer your comment, yes the black heatsinks are glued on. Just pulled the processor (silver heatsink), and put new thermal compound on the chip. Honestly after an hour of running, it did not make any difference in the running temp. I imagine the temp sensor that is reporting is at the processor, as soon as I pulled the unit from service, I felt all the heatsinks and the processor one was the only one above ambient temperature.