Supermicro 846 drive temps vs fan speed

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XplodingData

Member
Jan 25, 2020
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I am running an 846 chassis with 10x 3.5" 8TB drives installed currently. This will grow over time I'm sure.

When I do parity checks/builds or large file transfers, the drives get above 50degC and I get warnings.

I have the chassis fans set to optimal (x9srl-f mobo) to keep the fan noise down, and since the system itself isn't warming up, the fans don't speed up.

So I'm wondering if I tape off/block off the front of the empty drive trays, if that would help force more air to be routed across the drives and help cool them better. Or am I better to just turn the fan speeds up and deal with the noise?

Thanks for your input
 

BlueFox

Legendary Member Spam Hunter Extraordinaire
Oct 26, 2015
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Do you have the the empty bays filled up with the plastic drive fillers/dummies? They're designed to help balance airflow for systems that don't have all the drive bays populated.
 

XplodingData

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Jan 25, 2020
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Do you have the the empty bays filled up with the plastic drive fillers/dummies? They're designed to help balance airflow for systems that don't have all the drive bays populated.
No, that's why I'm asking about blocking them off. Didn't realize there was actual dummy drive units that could be put in.

So I guess I'm on the right track then
 

XplodingData

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Jan 25, 2020
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Alright well I don't have a bag of dummy units but I do have a bunch of scrap wood. Little unorthodox but maybe I'll cut some blocks the same size as fake drives and pop em in.
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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Alright well I don't have a bag of dummy units but I do have a bunch of scrap wood. Little unorthodox but maybe I'll cut some blocks the same size as fake drives and pop em in.
Just cover the air vents in the drive tray with tape on the inside.
 
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XplodingData

Member
Jan 25, 2020
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Well I tried the tape thing and it doesn't seem to have made much(if any) difference. Which is honestly surprising.

So I've had the fans running at full speed and that's keeping the drives cooler for now, but I'd really love to get the speeds controlled.
I googled and found a bunch of info on ipmitool raw commands to set the fan speeds but none of them seemed to work, except for the commands to set the fan control scheme (Standard, FULL, Optimal). X9 series board.