Supermicro SYS-E300-8D

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

MountainDew

Member
Oct 19, 2015
251
20
18
I've been running a E300-8D system as pfSense router / firewall for over 6 months now and i replaced the 2 stock fans with 3x SuperMicro FAN-0100L4 and its much quieter than stock. Still by far not silent enough to have it next to you, but a room away its fine.

They are also 40mm fans with the same connectors, just lower rpms.

CPU temp is 55 degrees @ 4300 RPM.

Picture:


It's running 16G of 2133 ECC RAM and a Trancend MSA370 128G M.2 SSD and the riser with a dual 10G RJ45 X540 card.
How did you swap out the original fans? Please tell me you didn't have to rip out the mobo to get at those screws?
Nevermind - just a little tug on the chassis holding the fans did it
 
Last edited:

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
113
I just bought this chassis for use as a pfSense box in my parents house (off-site backups). It will house a C2758. I'm definitely going to have to swap out the fans because they will not be happy with a loud server in their house that they don't even know why it's there :rolleyes:.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
I just bought this chassis for use as a pfSense box in my parents house (off-site backups). It will house a C2758. I'm definitely going to have to swap out the fans because they will not be happy with a loud server in their house that they don't even know why it's there :rolleyes:.
Backup ? Just small data on a couple 2.5” disks ? (I thought 15mm ones won’t fit either) or you have a HBA and external array ?
Anyway I wanted to ask how many disks and size you really can fit ?
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
113
Backup ? Just small data on a couple 2.5” disks ? (I thought 15mm ones won’t fit either) or you have a HBA and external array ?
Anyway I wanted to ask how many disks and size you really can fit ?
No this is just going to be a bare metal pfSense box. I'm building my backup server in a U-NAS NSC810a.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
Makes much more sense, I assume with the Atom cpu you can find some much quieter fans as not that much airflow should be needed.
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
113
Makes much more sense, I assume with the Atom cpu you can find some much quieter fans as not that much airflow should be needed.
What are safe temps for the C2758? I have two of the FAN-0100L4 fans in my current 1U SuperMicro chassis with the C2758 and temps are usually in the low 40s. They can get in the upper 40s if load gets really high for extended periods.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
What are safe temps for the C2758? I have two of the FAN-0100L4 fans in my current 1U SuperMicro chassis with the C2758 and temps are usually in the low 40s. They can get in the upper 40s if load gets really high for extended periods.
Much higher than that for sure , I know of use in embedded application to 70 degrees C
Sadly intel done publicly state the tcase and other temps and supermicro don’t say for that board but on other embedded boards like that I have seem 0-60 degrees C stated as operating temp.
Not much help I know but should have a lot more headroom than you will probably feel comfortable with.
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
113
Much higher than that for sure , I know of use in embedded application to 70 degrees C
Sadly intel done publicly state the tcase and other temps and supermicro don’t say for that board but on other embedded boards like that I have seem 0-60 degrees C stated as operating temp.
Not much help I know but should have a lot more headroom than you will probably feel comfortable with.
So then the real question is, what quiet fans will actually work in this case...Dare I try a Noctua 40mm PWM fan?
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
So then the real question is, what quiet fans will actually work in this case...Dare I try a Noctua 40mm PWM fan?
This I don’t know , for my supermicro boards the 60mm PWM used for CPU cooling spins fast enough not to cause an issue but I know this is different, I did read I am sure somebody has replaced fans in those systems and it worked but that was the X10SDV board I have not the C2000 ones.
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
113
This I don’t know , for my supermicro boards the 60mm PWM used for CPU cooling spins fast enough not to cause an issue but I know this is different, I did read I am sure somebody has replaced fans in those systems and it worked but that was the X10SDV board I have not the C2000 ones.
I think it's worth me giving the 40x20mm Noctua fans a shot. I don't know much about fans but I take it the 5v fans are a no-no when plugging into motherboard fan headers?
 

bateau

Member
Jan 22, 2017
49
14
8
You will want to use the 4 pin fans, and you probably have to change the pinout a bit to match supermicro's style, and you may get RPM fault indications as the speeds may not match with what is expected. Don't use the 3 pin fans, they will only run full speed (if wired correctly). If you want to put them on PWM though (don't know if the board accepts that), do not use the ULN series, they react badly to PWM and only work from 8V DC on. If you want to use 3 pin fans on PWM, you might try the FLX though.
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
113
I was thinking of trying one of these two. Just not sure if the 5v will work?

NF-A4x20 PWM
NF-A4x20 5V PWM

I know I'll have to adjust the supermicro fan thresholds but that's not an issue as I've done it before with other boards and Noctua fans.
 

MountainDew

Member
Oct 19, 2015
251
20
18
It was posted earlier that Noctua fans wouldn't work due to low cfm

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
3,184
1,545
113
The E300 chassis is really cramped inside and uses a "positive pressure" airflow model for cooling (fans in the front blow in, with exhaust vents in various places, but mostly in the back).

In addition to low CFM, the Noctua's have low static pressure. I really doubt you'd get satisfactory airflow even with the C2758 Atom motherboard. I didn't read back through the whole thread to see if you have active cooling on the CPU. Might work OK if you do, but the small active cooler is likely to make noise too.
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
113
The E300 chassis is really cramped inside and uses a "positive pressure" airflow model for cooling (fans in the front blow in, with exhaust vents in various places, but mostly in the back).

In addition to low CFM, the Noctua's have low static pressure. I really doubt you'd get satisfactory airflow even with the C2758 Atom motherboard. I didn't read back through the whole thread to see if you have active cooling on the CPU. Might work OK if you do, but the small active cooler is likely to make noise too.
I have some FAN-0100L4 fans I can throw in there if the Noctua's don't do the job so we'll see what happens.