Watercooling + Supermicro Motherboards

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WhosTheBosch

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I'm planning on using the Supermicro board X10SRH-CLN4F (socket 2011 R3) for my build with a E5-1650 v4 but since it only supports two heatsink/fan combos for the CPU that are quite loud I was wondering about using water cooling. I'm not too familiar with Supermicro and was wondering if the motherboards would support it or not?

If it would work, does anyone have any suggestions for water cooling setups that might work well?
 
Tom5051

Tom5051

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No reason why it shouldn't as long as you can get water blocks for Xeons.

A quick google shows plenty of examples.
 
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Jon Massey

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Plenty of All-In-One water coolers for 2011-3 (Narrow ILM in the case of that SM board). Another option is a higher-end HSF like a Noctua nh-u12dx-i4 which should give you better thermal/acoustic performance without the hassle and risk of water
 
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WhosTheBosch

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Jon Massey said:
Plenty of All-In-One water coolers for 2011-3 (Narrow ILM in the case of that SM board). Another option is a higher-end HSF like a Noctua nh-u12dx-i4 which should give you better thermal/acoustic performance without the hassle and risk of water
Click to expand...
I was looking at that model earlier and would prefer quiet air, but was told it wouldn't work with my motherboard because the Noctua isn't compatible.
 
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WhosTheBosch

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Not entirely sure, where I was ordering from they said it wouldn't work. I'll have to touch base with them again because if that worked it would be great.

If I went water cooling would a 140w Xeon require a water cooler block with two fans?
 
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Jon Massey

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Generally speaking, you don't tend to have fans on the block. As for dual vs single radiator it really depends on space and cost. If you've got room for a 280mm (i.e. 2x140mm) rad in your case then of course it's going to be quieter than a single 80mm as the fans will have to spin an awful lot slower to dissipate the same amount of heat.

I'd start by looking at what I can fit comfortably in my case and what I'm willing to spend, then read test reports of coolers that fit those requirements. If there aren't reports of that cooler on similar-TDP chips then scale your expectations accordingly. Better test reports will quote a °C/W figure which will help in that regard.
 
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i386

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I have a supermicro X10sra + u12dx i4 in my workstation and the combination works fine.

Edit: Btw. what case do you plan to use?
 
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WhosTheBosch

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I e-mailed Supermicro support and this was their response:

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Hello, I was wondering if the X10SRH-CLN4F would be able to support using a Noctua NH-U12DX i4 with a E5-1650 v4?

NH-U12DX i4
Thanks.

---
Dear customer,

Thank you for contacting Supermicro Computer's Technical Support.
We normally would not recommend customer to use third party chassis with the motherboard.
Because before there was a customer is using this fan model with our X10SRM-F. However, fans spin-up and down every 5 seconds.
You can choose the fan from the link below:

Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Support | System Fan Matrix

Thank you so much.
---

So it sounds like they had someone that before but the fans were spinning up and down every 5 seconds? I'm wondering if that's a BIOS setting?

I haven't decided on a case yet. I'm wanting something smaller if possible that has 4 internal 3.5" bays in it. I won't need room for an overly big graphics card but will be using an RX460 for my virtualized HTPC. One thing that makes it finding a case hard is I would prefer something that sits horizontal because it will be in my entertainment unit.
 
Tom5051

Tom5051

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That's odd, I'd have thought a PWM fan is a PWM fan? Maybe the motherboard only supports DC control but still, you can get fans to suit.
Did they not say anything about the Noctua heatsink fitting?
Might be a case of try one and if it doesn't suit, sell on ebay?
 
Tom5051

Tom5051

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Water cooling is nice if you never want to change or remove anything. Then you have to drain it etc etc.
Always a chance of splashing a circuit board.
 
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WhosTheBosch

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Well I'm not really sure they understood what I was asking? They didn't say anything at all about Noctua.

I also thought a simple PWM fan would work. My problem with their fans are that they are quite loud. I could definitely try the buy and see how it goes route. I just want to see if I can avoid it by getting straight answer though. I would assume if @i386 has an X10SRA and a U12DX i4 it should work for me as well since the X10SRH-CLN4F isn't much different.

I likely will not need to change anything in the build but at some point I would get some more HDDs so I would prefer air cooling, but I thought I would see what options water cooling offers as I haven't looked at it for a few years.
 
Tom5051

Tom5051

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No doubt someone else can give a more definitive answer but I can't see Supermicro using some sort of custom fan control system.
I'd be more concerned about the Noctua actually fitting in the space without interfering with anything.
 
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i386

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WhosTheBosch said:
I e-mailed Supermicro support and this was their response:

---
Hello, I was wondering if the X10SRH-CLN4F would be able to support using a Noctua NH-U12DX i4 with a E5-1650 v4?

NH-U12DX i4
Thanks.

---
Dear customer,

Thank you for contacting Supermicro Computer's Technical Support.
We normally would not recommend customer to use third party chassis with the motherboard.
Because before there was a customer is using this fan model with our X10SRM-F. However, fans spin-up and down every 5 seconds.
You can choose the fan from the link below:

Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Support | System Fan Matrix

Thank you so much.
---

So it sounds like they had someone that before but the fans were spinning up and down every 5 seconds? I'm wondering if that's a BIOS setting?

I haven't decided on a case yet. I'm wanting something smaller if possible that has 4 internal 3.5" bays in it. I won't need room for an overly big graphics card but will be using an RX460 for my virtualized HTPC. One thing that makes it finding a case hard is I would prefer something that sits horizontal because it will be in my entertainment unit.
Click to expand...
It's not a bios setting: It's the ipmi/bmc. The bmc ramps up all the fans speed if one of the fans goes below the low treshhold (usually 650rpm) set in the ipmi settings.
 
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WhosTheBosch

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i386 said:
It's not a bios setting: It's the ipmi/bmc. The bmc ramps up all the fans speed if one of the fans goes below the low treshhold (usually 650rpm) set in the ipmi settings.
Click to expand...
That's great. I'm hoping that the IPMI low fan threshold is a changeable setting by the user?
 
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