Quiet Cheap Server

[Jekub]

Hi, I've got a HP Proliant DL380 G5 and a 1U Dell poweredge I use the HP as a PFSense box and wanted to se the Dell as a miscelaneous sever for everything else like web hosting and file servers, etc. However I can't live with the noise from the 1U Server. So  what I'd like is a rackmount server that doesn't sound like a jet engine, has at least 1 3.5" drive bay, a 64bit architecture and is as cheap as possible. (I'm in the UK) Or someway to make my 1U server quieter, or move it to another case. Thoughts?

[grimreeper132]

you try replacing the fans with new quite ones, that's how I shut my ethernet switch up.

[Mikensan]

I'm going to guess that poweredge is a 1950/1850?

 

I personally would recommend the Dell R610 which I personally own. They have 3.5" variants. The Dell C1100 is also a 1u server of similar lifecycle to the R610. Whichever you can find cheaper I'd go for. The R610 has ESXI downloads up to version 6 I believe, whereas the C1100 is some crazy low version like 4.x. (Dell offers an official dell ESXI image for free download, includes all drivers).

 

You can usually get something like a 2x L5520 (essentially the i7 920 version of xeon) with 24-32gb of RAM, no disks, for something like $200us on ebay. Given you don't live in the US your prices may vary, but I imagine they're pretty comparable.

 

[Mikensan]

R610 is not whisper quiet, but is signifigantly quieter than the 1950/1850. I am able to sleep in the same room as a R610 or C1100.

[tt2468]

If he can live with the cost, the r220 is basically whisper quiet. At one point my desktop on average was louder than my r220 lol.

 

@grimreeper132The fans in dell servers are quite custom, and require high airflow.

[xc3ll]

19 hours ago, grimreeper132 said:

you try replacing the fans with new quite ones, that's how I shut my ethernet switch up.

 

That's the way to go!

 

If you want to achieve real silence, you'll have to mod something yourself. 1U is a problem though, since you don't have a lot of room to work in. Depending where your server is located, I would leave the chassis open and put some decent air coolers on.

Check your system for high temps after you did that though. In some cases the missing airflow from the high power case fans can lead to overheating of raid cards, chipsets and other components, you may overlook.

 

If you want to buy a whole new system, you should look into the smaller low power home or small business stuff. The HP microserver's are as loud as a usual desktop pc - which is much louder than a decent aftermarket cooler

 

 

[Mikensan]

I don't think modding a 771 socket based system is worth the time or money. Just my opinion.

[Jekub]

Just thought I'd point this out, I really don't care about the form factor at all, my bad if I made it sound that way. 

On 12/19/2016 at 4:20 PM, Mikensan said:

I'm going to guess that poweredge is a 1950/1850?

Just checked it's a 1950

[Mikensan]

1 hour ago, Jekub said:

Just thought I'd point this out, I really don't care about the form factor at all, my bad if I made it sound that way. 

Just checked it's a 1950

I'd go Dell T20, Dell R610/R710, Dell C2200 (lot of bays) or something along these lines. There are HP Proliant G6 servers that are just dandy too, but I don't know their model numbers very well. The T20 is the only tower based one I listed, rest are 1u/2u/4u variants with pretty much identical internals.

[Jekub]

3 hours ago, Mikensan said:

I'd go Dell T20, Dell R610/R710, Dell C2200 (lot of bays) or something along these lines. There are HP Proliant G6 servers that are just dandy too, but I don't know their model numbers very well. The T20 is the only tower based one I listed, rest are 1u/2u/4u variants with pretty much identical internals.

So this will definitely be quieter than my 1950?