server Make a 1U Server Quieter

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

Hi all,

 

I recently managed to acquire a couple old 1U servers for free. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with them yet but they are loud! Any ideas on ways to make them run quieter? I'm not against modifying cases and they do not have to fit in a 1U area but i do want to rack mount them at some point.

 

Side note, anyone know where I can get a cheap server rack in the Philadelphia area?

[Pesukarhu]

Use a (big and slow) centrifugal blower.

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

I feel like there are more tolls then techs on this form right now...

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

2 minutes ago, Pesukarhu said:

Use a (big and slow) centrifugal blower.

How would I mount that?

[Pesukarhu]

Just now, xxxHellcatsxxx said:

How would I mount that?

It depends. Probably could just sit on top of the server and have a pipe directing the air into the servers air vent. The server probably needs a couple fans plugged in anyways so it might be better to just get bigger pc fans and rig them on top of the case.

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

1 minute ago, Pesukarhu said:

might be better to just get bigger pc fans and rig them on top of the case.

That sounds like an idea.

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

23 minutes ago, xxxHellcatsxxx said:

Hi all,

 

I recently managed to acquire a couple old 1U servers for free. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with them yet but they are loud! Any ideas on ways to make them run quieter? I'm not against modifying cases and they do not have to fit in a 1U area but i do want to rack mount them at some point.

 

Side note, anyone know where I can get a cheap server rack in the Philadelphia area?

Might be a good idea to mention that it has I/O on the back and hot swap drive bays on the front. Might limit options.

[.:MARK:.]

On 12/30/2016 at 8:37 PM, xxxHellcatsxxx said:

Might be a good idea to mention that it has I/O on the back and hot swap drive bays on the front. Might limit options.

you could replace the fans with quieter ones, and add inline resistors.

[Dark]

Any response is greatly dependent on the make/model server. 

 

Many will error if the fan(s) is not reporting a specific voltage range. 

[mariushm]

You need to replace the 40mm (or thereabouts) fans which spin at high speeds with something else.

They're high speed because usually they're meant to pull air from the front (through hard disks and whatever is on the front panel), push it over cpu heatsinks and then push it out through the back of the case.  And they're noisy because usually the servers are in a closed rack and there's nobody actually living near the rack to care about the noise.

 

One solution is to change them to those blower fans (like the ones laptop use) and fabricate some kind of square or rectangular air channels from the fan all the way to the side or the back of the 1U case so that cold air from outside would be sucked in and blown where needed.

Another solution would be to use very beefy heatsinks, potentially with heatpipes (usually made of copper, expensive etc) and lower the cpu clocks in order to reduce the amount of heat generated.

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

Here is an image of the servers I have:

 

 

Any thoughts on how good/easy it would be to water cool?

 

I know water cooling would be over kill but isn't that the LTT way? lol

[WkdPaul]

Thread cleaned, if you have nothing to help the OP then there's no need to leave a reply, especially if it's going to be trolling or insults.

[Dark]

On 1/3/2017 at 10:12 AM, xxxHellcatsxxx said:

Here is an image of the servers I have:

 Any thoughts on how good/easy it would be to water cool?

 

I know water cooling would be over kill but isn't that the LTT way? lol

A dual socket supermicro 1U will always be loud unless you aren't providing it adequate airflow. It is what it is when you use something that dense. 

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

9 hours ago, Dark said:

A dual socket supermicro 1U will always be loud unless you aren't providing it adequate airflow. It is what it is when you use something that dense. 

Ya I figured this wouldn't be an easy thing. I got them for free so I cant really complain but I have the room for 2U servers so it would have been nice if they were 2U.

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

Does anyone know if water blocks for desktop lg1366 would work in this case? 

[vrod]

Should do probably. It's just really hard to make 40mm fans silent because they have so little space to move air on. You could slow them down to a silent stage but i don't think they would move much air. Watercooling would be hard because of the very limited space in the chassis. I also don't know if a DC would approve non-pro watercooling systems, could be a hazard to the other servers in the rack if it leaks.

 

however if you want to move it into a DC, does the noise really matter? It's very loud there anyway.

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

On 1/9/2017 at 3:28 AM, vrod said:

Should do probably. It's just really hard to make 40mm fans silent because they have so little space to move air on. You could slow them down to a silent stage but i don't think they would move much air. Watercooling would be hard because of the very limited space in the chassis. I also don't know if a DC would approve non-pro watercooling systems, could be a hazard to the other servers in the rack if it leaks.

 

however if you want to move it into a DC, does the noise really matter? It's very loud there anyway.

Its going in my basement.

[Falconevo]

23 hours ago, xxxHellcatsxxx said:

Its going in my basement.

Replace the 1U chassis with an EATX case and run it like a desktop machine.  Just need to replace the passive heatsinks with active ones instead.  

[Phate.exe]

4 hours ago, Falconevo said:

Replace the 1U chassis with an EATX case and run it like a desktop machine.  Just need to replace the passive heatsinks with active ones instead.  

This, or water cool the thing, yank most of the fans out, and put some big ass radiators outside the server.

[Falconevo]

6 hours ago, Phate.exe said:

This, or water cool the thing, yank most of the fans out, and put some big ass radiators outside the server.

Some server motherboards dont run unless all the fan allocation is filled, in those scenarios you would need to fool it with resistors.

[Phate.exe]

3 hours ago, Falconevo said:

Some server motherboards dont run unless all the fan allocation is filled, in those scenarios you would need to fool it with resistors.

That's pretty trivial if they're only looking for resistance, and not the things actively spinning.

 

Otherwise the largest blower fan you can fit would probably work just to keep some airflow moving through the thing.

 

The real answer to this though, is that 1U/2U server boxes are not a good option for home use.

[xxxHellcatsxxx]

13 hours ago, Phate.exe said:

That's pretty trivial if they're only looking for resistance, and not the things actively spinning.

 

Otherwise the largest blower fan you can fit would probably work just to keep some airflow moving through the thing.

 

The real answer to this though, is that 1U/2U server boxes are not a good option for home use.

I agree with that. I personally would have never purchased a 1u server let alone 4 but when someone says " Do you want these we are tossing them" I say "F*@k ya!" lol. I think I'm going to try to get some lg1366 water blocks and see if they fit. If they do I should be able to hook the pump into one of the fan leads and get extensions to hook the 3 radiator fans to the other fan leads.

[Phate.exe]

On 1/13/2017 at 10:39 PM, xxxHellcatsxxx said:

I agree with that. I personally would have never purchased a 1u server let alone 4 but when someone says " Do you want these we are tossing them" I say "F*@k ya!" lol. I think I'm going to try to get some lg1366 water blocks and see if they fit. If they do I should be able to hook the pump into one of the fan leads and get extensions to hook the 3 radiator fans to the other fan leads.

$free.99 is a really good reason to make some compromises, lol.

 

You'll still want to have some airflow moving through the system, since other parts aren't gonna like stagnant air, but you'll be able to get away with minimal airflow since your biggest heat sources (cpu's) aren't going to transfer much heat to the inside of the case.

[kirashi]

On 12/30/2016 at 0:13 PM, xxxHellcatsxxx said:

Hi all,

 

I recently managed to acquire a couple old 1U servers for free. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with them yet but they are loud! Any ideas on ways to make them run quieter? I'm not against modifying cases and they do not have to fit in a 1U area but i do want to rack mount them at some point.

 

Side note, anyone know where I can get a cheap server rack in the Philadelphia area?

Not to take you away from the LTT forums, but /r/homelab and /r/homelabsales/ are great places to start with advice on noise reduction, power savings, and buying used server racks and equipment. I frequent there a lot, and people are always building custom racks out of IKEA LACK side tables and selling off old gear they don't need anymore.

[alex75871]

Install the system in a desktop case e.g. Fractal Define R5.

 

The R5 has sound deadening panels and large 140mm fans. Replace the CPU heatsinks with active cooling.