Saturday, March 9, 2013
Labels:
Dell
,
noise reduction
,
PowerEdge 2950
Background
Recently, I've accepted the task to build out a lab using donated equipment so people can practice for cyber security competitions. This donated equipment includes four or five Dell PowerEdge servers; one 2950 and three or four 2850s. After researching the system specs, the 2950 seemed like a good place to start since it was the model that could take the most additional memory. It came with four 512 MB DIMMs (a whole gig!), but we swapped those out with six 4GB DIMMs and an additional two 2GB DIMMs, enabling us to get to 28GB for memory.
Quick side note for others - the memory slots are paired 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 so you can't have an odd man out. I actually had five 4GB DIMMs, but I installed the fifth in slot 5 with a 2 GB stick in slot 6, and the start up checks kindly informed me of the mismatch. Once I swapped out the 4GB so slots five through eight were homogeneous, I was good for memory and received no memory check errors.
The Issue
When powering on the 2950, it's idle fan sound is overbearing. I live in a town home, and this server is placed in a closet in the basement 14 feet below the main floor yet I can still hear it whining away. To say this server is loud isn't enough, it's LOUD.
My first attempt at reducing the noise was to remove two of the four chassis fans, since this server isn't going to be heavily tested. I put the cover on, powered it up, and went to the main floor to see the difference. It was definitely an improvement, but I could still clearly hear the humming. An audio meter indicates it's at about 70+ decibels, with two fans removed!
At this point, I figured I needed to take a look at these fans to see if there was a way to control their speed and/or look for acceptable replacements. Research typically reveals one of three things:
Dell PowerEdge 2950: Silence the Noise, Part 1
Background
Recently, I've accepted the task to build out a lab using donated equipment so people can practice for cyber security competitions. This donated equipment includes four or five Dell PowerEdge servers; one 2950 and three or four 2850s. After researching the system specs, the 2950 seemed like a good place to start since it was the model that could take the most additional memory. It came with four 512 MB DIMMs (a whole gig!), but we swapped those out with six 4GB DIMMs and an additional two 2GB DIMMs, enabling us to get to 28GB for memory.
Quick side note for others - the memory slots are paired 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 so you can't have an odd man out. I actually had five 4GB DIMMs, but I installed the fifth in slot 5 with a 2 GB stick in slot 6, and the start up checks kindly informed me of the mismatch. Once I swapped out the 4GB so slots five through eight were homogeneous, I was good for memory and received no memory check errors.
The Issue
When powering on the 2950, it's idle fan sound is overbearing. I live in a town home, and this server is placed in a closet in the basement 14 feet below the main floor yet I can still hear it whining away. To say this server is loud isn't enough, it's LOUD.
My first attempt at reducing the noise was to remove two of the four chassis fans, since this server isn't going to be heavily tested. I put the cover on, powered it up, and went to the main floor to see the difference. It was definitely an improvement, but I could still clearly hear the humming. An audio meter indicates it's at about 70+ decibels, with two fans removed!
At this point, I figured I needed to take a look at these fans to see if there was a way to control their speed and/or look for acceptable replacements. Research typically reveals one of three things:
- Brent Ozar's fine post about quieting a PowerEdge 1950
- Another author's post on hacking the BMI
- Multiple forums of people telling 2950 owners to buy a new box
Brent's post provides great advice on switching out the fans for a 1950, but the fans mentioned in his post are a different size than the 60mm x 60mm x 35mm of the 2950 fans.
Hacking the BMI seemed a little intimidating to start off with, so I decided to pursue that as the last option.
This equipment was donated expressly because of the lack of funds, so option 3 is out.
I decided to research alternate fans first...
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Any luck finding replacement fans? I've got a 2950 in the garage, I can hear that bad boy inside the house. Please tell me you've found a suitable replacement, you can't leave us hanging like this!
ReplyDeleteHi Neil. Thank you for commenting!
ReplyDeleteI haven't found suitable replacement fans yet, but I haven't put enough effort into the research. I did see some 60mm x 60mm x 25mm fans out there, but the power cables to the motherboard have a different pin-out. I was going to buy a couple and tinker with them to see what the results would be. However, the majority of my time recently was occupied by my preparation for a cyber defense competition. Now that it's finished I plan to continue the search. I'll post a follow up with the potentials and what's entailed with having to get them to work. We'll find a solution!
I always appreciate people who figure stuff out and then post it for others to benefit from - thanks! Your article got me started on quieting my Dell 2900. I replaced all six of the 92mm fans but didn't get much reduction in noise. Turns out the single 60mm PWM fan in each of the two hot-swap power supplies was making most of the noise. I ordered some quiet 3 wire (non PWM) 60mm replacements and after installing them I found that the 4th wire for PWM input has to be there unless you're capable of hacking the baseboard management software. I'm not so I looked further and have ordered some 60mm x 60mm x 25mm fans with PWM and will re-post here with the final results.The fans I'm waiting for: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5875/fan-290/Cooljag_Everflow_60mm_x_25mm_PWM_Fan_F126025BU.html
ReplyDeleteAny luck with the new fans?
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