Server noise - way to control it?

Hello everyone!

I need some help, can someone tell me if it is possible to reduce the noise from the server? Is it possible to regulate the way the fans work in order for them to work only when the temperature is rising or something like that? Because they’re always on, and since I just have one HDD, there is no need for them to be running all the time.

Thanks in advance!

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Are there any cards installed you don’t need? They really speed up the fans. I’ve also opted to not put in my extra hdds I’m the front since they also speed the fans up.

There are 2 HDDs in the front, because they were already in. But probably, the best is to take them out. Will check the cards!

Hello señor, I plug them off.
The noise is still there
DO I need to totally remove them?

ThanksIMG-20220320-WA0024

It really shouldn’t matter, but you will need to reboot. The difference will be minor, it will still be loud.

19" servers are usually not made to be extra quiet. Reliability is more important here than noise. Anyway some servers have (limited) options to configure the noise.
For my Dell 620, there is an “advanced thermal control” in the BIOS.
It’s also possible to configure environmental settings. “Performance” is louder than “power per watt”. "Dense configuration " also speeds the fan up a bit.
Switching off “turbo mode” for the CPUs and using “Reliability mode” for RAM instead of "performance " might also slow down your fans.

Best you can do us read the manual and try the bios options.

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Let me do some speculations on the given indicatives in this picture. According to the sticker on the very front-left of the cover, the way the “Intel Xeon inside”-Label is pinned and the apperance of the drive caddys i very much guess that this is a HP Proliant Gen8 Server. Am I correct?

If so… welcome to the club of users experiencing some strange fan speed behavior. This is a well known bug with these mashines. I also have trouble with these and never got them lower than 30% fan speed (while the machine is literally doing nothing).

I managed to lower fan speed from about 40% to a little less than 30%. If you have a “HP Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 331FLR Adapter” installed it is propably connected to the 16x PCI-Slot. Put it into the 8x PCI-Slot (on the opposite side of the board) and downgrade it’s firmware to 17.x.x. (from 20.x.x). As I said… that saved me 10% fan speed which is not really satisfying.

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Hello guys
Many thanks everyone!
Yes, you are right about the model.
I say to my wife that the noise, is the sound of freedom.
No, she said. It’s the sound of a divorce.
I also have my tree daughters heavily against me and the technology…

Any one had experience with cabinets for noise reduction?
I’m running out of time before I’m being expulse from my home!
Thanks

I just have some l"istening experience" with a noise reduction 19" cabinet at work.
For me it’s still not suitable for any living room and this thing will cost you quite some money.

You and your family might be luckier with selling your actual 19" server and buying a much more silent workstation or tower server. You get dual CPU and lots of RAM with these machines too.

Thanks for reply.
I will look into this asap.
I might transfer or to some one else, and alternative is to get a another place and start building rigs…
Cheers

Do you have an example build for one. I’m a noob so if you can provide the cost I should pay for each piece of the build that would be great too! I want a few full on servers but noise is the issue stopping me. :joy: better yet if you have links to where I should purchase the parts that would be great but I know I am asking for too much help.

If noise is an issue for you, better look for tower servers or workstations.
You say you want "a few servers " so even if you put them in a (closed) noise reduction cabinet, you need external cooling / air-conditioning for the cabinet, adding extra noise…

I think one option is to get a pizza box DIY 3node such as this one

AMD 5700G CPU’s on Asrock Rack X470 motherboards.

AMD 5700G - 8 Core 16 Thread CPU

Asrock Rack X470 Motherboard

128GB RAM

2x 2TB Kingston NVME SSD’s

1x 8TB Enterprise SATA HDD


It’s like in between a desktop and a standard server.

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I recognize this is old but in case someone comes along, a bit of information, the hpe line especially in the g7 and g8 world have a known issue with a few diffrent things causing their fans to run full tilt.

The base of the problem is the way hpe server get their information about fan speed, in the situation that they are used as intended it works perfectly, everything has full data links to ilo on temp reporting and it knows the temp of everything.

Where you have to be careful is using consumer gear that may not have the functions as more expensive enterprise gear, especially hard drives. If the drive doesn’t report its temperature The way ilo likes it will just assume it’s overheated, same with some pci e cards.

This problem goes deeper even with hpe raid controllers and can effect drive transfer speeds.

If your going to deploy on older hp hardware check this document before you buy drives, or be ready to go really deep into firmware modifications to get things working

http://dascomputerconsultants.com/HPCompaqServerDrives.htm

@Mik

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Thanks @ParkerS for sharing this advice. Very useful for HP server owners.