Challenge: Quieting a PowerEdge 2900 III

karl · Post by **karl** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:46 am

I'm young and impulsive, and for various other reasons, decided to purchase a true server computer for my small (700 sq ft) apartment. Aside from the power draw (which is a different issue entirely), I've found its noise levels to be... well, I'm afraid for my future hearing ability.

The Dell PowerEdge 2900 III is ostensibly a 'tower' configuration of their popular 2950. It's 5U in height, and has 6 hot plug fans that are basically jet engines, from what I can tell. Hyperbole probably isn't advisable, but I don't have dB measuring equipment. I can say that it sounds like two blow dryers going at the same time, and requires me to turn my music up by about 100% to get the same ability to hear it. This is sitting 6 feet away from the machine (small apartment, remember).

Here is the server documentation showing the fans and how they work in the system:
(No links for new members: google poweredge 2900 fan documentation)

Here is a close-up picture of one of the hot-plug fans, presumably a proprietary configuration unique to Dell servers:
(No links for new members: google poweredge 2900 fan ebay)

As far as I know, the CPU, RAID card, memory, and other components simply have heat sinks, depending entirely on these blowers for cooling. All 6 run at ~2500 RPM when in normal use; when the system heats up a bit and they get above 2600 RPM, the increase in sound is quite noticeable (add another blow dryer).

I realize the primary recommendations would be to replace it with a silenced whitebox server or put it in a server room and close the door, but I was hoping that the skilled people of this forum might have a better suggestion for how to deal with the noise under current constraints.

-karl

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:54 am

Hi, welcome to the SPCR!! You cannot post links and pictures until 3rd post. This is to prevent spammers. Introduce yourself in newbies section or go in off topic talk something irrelevant, 2 posts are not impossible.

What socket that has? LGA771 Xeon or something else? There are quite few Xeon tower coolers. I got idea that you got single CPU set-up or do your have dual CPU there?

First thing to silence such moster is to get quiet system fans. I am not quite sure. I tried to google but I can't really see from couple few pictures are they 120mm fans, most likely they are that or 92mm.

But basicly, silencing begins when you get better and slower speed fans and better cooler with 120mm fan or 92mm versions.

karl · Post by **karl** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:09 am

It's an LGA771 slot, yes, 2.5 GHz Xeon E5420 Quad-Core. It's capable of two CPUs, but only has one installed, along with 4x 2GB ECC FB-DDR2 667 DIMMs, 3x 250GB 7.2k RPM SATA HDDs, 2x 930W PSUs (some posts say a single PSU makes the system louder due to the fans running faster), and a PERC 6/i RAID controller (which I'm told also requires a lot of cooling).

The fans look like 120mm to me, rated at 110 CFM, but in a proprietary casing that interfaces with the computer case and has a direct power/controller plug integrated into the fan case.

I'm thinking it's an impossible thing to replace/silence due to the proprietary plugs, but I figured I'd ask and try. Only after I had it installed for a while did I search on sound, and every post says that it's really built for a server room (then why do they offer it in a tower configuration?!).

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:33 am

Nothing is impossible, but it will likely void your warranty.

It seems like you have a lot of good hardware, and your limiting factors are your case and existing fans/PS.

I would consider investing in a more moddable case [P182 ? Antec 300?], a more reasonable power supply [Antec 500W earthwatts? Corsair HX450?], and a few good 120mm fans, maybe some of the 4$ zalman fan controllers.

That whole shebang should cost you less than 200$ if you shop around.

karl · Post by **karl** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 7:03 am

Voiding the warranty might not be too much of an issue, since pretty much anything I do to the computer that isn't blessed by Dell will do so.

I'm not sure the MB/components can be relocated to a new case. It's likely a proprietary setup there as well, though I'd have to do more research to be sure. I'd certainly like to keep the current case. And switching the PSUs out for a single, smaller PSU would really defeat the purpose of server grade hardware in the first place - high redundancy and expandability.

Looking at further pictures of the fans, it seems like they might be standard 120mm fans inside of a plastic sleeve that does the actual interface with the case. In which case, it might be possible to remove the fans, remove the sleeve, add new fans that meet the cooling needs of the system, and plug those in. I'm not sure if the built-in fan controllers would like that, though...

karl · Post by **karl** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 7:36 am

Link to graphic showing internal of case and fan positioning:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s ... #wp1072020

Link to close-up image of a fan in its sleeve:
http://i4.ebayimg.com/01/i/001/37/dc/397b_1.JPG

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 7:59 am

1.6amps on a single fan...that IS a hairdryer!!

For curiosity's sake, why DID you buy a "true server computer"? I'm not sure why anyone would waste time with FB-DIMMs and dual PSUs for home use? A "Server" is defined by the purpose, not the hardware. Though, the OEMs would have you think otherwise...

karl · Post by **karl** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:09 am

Let's call it a geek-format mid-life crisis. Instead of a sports car, I bought a server.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:33 am

karl wrote:Let's call it a geek-format mid-life crisis. Instead of a sports car, I bought a server.

More than fine with me and probably rest for the us. Yeah, Antec 300 might be good idea but its dual socket motherboard so it probably needs a eAtx compatible case...

CoolarMaster Storm Sniper or Antec 19x series might be quite intresting experience. Pairing them with Slipstreams and Xigmatek 92mm tower coolers...

karl · Post by **karl** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:32 pm

I found another close-up of one of the fans, this time better showing the connector:
http://www.pcsurplusonline.com/prods/DE-C9857.jpg

What kind of connector is that?

Shots of the case internals:
http://blog.loaz.com/timwang/index.php/ ... _i_ha_2900

From the documentation link I provided earlier, it looks like there's quite a bit of proprietary 'stuff' that goes into make this system work, including a power distribution board, control assembly, and SAS backplane board that might not fit into a more normal case, even eATX. As shown in the pictures, some of the hairdryers (uh, I mean fans) are positioned to point directly at objects like expansion cards and RAM due to all the heat this sucker puts out.

Does anyone think these fans would be replaceable without removing the entire system from the case? Or that replacing the case would even be possible?

I'd really like to be able to turn this thing on again without having to buy a house just so I could put it in a spare room :/

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:01 am

Does the PSU have any regular 4-pin Molexes? If so, you can simply use 4-pin -> 3-pin converters and use regular fans instead. Servers fans are always overkills, simply because they are intendet on heavy use and server rooms, where cooling really is issue. So they use high spec fans, which are completely unnecessary in your room.

karl · Post by **karl** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:09 am

From what I can tell, the PSU is just a module that plugs into the power distribution board, and the power distribution board plugs into the SAS backplane for the HDDs and the motherboard for all MB-attached components, including fans.

It looks like there might be adapters for some of the connectors on the power distribution board to split off into multiple standard 4-pin molex connectors, though I can't find anything specific at the moment.

heartsurgeon · Post by **heartsurgeon** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:11 pm

the obvious way to make the system totally quiet...is to use it as it was intended..stick it in another room, or a "server closet" that has adequate ventilation, and use another quiet computer as your desktop machine, use the server as a server.

don't tell me you use this to surf the net and email.....

having purchased some major kit from Dell, have you considered calling Dell tech support and askingthem about the fans?? There may be a software mechanism to regulate the fan speeds...i have a much older, simpler Dell server which had a fearfully loud fan, that could be quieted with a software fix...

3firelegs · Post by **3firelegs** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 1:14 pm

Karl: was this solved?

I just got a Dell PE 2900.

It came with 8G memory; I bought 4G more, 4 sticks, and put them in. Now the machine is really loud. The fans are on full throttle all the time....

~nightcrawler~ · Post by **~nightcrawler~** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 2:13 am

I ran into this blog where the stock fans were replaced with quieter ones.

"www"dot"brentozar"dot"com/archive/2010/01/how-to-make-a-dell-poweredge-quieter/"

(can't post a link as a newbie)

As far as the power supplies running loud it has been my experience that the fans on it do run slower if the system detects both power supplies are plugged in. The additional power draw is pretty much nill.

BillyBuerger · Post by **BillyBuerger** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:02 am

3firelegs wrote:Karl: was this solved?

I just got a Dell PE 2900.

It came with 8G memory; I bought 4G more, 4 sticks, and put them in. Now the machine is really loud. The fans are on full throttle all the time....

Did you unplug any fans or anything at the same time? One of the tricky things with these Dell servers is that if the hardware monitor detects anything not running as it should, it goes into a "panic" state if you want to call it that and runs the cooling system at full-throttle to try to compensate for it. So if you took out one of the fans 'cuz you don't think it's necessary, then all the remaining fans will run at full speed negating any possible noise improvements you might get from removing the one fan. Same might be true with the PSUs. If it's expecting two of them, removing one might make it do a similar thing. Meaning it's better to leave things as is instead of trying to remove the noise makers.

At the very least, it looks from ~nightcrawler~'s link that you can swap the fans for lower speed ones and it will seem to work fine still. Although as the guy in that article states, the fans spin up more often now which is annoying in it's own way.

Challenge: Quieting a PowerEdge 2900 III

Challenge: Quieting a PowerEdge 2900 III

Karl: was this solved?

Re: Karl: was this solved?