CPU Cooling fan (quiet)

[Gonzo]

Based on all the wonderful information on this forum I have ordered the following:

ASRock E3C226D2I LGA1150/
Intel Xeon Quad-Core Processor E3-1220 v3
Seasonic 360W 80PLUS Gold ATX12V Power Supply

FRACTAL DESIGN | NODE 304
I am still missing memory and hard drives

Can somebody recommend a good CPU fan that is not noisy?

 

[John M. Długosz]

It sounds like your rig is very similar to mine.

The Zalman did the trick for me.

Typically like the tall heatsinks with side-mounted square fan. With a standard-sized square fan, you can always replace it with a quieter one, too. I was browsing those and spotted the referenced one which was cheap, good fan though not standard square, and I was worried about the weight of the Coolermasters. Anyway, I can't hear the Zalman fan over the case fans.

BTW, will you need to add a VGA card? The 1220 doesn't have a GPU, and I was supposing that the motherboards don't include on-board video if the CPU typically contains that now. (I guess the board would contain some back-end stuff, but not a complete VGA?) Or does it contain a basic fall-back VGA?

 

[Gonzo]

Thank you John for your reply. That looks like a very cool fan and the reviews are good, don't know if it will fit in the mini case, I will wait till I get all the parts to see how much space I have available.

I will not be adding a VGA card, the motherboard specifications mention a VGA port, see bellow, but also support IPMI which I intent to use.

Graphics
Controller - ASPEED AST2300
VRAM - DDR3 16MB
Output - Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz
Rear Panel I/O
PS/2 KB/Mouse - 1
VGA Port - D-sub x 1

 

[Gonzo]

I am also a little bit confused about what memory to get. Since I am limited to 15 G of RAM I would like to get the best possible memory. Are this memories the same? Can I get something better than this?

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=W16GE1333K&show=p

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008210LN0/?tag=ozlp-20

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=6686381BA5CA7304

 

[jyavenard]

Based on all the wonderful information on this forum I have ordered the following:

ASRock E3C226D2I LGA1150/
Intel Xeon Quad-Core Processor E3-1220 v3
Seasonic 360W 80PLUS Gold ATX12V Power Supply

FRACTAL DESIGN | NODE 304
I am still missing memory and hard drives

Can somebody recommend a good CPU fan that is not noisy?

supermicro have passive heatsink for 2U/1U cases: SNK-P0046P http://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/thermal/ about $25

 

[John M. Długosz]

Thank you John for your reply. That looks like a very cool fan and the reviews are good, don't know if it will fit in the mini case, I will wait till I get all the parts to see how much space I have available.

FWIW, it stands about 5 1/2 inches tall.

I will not be adding a VGA card, the motherboard specifications mention a VGA port, see bellow, but also support IPMI which I intent to use.

I don't know if the VGA "video card" will function without the GPU. Does it rely on the CPU's stuff? I couldn't find specs for exactly what a ASPEED AST2400 may be (yours uses the 2300). Let us know what happens, in any case!

 

[JimPhreak]

Noctua DH-L9i. It's basically silent.

 

[Dusan]

I don't know if the VGA "video card" will function without the GPU. Does it rely on the CPU's stuff? I couldn't find specs for exactly what a ASPEED AST2400 may be (yours uses the 2300). Let us know what happens, in any case!

It will work. The BCM contains a simple 2D graphics card. The video card in Nuvoton WPCM450 (used by my SuperMicro X9SCL) shows up as Matrox MGA G200 on the PCI bus.
Quoting from AST2400 spec (http://www.aspeedtech.com/products.php?fPath=20&rId=376): "our on chip PCIe 2D VGA provides Server with local display without added cost".

 

[SJain]

Wondering which CPU cooler finally worked for you. I have the same motherboard in a Fractal Node 304 with i3 4330t processor.

I am looking at the Noctual LH-9i but I am not sure if it will fit cleanly (capacitors around the CPU might be a stumbling block).

Thanks

Based on all the wonderful information on this forum I have ordered the following:

ASRock E3C226D2I LGA1150/
Intel Xeon Quad-Core Processor E3-1220 v3
Seasonic 360W 80PLUS Gold ATX12V Power Supply

FRACTAL DESIGN | NODE 304
I am still missing memory and hard drives

Can somebody recommend a good CPU fan that is not noisy?

 

[Sir.Robin]

I like Noctua' coolers. Good quality and good price. Sound is no issue. They also have 120mm low profile cooler :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gonzo]

Wondering which CPU cooler finally worked for you. I have the same motherboard in a Fractal Node 304 with i3 4330t processor.

I am looking at the Noctual LH-9i but I am not sure if it will fit cleanly (capacitors around the CPU might be a stumbling block).

Thanks

I end up using an intel fan that came with the Xeon E3-1220 V3

 

[jyavenard]

a note of warning with supermicro PWM adapters.
I've found that noctua fans do not work well with them: they go full speed for 5s, they stop for another 5, then restart etc...

you must set the fans mode to "full". so they run at full speed at all time. They are very silent at that speed so that's not an issue; but if like me you use the intel CPU fan; when that one run at full speed; it becomes the noisy part (it's still pretty quiet though)

 

[jgreco]

You can adjust the BMC fan thresholds via IPMI, which might or might not help depending on what is actually happening. The BMC likes to freak a bit with 120mm fans at low RPM for example, so we lower the threshold for fan failure.

 

[jyavenard]

How do you do so with supermicro ipmi? I found no such entry anywhere.

Are you using a supermicro utility?

 

[vitek]

I have also tried this but havent found any information about it. Tell us the secret jgreco!

 

[Yatti420]

I find alot of stuff with SuperMicro IPMI is hidden in the IPMIView tool (rather large download ~200mb)

 

[jyavenard]

There's nothing to change the fan threshold via ipmi view unfortunately.

Jgreco is right here: when my system idle the CPU is at 35 degree only; it then tries to lower the fan, with the noctua that drops below the threshold of 600. It then immediately make all fan go full speed.

Once it reaches full speed, it goes back to lowering them again and repeat

After I replaced the CPU cooler with a passive one, the CPU idles at 45 degree; then it lower the CPU at 900 rpm which is fine.

So need to find a way to lower the threshold: somehow I doubt that's possible on my board. When I had queried supermicro about this issue their answer was: use supported chassis and fan. Such a useful answer

 

[cyberjock]

This is weird! PWM is nothing more than a 25khz square wave. Kind of peaks my interest that some fans don't play with Supermicro's output. It's not like its not an established spec with minimum and maximum frequency values. Wish I had an oscilloscope!

 

[jyavenard]

the issue turned out to no be with PWM per say; but the threshold used by supermicro. As the noctua runs at a lesser speed than the minimum threshold, the supermicro board speed up the fans to the max, then stop them etc..
as described above: http://forums.freenas.org/threads/cpu-cooling-fan-quiet.15722/#post-87143

I've played with the ipmi-sensors-config utility, which should allow me (in theory) to modify the threshold : but committing my change doesn't seem to do anything

(to install ipmi-sensors, run pkg install freeipmi in a ports jail)

 

[cyberjock]

See, and I think you are wrong with your assessment. That's why I said I wish I had an oscilloscope. I won't claim you are wrong because I can't test this. I sure wish I could. I enjoy testing anomalies like this!

In normal PWM circuits the PWM signal is supposed to range from something like 21khz to 25khz(assuming I remember the right frequency) as a square wave. Now normally any fan that uses PWM takes that signal and does one of 3 things with the signal:

1. Adjusts the fan speed linearly based on the PWM signal frequency if "within bounds".
2. Adjust the fan speed exponentially based on the PWM signal frequency if "within bounds".
3. Adjusts the fan speed by some other arbitrary system based on the PWM signal frequency if "within bounds".
4. Some hardware has a fan monitoring circuit that cuts out the PWM signal, then forces it to 100% in an attempt to "unlock" a fan that is potentially stuck. Stuck being the trick as the circuit expects a certain range of fan speeds for a given PWM signal. Fall outside that range and the circuit declares the fan "stuck".
5. Run the fan at 100% if "out of bounds".*

* - Based on experiments I performed years ago on PWM. This may not be true of all fans.

First, note the keyword "within bounds". If the frequency is out of bounds for the PWM signal then most fans I had would speed up to 100% despite the PWM signal still being present. Kind of makes sense. If something is wrong you'd rather have the fans at 100% versus cooking your expensive computer. I took it to be an insurance policy against the PWM signal circuit failing.

Ok, so far so good. So it sounds like the fans might think the signal is out of bounds. But that is weird to me because the PWM signal is a specification that's easy to read and follow. So who is actually "in the wrong"?

@jyavenard: Do you know of any particular fan model that definitely doesn't work? I might have to see if I can get one to experiment with.

Are the fans not following the spec and are only designed for something like 22khz to 25khz?

Is the Supermicro board instead using a signal that is something like 20khz to 25khz in an attempt to force you to buy Supermicro fans? Sure would be an easy thing to to, and what manufacturer doesn't just love hardware lock-in?

Is the Supermicro board using the RPM signal along with the PWM to try to "unstick" a "stuck" fan because your fans aren't within the Supermicro's "happiness ratio"?

Is it a combination of the above?

I might have to see if I can convince my friend to let me borrow his oscilloscope and do a little lab testing!