Help choosing CPU cooler

[Ejay8400]

@joeschmuck [COLOR=#000000]@Stux[/COLOR] @LIGISTX
Thank you guys! Appreciate the help.

Will load up UBCD and do a stress test of the CPU tonight, will check with both the cabinet open and closed + check the readings in the BIOS.

Will buy the "Cooler Master Hyper 212X" (hyper 212 Evo cost the same) since it doesn't cost that much and will help some either way.

Will do the tests tonight and after that will probably see about getting the CPU replaced if things haven't gotten solved.

Also, in the BIOS, did you go and make any changes in there at all? You may want to set it for default settings eventually if you made some changes or as a last ditch effort.

Only thing I have changed is the parameter of the fan i installed since it was oscillating, beyond that I haven't changed anything.

 

[joeschmuck]

Only thing I have changed is the parameter of the fan i installed since it was oscillating, beyond that I haven't changed anything.

Exactly what did you change and to what value? I ask because is the fan being allowed to spin up to full speed so it can properly cool the CPU. Maybe putting it back to the factory setting just to see if that fixes the problem??

 

[Ejay8400]

Exactly what did you change and to what value? I ask because is the fan being allowed to spin up to full speed so it can properly cool the CPU. Maybe putting it back to the factory setting just to see if that fixes the problem??

I used IPMIutil and followed this guide: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...or-thresholds-with-ipmi-using-ipmiutil.23331/

I used the values the manufacturer had on their product page, so I set the lower threshold to 300 and the upper threshold to 1500 (if i remember correctly, will double check that)
But that is just for the 1 extra fan i added, there is still another fan intake.

 

[Mirfster]

Not sure on your fan specs, but the ones in my Dell Servers can top out at something like 5000... 1500 seems low to me, but I really don't know your model.

 

[joeschmuck]

I just wanted to ensure that your CPU fan is capable of running at full speed and you didn't limit it somehow. If you did limit it then that could be the source of your problems. Because the stock CPU cooler does a fantastic job so I would figure out what is going on vice buy a new CPU cooler.

 

[Ejay8400]

Not sure on your fan specs, but the ones in my Dell Servers can top out at something like 5000... 1500 seems low to me, but I really don't know your model.

Might very well be, wasn't really sure on what to put as the parameter on the fan, but here is the product page: http://noctua.at/en/nf-a14-pwm/specification

I just wanted to ensure that your CPU fan is capable of running at full speed and you didn't limit it somehow. If you did limit it then that could be the source of your problems. Because the stock CPU cooler does a fantastic job so I would figure out what is going on vice buy a new CPU cooler.

I shall double check to see if I did something there, but I was really careful to only choose the one fan i added.

 

[Mirfster]

Ah, your are 140 mm. Mine are like 60 mm, maybe 80 at most. Makes sense.

If you are willing, might simply undo all the settings you did before and see what happens? Do you recall how the system was running prior to making those changes?

 

[joeschmuck]

I'd just restore to factory defaults to make things simple if all you believe you made was a single fan change. I didn't make any changes to the FANs in the BIOS but my board is the X11SSM-F.

 

[Stux]

I have Noctua NFL-f12s in my system, and there are two issues.

1stly, when the board slows down the fan, it sees 300rpm and things the fan is stalling.
Secondly in Optimal mode, the board sets the fan to 20% and the fan does actually stall.

Point is, on full, none of this happens.

You need to verify your temps with the fan mode set to full.

There is an IPMI command to do this, or you can do it through the IPMI gui

 

[Ejay8400]

I will have to do the tests tomorrow, managed to restore Freenas instead of the mobo BIOS, major brainfart. So have had to set up Freenas again.

 

[joeschmuck]

So have had to set up Freenas again.

Make a backup of your configuration file and then when you restore FreeNAS, just restore the configuration file.

EDIT: Does your IPMI show the fan RPM? I ask so that you could look at it when you test your CPU again, or run Plex like crazy. Report the fan speed both when idle and when at high temp.

 

[Ejay8400]

Does your IPMI show the fan RPM? I ask so that you could look at it when you test your CPU again, or run Plex like crazy. Report the fan speed both when idle and when at high temp.

Yes it does, here is when it runs idle, will come back with one when stressing the machine too. With Thresholds

 

[joeschmuck]

So based on your previous photos, the CPU fan is plugged into the FAN1 connector which is fine. My system is also set to Optimal and runs at 1000 RPM while under light work. When I set the fan speed via IPMI configuration to Full Speed, my CPU fan runs at 2000 RPM.
I ran Prime95 and got up to 80C (with small jumps to 83C) with the fan running at 1700 RPM. Unfortunately this means I need to look at my fan setting a little more to see why or when it will get to 2000 RPM, but lets get real at the same time, FreeNAS doesn't use the CPU that heavy, or I've never seen it.

When you test your system out, try the full speed fan setting to ensure that you are getting the 2000 RPM reading for FAN1.

I just ran Plex to two Roku 3's streaming two different 1080p quality streams and my temp never rose above 32C.

I think it's time we also started looking at if in fact the CPU is running fast vice assuming it's running slow and just has a crappy heat transfer issue. So lets try something else in conjunction with this, might as well try to do all the testing at once.

Inside the plugin/jail in a shell window type "top", wait for about 10 seconds and then take a screen capture. Press "q" to quit. We want to see what is running so much. Also do this for the FreeNAS shell (left panel of the GUI). Again, we are looking for the reason your CPU is running so much. Do this stuff both while the system is idle and while you are streaming via Plex. Try to collect some good data and this will likely diagnose the issue. Right now I think it's a bad Plex install or maybe the transcoding is set to aggressive. This may not be the CPU or heatsink at all.

 

[VladTepes]

So from what I gather this only happens when running Plex? If so, at the very least you have a repeatable test... ;)

Since you stated that the IPMI/BMC is up to date, would I be correct in assuming that so is the BIOS?

Quick search on the forums for "X11SSL-F Plex" came up with a thread that shows other users with similar hardware specs and usage. Maybe if we can get one of them to chime in it may help to see if they are having similar issues... For starters let see what @VladTepes has to say since they have a very similar setup.

Except that I am only in the build process at the moment

 

[Ejay8400]

Hey and sorry for going silent, haven't had a day off work in forever, so haven't had much time to work on the server. + fest like trowing something out the window when setting up FreeNAS again, but got it back now running.
@joeschmuck
Haven't gotten to run the test yet, but when I put my fans on full speed, the CPU fan spinns at 2000 rpm

Inside the plugin/jail in a shell window type "top", wait for about 10 seconds and then take a screen capture. Press "q" to quit. We want to see what is running so much. Also do this for the FreeNAS shell (left panel of the GUI). Again, we are looking for the reason your CPU is running so much. Do this stuff both while the system is idle and while you are streaming via Plex. Try to collect some good data and this will likely diagnose the issue. Right now I think it's a bad Plex install or maybe the transcoding is set to aggressive. This may not be the CPU or heatsink at all.

I will try this out and see what happens.


I ahve also put a request to get the CPU replaced, will see what they reply.

Also got the "Cooler Master Hyper 212X", Wll install it after geting the tests done (or after doing test on new CPU if i get it replaced)

Edit:

Something else I have noticed. If we are 2 people watching the same movie (me locally and another remotely), my video may start to lag after a while, but notthing on the remotely played video, find this kind of strange.

 

[Ejay8400]

Alright, so this is for the Plex Jail:

When idle:

When running 1 videos transcoding and with subtitles:

When running 4 videos transcoding and with subtitles:

In the FreeNAS shell:


when idle:

'



When running 1 videos transcoding and with subtitles:

When running 4 videos transcoding and with subtitles:

 

[SweetAndLow]

In previous posts people mentioned to much thermal compound. For the most part to much is usually just fine. If there is to little you can have temperature problems.

I would make sure your BIOS is updated and your CPU fan spins up fast enough.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Ejay8400]

In previous posts people mentioned to much thermal compound. For the most part to much is usually just fine. If there is to little you can have temperature problems.

I would make sure your BIOS is updated and your CPU fan spins up fast enough.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Hi and thanks for your reply!

here is the info i grabbed from the IPMI about firmware version and bios version:

Website for the board: https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C236_C232/X11SSL-F.cfm

So what I see is that there is no new version for the bios nor the firmware, so i'm stuck with what it shipped with.

About the fan speeds:

when idle on optimal speed:

When idle set to full speed:

CPU fan is at FAN1

 

[SweetAndLow]

What does the os think the temps are? Use sysctl -a | grep -i temp from the freenas cli.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[joeschmuck]

Thanks for providing the "top" data, it's illuminating.

So it looks like Plex is doing a number on your system and odds are that your thermals are correct for the load you are putting on your system. A larger heatsink will help but likely not by much because you are pushing the CPU to the maximum. If you only want to make a heatsink change then get the one previously recommended, I trust these folks here who recommended it.

I think you need to start looking into your transcoding settings or the format of your media, or both.

Questions you might want to provide answers on to assist in some further advice:

1) What are the four devices that you are running Plex on the TV (target) side? Are they TVs (what models), are they Roku's (what models), you get the point. I'm looking for the device which has Plex on it.
2) What resolution do you have the targets set for in Plex?
3) What are the transcoding settings in the host (FreeNAS) Plex?
4) What is the format of the media you are sharing with Plex? (This is very important)

I suspect you have your settings pretty high and maybe you could relax them a bit or the media is something like BluRay material and the format needs to be seriously transcoded.

Some advice on the media. When I place media on my FreeNAS for Plex or DLNA use, I convert the data into a format which my devices can natively use, or no transcoding required and all video stuff happens in the Roku 3 before it hits my TV. All my media is in an MP4 container (H.264 format) and all my devices can handle that format directly. This works for my situation and maybe it could help you.