Looking to improve disk temperatures with X9SCM-F motherboard and PWM controlled fans

[Mannekino]

Last year October I created this thread about my fans ramping up and down and I managed to solve that issue with help of the community. Since then I've been doing more reading about disk temperatures and what is desired. Furthermore I also read that the various LSI chips used in HBA controllers can run pretty hot and require some airflow over the heat sink. I'm looking to improve my temperature situation.

Specifications and photo's:

• Motherboard: Supermicro X9SCM-F
• Chassis: Fractal Design Node 804
• CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1260L
• CPU cooler: Noctua NH-L9i (this has a 4-pin PWM fan)
• System fans: 3x Noctua NF-F12 PWM
• Memory: 32GB ECC (4x 8GB Kingstong ValueRAM KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G)
• HBA: Dell PERC H200 (flashed in IT mode)
• Storage SDD: 2x Samsung PM863 240GB connected through the two onboard SATA3 (6Gb/s) ports
• Storage HDD: 4x Western Digital Red 4TB (connected through the HBA)
• Storage USB: 2x SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB

Here is a photo of my system area

And here a photo of the disk area

Current situation

When my system is mostly idle (with only Transmission being active) my temperatures and fan speeds are:

Code:

da0 35C WD-WCC7K7FP7JEL WDC
da1 37C WD-WCC7K4KX9PS7 WDC
da2 39C WD-WCC7K4CJ1SNZ WDC
da3 38C WD-WCC7K1SHEXSP WDC

Code:

FAN 1            | 1125.000   | RPM        | ok    | 300.000   | 450.000   | 600.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN 2            | 525.000    | RPM        | ok    | 75.000    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN 3            | 525.000    | RPM        | ok    | 75.000    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN 4            | 525.000    | RPM        | ok    | 75.000    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN A            | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na

When the disks get more active, for example moving a large amount of files between datasets, it changes to this (fan speeds not exact I filled from memory):

Code:

da0 40C WD-WCC7K7FP7JEL WDC
da1 42C WD-WCC7K4KX9PS7 WDC
da2 43C WD-WCC7K4CJ1SNZ WDC
da3 40C WD-WCC7K1SHEXSP WDC

Code:

FAN 1            | 1300.000   | RPM        | ok    | 300.000   | 450.000   | 600.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN 2            | 675.000    | RPM        | ok    | 75.000    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN 3            | 650.000    | RPM        | ok    | 75.000    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN 4            | 675.000    | RPM        | ok    | 75.000    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN A            | na         |            | na    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na

I don't have temperature monitoring for my HBA unfortunately. When the system is idle the heat sink is "low-hot" to the touch but not so much I need to remove my finger. During load the heat sink gets to "medium-hot" and after about 10-15 seconds it begins to feel uncomfortably hot but not so much I actually need to remove my finger. I would say "hot-hot" is when I actually need to remove my finger right after touching but it doesn't get to that point.

Possible solutions

Solution #1: adjusting fan curves or setting a fixed fan speed

The first (and preferred) solution I can think of is adjusting the fan curves of the fans or setting a fixed speed at an acceptable noise level. One of the first things I did after building this system was buying the the Noctua system fans because the default Fractal Design fans were very loud. I currently have the standard Fan Speed Mode selected in IPMI. If I choose Optimal the fans get too loud.

Unfortunately the "fan scripts" that have been posted here don't work on the X9-series Supermicro motherboards. Is there any other way to adjust the fan curves or perhaps set a fixed fan speed? These fans I bought remain very quiet up until around 900~1000 RPM so I would be comfortable having that as a fixed speed.

Solution #2: use built-in fan controller of the chassis

My chassis, the Node 804, comes with a built-in fan controller. At the moment I can't hook it up because it requires a SATA power connector. I found a Molex to SATA power adapter so I could hook up my Molex power ribbon and use the fan controller. I don't prefer this solution because I would lose PWM control and monitoring capabilities.

Solution #3: buy a fancy aftermarket fan controller

Third solution I can think of is maybe buying a more fancy aftermarket fan controller. Perhaps even something that could be interfaced through software in the sense that I could code something that would read out the disk temperatures and then adjust the fan speed of the system fans. Are you guys aware of such a product?

Additional considerations

• Should I worry about the temperature of my HBA? Do I need to add a fan, perhaps some PCI slot exhaust fan? I'm worried those are bad in terms of noise levels and not many quality components available. Perhaps there is some bracket for a small quiet fan blowing air over the heatsink.
• Should I add another fan in the front of my case in the hard drive area. Right now I only have one exhaust fan but I have one more fan header available (Fan A) and place in the front creating a push-pull situation.

 

[Chris Moore]

Should I worry about the temperature of my Dell PERC H200 HBA? Do I need to add a fan, perhaps some PCI slot exhaust fan? I'm worried those are bad in terms of noise levels and not many quality compotents available. Perhaps there is some bracket for a small quiet fan blowing air over the heatsink.

I did have a SAS controller fail on be and I think it was because of getting too hot.
One of these fans might be a good insurance policy against that:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...fan&cm_re=pci_slot_fan-_-35-230-027-_-Product
It connects to molex power, so it doesn't burn a fan header.

 

[Mannekino]

This looks promising. I'm thinking buying one of those and moving the front (push) fan from my system area to my hard drive area. That way I have a push-pull in that compartment. Then put the PCI exhaust fan under the HBA. I feel like the one exhaust fan in the system area is sufficient to pull out the hot air from the CPU. The CPU remains pretty cool. I found a seller in my country for that StarTech fan.

 

[Redcoat]

Should I add another fan in the front of my case in the hard drive area. Right now I only have one exhaust fan but I have one more fan header available (Fan A) and place in the front creating a push-pull situation.

I would definitely do that. If you are not going to put drives in the presently empty 4-bay cage I'd get that out of there too as its proximity to the face of the exhaust fan isn't helping the fan's performance or the free space air distribution.

The fan to cool the HBA heatsink looks like a no-brainer .

 

[sretalla]

I'm running an 804 and using a Corsair Commander Pro for the fan controls.

See here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/opencorsairlink-in-a-jail-to-control-fans.71873/

 

[Mannekino]

@sretalla wow, that looks very interesting and impressive. Going to order one of those and try this out soon!

 

[Mannekino]

I've ordered a Commando Pro, should be here tomorrow so I can work on it this weekend. If I run into any issues I will let you know @sretalla. I also ordered that StarTech exhaust fan @Chris Moore

 

[Mannekino]

So I changed the setup. I also received the Commander Pro but I haven't worked on it yet. I'm not sure I even need it at this point. I moved the intake fan from the system area to the HDD area and I added the StarTech PCI exhaust fan. The temperatures for my drives moved down quite a bit.

Code:

Before

da0 35C WD-WCC7K7FP7JEL WDC
da1 37C WD-WCC7K4KX9PS7 WDC
da2 39C WD-WCC7K4CJ1SNZ WDC
da3 38C WD-WCC7K1SHEXSP WDC

After
da0 29C WD-WCC7K7FP7JEL WDC
da1 30C WD-WCC7K4KX9PS7 WDC
da2 32C WD-WCC7K4CJ1SNZ WDC
da3 31C WD-WCC7K1SHEXSP WDC

The StarTech fan was too loud for me, I was looking for some sort of fan controller but I found this adapter (see below) and remembered an old school mod to make the fan run on 7V by swapping the ground 1 and 5V wires. From what I remember this should work fine. Maybe there is some simple fan controller I could put in between the Molex connector and the PSU connector? The noise levels are acceptable now and I think there is enough airflow for the controller.

 

[Chris Moore]

The StarTech fan was too loud for me, I was looking for some sort of fan controller but I found this adapter (see below) and remembered an old school mod to make the fan run on 7V by swapping the ground 1 and 5V wires. From what I remember this should work fine. Maybe there is some simple fan controller I could put in between the Molex connector and the PSU connector? The noise levels are acceptable now and I think there is enough airflow for the controller.

Nice trick, thanks for sharing and great photos.

 

[sretalla]

I also received the Commander Pro but I haven't worked on it yet. I'm not sure I even need it at this point.

Great that you got to an acceptable noise level.

You may still want to look at the Commander Pro to handle the times (like when scrubbing) where all your drives are working hard for hours at a time and the heat builds up if the fans are not ramping up to combat it.

With my 2 systems using the Commander, they are both quiet almost 99% of the time, but I'm happy to be treating my disks well for the 1% too even at the expense of a little noise (the PID script is great at only ramping them up as much as needed and no more).

Just some food for thought.

 

[Mannekino]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to try it out. Is it possible to controle the PCI exhaust fan with the Commander Pro it only has a 2-wire Molex connector. Can the Commander Pro reduce the voltage output of a fan connector? What I really want is a PWM controlled PCI exhaust fan but I haven't been able to find such a product.

 

[dak180]

What I really want is a PWM controlled PCI exhaust fan but I haven't been able to find such a product.

What I ended up doing was using a bracket to hold a 92mm PMW fan under the heatsink of my HBA; with that plus a temp probe I have a PID based script that keeps it under 40C while also keeping my HDs at or under 30C.

 

[sretalla]

The Commander pro can handle 3 or 4 pin fans, with 4 pin traditionally being PWM and 3 pin not. Your picture there looks like a 3 pin fan to me.

I compiled 2 different versions because I got frustrated with passing variables in C++ with type conversion, so to operate fans connected to a single Commander Pro with 3 and 4 pin, you may need to work out a bit more of the PID script to ensure it uses the right compiled version for the right fans... Let me know if you need some guidance on that.