New 4 pin Fans Spin up and Down

[cinemafunk]

I've recently updated my fans in my server or Noctuas and I've come across the dreaded 4-Pin revving issue.

I've come across many articles, specifically this forum resource to adjust the thresholds in IPMI, and I still can't get these things to change the revving.

I've changed my theshholds to the below and restarted several times, but the issue continues. I see these thresholds also appear in the browser interface too.

Code:

root@maria[~]# ipmitool sensor list all | grep "FAN"
FAN 1            | 825.000    | RPM        | ok    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 600.000   | 900.000   | 975.000   | 1125.000
FAN 2            | 1500.000   | RPM        | ok    | 300.000   | 450.000   | 600.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN 3            | 975.000    | RPM        | cr    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 600.000   | 900.000   | 975.000   | 1125.000
FAN 4            | 1200.000   | RPM        | ok    | 600.000   | 675.000   | 825.000   | 18975.000 | 19050.000 | 19125.000
FAN A            | 975.000    | RPM        | cr    | 225.000   | 300.000   | 600.000   | 900.000   | 975.000   | 1125.000

Supermicro X9SCM-F. IPMI and BIOS are on current firmware versions.

FAN 1 - Noctua nf-s12b-redux-1200-pwm - Top Exhaust
FAN 2 - Stock Intel CPU fan
FAN 3 - Noctua nf-s12b-redux-1200-pwm - Top front HDDs
FAN 4 - Stock NXZT - Rear Exhaust
FAN A - Noctua nf-s12b-redux-1200-pwm - Bottom front HDDs

Some other resources I've found that seem to show that I'm in the right space of adjusting the thresholds, but it still continues to rev:

Reddit - The heart of the internet

www.reddit.com

Decrease Supermicro IPMI Fan Threshold

I like quiet (slow) fans. I like Supermicro's X10SL7 motherboard. I like how I get email notifications from the IPMI when something is wrong…

calvin.me

Supermicro A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F - IPMI and Fan Control

I realise it's a topic that's been covered plenty already but I'm having problems with the fans on this motherboard; namely the all-too-common issue of fans continually revving up to high speed. I've replaced the two case fans with noctua NF-P12's (which support 300-1300rpm but I've left the...

forums.servethehome.com

The only thing that I can think of is that I need to turn off the machine for an extended period of time and remove the power. I had this thing off with the power unplugged for up to 30 minutes, and the issue continues.

Otherwise, I'm going to have to buy a controller which is something I'd like to avoid as I've already put some money into some recent upgrades, and really don't want to hear it from my significant other.

 

[jgreco]

What's your server?

If you've made the newbie mistake of changing fans in a Supermicro rack mount chassis from the beefy industrial fans out for wimpy Noctuas, the best fix is to un-break your server and put the correct fans back in. All of the chassis that have four-wide drives are dependent on cooling using a significant static pressure differential. This forces air to move through all the little ~1mm gaps around the drives and keeps them cool. If you use fans that can't do that, such as the Noctuas, what happens is that each drive is dissipating maybe 7-10 watts, and a dozen of those means you have what is essentially a 120 watt heating element in the front of your case. If you have insufficient airflow to wick all that heat away as quickly as possible, the drives become an EZ-Bake oven, and then what air is making it through is very warm, and the system notices this, and tries to rev the fans up to bring the system temperature down. No amount of IPMI-setting will fix this. You might be able to get the fans to stop revving, but there's a good chance your drives will be baking as a result.

Also, be aware that the Noctuas are what I refer to as "gamer-grade" fans and are not expected to have a long lifespan, while the industrial fans that come with a Supermicro chassis have a great survival rate to the ten or fifteen year mark.

 

[cinemafunk]

Originally I had this Supermicro motherboard in a smaller BitFenix itx case with stock 3-pin fans which was silent as could be and temperatures were just fine. I had some 3TB drives lying around and I wanted to switch my primary machine from the NZXT tower to the Bitfenix and the NAS box to the NZXT Tower to accommodate the extra 4 drives. So this isn't a rackmounted server, just a tower.

I do want to stop the revving, but also find a RPM that is high enough for efficient cooling. I'm sure there is a reasonable balance.

Overall specs:
X9SCM-F-O
Intel Pentium G2140 3.30GHz Processor BX80637G2140
4x Kingston ValueRAM 8GB DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered KVR1333D3E9S/8G
4 WD RED WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0
4 WhiteLabel 3 TB
2 PNY SSDs (boot drives)
EVGA 450 B3, 80+ Bronze 450W
Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA w/ LSI 9211-8i P20

 

[sretalla]

I do want to stop the revving, but also find a RPM that is high enough for efficient cooling. I'm sure there is a reasonable balance.

Unless you have a "zero workload" server here, that number will be different depending on what's happening.

There's a script that works with Supermicro boards which can be implemented to do that dynamic adjustment to find the perfect balance of as quiet as possible without allowing your disks to cook:

PID fan controller Perl script

I can't post in Useful Scripts, so Hardware will have to do. I've updated @Stux's hybrid fan controller script to replace his HD fan control logic (which uses three discrete fan duty cycles as a function of warmest HD temperature) with a PID control loop, which controls duty cycle in 1%...

www.ixsystems.com

You should look into running that (but with fans that can go all the way to the required maximum to avoid overheating during maximum load, so maybe the noctua consumer fans will be insufficient).