PowerEdge 29x0 - Tower vs Rack Server

_Kaiser_ · 07-09-2011 09:54AM #1

Hey all,

I currently have a PowerEdge 2950 in my home office that is a great machine.. fast, expandable, not too hard on the electricity.. there's just one problem - the noise of it! I'm not talking about the "jet taking off" noise as it powers up.. I mean more the constant noise of the fans working away to keep it at around 23 degrees. It's not ridiculously loud, but enough to be annoying when I'm playing Borderlands or BC2 with the lads online!

Reading online, it seems a fairly common complaint with this model and was partially addressed by BIOS/BMC updates (which I have at the latest levels) but I've been thinking about buying a 2900 (or maybe a 1900) tower machine, swapping the "good stuff" (like the RAM, DRAC card, hard drives, maybe the processors) into the new machine and then reselling the 2950.

So...

- A 1900/2900 SHOULD be significantly quieter right? (bigger fans/slower RPM?). Anyone have both a 2900 and 2950 that could verify this?

- The 1900 seems a fair bit cheaper and given that I only really use the machine for testing and file storage/media sharing over the home LAN, it'd be more than enoygh I'd say.. especially if I transplanted the bits I mentioned above.. which it should take right? They came out around the same time and seem to be fairly comparable in most ways

- Anyone wanna swap a 2900 for a 2950? (worth a try right

)

Cheers for any advice guys

rolion · 07-09-2011 11:29PM

hi,
i have a 2950,ml115,ml370,switches and routers !
i've built a "cabinet" in the attic,moved all there,closed and just let power & ethernet cables down the wall !

Why can't you just move all up and enjoy the silence !?

tech · 08-09-2011 05:39PM

I have the same problem, I have 2 x 2850 and 1 x 2650 RACK and a ML 350 G3 and 4 x Cisco 2950's

I find the Cisco savage loud for a switch, I only power these up when im testing were bought for VMware testing and messing, I since got a lovely HP 6930p laptop with 8 gig ram so they have a quite life!

Capt'n Midnight · 14-09-2011 07:52PM

just make sure you've checked the BIOS and software for all fan settings

it should sound like a jet engine on powerup and then settle down and only get noisy again when it gets hot or is number crunching

what is the room temp, you could try putting a damp towel or something where the incoming air would cool a bit to see if that makes any difference

or a sound proof cabinet

or noise cancelling headphones

ED E · 17-09-2011 09:04AM

23* is way within tolerances, you could slow the fans a bit and let her back up to about 30*.

As above, is it a warm room? Where is the unit placed, if you give it decent room at either end air will circulate easier. If you dont have it mounted you might consider a lack rack? [ http://wiki.eth-0.nl/index.php/LackRack ]

Capt'n Midnight · 17-09-2011 09:46AM

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

23* is way within tolerances, you could slow the fans a bit and let her back up to about 30*.

IIRC they OK up to 40C ambient temperature, the fans would be mental at that point. google did a survey of their HFF failures and constant high temperature was NOT a key factor

there should be some control apps for the fans

if you have the full management utils installed you can monitor the temps of drives , cpus, several mother board places

_Kaiser_ · 18-09-2011 07:50PM

Thanks for the replies guys..

Unfortunately there is no way to manually control the fan speeds (one of the first things I looked for after updating the BIOS and firmware levels didn't solve it).

It's currently living in my spare room/home office on my desk with the windows slightly open to let some air in, and an oscillating tower fan to move it around the room (badly).

Probably the only option would be a sound proof cabinet (any suggestions?) but they seem to be very expensive or I suppose I could get a bigger DELL Precision tower (like a 690) that'd take the 4 drives and maybe the processors and RAM.

Unless anyone has any other ideas?

gerryk · 28-09-2011 01:30PM

Stick it in the attic. Servers are noisy beasts... no getting away from it.

alexandruy2k · 04-10-2011 01:14PM

have you tried speedfan? i use that on some of my computers to slow down the fan, otherwise you might consider a manual fan controller or stick a potentiometer in line with the fans (that would take some electronic skills though)

UnCorked · 06-10-2011 07:51PM

I have both and there isnt a whole lot of a difference.

Not sure if this is possible for you but bought Dell 710's recently and they are super quiet.

How much RAM/Processor and drives have you on board

_Kaiser_ · 07-10-2011 10:33PM

Thanks for the reply guys...

- Moving it to the attic isn't really an option because.. well, there IS no attic

. Rented house with the master bedroom where the attic would normally be. Although there's a very small space behind the walk-in wardrobe, it's full of insulation, dust and what not that wouldn't be good for it - plus then I'd have the machine behind my head!

- Tried speedfan but it doesn't recognize the fans so no help there unfortunately

- Uncorked: Had a look on eBay but those machines would be wayyy out of my budget I reckon. There was a T300 we used to have in one of the offices that wasn't bad though if I remember right? Anyone used those?

It's currently running 12GB RAM and 4x 1.5TB SATA disks

ED E · 10-10-2011 03:44PM

I'm not 100% if this is possible with rack gear but I've tried a little trick with a desktop box before. The power rail runs on 12v,5v and 0v.

If the fans run excessively fast with 12v running through them you can switch the pins so they get 5v. But, if they're already on 5 this is no use.

corkcomp · 11-10-2011 10:47AM

yes the PE2900 will be quieter, blade servers are always noisey in my experience and eventhough the 2950 is 2U its close enough to being a blade..

gerryk · 14-10-2011 03:31PM

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

I'm not 100% if this is possible with rack gear but I've tried a little trick with a desktop box before. The power rail runs on 12v,5v and 0v.

If the fans run excessively fast with 12v running through them you can switch the pins so they get 5v. But, if they're already on 5 this is no use.

If you do that, the server management system will complain about the fans being faulty, and might even not let the box boot.

_Kaiser_ · 31-10-2011 11:52PM

Just an update..

I bought a cheap PE1900 from Adverts last week, and have bought a PERC 5/i and cables for it.

The plan is to move the SATA drives from the PE2950 to this box along with the RAM (I still need to get a 2nd CPU) and then I'll probably use the 2950 for testing and study when I get some cash to build it back up again.

But.. if I move these drives into the new box, will it retain the RAID 5 setup or will I have to start over? Would I be better moving the PERC (also a 5/i) from the 2950 too and replacing it with the new one?

Cheers!

10-10-20 · 06-11-2011 01:00AM

It will likely see the drives as "Foreign". Enter the configuration menu (ctrl-r) and 'import' the drives.
But to be honest - rack-based servers are noisy - they are designed for racks in data centres. Air-flows are significantly different as you're dragging the same volume of air through a smaller aperture. That's a given. Go for tower based systems where it's not possible to have a physical separation between the user and the machine!

PowerEdge 29x0 - Tower vs Rack Server

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