Hi Guys.
I have been given this server to make use of, the trouble is that it is extremely loud and the rack-style case is too cumbersome. I......
I, too, have come up against the fan noise problem in using the DL380 as a home computer. However, as it only cost £25, I am still sticking with it.
There are two types of fan on this server;
Nidec: 12v, operates at 7-13.8v, 1.2amp, 8,800 rpm. 57 decibels.
Delta: 12v, operates at 4.5-13.8v, 1.1amp, 8,000 rpm, 55 decibels.
These are 5 wire fans going into a six pin connector on the motherboard.
pin 1 - Yellow wire attached to the fan status light
pin 2 - green wire attached to the fan status light
The fan status light is attached to the outside of the caddy holding the fan, so it is not actually part of the fan.
pin 3 - black wire attached to the fan (negative, according to manufacturers' specifications)
pin 4 - red wire attached to the fan (positive, according to manufacturers' specifications)
pin 5 - black wire connected to pin 3
pin 6 - yellow wire attached to the fan (the manufacturers' specifications do not mention the yellow wire)
There is a line of 6 fans at the front of the server immdeiately behind the drive bays. These blow air towards the back of the server. The 2 middle fans have an unobstructed path to blow air over the ram and towards the cpu heatsinks. There are two fans at the rear, immediately behind the cpu heatsinks, blowing air out of the back of the server.
I have looked at four methods of reducing the fan noise.
A) Reducing the number of fans.
Three of the fans are redundant spares - these are the outide fans at the front and one of the rear fans. These can be removed while the server is off and not cause any problems. As I will only be using the middle drive bay, I decided to reduce the number of the front fans to the two central fans. Disabling the red wire from the fans and shorting the yellow and black wires from the fans disabled the fans, but fooled the server into thinking the fans were running. The status lights remained green and the remaining fans did not speed up. This did not solve the problem: three 55 decibel fans still made to much noise to use the server as a home computer.
B) Attaching a resistor to the red wire from the fan. Several online calculators suggest that a 3.5 watt resistor would lower the voltage of the fans from 12v to 7v. However, there seem to be a large variety of resistors and I do not have the knowledge to make a choice between them. Can anybody help? The problem would still remain that a slower moving fan would be seen by the system as a faulty fan. I have concerns that this may not be a safe solution.
c) Switching the wires around to alter the voltage. Several sites have detailed instructions how to achieve this, but they all involve molex connectors. Does anyone know how the fan connector pins on the DL380 board correspond with the pins on a molex connector? Again the problem would still remain that a slower moving fan would be seen by the system as a faulty fan. I also have concerns that this may not be a safe solution.
D) Replacing the fans with slower quieter fans. This is my preferred solution. I purchased a set of fairly cheap fans which supposedly run at 3000 rpm. These are 3 wire fans, and attaching the red black and yellow wires corresponding to the wires from the original fans they run fine. However they are seen as faulty fans. Even if I short the yellow and black wires, as in solution A above, the system sees a faulty fan and shuts down.
The main problem is that I need a way to wire the fans to the motherboard so as to have fans running at a slower speed without the system seeing faulty fans.
Any suggestions will be very welcome.
Best regards,
Jim.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram