How Can I Silence My Server? - Hardware & Software

So I recently upgraded my server to the following specs: -2.93 GHz Core 2 Duo with the stock heatsink/fan -2 GB DDR2 -2 hard drives (160 GB IDE Maxtor, 320 GB SATA Western Digital). They're quiet enough -Some PSU a friend had left over from an upgrade to his HP, I think it's a 250 or 350 watt and is fairly quiet since I don't have it under a lot of load. -Debian Squeeze For the rear fan, I have a 92mm Antec Tricool, which is great on the lowest setting. Though the front fan is some 80mm fan that I had laying around. When I put it in there at first, it was fairly loud until I hooked up a few 10 ohm resistors in parallel. It's not [i]awful[/i] now, however, it's still one of the loudest things in my computer. Since I sleep in the same room as it, it would be nice to have it as quiet as possible. If you guys have any suggestions for ways I can dampen the sound or maybe a recommendation for a new 80mm fan for my hard drives and CPU, that would be awesome. I can buy from NCIX, Newegg.ca (Would prefer to avoid it since all of their fans cost $9.99 to ship from the USA), eBay and other Canadian sites.

Put some of this on the inside [url]http://www.dynamat.com/technical_specs_dynamat_xtreme.html[/url]

[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185120[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185162[/url] there you go

[QUOTE=Doritos_Man;28843503]Put some of this on the inside [url]http://www.dynamat.com/technical_specs_dynamat_xtreme.html[/url][/QUOTE] [img]http://www.dynamat.com/images/stop_noise_text_box.gif[/img] LOL, great product though.

turn it off

[QUOTE=JohnEdwards;28843792][url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185120[/url] [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185162[/url] there you go[/QUOTE] 20 dbA is a bit loud for that 80mm fan, [url=http://ncix.com/products/?sku=21702&vpn=NF-R8]what do you guys think about this one?[/url]

7 volt or 5 volt trick on the front fan [url]http://www.silentpcreview.com/article6-page1.html[/url]

[QUOTE=Van-man;28844002]7 volt or 5 volt trick on the front fan [url]http://www.silentpcreview.com/article6-page1.html[/url][/QUOTE] I did that already, it wouldn't spin up with 5 volts, so I left it on 7 volts and added the resistor.

Scrap all of the 80mm / 92mm fans and replace them with slow 120mm or even 140mm fans. (Use adapters and put all the fans on a speed controller.) You'll want to replace every fan, even the PSU fans if they aren't large. I personally just bought a load of 120mm Gentle Typhoon fans which are very quiet and even pretty much silent at 7V, but I suspect you can find much quieter 140mm fans. When I bought a server I went for a 2U server rather than a 1U server so that the fans were larger, the difference is quite amazing. With very large fans they can move the same amount of air at a much lower speed. For my server, I personally just put it in another room and you can't hear it there.

Run a Ethernet wire into a closet and forget about it. No, it won't overheat.

[QUOTE=benjgvps;28844246]I did that already, it wouldn't spin up with 5 volts, so I left it on 7 volts and added the resistor.[/QUOTE] Ah, ok.

I have one of [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185056]these[/url] in my media center PC for extra cooling, it's dead quiet.

[QUOTE=yngndrw;28844662]Scrap all of the 80mm / 92mm fans and replace them with slow 120mm or even 140mm fans. (Use adapters and put all the fans on a speed controller.) You'll want to replace every fan, even the PSU fans if they aren't large. I personally just bought a load of 120mm Gentle Typhoon fans which are very quiet and even pretty much silent at 7V, but I suspect you can find much quieter 140mm fans. When I bought a server I went for a 2U server rather than a 1U server so that the fans were larger, the difference is quite amazing. With very large fans they can move the same amount of air at a much lower speed. For my server, I personally just put it in another room and you can't hear it there.[/QUOTE] I would totally do it if I had a case that fit them, though cases are really expensive to ship so I had to use this old Inwin case I had laying around.

I've got a personal server that is located very close to where I sleep, so it has to be quiet. Server + Receiver [IMG_THUMB]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v738/drdevin/serverstack.jpg[/IMG_THUMB] Overview [IMG_THUMB]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v738/drdevin/serveroverview.jpg[/IMG_THUMB] Main Cooling [IMG_THUMB]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v738/drdevin/servercooling.jpg[/IMG_THUMB] As mentioned by yngndrw, try to get the largest fans possible as they can move a lot of air while spinning slowly. I've been a fan of Noctua products since the company was formed, so I used one of their combo heatsink/140mm fan for cooling the processor and two 80mm fans to do the rest of the case. Noctua includes multiple adapters to slow the fans down (basically just inline resistors) which can be chained together. The power supply uses a 135mm fan which draws air from outside the case. The fan speed ramps up as temperatures increase but since it draws cool air from outside the case it always runs at idle. The server runs Windows 7 Ultimate which is installed on a small capacity Vertex 2 SSD. Storage is taken care of by a terabyte Western Digital hard drive. I've stripped the Windows install and service list to the bare minimum to prevent the OS from accessing the drives. The drive is set to spin down if it isn't being accessed, so it is only audible when performing a task (steaming audio/video, doing backups).

Awesome, I may go with the 80mm Noctua fan for the time being, then slowly upgrade the rear fan and the CPU fan to something quieter. Since I'm not exactly willing to go out and drop $80 on a Noctua CPU fan for my home server, is there a more inexpensive ($15-$30), yet decent CPU fan that you would recommend?

[QUOTE=benjgvps;28851446]Since I'm not exactly willing to go out and drop $80 on a Noctua CPU fan for my home server, is there a more inexpensive ($15-$30), yet decent CPU fan that you would recommend?[/QUOTE] Arctic cooling makes some that are fairly priced. But the mounting methods on those require patience and calm hands. [url]http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/cooling/cpu.html[/url]