So I'm super rusty on this area of things, and up until now every single time I've set up systems for clients the racks have always been in basements or other out of living/working space areas where, like data centers, noise isn't a massive concern. But now I've got a client with a 1U super micro system being used as an OPNsense edge, and the rack is unavoidably only semi-isolated from part of the office. This is unchangeable for at least the next year, so need to adapt. The system is a short depth and has a single E-series Xeon (95W tdp) and Chelsio NIC and that's it, so not talking a lot of thermal load here, and there is zero need for "silence", there is plenty of noise around, it just needs to be non-irritating. Think 20-40dB, not 60+ dB but also not 10-20, with no grating whine. Right now the system is both running a little hot and loud even at very low load, and looking inside the cooling is pretty mediocre even for rack stuff. Exactly two typical cheap 40mm random fans aimed at the CPU, and that's it, they didn't even bother to plug anything into the third fan header, there is literally no fan pointed at the PCIe 90° and for bonus points the design ensures boards are put in facing down. The heat sink is a basic LGA1150/1200 one. It is what it is. One positive is unlike the misery that is HP or the like, no proprietary crap here, bog standad PWM, swaps are easy.
Obviously the best would be to either isolate it or have it in a bigger case since density isn't actually the problem here, but as that isn't an option for now my first thought is to just throw fans at the problem. My recollection is Arctic and Noctua are decent brands, with the former having a server focused 40/28mm that straddles "quiet" with typical 20k heavy weights and the latter focused purely on minimal noise. Both are dirt cheap, like $11-15 a pop, so reasonable first step seems like it'd be just getting a few splitters and throwing 6 of them in there and that'd probably be gudenuf™? It's short depth without any blockage going on inside or much load, so I don't think high static pressure is critical. Are those two still good brands? If I needed a bit more, is there anyone doing better performing low profile heat sinks, or perhaps low profile heat pipe designs that allow more dissipation area?
I'm probably overthinking this but it might come up again with more load so figured I'd try to learn a bit. Most fan designs I am finding quickly are naturally oriented around 120mm+, serious GPUs etc. Thanks so much for any pointers on good companies.
Obviously the best would be to either isolate it or have it in a bigger case since density isn't actually the problem here, but as that isn't an option for now my first thought is to just throw fans at the problem. My recollection is Arctic and Noctua are decent brands, with the former having a server focused 40/28mm that straddles "quiet" with typical 20k heavy weights and the latter focused purely on minimal noise. Both are dirt cheap, like $11-15 a pop, so reasonable first step seems like it'd be just getting a few splitters and throwing 6 of them in there and that'd probably be gudenuf™? It's short depth without any blockage going on inside or much load, so I don't think high static pressure is critical. Are those two still good brands? If I needed a bit more, is there anyone doing better performing low profile heat sinks, or perhaps low profile heat pipe designs that allow more dissipation area?
I'm probably overthinking this but it might come up again with more load so figured I'd try to learn a bit. Most fan designs I am finding quickly are naturally oriented around 120mm+, serious GPUs etc. Thanks so much for any pointers on good companies.
) and then a few Noctuas elsewhere, one pointed right at the NIC. Temperatures did drop a solid 10°C overall, still not exactly "cool" but no longer so much into the concern zone and it's still plenty quiet. Sensors report fans running 2300-3000rpm which is completely fine vs other noise.