Server fans. .quieting things down?

Granted I only deal with one server at a time but we have an Intel unit in one of my schools that makes an unholy racket due to the number of fans in it..

Having looked the thing over it has special fan assemblies for hot swapping them in and out but the actual fans themselves are definitely not the quietest things in the world.

So, I was wondering has anyone any suggestions for altering these.. is it possible to replace them with standard 3 pin fans and rewiring them into the same assembly or am I stuck with like for like.

The actual server utilises an Intel SE7501BR2 but can't help on the case brand/model... In terms of fans we have 2x large 90mm mounted at the back, 2x90mm in serial behind the lower bays blowing over the expansion boards, and 1x large 90mm mounted behind the SCSI disk array. All Delta brushless fans.

In terms of air flow I'd hazzard a guess that we've got about 3x more than would really be required so I'm also wondering if the fan speed can be controlled..

What make of fan are they? If they are cheap and nasty then fair enough swap them out. Perhaps for some nice Zalmans.

However if they are a decent brand, don't bother. They are doing what they are supposed to. Your better off putting your servers in a room and soundproofing the room.

Is this a rack mount server? If so - they are just noisy things by default. Each of my servers contains around 12 small fans which make a hell of a racket.

Delta fans are good enough, and if they are all spinning at full pelt it's because they need to. It's unlikely that you'll be able to swap for something else as rack chassis and their parts tend to be proprietary (due to the challenges of pushing large quantities of air through small number of small holes.

I'd check for an updated BIOS that might give greater control over temp and fan speed.

I'll have a look see what I can find in terms of tools/firmware then I guess...

That and get a hoover out to clean these things up...


To answer a few questions though.

1. Fans are Delta's which are good for pushing air but running at full tilt hence noise

2. No, not rackmount, this is a standard server box.

3. Soundproofing would be a boon but sadly no seperate room and nowhere else to put it that wouldn't result in a hot room and server overheat.


One thing I've noted with this machine though is that the Xeon's have passive heatsinks on the chips themselves but there's ducting that pulling air from the single front fan and ducting out the topmost of the back ones..

I'm debating whether removal of the passive heatsinks and replacing with 120mm zalman CPU coolers would result in better CPU cooling and thus slower fan speeds..