Silent (or quiet) 48 port gigabit switch for classroom?

[matthewls]

We have a HP ProCurve 2900-48G in a classroom but the teacher is rightly complaining about the amount of noise it generates.

 

I've found a couple of threads about silent switches in the past but nothing recent. So far the only solutions I've seen involve replacing or disconnecting fans. I would happily cut a hole in the top of the existing switch and install a large 12v quiet fan but obviously that would void the warranty.

 

Our goal moving forward is to only purchase switches with gigabit ports and 10Gb uplinks but I'm almost positive there aren't any switches that will give us 48xGb ports plus a 10Gb uplink without a fan. Any suggestions on how to overcome this issue? Space isn't a concern so we'd be happy with a less dense 2 or 3RU switch if it meant it ran quietly (POE not required).

 

We considered moving the cabinet but it is too expensive and our suggestion to swap classrooms (with a more lightly used room) was shot down.

 

Other suggestions have included soundproofing the cabinet but if the cabinet temperature gets too high there goes your warranty anyway...

[SYNACK]

We just ended up moving the cabinet, you can get quieter, stackable 24 port ones but as the speed goes up so does the heat output and noise. Don't kill the onboard fans, I had to deal with one that someone had helpfully do that to it. Dropped packets, half packets, uplinks etc. Just shocking and a fire hazard (got hot to the touch).

 

The big fan option is also a bit problematic as they are designed for the air to flow from side to side resulting in hot spots if cooled incorrectly. Can you not re-route the majority of the cables, we moved one of ours across a hallway as most of the cables went the same way so only 6 or so ports needed to be fully recabled. When working out the costs it pays to take into account all the future compromises and stuffing around by not just moving the cabinet now.

[dhicks]

Any suggestions on how to overcome this issue? Space isn't a concern so we'd be happy with a less dense 2 or 3RU switch if it meant it ran quietly (POE not required).

 

Could you build your own? If you have 3U of space to spread the components over you could probably put together a passivly-cooled motherboard and a bunch of MicroTek components:

 

LinITX.com - MikroTik RouterBOARD

[pantscat]

How about two 24 port switches? The HP 2520_24G is very quiet...

Or perhaps a "quiet cab": http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/quiet_rack_cabinets.asp?gclid=CK7X8rnX964CFWwntAodezipwg

Edited March 21, 2012 by pantscat

[nathan3388]

It may be cheaper to re repatch all the network cables, how many cables go into the cabient i have got to move a cabient with 80 cables in it and fully thread 16 cables this is only about 2-3 days work at the max. May be cheaper for you to move the cabient.

[matthewls]

Thanks everyone for your replies!

 

SYNACK:

Yeah, future compromises is a good point. And we don't want to have to deal with an intermittently malfunctioning switch in 6-12 months when summer hits again...

 

SYNACK and nathan3388:

Moving the cabinet may be the way to go. It will mean either getting someone to splice the fibre or run a new connection though Not cheap either way!

 

dhicks:

My inner geek thinks building our own would be cool but we're working hard to standardise equipment and processes so our goal is to minimise the number of different brands and variations we have.

 

pantscat:

Thanks for pointing out the 2520-24G, I hadn't found it in my previous searches. Thanks also for the link to the acoustic cabinets. I had assumed noise reducing cabinet meant airflow reducing also. Just got to find a vendor in Sydney who is willing to loan us one for a test to see if it improves the situation

 

 

Thanks for all the helpful replies!!!

[Simcfc73]

I had the same issue, went for this one

 

GS750E - ProSAFE Web Managed 50-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

 

Fanless and it gets very hot.

[NetworkServices]

This is exactly the reason why we don't have any classroom/office mounted switches. It took a while to get management to agree to sacrifice areas for us to use as dedicated IDFs but after I got them to stand in the server room and listen to the din the teachers would have to put up with (okay maybe a slight exaggeration using the server room) they relented and we got our own way.

 

I know what you are going through, though. Management simply want it to work as quickly and as cheaply as possible and noise is usually a second consideration since it's invariably not them that have to listen to it.

[Katy]

For the fibre you could stick a fibre connection box in the room and run some pre-terminated fibre from the box to the new cab location, miles cheaper than getting someone in. Only downside is you need roughly 30mm diameter holes to get through the walls with it.

 

I've done this where I've had to extend fibre before - we measured for a run of pre-terminated to another building, got the cable, then the contractors decided the cab couldn't go in the original location so moved it 20m further from the duct... meaning our cable was too short.

 

Something like this https://www.comms-express.com/products/tamper-resistant-wall-box-lc-connectors/

 

and for the pre-terminated: https://www.comms-express.com/products/custom-made-multicore-preterminated-fibre-cable/

 

Edit: Just noticed you're not in the UK but hopefully you've got suppliers doing that kind of thing over there?

Edited April 19, 2018 by Katy

[fiberoptics]

The fan switch can respond to changes in engine coolant temperature, providing circuit switching during a predetermined temperature range allowing fan operation.

[Blue_Cookeh]

We've got a 2530-48G-PoE+ in our cabinet in our main office - it's not silent by any means but it's far quieter than the 2920-48G we've got in our main hall cabinet. If I added some foam sound proofing to the door of the cab it'd probably make it near silent.

[NB9457]

Could try a Unifi switch and swap the fans.

 

Someone on here did a write up, but I cant find it. You replace the internal fans with Noctua ones and apparently it's meant to be a hell of a lot quieter.

[FN-GM]

Do you guys know this thread is from 2012?

[Blue_Cookeh]

I blame @Simcfc73!

[Passat1983ICTech]

unfi switch there good quite as well

[dhicks]

Do you guys know this thread is from 2012?

 

I know this is an older thread, but worth updating: we've found the sound-proofed switch cabinet in our IT room (which has its own HP 2920 switch) to be an excellent solution. The switch is in no way silent, but you really don't notice the sound with the cabinet door closed. That's been running since probably just after this thread was created, so a reasonably good reliability test.