Hello Guys,
I have a couple of Chelsio (T6225-CR and T62100-CR), Intel (XXV710, XL710, and E810QDA2) NICs. Other than this, I have a few LSI 9400-16i and 9400-16e HBAs.
These components will be going into a tower chassis. Two builds. So, can anyone suggest me a FAN mod to keep these cards cool? I’m aware of Noctua, but still not sure what FAN to pick. Either 40mm or 60mm and whether to go for PWM or not.
If you guys have any suggestions or ideas, i would appreciate that.
Thanks
+1 for Noctua. The choice is not that complicated. Always PWM and bigger means less noise.
Okay. What about the voltages? There are 5V, 12V and 24V options on the Noctua Website.
Also, recently, got to know about S4028-15K from Arctic. Any thoughts on that?
Depends…Are you going to hook it up to the motherboard and allow the fan control via the BIOS? If so, they are 12V. You can normally find that info in your motherboard manual.
I have tried various brands but now i stick with Noctua. Extremely reliable and very silent.
Also big noctua fan. Included rubber mounting things allowed me to snap the fan onto Chelsio Network cards.
12V is the “normal” Voltage in most cases. PWM also has become pretty standard.
ULN Adapters help if your PWM steering is stupid (Supermicro) or none existent at all (some Mikrotik Switches).
Also I never had a Noctua fan gone bad, while I had BeQuiet fans that started to rattle after some years.
So for me personally it is clear, either go Noctua or go home.
Another +1 for Noctua, I use them in practically every application I might have for a fan. My switches have all had their fans replaced with Noctua, as I have a lab rack in my bedroom and would like to be able to sleep without developing tinnitus.
Whisper silent after replacement. I’ve also never had a Noctua fan die. I’ve got four in my NAS, and eight across my switches that have been going strong for years.
Arctic is also good from what I’ve seen of them in the consumer desktop market, but I can’t say much in regards to their server fans as I have not seen them myself.
Unless you are going to use some sort of custom fan control that checks the temperature of the NICs and HBAs and adjusts the PWM of the fan based on that, I’d recommend going for a standard 3-pin fan and run it at full speed. You won’t notice the sound of a 60mm Noctua over the fans that are keeping your drives cool.
Okay, will check that. Thanks for the tip!
Hmm
Wow. Which FANs are you exactly using for your Chelsio NIC? I’ve got the Chelsio NIC and want to keep it cool before i actually deploy it in the system. Also, what are the temps after modding it with FAN?
Gotcha!
Dang shit.
Sounds good!
Sounds good!
Okay cool. So, 60mm then?
My NF-A4x10 got the temps on my Chelsio 520 from 90 to 70 under idle.
But that is with an inaudible low PWM.
My Lenovo SSF with an i5 8th gen only has one PWM connector and the CPU cooler also had an annoying rattling. So I unplugged the CPU Fan and plugged in the Noctua one.
Passive CPU temps are still fine. If OPnsense has load, CPU temps rise a little bit, Noctua fan will spin a little faster and Chelsio gets more cooling. It is a pretty wild ghetto build 
I also had to disassemble the PSU and rotate it 180 to get space for the Chelsio.
CPU is 50 idle, 80 load. Chelsio between 70 and 77.
70c seems bit high to me. I guess something around 40-50c at idle and up to 60c at full load sounds good to me.
You mean the FAN is not running with full duty?
Mahh, most electronics are totally fine up to 100c.
Yes, the fan is only running at 40% or something because it is based on the CPU temp.
Full duty the temps are probably a lot lower. But full duty is also audible.
