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Sound levels: 3U vs. 1U+

josh

josh

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Anyone have any objective comparison of the sound levels of a 3U with most or all of the bays full of drives vs. that of a full (4-drive) 1U+ server?

I'm getting increasingly annoyed by the sound level of my aging 3U server that sits in an equipment rack in my home office, but am not sure it's worth it to relocate it to another location in the house where it will bother me less.

Thanks in advance!
 
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J.Green
I dug up some data from some tests we did quite some time ago. Measurements were taken from the front of the unit at a distance of 1 meter and at a fan speed equivalent to 20 degrees C:

5U: 40 dBA
3U: 43.5 dBA
1U: 34 dBA

I don't have any measurement data for a 1U+ but the noise level should be similar to the 1U. There may be a slight increase since the 1U+ has a fan in its power supply whereas the original 1U did not.

Before going down the road of replacing your 3U -- assuming that you haven't done this already -- give your server a thorough cleaning (including removing all of the drives) and vacuuming out as much dust as you can. That thin layer of dust that accumulates can cause everything to run hotter than usual which, in turn...
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I have a 3U server that I have replaced With a 1U+ server. The 3U was fairly noisy while the 1U+ replacement server I don’t notice. I don’t have any quantitative measurements for this but subjectively it was a big difference.

John
 
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My experience is the same as John's. I did not try to measure the dB levels when my 3U's were installed, it would have been impossible without shutting down a dozen other components in the two racks, BUT, as John said, there is a noticeable difference in sound levels. (A side benefit for those that care is the reduction in use of electricity.)

Jim
 
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I dug up some data from some tests we did quite some time ago. Measurements were taken from the front of the unit at a distance of 1 meter and at a fan speed equivalent to 20 degrees C:

5U: 40 dBA
3U: 43.5 dBA
1U: 34 dBA

I don't have any measurement data for a 1U+ but the noise level should be similar to the 1U. There may be a slight increase since the 1U+ has a fan in its power supply whereas the original 1U did not.

Before going down the road of replacing your 3U -- assuming that you haven't done this already -- give your server a thorough cleaning (including removing all of the drives) and vacuuming out as much dust as you can. That thin layer of dust that accumulates can cause everything to run hotter than usual which, in turn, causes the fans to run faster to compensate.

As an anecdotal example, I had an M300 that would start running its fan within a few minutes of taking it out of standby. It wasn't super loud but loud enough to be distracting when the room was quiet. After opening it up and blowing out all the dust, the fan noise dropped to virtually inaudible levels.
 
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