xeons... too loud!

#1

Hey guys, I need some advice here.

In the office we were all running Intel s5520sc boards up to now and it was a… pleasant environment to work in. Yesterday, however, two new computers based on the s2600co came in and as soon as you hit render we now have a noise floor similar to that right under a boing 747 during take-off. Needless to say, that this… how can I put this… royally sucks!

Strangely, the thermal output of the new cpus is rated lower than that of those in the s5520sc boards. What I’ve done so far: flash a new BIOS and set the set the thermal throttling to slow rise, made sure all case fans are correctly reported. set the BIOS to ‘accoustic’ rather than performance and… that’s it - for lack of any proper thermal settings available in the (darn) BIOS. Any other option I missed? This surely can’t be all I can do on a board that costs 500€… at least I HOPE!

Please someone tell me I overlooked a section where I can set the thermal management to not annoy the hell out of us.

Cheers,
J

edit: CPUs are the 2,33Ghz flavour…

#2

What computers are they? What make/model? Full towers? Are they rackmount machines?

#3

Hi Michael, sorry, still in full-on rant mode, which is why I completely forgot most of the useful information one would need.

They’re tower cases intended to be under the desks of us poor artists - even though that is not working too well currently. Built by some small shop here, cases are Chieftech, Intel boards mentioned above, intel HSFs (200c version, which is rathed up to 150W IIRC), one 120mm case fan and three 92mm ones on the side panels. Again, exactly the same setup as those older s5520scs, which never spin the fans up no matter what we throw at them, really…

#4

BIOSs are up to date but I cannot even find temperature readings or fan rpms reported anywhere.

#5

Just so we’re clear, youre saying the new machines are identical to the old ones bar the cpu used?

#6

You might contact the company who built them and complain. Maybe they can swap the fans with quieter ones.

If you can’t find anything in the BIOS and the motherboard doesn’t have any fan software for within the OS, not sure how many other options you have other than to put the machine in a closet and get some long extension cables.

#7

Welcome to the world of server boards and CPUs in the wrong workstation case.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-031384.htm

Without proper chassis contacts and monitoring the fans will choose to always go full speed.
You can google around for many people with similar problems addressing it different ways, seldom, if ever, satisfactorily.

It’s also possible they have fans connected to the motherboard that short the speed/temperature feedback 4th pin (some cases make that mistake), that will make the mobo keep them on nuclear reactor settings.

It beats me why one would have old dual xeon 2.3Ghz in a workstation for an artist I have to admit :slight_smile:

#8

A lot of things can contribute to the temperatures. A bigger heatsink might help but only if there are sufficient case fans to carry the heat out of the case. The environment matters too, if there’s no air flow around the case or the case is in a partially enclosed area it can cause the machine to run hotter.

#9

Sorry for the late reply, had to catch some sleep…

No, sorry if that wasn’t clear. We were running old previous generation Xeons on S5520sc Intel boards on third party chassis. No hickups, even under full load whisper quiet.

Now we got two new machines, built around current Xeons (E5-2630s) on Intel S2600coe boards - same chassis, same fans, same PSUs. Those, however, spin their HSFs like nuts when under load. Idle they’re totally quiet as well, though.

Yeah, I know. On the old boards (the s5520sc) - which is the ones in the link you posted - that was not a problem at all, though: You could easily specify everything from the EFI and then be done with it. As I said above: Those run absolutely quiet, even under full load and despite being in a third party chassis.

:slight_smile: Yeah, that’s what I’d think. With regards to the old Xeons I reckon you misunderstood me, so sorry if I worded that weirdly. The machines in question are based on current Xeons on s2600co boards, the ‘old’ ones have been running happily for two years now and I only referenced them as they’re in the same chassis with a higher thermal footprint and do not go bonkers when under load.

With regards to why the reason is simple: small shop = limited resources = render on workstations at night as well. So the more horsepower you get for a single license the better.

You may well have saved the day by posting the link above, though, JacO: Reading through ti I saw you can apparently set different profiles manually, so I got an Intel rep on the phone who told me you can write values for temp readings and corresponding fan rpms manually into the master.cfg file before flashing a BIOS. I’ll let you know if that works…

#10

If the fans are speeding up under load then clearly the extra fan wires are working as its speeding up based on the temp. If these were my machines, the first thing I’d do is narrow it down to which fans are making the noise. Hopefully the only culprit is the main cpu fan. You can either straight out replace the fan on the heatsink with a quieter variety or as is often the case, much of the noise is air rushing through the heatsink, so you may want to try an alternative heatsink.

Im not sure about xeon motherboard fittings, but the Corsair H50, H60, H80 etc all get good reviews.

#11

For future purchase considerations :
A single socket 3.8ghz 6 core system with a reasonable overclock would render just as fast as a dual socket low ghz cpu like you have, but be almost twice as fast for everything else, as well as ending up significantly cheaper…

#12

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