supermicro 846TQ-R900B quiet options?

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halfelite

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So I am replacing my norco 4220 with a supermicro 846TQ-R900B for my new build. But I have an issue with the supermicro 846TQ-R900B is the sound levels are through the roof this is stored at my house in my home office and stock is just to loud.

I have been looking at options but not found much information. I know supermicro makes a PSU with model number PWS-920P-SQ and its supposed to be quieter then the stock PWS-902-1R but I cant find how much. So was hoping maybe someone here has ran the PWS-920P-SQ. If not my next option is replace the back of the case with a norco backwindow and run a full size desktop PSU.

The two rear exhaust fans and the 3 backplane fans are easy replacements. I am not using the supermicro stock board so the cpu will have its own cpu fan and not need the 3 backplanes to push as much airflow.

Thanks
 
I've got the 920W PSUs in my 846s. (Running 2xCSE-846BE16-R920B) What information are you looking for, exactly?

(Oh, and if you're fully loading the front drive bays, be VERY careful about the fans you use. Supermicro uses the loud fans for a reason - There's a super high static pressure requirement for proper cooling of the disks!)
 
I did exactly this and replaced all the case fans with Noctua Fans. It's really quite tolerable now.

Ripley said:
I'm in a similar situation. I've looked at the quieter PSUs but they are quite pricey. I found this - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-ho...ss-expensive-norco-4220-4224-alternative.html and am considering it. For home use I don't really need the dual power supplies.

Can I ask what fans you are replacing the stock ones with? I'm using a SM motherboard but I have a CPU fan and don't need as much airflow from the fan wall.
Click to expand...
 
The thing that made the biggest difference for me was replacing the PSU with ATX power supplies.
 
TeeJayHoward said:
I've got the 920W PSUs in my 846s. (Running 2xCSE-846BE16-R920B) What information are you looking for, exactly?

(Oh, and if you're fully loading the front drive bays, be VERY careful about the fans you use. Supermicro uses the loud fans for a reason - There's a super high static pressure requirement for proper cooling of the disks!)
Click to expand...

Did you run the stock psu's first? How much quieter are the 920W SQ models. I have only read mixed reviews that they are not quieter just off when the system is off. Then other people have said they run quieter as well. Right now with the stock PSU im measuring around 70db using an app on my cell phone from about a foot away. And around 74db using a radio shack sound level meter.

Ripley said:
I'm in a similar situation. I've looked at the quieter PSUs but they are quite pricey. I found this - http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-ho...ss-expensive-norco-4220-4224-alternative.html and am considering it. For home use I don't really need the dual power supplies.

Can I ask what fans you are replacing the stock ones with? I'm using a SM motherboard but I have a CPU fan and don't need as much airflow from the fan wall.
Click to expand...

I was looking at the but cleaner. You can buy the norco backwindow http://www.ipcdirect.net/servlet/Detail?no=341 and it will fit the case so the psu still mounts in the back,.
 
The 920SQ is very queit.

The PWS-721P-1R (platinum) is also extremely quiet and extremely efficient. It is plug-in compatible with the power distributor in this chassis so just get the PSU and slide it in. Unless you are running a dual-Xeon MB and 10k or 15k SAS drives you are probably well safe at 700watts. Avoid the older 800 and 900 watt models as they are just loud.

I assume it has the older 3-pin SM fans? They are indeed loud. You can source the newer PWM fans pretty easily on eBay. These are the SM spec fans for this chassis if it shipped today - so no worries about poor static pressure performance. When run with a MB with good active cooling BIOS they run slow and quiet.

There's nothing you are going to do to make a case with 24 3.5" drives living-room quiet. But you don't need to do radical things to make this one quite tolerable.
 
spankit said:
I did exactly this and replaced all the case fans with Noctua Fans. It's really quite tolerable now.
Click to expand...

Can you link to the specific fans you used?

PigLover said:
The 920SQ is very queit.

The PWS-721P-1R (platinum) is also extremely quiet and extremely efficient. It is plug-in compatible with the power distributor in this chassis so just get the PSU and slide it in. Unless you are running a dual-Xeon MB and 10k or 15k SAS drives you are probably well safe at 700watts. Avoid the older 800 and 900 watt models as they are just loud.

I assume it has the older 3-pin SM fans? They are indeed loud. You can source the newer PWM fans pretty easily on eBay. These are the SM spec fans for this chassis if it shipped today - so no worries about poor static pressure performance. When run with a MB with good active cooling BIOS they run slow and quiet.

There's nothing you are going to do to make a case with 24 3.5" drives living-room quiet. But you don't need to do radical things to make this one quite tolerable.
Click to expand...

Same question. Link?
 
I'm usually impatient with requests like "can you search eBay for me". Feeling a need to be a bit snippy...

But...look here
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
halfelite said:
Did you run the stock psu's first? How much quieter are the 920W SQ models. I have only read mixed reviews that they are not quieter just off when the system is off. Then other people have said they run quieter as well. Right now with the stock PSU im measuring around 70db using an app on my cell phone from about a foot away. And around 74db using a radio shack sound level meter.
Click to expand...
I'll try and remember to do a test when I get home. I do know that the PSU is quieter than the fans when the fans are at half speed. It's louder overall than a gaming rig at full tilt when idling, but it's nowhere near as loud as a modern 1U... Until things heat up. The 920W SQ PSUs were my stock power supplies, so I can't compare them for you. I can say that I've worked with a LOT of server chassis, and my Supermicros are the quietest I've ever used.
 
I replaced my 3 pin fans with 4 pin fans and that made a big difference on my 3u SM chassis. Compatibility is the difficult thing though, I ended up emailing SM support and they gave me the model numbers I needed for the front and back fans.
PSUs are next on my list to replace, but for my 3u it looks like the lowest power PSU that is sq is 920W and is $200 each.
Some point I'm going to go to a 4u 24x bay and maybe even sas drives, but that isn't happening any time soon.
 
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PigLover said:
The 920SQ is very queit.

The PWS-721P-1R (platinum) is also extremely quiet and extremely efficient. It is plug-in compatible with the power distributor in this chassis so just get the PSU and slide it in. Unless you are running a dual-Xeon MB and 10k or 15k SAS drives you are probably well safe at 700watts. Avoid the older 800 and 900 watt models as they are just loud.

I assume it has the older 3-pin SM fans? They are indeed loud. You can source the newer PWM fans pretty easily on eBay. These are the SM spec fans for this chassis if it shipped today - so no worries about poor static pressure performance. When run with a MB with good active cooling BIOS they run slow and quiet.

There's nothing you are going to do to make a case with 24 3.5" drives living-room quiet. But you don't need to do radical things to make this one quite tolerable.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. 700watt is plenty and I will most likely run single PSU for now. I just wanted to make sure the money was worth it before I bought them to find they are just as loud.

I am not looking to make it whisper quiet just more to where I had my older norco system at. Where inside my home office you hear it but outside you dont.
 
halfelite said:
Thanks for the information. 700watt is plenty and I will most likely run single PSU for now. I just wanted to make sure the money was worth it before I bought them to find they are just as loud.

I am not looking to make it whisper quiet just more to where I had my older norco system at. Where inside my home office you hear it but outside you dont.
Click to expand...

I believe, this should work PWS-920P-1R,
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-ho...co-4220-4224-alternative-54.html#post23449731
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...MATCH&Description=PWS-920P-1R&N=-1&isNodeId=1

on my case as home server, I replace with desktop 7XX Watts PSU from seasonic
 
I have PWS-920P-1R in mine, they work great.

Had PWS902-1R originaly and they were very loud, running at maximum rpm all the time (even when the server was off).
 
arnbju said:
I have PWS-920P-1R in mine, they work great.

Had PWS902-1R originaly and they were very loud, running at maximum rpm all the time (even when the server was off).
Click to expand...

I have SC936E1-R900B that comes with PWS902-1R and planning to replace it. So they are compatible?

Thanks
 
Has anyone gone from a PWS-920P-1R to a PWS-920P-SQ?

http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=17114

http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=17114 said:
Question
Can you tell me what is the difference between the PWS-920P-1R and PWS-920P-SQ power supplies; and how loud (Dba) of the 2 power supplies?

Answer
Both PWS-920P-1R and PWS-920P-SQ power supplies can be used with 846TQ-R900 while PWS-920P-SQ is more quiets. PWS-920P-SQ: 23dBa at input power: 300~ 400W and PWS-920P-1R about 45dB.
Click to expand...
 
PigLover said:
The 920SQ is very queit.

The PWS-721P-1R (platinum) is also extremely quiet and extremely efficient. It is plug-in compatible with the power distributor in this chassis so just get the PSU and slide it in. Unless you are running a dual-Xeon MB and 10k or 15k SAS drives you are probably well safe at 700watts. Avoid the older 800 and 900 watt models as they are just loud.

I assume it has the older 3-pin SM fans? They are indeed loud. You can source the newer PWM fans pretty easily on eBay. These are the SM spec fans for this chassis if it shipped today - so no worries about poor static pressure performance. When run with a MB with good active cooling BIOS they run slow and quiet.

There's nothing you are going to do to make a case with 24 3.5" drives living-room quiet. But you don't need to do radical things to make this one quite tolerable.
Click to expand...

I cant thank you enough. I found a PWS-721P-1R on ebay for 40$ so it was a steal and decided to take the chance at that cost. The stock older 900watt model ran at 74 db the new model is 50-60db so twice as quiet and well within range of being home use.
 
halfelite said:
I cant thank you enough. I found a PWS-721P-1R on ebay for 40$ so it was a steal and decided to take the chance at that cost. The stock older 900watt model ran at 74 db the new model is 50-60db so twice as quiet and well within range of being home use.
Click to expand...

just considerations,
if you load less than 1/2 of full load, you should be ok with low noise due on PWM fan PWS-721P-1R.

no matter reason, Supermicro server never be good enough for being ideal on home use in quiteness :D

put in the basement or a room with open door. you would be happy with noise level with your new PWS-721P-1R.


on my understanding after modded supermicro 4U and AIC 4U for quiteness, these are needed to be replaces:
1) all fans behind the backpanel with bigger non-cheap fans 1200-1500 rpm,
for example, default fan is 80mm-> 120mm or 140mm with low rpm.
2) exhaust fans must be replace with PWM fans.
3) add extra fan or blower with low rpm for additional forces, if possible
4) replace to non redudandent GOOD PSU. I picked seasonic 750W gold.

modding supermicro server case was easy. AIC was the hardest one due on non-traditional format.

to lower down noise further, make closed server rack case with fans on the back to force hot fan out from the rack. the cheap way to make rack fan controller ->>> Arduino, I did make rack fans controller with webbased and mqtt client.
if you interasted, I would post some pictures. this hase been running since 2012....
 
halfelite said:
I cant thank you enough. I found a PWS-721P-1R on ebay for 40$ so it was a steal and decided to take the chance at that cost. The stock older 900watt model ran at 74 db the new model is 50-60db so twice as quiet and well within range of being home use.
Click to expand...

Your welcome.

BTW, the difference between 74db and 50-60db is 14-24db is a lot more than twice as quiet. More like 10x quieter (or more...).
 
Hey, I can chime in a bit, I currently have the 846TQ-R900B 4u 24 bay chassis (SM) with the stock PWS-902-1R dual PSUs, but tomorrow (monday nov 24 2014) my PWS-920P-SQ dual PSUs are being delivered so i will be going from the 902s (very noise ie) to the PWS-920P-SQs (more efficient and supposedly much quieter).

my ipmi shows the PWS-902-1R PSUs fan's running at 7099 RPM and 10305 RPM respectively, so even with my fan management in BIOS set to FULL POWER ( i have a x8dte-f SM MB) the PSU fans are audible above the 5 internal stock fans. the PSU fans being so small have a much higher pitch noise than the rest (as has been pointed out in the thread by others) so the PSU fans are audible above all due to the high pitch and the high decibel level of them.

One item not pointed out thus far in this thread RE: upgrading from 902 to 920 PSUs is the power saving due to the increased efficiency (920 is a Platinum rated PSU). I've read in other Message boards that users see a power savings of ~ 60 w on a 300-350w loaded system. im not sure if that user was running 1 or 2 PSUs though.

I know my 902s, even with NO MB connected, but PSU getting power, are not only loud, but also draw ~ 50w from the wall each! so with my current setup i see ~ 400w usage idle (again, i have 2x 902 PSUs installed), so im guessing i may even see 100w savings with the new 920s!

i will report back in about 24 hours with actual data.
 
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2x PWS-920P-1R really helped. Now my loudest device is an old dell switch I am going to replace.
 
So my PWS-920P-1R came in yesterday to replace my PWS-902P-1R in my 4u 24bay SM server. WOW GET TWO ASAP!!

It has cut my idle server from 400-450w to 220-280w !!! nearly HALF! and its really really quiet. quieter than my 5 stock fans, on the lowest setting in the X8 motherboard bios (the energy savings fan setting).

UN BELIEVEABLE!

not only am i getting the power savings, but i get to see LIVE POWER USAGE via IPMI now!!! i get these stats (UN REAL STATS to have access to!) :

zPDJT3O.png



how great are those stats to get access to?? before all i got to see was the Powersupply fan speed and temp for each..
 
james23 said:
So my PWS-920P-1R came in yesterday to replace my PWS-902P-1R in my 4u 24bay SM server. WOW GET TWO ASAP!!

It has cut my idle server from 400-450w to 220-280w !!! nearly HALF! and its really really quiet. quieter than my 5 stock fans, on the lowest setting in the X8 motherboard bios (the energy savings fan setting).

UN BELIEVEABLE!

not only am i getting the power savings, but i get to see LIVE POWER USAGE via IPMI now!!! i get these stats (UN REAL STATS to have access to!) :

zPDJT3O.png



how great are those stats to get access to?? before all i got to see was the Powersupply fan speed and temp for each..
Click to expand...
7000 RPM and it's still quiet?
 
PigLover said:
Yes, likely is pretty quiet. The fan in that PSU can spin up to 30k RPM if needed. Its not usually needed (thankfully!).
Click to expand...
that's incredibly fast, may ask where you got this information?
it's interesting to note according to the 80 plus certification testing data, the fan power draw (and therefore speed) at 50% load and idle are very close
 
Hi, Yes, even at 7000k rpm the fans are really, REALLY quiet. there is no comparison to the 900w standard PSUs, those were really loud even with ZERO system load (as in, the machine isnt even powered on, but the PSUs are getting power, it was really loud even then).

I overstated my power savings a bit when i said i went from 400-450w idle to 220w with the new PSUs. I didn't realize that about 15 of my HDDs were not spinning up as they were not all connected to my 3x adaptec raid cards at that point (some drives were, but i have 22 total + 4x SSDs in a separate enclosure).

so for an exact comparison to my 400-450w idle power draw on the old PSUs, im seeing ~ 280-320w idle on the new PSUs (which again are Platinum efficiency, i think ~94% IIRC). still a HUGE savings, and means the PSUs will pay for themselves in a few months just in power savings (i paid ~100$ SHIPPED for BOTH (~50$ each) via ebay).

My main reason for upgrading the PSUs was the noise level and im totally satisfied.
according to "Decibel 10th" iphone app (free) here are the sound levels:

Right next to the 2x PSUs (as close as i can physically place the phone so about 1 inch from them): 79-80db
Right up to the drive bays: 77db
About 2ft away (still front of server): 65db
about 5 feet away: 60db
Outside Room with door open: 58db
Outside Room with door closed: 44-46db

in my 2nd bedroom (down the hall) with both doors closed (server room and that bedroom door): 39-42

(the room is a normal sized bedroom where i keep a few servers and no one uses/sleeps)

Actually the only thing keeping me from setting my X8DT3-F motherboard BIOS to "energy saving" fan speed profile (the slowest setting of 4) is that my Adaptec 51645 card approaches 100c temp at which point i sounds a brief alarm for high temperature. This was during a large raid5 array build so the card was under 100% max load, but i know this server will see a good bit of disk load so i dont want to push it. Weird thing is my 2 other adaptec 5 series cards dont get nearly as hot, however they are only 4 and 8 port versions (a 5805 and 5405z). so for now im running the machine on "performance" fan profile (step 2 of 4 , 4 being FULL ON fan profile) and the machine is FAIRLY quite...if i close the door to the room you cant hear it outside the room but if its open you can hear it a decent amount.

I feel like i should break this post out into a separate thread as i know i would have loved to have this info when buying the parts to this new server about 2-3 weeks ago..
 
Got 2 PWS-920P-SQ today to replace PWS902-1R. What the difference! Couldn't even tell the SC936 is turned on!
 
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