grab a usb to ethernet adapter as well as a hdmi to ethernet extender and run the cables from your closet so you can have the zero latency feeling of being in front of the unit, but without the harsh fans or heat(had heat exhaustion from one before). I have 3 servers and I plan to buy more to fill out my cabinet. The problem is finding hardware that fits a modern GPU and powers it. You can work around this by simply running a second power supply and even a PCI riser as I have in the past. But I implore you, mount the card onto something that allows for airflow. I ran a "test" to see if I could get a GTX 970 connected to a Dell R410. Long story short, it ran amazingly with 2 cpus at 16 cores around 3.5 GHz. But I let the card get too hot during my extended test and the solder melted which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't turned the unit back on before learning of the shorted solder joints. If you're going to mod your rig, make sure to focus on cooling options and be ready for an ugly as shit rig. Looks don't matter though when your pulling triple digit frames in AAA titles with cheap hardware.
Yes! If the result is what you want (as you say, good frame rates with cheap hardware), I don't think the setup itself matters. As you and other people have pointed out, I just need to focus on the cooling aspect of the server.
Thank you for the video. Most servers can be used as workstations if you add appropriate GPUs. Sound is a problem, unless you place them far and make extensions of all cables needed. My worry is the electric bill. Servers are power guzzlers, but if you are either off the grid, or power is cheap, then all is good.
Yeah, the noise is really the only issue. I find that the performance of the 2x E5-2640 v2s are decent enough for most tasks, but the noise is just unbearable!!
I think it's more impressive that you got a server in the first place! I always wondered if a server could be used as a beefy PC if upgraded a little. Some fan mods or replacements and sound dampening should really help out with the noise, even with them running really fast.
Yeah!! Apparently, if you throw in 1100W PSUs the fans will ramp down to near idle, although I kinda don't believe it, but maybe I should test that. I also have an HP ProLiant DL380 G7 that also works okay as a workstation! I'm glad you found this video useful-maybe I should do a video on the ProLiant at some point :)
You will never get fans small enough to fit in a 2U server yet move enough air to cool enterprise grade cpu's to be silent at anything much past idle. Now 4U servers on the other hand can be VERY QUITE even at max load because 120mm fans don't have to run very fast to push a lot of air.
@@thenetworkmystery I hope you didn't try this. Server fans run so loud because they have a much higher static pressure rating than fans used for enthusiast systems. These units use a huge amount of power for the small cross-sectional area with a lot of densely-packed components. It takes a lot of pressure to move the necessary quantity of air.
Yeah, I've been utilising old Supermicro server boards and Xeons of the day to fill up a mega desktop case which was originally a floor-mounted vertical server unit. For several years I was using paired 1366s with 6 cores / 12threads, and have recently replaced the guts with a slightly more updated 2011 E-2697s running on a S'micro X9DRL-3F, giving me a stonking 24C /48T , in combo with 96GB of DDR3 For the past couple of weeks I've been running BOINC to burn it in and make sure it can sit doing high demand tasks around the clock. By the time I get some VMs working properly it will be just a bit less fully capable. This time around I modded the case for better airflow and did away with the daft design of the outflow of one CPU's heat feeding directly into its neighbour's fan. It's all working so far, and fairly quiet. I'm not a gamer, in any way, all I'm interested in is fast video rendering / recoding, and photo manipulation, and for that, this is fantastic. There are a dozen drive bays in the front of this case, not all of them used for drives, but it still leaves eight for 3.5" / 2.5" or even, if I get desperate, some of those multiple 2.5 holders in a 5.25 carrier, once SSDs get dirt cheap. This is all tied up with my LAN, which has another couple of machines tagged on for storage and/ or media streaming, as well as isolated safekeeping backup.
I use my DL380 Gen 9 server, with 256Gb of RAM, and 2xE5-2667v4 CPUs, as a workstation. I put a Soundblaster sound card, a USB 3.1 card and a Quadro M4000 GPU in it. There is a 32" Acer 2K monitor, with an HP DesignJet 125 plotter and a tabloid sized flatbed scanner attached to the USB card. I run MS Office Pro 2021, AutoDesk's AutoCAD 2011, Universe Sandbox, and Rule The Waves 2 on it in a Windows Server 2022 Standard environment. My favorite thing is to relax with Minesweeper. Oh yeah, it does a few server things too, like DNS resolves and file sharing. When it's not doing much, it is about as loud as the air conditioner in the window. When it is busy it is about as loud as the vacuum cleaner we have in our house.
My ProLiant is a completely different deal-that one seems to work a lot better than the PowerEdge, and it's a lot quieter, too. I'll have to install quieter fans in the PowerEdge, and then I can use it, even just as a general-purpose server.
I have a r730 with a radeon pro and 2 tesla compute cards in it. I made a software that control the fans dynamically with temp and its very quiet (and cool, 30 to 50°C depending on load). It runs Win Server 2022 as the hyper-v host and desktop (workstation) and I've got many hyper-v instances running with server images and others. It idles at 300w and go to 700w when working hard but I don't care about that, electricity cost isn't a problem for me. I would recommend anyone that think he could maybe have a use for a server like these to get one.
If I can figure out a way to control the fans with IPMI (which has so far been unsuccessful), this server would would be very usable. I just haven't had the time to experiment.
@@thenetworkmystery this is how I did it, my software is just sending ipmitool commands according to the temp of my hotest card. When software start you send a ipmi command one time only to set fans on manual and then a timer check gpu temp and act accordingly
@@thenetworkmystery I'm not sure I can write code here but this is my c# command to set fans on manual var process = new Process { StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo { FileName = "cmd.exe", Arguments = "/c C:\\ipmitool_1.8.18-dellemc_p001\\ipmitool -I lanplus -4 -H myIDRACipaddress -U myusername -P mypassword -y myipmiencryptionkey raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00", UseShellExecute = false, CreateNoWindow = true } };
And this is the string you send to change the fan speed: "C:\\ipmitool_1.8.18-dellemc_p001\\ipmitool -I lanplus -4 -H myIDRACipaddress -U myusername -P mypassword -y myipmiencryptionkey raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x20" You just change the last 2 digits. 20 is my idle value. 64=100% so my heavy workload value is 0x37. If you cant code a software you can copy paste these in cmd if you extract your ipmitool in the same folder as me. Change is immediate. Server reboot put back fans on auto. Also, ipmi username, pass and key are to be set in your iDrac interface. **EDIT** Username and password is NOT your iDrac credentials, its ipmitools credentials you set IN iDrac.
Thanks! Yeah, while it certainly doesn't work great because of the noise, I think if you can get the iDRAC interface to work to calm down the fans, it could absolutely be usable. Unfortunately, I can't get that to work, but if you end up figuring it out, let me know :)
@@thenetworkmystery I was wondering if we can completely do away with fans and provide some liquid cooling? My concern in doing that is if it complains that it can't find the fan. On another channel the guy placed a resistor on the + voltage line to keep the fan speed low.
@@badrinair I would guess the system wouldn't POST because it wouldn't detect any fans. Although I have NO knowledge of electronics, circuits, etc., so idk at all what the resistor deal is, but hey, if it works, it works!
@The Network Mystery ipmi works on the 2nd port in the back it has its own ipmi port you set up the ip static or dchp via the biso i have this very pc once done you can just log in via web browser no issue from any ystem and control off on fans w/e works the same on my spuer micro
I tried plugging into both one of the Ethernet ports and the IPMI (iDRAC) port, and it just doesn't work. I think it has to do with the web interface. I can ping the IPMI interface itself, but can't access the web interface. I should experiment more with this when I have the time
@@thenetworkmystery get a cheaper quadro and tuck it away somewhere. You can use something like moonlight to remote into it with full 3D acceleration. Colour accuracy will go out of the window though.
your fans you need ipmi and codes to manually edit and also to enable manual control of fans via command, and also set equally such as Low Medium High levels ( example 0x19 is 25%)
Low profile graphics card preferred Quadro 2000 ish or FirePro v5800 and similar without 6pin GPU power, preferably with passive heatsink ( will be cooled by those 'turbojet' fans too efficiently) and gaming cards are not suited due to fan cooling and 2-3slots size, also 6 or 8 pin power requirements, server PSU don't have them even power wise are okay...
@@thenetworkmystery bro, im using HP Z6G4, thinking to tesla v100 card but it don't have vga outputs, so i must use other card together for conect to monitor?
basically what I did. I see no point in doing VMs or anything like that as I run my poweredge r720 for plex and hosting steamcmd game servers. Its not loud - my 48 POE switch is louder than it. Only cost me 200$ for the server and it came with 120gb of ram. upgraded the cpus to dual E5-2690 V2's for 40$ and tossed a couple Quadro M2000 cards (40$ each) in there and now I just use it as a "workstation" that hosts plex, my blueiris security cameras, the game servers, and general web browsing / movie watching since its plugged in to my TV in my office (used mostly to view security cameras). Chucked an old Avermedia 4k capture card that I had lying around and now can use it to stream or record gameplay without breaking a sweat (hence the two Quadro cards). Price all in? $320 (not including harddrives - I already had 8x 6TBs so those didnt cost me anything for the server build). Basically is on par with a Ryzen 7 3700x system but with more cores/threads and way more ram.
I just acquired a Cisco UCS C240 M4 with a dozen 10TB, 12Gb/s SAS drives and two 120Gb SSD boot drives in it and want to try something like this. I got it for free as a broken unit, but I've just about got it running again. I'll have to see if I can pop in a GPU card and maybe a Sound Blaster card. It currently has only one CPU, but I may add a second if Windows 10 can handle that and if it makes any difference. Need to pump up the RAM though because it only has 16Gb. I'll bet if I try to run Crysis the fans will be screaming! Lol. I don't know much about servers, but I've built quite a few desktop PC's through the years (plus I've stayed at a Holiday Inn) so this will be a fun learning experience. My eventual goal for the beast is to make it a NAS and Plex server.
You have to wait for the post...then windows will show up on the other screen, I have Windows 11 Pro on mine and it shows up on the small screen until post is finished!
:) Enable manual fan control: sudo ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00 For example, to set the fan speed to 20%: sudo ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x14 For example, to set the fan speed to 22%: sudo ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x16 ipmitool raw - send raw IPMI command 0x30 0x30 - IPMI class for fan control 0x02 - target fan 2 0xff - apply to all fans 0x16 - hex value for 22% speed The hex values from 0x00 to 0x64 (0 to 100 decimal) map to the percentage range for fan speeds. So 0x16 hex converts to 22 decimal, setting a 22% fan speed. To quickly summarize the key points: Use ipmitool raw for raw IPMI commands 0x30 0x30 class is for fan control Last hex byte sets the percentage (0x16 -> 22%) Monitor fan speed: sudo ipmitool sdr type fan Monitor temperature: sudo ipmitool sdr type temperature
@@wayneferguson14 That's so strange!! You have a GPU in there, no? How did you make them quiet down? Maybe I'll play around with this more when I have time
There is something wrong here. My R720XD is whisper quiet running my blue Iris security cameras. At idle after boot, an R720XD should not be that loud, even with the stock fan curve. My server rack is in my office due to space constraints and I have no issues working next to my servers. If that graphics card is not on dells office list of supported cards that may be what is causing the fans to run faster than normal.
You are exactly right!! It is the GPU that’s causing the fan issue! APPARENTLY…if you get 1100W PSUs, it will quiet down the fans, although I’m not totally sure about that :)
I have the R730 with A5000 and the question is not about PSU wattage, it as about "Third-Party PCIe Card"; since server gear is validated to work with specific components and will by default use extra cooling for unknown hardware, for me the solution was to Disable Third-Party PCIe Card Default Cooling Response with ipmitool (but again, i am not using R720 but R730)@@thenetworkmystery googling that should it explain it more thoroghly
Je ne pense pas que le démarrage prenne TELLEMENT longtemps... bien que si vous l'allumez et l'éteignez plusieurs fois par jour, je peux voir à quel point cela peut devenir frustrant.
This is cool, and exploration is fun and required in life but, this is the same as saying can I use a CAT 793D Dump Truck as my daily driver? Sure you can but is it worth it? Don't do this if your serious about buying a workstation. use the bits designed for it. If your screwing around learning something new knock yourself out. It is fun playing with server gear. Expensive, but fun.
Dude! To have a workstation, you need UNIX, like one of the illumos distributions; if you run Windows on it, it's just another very loud PC bucket! And ya hafta put in liquid cooling, because otherwise it's way too loud to be able to concentrate...
I am preparing to sell the unit, so it is too late for liquid cooling, unfortunately. Additionally, please address your three points in a single comment in the future.
Dude! Servers control fans with the FIRMWARE, not with any kind of software! IPMI will only sometimes expose the fans' rotational speed, but whether all the fans are visible in IPMI depends on whether the firmware manufacturer exposed all the hardware in a standards compliant way! ONE CAN NOT RELIABLY CONTROL FAN SPEED IN A SERVER WITH GENERIC DESKTOP SOFTWARE; those applications are extremely OS-specific and hardcore proprietary, and totally dependent on hardware manufacturer's compliance with ACPI and IPMI standards! If the hardware manufacturer's implementation deviates from the standards in any way, you're toast!
Dude! Ya hafta configure the firmware to use the extra video card as the default instead of the built-in video card, but here's the kicker, not all firmware manufacturers provide that feature! PC bucket firmware sucks frozen dead bunnies through a bent straw sideways while skydiving!
grab a usb to ethernet adapter as well as a hdmi to ethernet extender and run the cables from your closet so you can have the zero latency feeling of being in front of the unit, but without the harsh fans or heat(had heat exhaustion from one before). I have 3 servers and I plan to buy more to fill out my cabinet. The problem is finding hardware that fits a modern GPU and powers it. You can work around this by simply running a second power supply and even a PCI riser as I have in the past. But I implore you, mount the card onto something that allows for airflow.
I ran a "test" to see if I could get a GTX 970 connected to a Dell R410. Long story short, it ran amazingly with 2 cpus at 16 cores around 3.5 GHz. But I let the card get too hot during my extended test and the solder melted which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't turned the unit back on before learning of the shorted solder joints.
If you're going to mod your rig, make sure to focus on cooling options and be ready for an ugly as shit rig. Looks don't matter though when your pulling triple digit frames in AAA titles with cheap hardware.
Yes! If the result is what you want (as you say, good frame rates with cheap hardware), I don't think the setup itself matters. As you and other people have pointed out, I just need to focus on the cooling aspect of the server.
what temps are needed to melt solder in gpus?
Thank you for the video. Most servers can be used as workstations if you add appropriate GPUs. Sound is a problem, unless you place them far and make extensions of all cables needed. My worry is the electric bill. Servers are power guzzlers, but if you are either off the grid, or power is cheap, then all is good.
Yeah, the noise is really the only issue. I find that the performance of the 2x E5-2640 v2s are decent enough for most tasks, but the noise is just unbearable!!
So I have a R730XD with 2x 2630 v4 L's in it,
256GB ram, 16x 2'5 SSDs and a 1060 3GB, it pulls 98 watts most of the time which is somewhat reasonable
I think it's more impressive that you got a server in the first place! I always wondered if a server could be used as a beefy PC if upgraded a little. Some fan mods or replacements and sound dampening should really help out with the noise, even with them running really fast.
Yeah!! Apparently, if you throw in 1100W PSUs the fans will ramp down to near idle, although I kinda don't believe it, but maybe I should test that. I also have an HP ProLiant DL380 G7 that also works okay as a workstation! I'm glad you found this video useful-maybe I should do a video on the ProLiant at some point :)
You will never get fans small enough to fit in a 2U server yet move enough air to cool enterprise grade cpu's to be silent at anything much past idle. Now 4U servers on the other hand can be VERY QUITE even at max load because 120mm fans don't have to run very fast to push a lot of air.
A server is just a Pc
@@kristopherleslie8343 mostly yes! but theres a lot of practicality reasons why most people buy servers
@@kristopherleslie8343 BIOS disagree🙃
The "Noctua NF-A4x20 PWM, Premium Quiet Fan for Server, 4-Pin (40x20mm, Brown)" may be of interest.
Thanks, I'll have to check those out!
highly doubt they even at full tilt powerful enought to move any air inside that system
@@DeviloftheHelll Yea they wont be able to.
just use impitool to play with fan speeds lol
@@thenetworkmystery I hope you didn't try this. Server fans run so loud because they have a much higher static pressure rating than fans used for enthusiast systems. These units use a huge amount of power for the small cross-sectional area with a lot of densely-packed components. It takes a lot of pressure to move the necessary quantity of air.
Thanks for showing me that a server can be used as a workstation! For me it was a little slow but worked fine.
It worked fine, except for the high fan speed. But yeah, aside from that, it was totally usable!
@@thenetworkmystery Thanks!😃
Yeah, I've been utilising old Supermicro server boards and Xeons of the day to fill up a mega desktop case which was originally a floor-mounted vertical server unit. For several years I was using paired 1366s with 6 cores / 12threads, and have recently replaced the guts with a slightly more updated 2011 E-2697s running on a S'micro X9DRL-3F, giving me a stonking 24C /48T , in combo with 96GB of DDR3
For the past couple of weeks I've been running BOINC to burn it in and make sure it can sit doing high demand tasks around the clock.
By the time I get some VMs working properly it will be just a bit less fully capable.
This time around I modded the case for better airflow and did away with the daft design of the outflow of one CPU's heat feeding directly into its neighbour's fan.
It's all working so far, and fairly quiet.
I'm not a gamer, in any way, all I'm interested in is fast video rendering / recoding, and photo manipulation, and for that, this is fantastic.
There are a dozen drive bays in the front of this case, not all of them used for drives, but it still leaves eight for 3.5" / 2.5" or even, if I get desperate, some of those multiple 2.5 holders in a 5.25 carrier, once SSDs get dirt cheap.
This is all tied up with my LAN, which has another couple of machines tagged on for storage and/ or media streaming, as well as isolated safekeeping backup.
Nice!
I use my DL380 Gen 9 server, with 256Gb of RAM, and 2xE5-2667v4 CPUs, as a workstation. I put a Soundblaster sound card, a USB 3.1 card and a Quadro M4000 GPU in it. There is a 32" Acer 2K monitor, with an HP DesignJet 125 plotter and a tabloid sized flatbed scanner attached to the USB card. I run MS Office Pro 2021, AutoDesk's AutoCAD 2011, Universe Sandbox, and Rule The Waves 2 on it in a Windows Server 2022 Standard environment. My favorite thing is to relax with Minesweeper. Oh yeah, it does a few server things too, like DNS resolves and file sharing. When it's not doing much, it is about as loud as the air conditioner in the window. When it is busy it is about as loud as the vacuum cleaner we have in our house.
My ProLiant is a completely different deal-that one seems to work a lot better than the PowerEdge, and it's a lot quieter, too. I'll have to install quieter fans in the PowerEdge, and then I can use it, even just as a general-purpose server.
@@thenetworkmystery you can control the PowerEdge fans with ipmitool using the leaked memory addresses.
I have a r730 with a radeon pro and 2 tesla compute cards in it. I made a software that control the fans dynamically with temp and its very quiet (and cool, 30 to 50°C depending on load). It runs Win Server 2022 as the hyper-v host and desktop (workstation) and I've got many hyper-v instances running with server images and others. It idles at 300w and go to 700w when working hard but I don't care about that, electricity cost isn't a problem for me. I would recommend anyone that think he could maybe have a use for a server like these to get one.
If I can figure out a way to control the fans with IPMI (which has so far been unsuccessful), this server would would be very usable. I just haven't had the time to experiment.
@@thenetworkmystery this is how I did it, my software is just sending ipmitool commands according to the temp of my hotest card. When software start you send a ipmi command one time only to set fans on manual and then a timer check gpu temp and act accordingly
@@thenetworkmystery I'm not sure I can write code here but this is my c# command to set fans on manual
var process = new Process
{
StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
FileName = "cmd.exe",
Arguments = "/c C:\\ipmitool_1.8.18-dellemc_p001\\ipmitool -I lanplus -4 -H myIDRACipaddress -U myusername -P mypassword -y myipmiencryptionkey raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00",
UseShellExecute = false,
CreateNoWindow = true
}
};
And this is the string you send to change the fan speed:
"C:\\ipmitool_1.8.18-dellemc_p001\\ipmitool -I lanplus -4 -H myIDRACipaddress -U myusername -P mypassword -y myipmiencryptionkey raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x20"
You just change the last 2 digits. 20 is my idle value. 64=100% so my heavy workload value is 0x37. If you cant code a software you can copy paste these in cmd if you extract your ipmitool in the same folder as me. Change is immediate. Server reboot put back fans on auto.
Also, ipmi username, pass and key are to be set in your iDrac interface.
**EDIT** Username and password is NOT your iDrac credentials, its ipmitools credentials you set IN iDrac.
If you look into thermal response online you can set it to normal fan response instead of the unknown hardware all fans high
Thanks for the suggestion--I'll have to try that out!
Very happy to see your video. i was thinking of doing the same and looking out for information.
Thanks! Yeah, while it certainly doesn't work great because of the noise, I think if you can get the iDRAC interface to work to calm down the fans, it could absolutely be usable. Unfortunately, I can't get that to work, but if you end up figuring it out, let me know :)
@@thenetworkmystery I was wondering if we can completely do away with fans and provide some liquid cooling? My concern in doing that is if it complains that it can't find the fan. On another channel the guy placed a resistor on the + voltage line to keep the fan speed low.
@@badrinair I would guess the system wouldn't POST because it wouldn't detect any fans. Although I have NO knowledge of electronics, circuits, etc., so idk at all what the resistor deal is, but hey, if it works, it works!
@The Network Mystery ipmi works on the 2nd port in the back it has its own ipmi port you set up the ip static or dchp via the biso i have this very pc
once done you can just log in via web browser no issue from any ystem and control off on fans w/e works the same on my spuer micro
I tried plugging into both one of the Ethernet ports and the IPMI (iDRAC) port, and it just doesn't work. I think it has to do with the web interface. I can ping the IPMI interface itself, but can't access the web interface. I should experiment more with this when I have the time
@@thenetworkmystery you have to go into bios turn on impi and then use the impi port trust me it works if it didnt the pc wouldnt boot
That thing would make a very, very good workstation. It is as powerful as 5 vacuum cleaners!
The noise was the only thing preventing me from using it as one!
@@thenetworkmystery get a cheaper quadro and tuck it away somewhere. You can use something like moonlight to remote into it with full 3D acceleration. Colour accuracy will go out of the window though.
your fans you need ipmi and codes to manually edit and also to enable manual control of fans via command, and also set equally such as Low Medium High levels ( example 0x19 is 25%)
Thanks! I'll have to see if I can get the IPMI interface to work-last time I tried, I couldn't get it working.
Low profile graphics card preferred Quadro 2000 ish or FirePro v5800 and similar without 6pin GPU power, preferably with passive heatsink ( will be cooled by those 'turbojet' fans too efficiently) and gaming cards are not suited due to fan cooling and 2-3slots size, also 6 or 8 pin power requirements, server PSU don't have them even power wise are okay...
That makes sense.
Do not have second like button to click it. Great video.
Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Technically you can use server for workstation (only Storageserver are a little different). But the noise will be not be good in a office to work
This is true. However, noise was a dealbreaker in this case.
Can you test game on it? 😅 can change all fans to Noctua for silent mode?
I'll do so eventually, don't have the time right now though!
@@thenetworkmystery bro, im using HP Z6G4, thinking to tesla v100 card but it don't have vga outputs, so i must use other card together for conect to monitor?
basically what I did. I see no point in doing VMs or anything like that as I run my poweredge r720 for plex and hosting steamcmd game servers. Its not loud - my 48 POE switch is louder than it. Only cost me 200$ for the server and it came with 120gb of ram. upgraded the cpus to dual E5-2690 V2's for 40$ and tossed a couple Quadro M2000 cards (40$ each) in there and now I just use it as a "workstation" that hosts plex, my blueiris security cameras, the game servers, and general web browsing / movie watching since its plugged in to my TV in my office (used mostly to view security cameras). Chucked an old Avermedia 4k capture card that I had lying around and now can use it to stream or record gameplay without breaking a sweat (hence the two Quadro cards). Price all in? $320 (not including harddrives - I already had 8x 6TBs so those didnt cost me anything for the server build). Basically is on par with a Ryzen 7 3700x system but with more cores/threads and way more ram.
Interesting! Maybe the noise is a fault with this unit then?
I just acquired a Cisco UCS C240 M4 with a dozen 10TB, 12Gb/s SAS drives and two 120Gb SSD boot drives in it and want to try something like this. I got it for free as a broken unit, but I've just about got it running again. I'll have to see if I can pop in a GPU card and maybe a Sound Blaster card. It currently has only one CPU, but I may add a second if Windows 10 can handle that and if it makes any difference. Need to pump up the RAM though because it only has 16Gb. I'll bet if I try to run Crysis the fans will be screaming! Lol. I don't know much about servers, but I've built quite a few desktop PC's through the years (plus I've stayed at a Holiday Inn) so this will be a fun learning experience. My eventual goal for the beast is to make it a NAS and Plex server.
Sounds like a neat project!
You have to wait for the post...then windows will show up on the other screen, I have Windows 11 Pro on mine and it shows up on the small screen until post is finished!
Gotcha!
I have 3ghz processors...and 256gb ram and a sff NVIDIA 1050
So you are running just standard windows 10 on this? No Windows server? Is it running alright without server OS?
Yep, just running plain old Windows 10!
:)
Enable manual fan control:
sudo ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00
For example, to set the fan speed to 20%:
sudo ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x14
For example, to set the fan speed to 22%:
sudo ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x16
ipmitool raw - send raw IPMI command
0x30 0x30 - IPMI class for fan control
0x02 - target fan 2
0xff - apply to all fans
0x16 - hex value for 22% speed
The hex values from 0x00 to 0x64 (0 to 100 decimal) map to the percentage range for fan speeds.
So 0x16 hex converts to 22 decimal, setting a 22% fan speed.
To quickly summarize the key points:
Use ipmitool raw for raw IPMI commands
0x30 0x30 class is for fan control
Last hex byte sets the percentage (0x16 -> 22%)
Monitor fan speed:
sudo ipmitool sdr type fan
Monitor temperature:
sudo ipmitool sdr type temperature
Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed comment! I'll have to look this over carefully and try it out!
would work for plex server with transcode from 4k to 1080p 720p, 30 devices simultaneous?
I think you'd need a more powerful system for transcoding that much media at once.
@@thenetworkmystery which hardware recommend me for this specs?
go into the life cycle control and you can fix the fans in there i use a dell r720 for a workstation/ gaming everyday
I've tried this, but unfortunately, it doesn't do anything, in fact, it only makes them louder. What PSUs do you have? I've heard that matters.
@The Network Mystery I'm running two 750 watts psu, and my r720 is in my bedroom, and I can sleep with it running
@@wayneferguson14 That's so strange!! You have a GPU in there, no? How did you make them quiet down? Maybe I'll play around with this more when I have time
@The Network Mystery I'm running a nvidia rtx titan in my r720, you might try changing the fans
@@wayneferguson14 Wait a minute-do you have an R720 or R720XD? And what do you mean by "changing the fans?"
why yes, I love to have 15 minute boot times on my workstation
Yep, especially with lots of RAM, servers/workstations do take awhile to POST!
@@thenetworkmystery Dell at least you can cut that some with the right tricks - but it's STILL bloody slow.
It’s the fan noise I’d be concerned with.
You turn your computer off? Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong.
A server is just a computer, so technically there's no reason you can't. The hardware is optimised for a different use case, hence the loud fans.
Right! So, yes, it's usable if you can tolerate the loud fans (which I can't).
There is something wrong here. My R720XD is whisper quiet running my blue Iris security cameras. At idle after boot, an R720XD should not be that loud, even with the stock fan curve. My server rack is in my office due to space constraints and I have no issues working next to my servers. If that graphics card is not on dells office list of supported cards that may be what is causing the fans to run faster than normal.
You are exactly right!! It is the GPU that’s causing the fan issue! APPARENTLY…if you get 1100W PSUs, it will quiet down the fans, although I’m not totally sure about that :)
@@thenetworkmysteryDid you ever try if it quieted down?
I have the R730 with A5000 and the question is not about PSU wattage, it as about "Third-Party PCIe Card"; since server gear is validated to work with specific components and will by default use extra cooling for unknown hardware, for me the solution was to Disable Third-Party PCIe Card Default Cooling Response with ipmitool (but again, i am not using R720 but R730)@@thenetworkmystery googling that should it explain it more thoroghly
Pourquoi pas, mais qu'en est-il de la consommation électrique? Sans oublier le démarrage qui prend toute une éternité.
Je ne pense pas que le démarrage prenne TELLEMENT longtemps... bien que si vous l'allumez et l'éteignez plusieurs fois par jour, je peux voir à quel point cela peut devenir frustrant.
I mean yes you can. You can load any sort of OS. It’s just really loud. And would work better with a GPU
Right. Someone else was recommending Noctua fans, which I might try out at some point, to make the system quieter.
Looking 👀 good I’m new this I want to learn more 👍
Thanks! What do you want to learn more about? Depending on what I know, maybe I can help ya out!
@@thenetworkmystery i would love to know more about servers and connections
This is cool, and exploration is fun and required in life but, this is the same as saying can I use a CAT 793D Dump Truck as my daily driver? Sure you can but is it worth it? Don't do this if your serious about buying a workstation. use the bits designed for it. If your screwing around learning something new knock yourself out. It is fun playing with server gear. Expensive, but fun.
Yeah, right-I wasn't planning on doing anything serious with this, but still an interesting project regardless.
Dude! To have a workstation, you need UNIX, like one of the illumos distributions; if you run Windows on it, it's just another very loud PC bucket! And ya hafta put in liquid cooling, because otherwise it's way too loud to be able to concentrate...
I am preparing to sell the unit, so it is too late for liquid cooling, unfortunately. Additionally, please address your three points in a single comment in the future.
@@thenetworkmystery the hell I will! Request denied! I will write comments to address individual points when and how I see fit!
@@AnnatarTheMaia Right? Crazy that someone, especially someone with such a tiny audience would demand you comment in a particular manner.
Dude! Servers control fans with the FIRMWARE, not with any kind of software! IPMI will only sometimes expose the fans' rotational speed, but whether all the fans are visible in IPMI depends on whether the firmware manufacturer exposed all the hardware in a standards compliant way! ONE CAN NOT RELIABLY CONTROL FAN SPEED IN A SERVER WITH GENERIC DESKTOP SOFTWARE; those applications are extremely OS-specific and hardcore proprietary, and totally dependent on hardware manufacturer's compliance with ACPI and IPMI standards! If the hardware manufacturer's implementation deviates from the standards in any way, you're toast!
This is good to know, thank you. In the future, please address your thoughts in a single comment.
Dude! Ya hafta configure the firmware to use the extra video card as the default instead of the built-in video card, but here's the kicker, not all firmware manufacturers provide that feature! PC bucket firmware sucks frozen dead bunnies through a bent straw sideways while skydiving!
Alright--thanks for the information! Next time, please address your three points in a single comment.
I got a free poweredge t320 for free and I'm so damn lost
Nice you got one for free! Unfortunately, I don't know anything about that unit, so I'm unable to help you.
soo funny thanks
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