[mrdally204]

Server ordered. I stuck to the build plans laid out by you guys, much appreciated. I went with the motherboard suggested along with the upgraded CPU G1610. I went with 2 3tb Red drives. They were a bit more than the green but for an on 24/7 server it made sense to me. I hope it pays off. I'll let you guys know when everything comes in and I put her together Thanks a lot for the information!

wsume99,

I went with this fan package. Comes 4 in a box, though I think I will only use 2. You said 1 is all I need, but I figure 2 won't hurt Should I stick with the fan in the front, fan in the back? Pulling air in in the front and exhaust the back.

[wsume99]

The key concept here is whatever configuration you choose you want air to enter through the front of the case. You can try the push-pull configuration you mentioned or just stick both fans in the front and then leave all the other vents open. So air should be pulled in through the front grille and then exit through the other vents.

[PatrickVogeli]

I can confirm that the case comes with one 12cm fan, put on the rear to pull air out of the case. I'm adding 2 more in the front to put air into the case.

Also, to control the fans I have bought 2 fan controllers and 2 fan Y cables, so I won't be connecting them to the motherboard, but getting power from the the molex connectors and regulating them through the controllers. At the moment I have connected the included fan to the PWR fan and one of the fronts to the CHA fan.

[mrdally204]

Well, the server is built and up and running beautifully. I have mysql running as well serving up the database to all my XBMC boxes. I'll provide some pics and other goodies later

I do have a question. Is there any way for me to have unraid manage the fans in this server? They seem to be running rull speed all the time and the silent fans are not what you would call silent. I did some searches but did not come up with anything that helped. Is my motherboard compatible with this type of feature, and if so how do I go about configuring it to be quiet and remain safe temperature wise.

[wsume99]

It is possible to control fan speed based on disk temperature and I actually do this on my server. The keys for you will be:

1. Does your MB have a chip which can control fan speed (some do not)
   
2. Does unraid have the drivers built-in to communicate with your fan controller chip
   

If the answers are yes then it's definitely possible. The only other roadblock would be making sure you have fans which can be speed controlled.

Here is the thread I used to get my fans working: Topic: X7SPA-HF based small (perfect) server build

[mrdally204]

Thanks. I used this motherboard and the fans I listed in post #16. I hope it supports speed control

[PatrickVogeli]

The motherboard is indeed a bit limited in the aspect of fan control, and I don't the OS can control them. In the bios you can set the spees at which they should be running.

I took a different approach, and bought 2 fan controllers. One takes power from the Chasis Fan, which is set to Full On in the bios (rear exhaust); the other 2 (front intakes) are connected to a modified fan controller which is powered via a solded 12V molex connector.

[wsume99]

Thanks. I used this motherboard and the fans I listed in post #16. I hope it supports speed control

As best I can tell the OEM website indicates that your MB does have fan speed control hardware on board. The best way to verify this is to type pwmconfig at the unraid command prompt. Pwmconfig will automatically search for fan speed control hardware on the motherboard and attempt to control the speed of your fans. Running this will confirm if you have the right chips on the board however your fans are not PWM enabled so eventually you'll need to get PWM fans if you want to automatically control them but first run the pwmconfig command.

[PatrickVogeli]

well, I run the pwmconfig command:

Code:

patrick@patrick-server ~ $ sudo pwmconfig
# pwmconfig revision 5857 (2010-08-22)
This program will search your sensors for pulse width modulation (pwm)
controls, and test each one to see if it controls a fan on
your motherboard. Note that many motherboards do not have pwm
circuitry installed, even if your sensor chip supports pwm.

We will attempt to briefly stop each fan using the pwm controls.
The program will attempt to restore each fan to full speed
after testing. However, it is ** very important ** that you
physically verify that the fans have been to full speed
after the program has completed.

/usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed

Seems like the bios is the only place to control the fans. Even then, this board doesn't really have much fan headers, so IMHO it's better to use manual controllers and power them directly from the Power Supply

[wsume99]

Well that's a bummer. Your only option for fan speed control is to install a stand alone fan controller like Patrick has done.

[mrdally204]

"There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed"

Is that saying the mobo is unable due to a hardware limitation, or that a needed module was not loaded by unRAID?

Translated from German Amazon review
"..... 4 Fan Connectors: 1 CPU (of course), 1 CPU fan ( 3-pin but still controlled by the CPU), 3-pin fan power and a 4 pin connector CaseFan (controlled by PWM)! With ASUS gets it just an extra fan connector'

I'm going to keep looking, though this feels more promising than the above 2 posts Patrick please let me know if you pursue this any further and come up with a solution.

[PatrickVogeli]

Hi,

Note that, even if a Fan is controlled by PWM, it doesn't mean that the OS can control it. I guess that our best bet would be to install windows on it and see what happens. If windows can monitor and adjust fan speed, then it may be possible in Linux too. If that's not possible on windows, the answer is clear.

[mrdally204]

...Did you install Windows and see if it was possible? I was in the basement last night and was reminded just how annoying the fans are.