MicroServer Gen8 is noisy

[PAC_]

A quick update after upgrading to ROM J06 11/09/2013:

The fan is spinning at 27%.

Noise measurements:

- 44.6 dBA measured at 1.5 feet

- 38.4 dBA measured at 4 feet

[Jimmy Vance]

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PAC_ wrote:

A quick update after upgrading to ROM J06 11/09/2013:

 The fan is spinning at 27%.

 Noise measurements:

 - 44.6 dBA measured at 1.5 feet

- 38.4 dBA measured at 4 feet

PAC, what is the reading with the unit powered off? and what are you using as a measuring device?

[PAC_]

Hello Jimmy Vance,

Very good question, that would mean

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@Jimmy Vance wrote:

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@PAC_ wrote:

A quick update after upgrading to ROM J06 11/09/2013:

 The fan is spinning at 27%.

 Noise measurements:

 - 44.6 dBA measured at 1.5 feet

- 38.4 dBA measured at 4 feet

PAC, what is the reading with the unit powered off? and what are you using as a measuring device?

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Very good question, I will take a measurement when the server can be turned off. :)

I am using the iOS app SoundMeter that has been calibrated to the iPhone 5's microphone sensitivity values.

[riahc3]

Hello,

You know what would be nice and would take away all the noise?

If HP tells us the wiring of the nonstandard 6pin fan so we can change the fan ourselves.

I mean, why put a 6 pin? 4 pins I imagine cost less...

[nicku]

It is unquestionably noisy running Fedora 20; the noisiest computer in the house, some with many fans and more hard disks.  There is a very clear problem here.  Please let that be clear.  I hoped that the firmware upgrade to "08/24/2013" would fix it, but speed remains at 45%, competing with our quiet air conditioner.

[Jimmy Vance]

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nicku wrote:

It is unquestionably noisy running Fedora 20; the noisiest computer in the house, some with many fans and more hard disks.  There is a very clear problem here.  Please let that be clear.  I hoped that the firmware upgrade to "08/24/2013" would fix it, but speed remains at 45%, competing with our quiet air conditioner.

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Oscar recently posted the latest official ROM in this thread which will be included in the next SPP release. This ROM lowers fan speed

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-Netservers/MicroServer-Gen8-is-noisy/m-p/6345811/highlight/true#M20235

[subsix]

ROM J06 11/09/2013 as made available by Oscar seems to improve the situation quite a bit. We tested in in a Microserver running Windows 2008R2 (16GB RAM, B120i in AHCI mode).

Fans spinning at 38% with the latest ROM from the HP website,. 19% with Oscar's newer version. Definitely a step in the right direction!

Would be interesting to hear what was changed...

Peter

[MatthiasFoss]

After applying the patch, my fan went from 37% to 25% - using standard settings for the fan, with an MegaRaid 9240-4i with 4 WD RED 4TB.

Since the update my build-in DVD drive is not longer working. Power is fine, but no boot is possible. Somebody else?

[subsix]

I had a H220 HBA (=LSI 2308) installed in one of our Microservers and the internal DVD drive continued to work fine... despite Oscar's firmware (which I believe you are referring to as "patch", correct?).

Are the AHCI controller and the DVD drive listed in the boot messages when you power on the machine?

If not, could it be that the "B120i" PCI device is disabled in the BIOS?

Peter

[jackv_v]

My Microserver G8 is also noisy. The system boots with the fan set at 50%.

I was able to flash iLO 4 1.32 and the hacked firmware. This got the fan speed reading down to 27-32% and it's still noisier than everything in my house, that includes the AC and a computer with 5 fans and 3 harddrives.

I have noticed other problems as well:

(1) Temperatures seem to be very high for a system with so many heatsinks, this kind of cooling and such a noisy fan.

(2) Power consumption seems too high for something so slow and buggy. My desktop workstation draws around 50 watts while idling, it boots in 20 seconds to the OS from a cold start and it doesn't make half of the noise the Microserver G8 is making.

(3) The boot sequence is the slowest I've seen in the last 10 years. It takes forever to reboot. This isn't nice.

(4) An ILO license is needed if you want to use the remote management console features. This isn't nice at all, I've paid for all the hardware already, let me use it, don't ask me for more money! Even if I'm just using this at home, that doesn't mean I should pay 100+ $ to make full use of something I've already bought.

(5) The remote management console launcher seems to be having some kind of problem. It won't launch the .net app on Internet Explorer. The java version seems to be having some problems as well.

(6) NOISE, NOISE, NOISE and more NOISE! This system is too noisy for its hardware. It can cover the sounds produced by almost all the electronics in my house. Only the vacuum cleaner manages to cover the sound of the Microserver G8.

(7) Fan speed gets displayed as 27%, 29% or 32% when the system was booting, even with iLO 4 1.32 and the hacked firmware. I've discovered after multiple boots that it was actually 50% after it settled down a bit, but it's never displayed as more than 50%, not even when it's extremely loud.

(8) The system couldn't boot from an USB DVD drive, no matter what.

(9) Booting from an USB flash drive required two reboots because the Microserver G8 didn't try to boot from the USB drive, not even when choosing the boot from USB option.

(10) The operating system's settings don't seem to make any kind of difference to temperatures, power usage and noise.

This isn't a product I could recommend to anyone looking to build a NAS. You can get a decent PSU, a good motherboard with ECC memory support and a CPU for less than what this server costs. At least a DIY build could get you a silent system, unlike this noisy Microserver G8 with its cheap and noisy 120mm fan.

This is my first HP product and I'm pretty sure it's going to be the last one.