Fan noise on DL360G4

[Steve Kadish]

Hi all,

Are the fans on a DL360 G4 louder than on earlier models?

I just installed our first G4 and it definitely seems louder than the G3's. It is also our first server to use the Proliant Support Pack 7.20 and I'm wondering if that might make a difference as well.

Any help is appreciated,
- Steve

[Terry Hancock]

We also have purchased 6 new DL360 G4, ours sound as though they are going to take off. I think it may be the model also.

The noise level in our comms room has increased. They also chrun out a serious amount of heat!

Other than that great machines
Terry

[Marko H.]

Hello Steve

The fans on DL360 G4 servers are louder than on the earlier models.
As far as i know they are controlled by the system rom.
Maybe you should check the version.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22311.html

[Steve Kadish]

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. I got the very informative answer to this from a moderator in the Systems Insight Manager Forum, as shown below.
______________________

Steve:

It's not the PSP. The G4 servers don't rely on the health driver to control fan speed; now it's in the BIOS.

The problem basically is with processor power consumption and the resultant heat. Here's Intel's figures:

Thermal Design Power:
-----------------------------------
1.0GHz Xeon - 29W
1.4GHz Xeon - 56W
2.0GHz Xeon - 77W (130nm)
2.0GHz Xeon - 58W (90nm)
2.4GHz Xeon - 65W
2.8GHz Xeon - 74W
3.0GHz Xeon - 85W
3.2GHz Xeon - 92W
3.6GHz Xeon - 103W

If you're used to some of the G3 servers with 2.8 or 3.0 GHz processors, you can see that the jump is quite dramatic. That increases the amount of air that needs to flow past the processors by more than the percentage of watt increase because air already has started to reach its heat saturation level.