Intel Xserve: blowers and noise

maxscience-

Have you ever used the XServe platform?

My experience with the G4 and G5 machines is that they were extremely LOUD.

I have heard that comparatively speaking the intel machines are quieter still.

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

maxscience,

My Dual 2.3GHz G5 machines report uniformly about 4,500 except for one the System Controller fan is around 7,000. This is an a relatively aggressively ACed office type setting with the Xserves in an insulated XRack.

I hate to ask but A) Do the front ducts still come covered in clear plastic film and b) Did you remove it?

HTH,

=Tod

Out of curiosity, why are the acoustical cabinets unacceptable?

As for the sound, it's all what you are accustomed to, and what sort of installation and environment you are intending for the box. Some of the Intel Itanium servers I have worked with produce as much as 74 dB output; significantly more sound output than the Xserve Intel Xeon boxes.

That comparison aside, Xserve is a server, intended for a rack and a computer room. Stuffing enough air through a 1U box -- and again, the Xserve is pretty good in this regard -- generates turbulence, and turbulence generates sound. But it is a server, and intended for operations in a computer room, or in an acoustic enclosure.

There are some cabinets beyond the XrackPro, depending on your requirements. Kellsystems manufactures cabinet lines for this purpose, as do other commercial entities.

Not likely the trigger for a new system installation, but do check for fuzz at the bottom of the front "chunnels." That area can become plugged, and the fans must work harder, and the sound output increases.

Stephen Hoffman

We've owned all 3 types... here's how I would describe them:

The g4 xserve is ridiculous... we only had one of these but the second the g5's were released, we sold thing this as fast as possible. It was far louder than some SGI servers I had.

We have 4 G5s, and they've been wonderful... I've seen the fan speeds range from 4000 - 7000 on average, depending on the temp of the room, and are typically very quiet overall... not so much that I'd keep them in the same room as my main work room, but they're excellent in a next door room.

The intel xserve was interesting... We have a quad 2.0, and at first thing thing was fairly loud (on average 9-10000 rpm), that we could hear it from another room with a door. Then summer came (we have a small studio so there was only one main AC unit for the entire place), and we simply couldnt keep that room cool when the server was on and it would jump up to 12000 when it wasnt doing anything.... and then with h264 compression would jump to 15000, which was starting to sound like a g4. At that point, we had a seperate AC unit put in, and we keep the room at 70, and since then its around 6-7000 normally, and 7-8000 when at full CPU, which is fairly good with our room layout.

Basically, the intel xserves, you can get very quiet if the room's cold enough, but its very interesting how much heat they spit out once you get them going, where as with the g5's, even if the intel was at 15000, the g5 in the same rack wouldnt go above 6000.