Xserve at home in cupboard, noise?

Hi brasilman-

Greetings and welcome to the Apple Discussion boards


An intel XServe is quieter than a G5, but both can be annoyingly loud. If you put it in the cupboard, which is probably the only way to do it, make sure to provide for proper air circulation and ventilation.

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

Hi brasilman-

You may hear the constant drone of fans. You won't know until you try. I once had an XServe installed in the living room and had to move it to the basement because of the noise.

It is possible to deaden the sound substantially within a properly isolated area. Quite a bit of sound actually escapes under and through the door to the cupboard so always pay attention to that detail.

Luck-

-DP

Acoustical measures (sound-deadening materials, noise-isolating cabinets) can make a huge difference with modern servers.

The computer environments I'm spec'ing now all have acoustical measures in the design.

A classic computer rack or cabinet or non-carpeted room or a closet (all assuming sufficient cooling is available in any server enclosure) doesn't have much to absorb the sound, so all that noise rattles around more than you probably want. (Some of the servers I'm working with are vendor-rated around 74 dB, and a rack full of those servers is impressively loud. But I digress.)

There are some ways to retrofit these measures into existing server environments, too. If you're retrofitting for home use, see what the home theater folks in your particular area are using.

I have an Xserve G5 and the sound doesn't particularly bother me. It's much quieter than the Xserve G4 and the Intel ones are quieter than both of those. I really want a 4U xrack pro (sound insulated and ventilated rack made for xserves) but I don't have $800 laying around for a 4U rack. My SonicWall Firewall is about 8 times louder than the Xserve, so I actually appreciate the sound level of the Xserve.

Overall, Xserves aren't that loud, unless they are in target mode or single user mode, then you can pretend you are at the airport. You should be fine putting it in the closet, as long as it has plenty of active ventilation, otherwise the fans will rev up it will be loud anyway.

wow, this is an interesting post.. I've never been able to really get a clear answer about the typical noise levels of intels, but I can easily say that of the 7 xserves, I own, 6 are g5 and one is intel, and that intel server is by far louder than all my g5's.

Is it my machine?

I know of few cupboards that are deep enough to hold the Xserve. It is long.

Ventilation would also be an issue, and it's not quiet. The Xserve is quite quiet for a server (especially compared to some Sun 1U servers I've been around), but it's not quiet like an iMac or a Mac Mini or a Mac Pro.

Really? We have Intel machines too, and they are quieter than the G5s. Do you have dual power supplies? That would probably increase the noise level.

We have an Intel Xserve in the office, just sitting under a desk. It has a whine to it which is a bit annoying, but it's nowhere near as loud as a hoover.

If we put it a cupboard I don't think we would hear it.

Single power supply.
When compared to the other servers in that specific rack:

single 2.0 g5: runs DHCP,DNS,Web,Xsan MDC, firewall, AFP, and a few others
30-40% CPU, ~4000rpm fans

single 2.0 g5: backup server for all the above services
10-20% CPU, ~4000rpm fans

quad 2.0 intel: no services (only use it for rendering/processing, but for comparison, not running anything)
<5%, ~8000rpm fans

Interesting thread.

I got a first generation Xserve G4 a couple of years ago with the idea of using it in my recording studio control room. I set it up as a client with non-server OS X, and the riser card/real video card mod, but it sounded like a 747 was in the rack. You mentioned that "single user mode" and "target mode" will keep the fans spooled up to maximum, so I guess that was what was happening with mine. I did not know that. Probably needless to say, I got rid of it ASAP so as not to lose too much money on the experiment.

Now that G5 Xserves are below $1K I was thinking about attempting this again because they are claimed to be so much quieter, but if the fans will always be on maximum if I set it up as a client, I guess I can forget about that. Pity, because a really and truly quiet Xserve would be perfect for a recording studio or AV studio control room, and the multiple drives would be excellent for recording audio and video.

There must not be a big enough market for it, I guess, or Apple would have done it. Oh well.

I know of few cupboards that are deep enough to hold the Xserve. It is long.

Did I mention the Xserve was mounted sideways in the closet I was referring to?

And no, it's not quiet when the box gets busy.

I feel sorry for all hearing people. I am deaf so can't hear any sound of xserve noise in case i am buying the xserve. 😀