Hello Oriol, I'm having the same problem, I just received an R210 and fans are horribly loud!! I was able though to check fan speed but not to modify it, even with BIOS settings at low power all three fans are still at 8160 RPM.

I'm using CentOS 5.4 and to find out the speed I can do it with ipmi or with the server manager, if you installed all server manager packages try:

omreport chassis fans

I also follow the post on another noisy server, I installed BMC 1.3 allthough I already had that version but fans are still noisy.

If anyone knows how to lower fan speed and thus general noise, I would apreciate it.

Thank's

Marc.

Hi Oriol,

Thank you for your feedback on our PowerEdge R210 server. Dell continually takes customer feedback into consideration in our product design and updates. We have examined the fan acoustics for the R210 server in our design center to address your concern. We are investigating BIOS updates to adjust fan speeds which will modify sound levels.

Regards,

Matt

I have just ordered a PE R210 and I am just hoping that the new BIOS update (1.2.1) and BMC update (1.33) have fixed the noise issues. Can anyone from Dell confirm this?

I have just install the latest 1.2.1 and BMC update 1.33 and it does not sound like it makes any difference. What I can tell you is that the BMC update gets to around the 5 minute mark in installation and the fan goes much much louder and after about 20 seconds it settles back down. You could be mistaken after it slows down that it has fixed the sound issue (in comparison to the Jumbo jet taking off at the 5 minute mark it is quite!).

So I can say that Dell have some work to do to get this little server to ramp the fans down in speed, the noise is totally unacceptable and for a server that it is suppose to be using so little electricity I just can't see how that is possible when it is blasting the fans at the current speed.

Damien

Damien

Thanks for the update. Would you say the fan speed is still the same after the update then?

I really would appreciate someone from Dell giving us an update as I am supposed to be receiving my Server next week and I really don't want to have to put up with the Noise!! I bought this server due to the low power consumption and supposed low noise levels, after all it does state on the literature that the fans only spin when needed!!!

There have been similar problems with fan speeds on HP Proliant servers and they seem to have been resolved so why can't Dell?

Here's hoping.

I have a Poweredge R610 sitting right above the R210, the temperature of the R610 is constantly at 24 degrees and you cannot hear the R610 above the airconditioning humming (its almost silent). As soon as the R210 fires up however it sounds very loud and loud enough to drown out the sound of the air conditioner working.

I don't believe the updates have made any difference to the fans and they seem to be as loud as prior to the update. If there is a difference it would be very marginal and certainly not quite enough for me to actually leave on (I sit in the room a couple of meters away). Can't hardly notice the R610 but sure is another story with the R210.

Won't be switching it on again until they get the noise under control!

Smith07 and kearnsy, thanks for your continued feedback.  We will have a firmware update released in the early July time-frame that will address the fan speed of the PowerEdge R210. We apologize for any inconvenience that the R210 sound level may have caused.

Regards,

Matt

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DELL-Matt M

Thanks for the update. Just wondering why the long time-frame to get the update out and can you give any details as to what this update will be BIOS, BMC etc and what effect this will have on the fans?

My R210 is going back! No way I am waiting 3-4 months for a bios update to correct something like this. By the time I am able to power this system back on already 1/3 of my warranty will have expired.

I might have to bite the bullet and buy another R610, which has a lot more heat producing components in it but makes only a fraction of the noise of a R210.

I think I am going to have to agree with you on this one, this is way too long to wait for an update. I don't see why Dell cannot release this earlier what do we do in the meantime? A response from Dell?

Take a listen to a R210 sitting ontop of a R610. Both machines are operating and in Windows. The recording was taken approximately 20 cm away from both machines.

At the 13 second mark the R210 is powered off, now listen to the silent purr of the R610!

http://www.esnips.com/doc/0b78b857-27ff-419f-b549-8117999c0e14/R210_noise

There's a team of 10 people in Barcelona who would be very gratefull if you guys at Dell took some time and modify the BIOS firmware to make the monster a bit more silent :-)

I just read a review on the R210 on the PC Pro web site and they also mentioned about the high noise levels. Come on Dell I think we need that fix now for the fans not in 3-4 months time.

Bit of an old post but, getting new 2nd hand fans really helps, but if you put in more ram thats EEC or normal 3.5 drives the fans will spin faster to get more airflow in.