PowerEdge R410 LOUD

zhtech,

The #4 fan in the R410 server is by design to spin at a higher RPM in order to properly cool your PCI add-in cards such as Dell PowerEdge RAID controller and/or NIC card. The noise you heard is likely the result of this dedicated fan working to protect  the IOH and PCI card. In order to provide lower PCI inlet ambient for the PCI area, the #4 fan will run at a higher speed. Thanks.

Yes, the r410 is loud!  It's not just the no 4 fan that makes the noise - all the fans run at around 8500-9500 rpm (fan 4 runs at just over 12000rpm).

This really is insane, as our server is not even doing anything yet!  As mentioned before in this thread, other servers are much quieter.

My tech support contact spoke to "product Support" and it is by design, and is not a fault.  Updating the BIOS and BMC won't help either..  I'm debating whether to disconnect every other fan to see if that is better...

I wont be getting this server again!

Before anyone posted a reply to this I was working with support on this issue, they sent out a new mobo and fans, but it was the same.  I had to change what this server was used for because it was so loud.  I was hoping for the r710 acoustics.   I too will never buy the r410 again, the noise is just unbearable and unnecessary for what hardware is in it.

The Dell PowerEdge R410's ultra-dense chassis was designed to provide as much flexbility as possible to our customers. We also designed the fans to operate with greater thermal protection, as well as  improved power efficiency over previous generation of Dell servers.

One thing you might try is removing the PCIe card to see if all the system fans will now spin at similar RPM. There are many factors that could affect the speed of the fans and we want work with you to resolve this issue you have with the R410. We would appreciate if you could keep us informed on what's happening with your server.

juts been speaking to my tech support rep and he said that it is normal for this server, and you can wait for a BIOS update in 4-6 months, but from the sound of his voice, i wouldn't put much hope in it...

Luckily, it's now gone from our office to the customers site, so now I have no noise! :emotion-2:  never though I'd be glad to be rid of a dell server so fast! :emotion-3:

I did ask if this was going to be standard, and he said no, and from what I can tell lots of people have complained about the noise, so I think they'll think twice before making another server so loud...

I just got one of these and I have had the same experience with fan volume. Unfortunately I have to sit right next to it.

I hope there is going to be some sort of BIOS update to put fan rpms down to 3-4k.

I had the same issue as everyone else in the forum. 

Here is what I found relating to CentOS/RedHat Enterprise Linux 5:

-Dell R410 does not support lm_sensors, because it has a dedicated baseboard management controller, so you can't use the "fancontrol" scripts that employ ACPI

-You can get OpenIPMI to work, but in CentOS the init.d script does not load the kernel modules correctly, if you do it manually it will work fine (just copy them out of the ipmi script)

-OpenIPMI says, indeed, the 4th fan is at 13K rpm, the others are at a more bearable 4-6K

-I never figured out how to control fan speed with the OpenIPMI

-I changed the BIOS power settings to "minimum fan", but that didn't change much (though maximum fan power was really loud)

-I upgraded the BMC firmware from 1.15 -> 1.30 **THIS WAS THE TRICK** 

Seems like the new bios just sets the fans to a lower default. Here are the settings:

FAN MOD 1B RPM   | 4200.000   | RPM    

FAN MOD 2B RPM   | 4200.000   | RPM    

FAN MOD 3B RPM   | 4200.000   | RPM

FAN MOD 4B RPM   | 5280.000   | RPM 

You can still see the 4th fan is running more, but it is much quieter than 13K!!

Good luck,

Omar

SOLVED:

I can confirm a similar fix for me.

In my case I didn't have BMC. So I downloaded the latest iDRAC Firmware instead.

Step 1: Download the latest BIOS for the R410 - install and reboot when it asks. Files can be found via the Dell Support (downloads) website.

Step 2: Download either the latest BMC or iDRAC  firmware depending which one you have. Files can be found via the Dell Support (downloads) website under Embedded Server Management.
Some people have noted that they had to remove the iDRAC cards from the server to install. This was NOT the case for me - the updates worked without opening the case.

Step 3: Install the iDRAC Firmware - takes 20mins to install. During the install it will test the fans - this test will make the fans go at FULL speed for 30 seconds so be ready for it! After the test is complete the fans will be quiet as a nut!

Thats it! The only time your server will be loud is when it actualy starts to heat up.

Some other notes:
DO NOT REMOVE FANS - If you remove a fan or 2, the other fans spin faster (thus louder). So don't bother removing fans.
If you remove all the fans, the CPU's and Motherboard heat up VERY QUICKLY (In 5 mins you may no longer have a CPU)

I hope this helps. I will update here if there are any changes

Minor side note. If you already have BMC firmware 1.3 installed and it's still load (newly ordered Dell server), go ahead and reinstall it.

It solved my problem, even though it told me I was reinstalling the same version.

May I know how you guys set the RPM for the fan? Which configuration should I access to change the fan setting (BIOS?)

Thanks.

The #4 fan in the R410 server is by design to spin at a higher RPM in order to properly cool your PCI add-in cards such as Dell PowerEdge RAID controller and/or NIC card. The noise you heard is likely the result of this dedicated fan working to protect  the IOH and PCI card. In order to provide lower PCI inlet ambient for the PCI area, the #4 fan will run at a higher speed. Thanks.

First, who'sever design it was to have the fans spin faster and louder than a 747 turbine should be fired.  I'm no overpaid design engineer, but even I knew something was not right.  

Obviously, given the fact that BMC firmware update 1.33 specifically says it fixes the #4 fan speed issue, tells me the "design excuse" was just that--an excuse.  After applying BMC 1.33, not only does the R410 start up ultra quiet now, but even in operation, the fan speed and noise is down to what one would expect for a rackmount server.  Does that mean now that my PCI and IOH cards are going to overheat and it's now NOT properly cooling itself?  

It's just too bad Dell couldn't admit to the problem right away and fix it months ago.  But, as they say, better late than never.  

Thank you for the fix.  :)