Quieter fans for a DCP2K4?

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  • Marco Giustini
    Film God
    • Jan 2020
    • 1169
    • Reading, UK

    #16
    Sorry, my previous message was not clear. Noctua fans are 5CFM. I'll check the ones in the Doremi but I suspect they're going to be much more than 5 CFM

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    • Marcel Birgelen
      Film God
      • Jan 2020
      • 3619
      • Maastricht, NL

      #17
      Originally posted by Marco Giustini
      Sorry, my previous message was not clear. Noctua fans are 5CFM. I'll check the ones in the Doremi but I suspect they're going to be much more than 5 CFM
      That wasn't quite clear to me indeed. But a honest comparison: I've recently replaced a 40mm fan in a small switch with a Noctua fan, this switch lived in a cabinet and the high-pitched howl was irritating everybody near that cabinet. The original fan was rated at about 7 CFM. I haven't seen the switch overheating on a warm summer day inside its cabinet (its SNMP traps are being monitored), but with this replacement fan, it can at least be deployed "near people", which would otherwise been impossible.

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      • Marco Giustini
        Film God
        • Jan 2020
        • 1169
        • Reading, UK

        #18
        I have one of those fans but I cannot find the exact value for that PN. Similar PNs go up to 10K rpms - which I think it's the case with those fans - and they do 13/14CFM. Now, I'd imagine that a 2K4 will often run its fans at low RPMs so maybe a Noctua 5CFM running at 12V all the time (or full PWM) can work. But it's a big "IF".

        Also, if the Noctua is wired directly to the board with no modification, it will run at the same reduced speed (the board is designed for the San Ace 40, not the Noctua) so you won't get 5CFM. You'll get like 2CFM!


        Finally, but equally important.

        The Noctua features 0.08 inH20 pressure. The San Ace 40 features 0.72 inH2O. It's an order of magnitude more "pushy".

        A Switch is something else. I've also used one of those 40mm Noctua in my NVR - it's an empty box with an HDD inside. Not much can go wrong. But in a crowded PSU, that's another story!

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        • Marcel Birgelen
          Film God
          • Jan 2020
          • 3619
          • Maastricht, NL

          #19
          Keep in mind how simple the logic is in most of those PSUs: If temp > x then FanPower := FULL. That will happen more often if your fan is on the low side of "pushiness". Most of the times, those fans in those systems are over-powered and those early Doremi servers are certainly overpowered on the cooling side if you operate them in a well-ventilated room. So, there is some leeway there, alas, it remains an experiment and doesn't come with any guarantee. Still, if you tightly monitor the temperature inside your equipment, then stuff will probably be fine. Our Junipers will start year 6 on those Noctua fans and those PSUs are the same kind of high-density PSUs you have in those servers. If you do 10G+ on every other port and POE+ on all the rest, I guess those PSUs will run hot, but I haven't got a single temperature SNMP trap from those boxes in the last 5 years.

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          • Marco Giustini
            Film God
            • Jan 2020
            • 1169
            • Reading, UK

            #20
            I've repaired some of those PSUs and I personally advise AGAINST replacing their fans with something less powerful

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            • Marcel Birgelen
              Film God
              • Jan 2020
              • 3619
              • Maastricht, NL

              #21
              My personal advice is: Be aware what you're doing. Check the airflow. Keep monitoring the temperatures. Also, if the thing is still under warranty, you probably better don't touch it.

              Hushboxes and simply relocating the device might also be a solution, but in some cases that's simply not an option.

              So, I don't want to kill the idea outright, because I know how irritating those high-pitched fans can be and keeping your environment free from noise pollution can go a long way, also for your mental wellbeing. Setting the place on fire, on the other hand, has a high likelihood of introducing the opposite effect.

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              • Ryan Gallagher
                Film God
                • Nov 2022
                • 2855
                • Austin, Texas, USA

                #22
                Originally posted by Marcel Birgelen
                My personal advice is: Be aware what you're doing. Check the airflow. Keep monitoring the temperatures. Also, if the thing is still under warranty, you probably better don't touch it.

                Hushboxes and simply relocating the device might also be a solution, but in some cases that's simply not an option.

                So, I don't want to kill the idea outright, because I know how irritating those high-pitched fans can be and keeping your environment free from noise pollution can go a long way, also for your mental wellbeing. Setting the place on fire, on the other hand, has a high likelihood of introducing the opposite effect.
                Ran my first film in that room last night, it's definitely louder than it should be relative to nearby audience members (and myself).

                There is room in the existing hush box up by the projector, which might be an option... but we'd want to add a dedicated ingest to FTP station to avoid climbing into the catwalks for every CRU we get.

                Some kind of acoustic curtain is probably the most feasible thing I can ask for and get permission to do. This room only has to last another year in this configuration in theory... no one is gonna want me poking at the server itself or swapping PSU out for a non redundant one. I'm even shy of it considering this server is already functioning as the unexpected backup.

                But the "don't touch anything" policy gets you in trouble too when you don't have an active cinema tech contract... hence the loss of a GDC IMB certificate this server is now filling in for. You have to touch things to maintain them. ;-) Thankfully I know the Dolphin battery has been serviced. The Enigma card however is probably living on borrowed time. I'll have to force them to let me swap the Christie PIB battery here soon I expect.

                Comment

                • Marco Giustini
                  Film God
                  • Jan 2020
                  • 1169
                  • Reading, UK

                  #23
                  Ryan, when you say 2K4, is that running an IMB or is it wired the old fashioned way via SDI?

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                  • Marcel Birgelen
                    Film God
                    • Jan 2020
                    • 3619
                    • Maastricht, NL

                    #24
                    It uses old-fashioned SDI... The whole thing is located in the FOH booth, while the projector is apparently "up there" in a location quite hard to reach. See also the other topic about the failed GDC IMB.

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                    • Marco Giustini
                      Film God
                      • Jan 2020
                      • 1169
                      • Reading, UK

                      #25
                      Thanks Marcel - then what about using a long SDI cable (and long AES Ethernet cables) and move the server elsewhere?

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                      • Marcel Birgelen
                        Film God
                        • Jan 2020
                        • 3619
                        • Maastricht, NL

                        #26
                        I'd put it on the moon, just a slightly longer cable needed, with some flex in it too.

                        But yeah, I guess there are some constraints involved. :P

                        Plus... otherwise we wouldn't have this lovely discussion about the merits of cooking your PSUs with aftermarket fans.

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                        • Ryan Gallagher
                          Film God
                          • Nov 2022
                          • 2855
                          • Austin, Texas, USA

                          #27
                          Originally posted by Marco Giustini
                          Thanks Marcel - then what about using a long SDI cable (and long AES Ethernet cables) and move the server elsewhere?
                          Well we did accidentally discover it doesn't mind 250' SDI cables when I was troubleshooting with the spare... so I suppose moving it "way away" is also an option, as long as that location is easier to get to than the catwalks for ingest CRUs (and as I mentioned, if we were really serious there are solutions for that too).

                          I'll pitch the noise problem to management and see if I can get any traction on weighing our options.

                          The reason we keep it close to FOH is cause we run a lot of festivals, and there are some rather hectic days dealing with ingests, it was only the last couple years that our biggest festival switched to a SimpleDCP server for DCP transport and ingest, but the smaller ones are still all CRU etc.

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                          • Marco Giustini
                            Film God
                            • Jan 2020
                            • 1169
                            • Reading, UK

                            #28
                            As you say, plenty of eSata options for you to explore. (Does the 2K4 have e-sata port? If not, I'd be more inclined to tinker with the CRU internal SATA port than tinkering with the PSUs. Not to mention USB-3 (Does the 2K4 have USB3? ))

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                            • Ryan Gallagher
                              Film God
                              • Nov 2022
                              • 2855
                              • Austin, Texas, USA

                              #29
                              lol you are off by a few years Marco. DCP2K4 lacks external eSATA and is USB2 only on the front panel ingest port! Stone ages over here.

                              Intitial ingest to a client machine that can host an FTP for network ingest is probably both our fastest and most distance compatible option if we hide the sever for acoustic reasons.

                              all possible, but will to do it may be the hurdle with only another year planned for this configuration.

                              Comment

                              • Marco Giustini
                                Film God
                                • Jan 2020
                                • 1169
                                • Reading, UK

                                #30
                                yes it's been a while

                                Then yes, 1Gbit network is your friend.

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