Anyone got a picture of how/where to mount the official fan shroud for the HL15 2.0? The one for cooling the PCIe slots with all PCIe slots in use?
Only place I can think of is on the back side of the internal fan wall (facing the PCIe slots) and use the fan mounting holes but then it will be in conflict with full height and full length x16 cards.
I was hoping to use the fan shroud to add air flow over the motherboard m.2 slots which is placed under the PCIe slots. But I guess I’ll have to find another way to cool the HL15.
Does the cantilever fan bracket offer a better choice? Little room to move air around so close to the lid I guess? Where does even that one install? Will an exhaust fan over the IO shield help in any way for that fan so to not just sirculate hot air inside the HL15?
The cantilever fan attaches through the back grille;
https://forum.45homelab.com/t/hba-fan-bracket/511
45Drives calims to use it on their enterprise gear, but I have the same doubts as you as to actual effectiveness.
I think the Fan Shroud is supposed to attach to the back of the 120mm fan on the fan wall that blows over the PCI slots. How well that lines up with PCIE cards that are taller than full height, or long, I don’t know. I think these parts were originally designed to cool hot HBAs and NICs, not hideously oversized GPUs.
The fan shroud is available for 3D printing if you think you could modify it to fit your PCIE setup;
https://forum.45homelab.com/t/fan-shroud-design/2428
It is possible with zip ties to mount two 80mm fans over the IO shield, whether that would help with your cooling issues, I’m not sure;
https://forum.45homelab.com/t/6bay-ssd-bracket-kit/3512/4
You might need to adjust your fan profile to have higher RPMs on the front and mid fans serving the PCIE slots, or add a 40mm fan and a duct to push air umder the GPU or whatever and over the SSD(s).
This is exactly my thought. These add-on’s are intended to help cool server parts that require a high rate of air flow over their heatsinks. The HL15 doesn’t have the high speed “sounds like a jet taking off” fans you typically see in enterprise servers that also produce the necessary airflow for these cards.
I tend to this the cantilever fan is the better choice. As @DigitalGarden mentioned, the fan shroud can be 3D printed if you have access to a 3D printer and want to try that first.
Where is the M.2 in relation to the case and fans? A picture or diagram could help here.
Thanks for the links and suggestions.
No GPU in this build, and the cards are mainly enterprise gear but I’ve got adapter cards for EDSFF E3.S drives that don’t fit with the fan shroud.
I already have the fan shroud. But no 3D printer to test other variants. Moving the cards around didn’t help either, limited options too.
Yes the fan profiles are at max already. The problem is mainly about directing air flow to the right places. Cooling seems like an afterthought in the HL15 2.0
It try this too:
I’ll just order the cantilever to test. I got the fan shroud already, but no way to get it to not interfere with the EDSFF E3.S adapter cards.
The M.2 NVMe are located on the motherboard under the PCIe 5.0 x8 slots as per the image in the link below. This creates two problems. Height constraints to not obstruct both the cards in the x8 and x16 slots and directing enough air flow to cool the drives as there’s no space for heatsink on them.
The motherboard is the H14SSL-NT as shown here: Sorry, as a new user I’m not allowed to post links or upload images. But you can find the picture of the motherboard by searching for the Supermicro H14SSL-NT hope that helps.
It’s all good. I was able to find the motherboard no problem. I was going to ask about heatsinks knowing that the other cards were probably the limiting the factor. How much performance degradation are you experiencing at this point due to M.2 thermal throttling? I imagine the lower M.2 slot is more problematic than the upper one. Trying to get a sense on how far off the mark your setup is with case fans already at 100%.
I have the noctua fans version of the HL15 for another setup in the first place but that was a mistake for this setup, so I might replace those. Though I think directing air flow is the main concern. Both over the PCIe cards, M.2 drives and out of the HL15.
I’m using PM9A3 drives and they throttle fast with this setup. Degradation I will say is 50% but speed is not my main problem (latency is), I’m more concerned about longevity.
Now, I must admit that they don’t throttle too often as the drives are OS drives only, but it is a big enough problem that I feel I need to fix it. Replacing dead drives caused by overheating with todays prices feels stupid.