[AccessD] disk drive temps for the Norco 4020

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Mon Jul 19 11:57:38 CDT 2010


Michael,

You are right it does look high, and no, I was not particularly stressing the system.  The problem 
here is that I have 20 hard disks dumping heat into the back part of the box.  So the CPU is not 
starting at ambient, it is starting at ambient plus disk heat load.

To be honest I do not worry about the CPU until it gets well north of 60C.  In one of my many 
previous lives I was tasked with running an oven that did a burn in on PC boards.  We burned in our 
boards at 180 F (80C).  Of course those were mil spec and they were not expected to run at that temp 
forever but that did convince me that electronics can easily survive the occasional forays into 
scorching temps.

The real issue will come when I get a pair of 8 core or 12 core processors in the case.  These new 
procs are rated to run all cores full tilt at under 125 watts but that does add even more heat load 
into the case.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Michael Bahr wrote:
> John, the CPU temp looks unusually high, 55C.  Were you playing any games
> during the testing?  Is this the idle temp?
> 
> Mike...
> 
>> I bought the Norco 4020 to build a server with.
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021&cm_re=4u_rackmount_case-_-11-219-021-_-Product
>>
>> I am impressed with the case, though it is consumer grade.  It is tough to
>> work with however.  It
>> has a fan wall just behind the disk drive cage which leaves exactly two
>> inches between the fans and
>> the disk backplanes.  Obviously it is impossible to leave the wall in
>> place and get all of the
>> cables in, but removing the fan wall is a job for a safe cracker.
>>
>> None the less I did so, got 20 disks in and cabled up, then reinserted the
>> fan wall, and then
>> threaded the cables through the holes in the BOTTOM of the fan wall.  Why
>> on earth they didn't leave
>> the holes on the top of the fan wall is beyond me but they didn't.
>>
>> Anyway, for the first time tonight I tested temps with all 20 drives
>> inserted and power applied, and
>> the fan wall operating.  I ran a defrag on every volume simultaneously in
>> order to cause the disks
>> to work and generate as much heat as I could cause.
>>
>> Below are the temps.
>>
>> CPU Temperature 	55 ºC
>> Ctrl Temperature 	49 ºC
>> Power +12V 	12.099 V
>> Power +5V 	5.053 V
>> Power +3.3V 	3.328 V
>> SATA PHY +2.5V 	2.528 V
>> DDR-II +1.8V 	1.872 V
>> PCI-E +1.8V 	1.872 V
>> CPU +1.8V 	1.856 V
>> CPU +1.2V 	1.232 V
>> DDR-II +0.9V 	0.928 V
>> Hdd#1 Temperature 	37 ºC
>> Hdd#2 Temperature 	40 ºC
>> Hdd#3 Temperature 	42 ºC
>> Hdd#4 Temperature 	39 ºC
>> Hdd#5 Temperature 	47 ºC
>> Hdd#6 Temperature 	51 ºC
>> Hdd#7 Temperature 	49 ºC
>> Hdd#8 Temperature 	46 ºC
>> Hdd#9 Temperature 	37 ºC
>> Hdd#10 Temperature 	49 ºC
>> Hdd#11 Temperature 	44 ºC
>> Hdd#12 Temperature 	47 ºC
>> Hdd#13 Temperature 	45 ºC
>> Hdd#14 Temperature 	50 ºC
>> Hdd#15 Temperature 	49 ºC
>> Hdd#16 Temperature 	42 ºC
>>
>> There are only 16 drives showing because these 16 are cabled up to my
>> Areca raid co-processor card
>> which is a 16 port card, and that card provides a utility to watch these
>> numbers.  The other disks
>> are not being driven but do have power applied.
>>
>> I am satisfied with the temps.  Several disks actually hit 53 degrees C
>> under max stress but that is
>> acceptable to me.  I would like lower temps but I can live with these.
>>
>> BTW I am using the Corsair 750W modular PS which is a NICE PS.
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010
>>
>> The 12V cables are ribbon cables which makes them very easy to run and
>> minimizes the air flow
>> impedance.  With only 2 inches to work with between the fans and disks, I
>> need all the help I can get.
>>
>> --
>> John W. Colby
>> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>> --
>> AccessD mailing list
>> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>
> 
> 



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