Omid's Blog

I slowly have nothing left to configure. So before I start completely breaking my stuff or – god forbid – switch to Gentoo, I’ll start with some light blogging. It started on my website, but I think I will move it on here for now. On the side, nice and relaxed!

For a few years now, I’ve owned an R220 server that was initially only in operation occasionally. Electricity costs are of course high in Germany (almost 0.40 Cent per kw/h), but besides the electricity costs, the fan noise was also a problem. That’s why I only used it occasionally to try things out and then turned it off again after a week at most. I am also a musician, so when I needed to record, I had to kill the server… Suboptimal.

In 2024, however, I had an idea: Making the Dell R220 server even quieter.

I found a post on reddit. First, I only replaced the PSU fans with a Noctua variant, as the PSU fans are the only fans that aren’t controllable via IPMI and thus run at a volume similar to a lawnmower. However, as /u/Apserger96 warned:

IMPORTANT: When you put the fan back into the power supply, you must only use the two top screws to secure it. The lower ones cause short circuits! The two upper screws are sufficient for a firm hold!

I didn’t pay attention to that and wondered why my server only started for a few seconds. That was the reason.

Of course, I don’t recommend anyone to screw around in PSUs – the capacitors in PSUs theoretically retain their charge for a very long time. I waited half a day, and they do have safety features, but still: if something had gone wrong, it could have been deadly.

But it’s running now! Everything is quiet, and since then my server has been running 24/7. This post is also hosted on that server.