Is this Z840 noise level normal?

[miloman]

Hi, could anybody comment on the noise level of my Z840 which arrived yesterday. https://youtu.be/ng2SomTy870

It's a dual E5-2637V3, with 32GB of RAM (4 x 8GB), and a quadro M4000. I installed a mellanox 10GB adapter also, and was running fine, but doubted if it increased the fan noise (but removing it made no difference).

The Z840 is almost as loud as my ML350p GEN8 server.....

I did extensive research before buying this beauty, and hope there is something wrong which I can fix myself.

It has bios 2.54 (when I tried updating the bios in the setup, it offered to downgrade it to 2.50, don't know why and I did not do that). I cleared the cmos, which had no effect.

I tried re-seating all connectors and covers, but no result. I also applied new thermal paste to both processors (arctic silver), but made no difference.

Is there a way to tell whether all fans are running? I have looked in the bios, and cannot find it. Cause it's running folding at home now, and I can see (with speedfan) the one processor get up to 77 degrees celcius (and that is the max according to the intel site), and the other processor is around 60 degrees....

Also ran the short diagnostics on the mainboard, stated 'ok'.

Appreciate any help!

[Z440Roger]

Regarding noise:
It sound pretty normal. They are marketed as quiet machines but they are not since there are too many fans everywhere inside. Instead of choosing large fans HP opt for small fans and thus higher noise.

I still wonder why Apple Mac Pro´s with almost identical specifications as HP Z8x0 are dead quiet when HP Z8x0´s sounds like a tractor.

HP build great computers but fans and noise has been an issue for years. I did send my Z800 back when i bought it but their service tech´s said that it sounds normal. Fast forward to 2020 when i bought i new HP Z4 G4 and discovered that the internal fans speed up when i copy large files between SATA SSD´s while they remain quiet when copying the same files between the two m.2 SSD´s. The m.2 SSD gets much hotter when copying files than the SATA SSD. AI at it´s worse...

So, you got a great computer but that´s the way they sound.

[miloman]

i, thanks for the reply. It is a great computer, looks as great as my HP servers 😉 

I found out that I can use HP performance advisor to read the fan speed:

CPU0 sits at around 580-590, and CPU1 around 3300. I think this is a strange difference to start with, as they are equal cpu's.... 

At idle temps are around 37-39 degrees celcius.

But when I put lad on the system, the fan speeds barely change, but the temp of CPU0 goes over 70. According to intel's site not very healthy, as the max is around 77 degrees (which I reached yesterday, but stopped the load now after a few minutes). This does not sound healthy to me......

CPU1 obviously is much cooler under load (around 53), as the fan spins much faster.

So what strikes me is the difference in fan speeds for CPU0 and 1, and the overheating of CPU0.....

I saw a picture of performance advisor on a Z820 (which seems to have the exact same fan setup), in which the fans were running at the same speed......

Doing a reinstall of windows 10 now, hope that helps...

[miloman]

Quick update: removed 2 of the 4 memory modules, and removed and replaced the battery, and all seems much quieter now 😉

Doing a FAH test now to see how it behaves.

Fans are doing around 750 for CPU0, and 835 for CPU1. Temps are 73 and 71 degree C, still a bit high I feel... but I hope that's ok.

Will report back when I reinstall the memory and replace the battery again (kept giving me date/time issues).

So far a happy puppy again 🙂

**EDIT** added the 2 removed modules, and machine is still very quiet 😉 So very happy. I think what did the trick was removing the battery, as I did clear the cmos in every other way (button and bios). Let it sit for an hour without battery, press the reset CMOS button, I feel that is what did it. Read this advice also for a Z820 I think, so follow it if you are in the same situation!