R1304BTLSHBNR or R1304 Family of server are way to loud

[idata]

Just got 3 new (had 1 existing) R1304BTLSHBNR server all with XEON E3-1230, 16 gigs of RAM and 2 TB enterprise drives. They are all stacked in a rack and initially updated the bios to the latest (x.37) rev and updated everything else. The two servers at the bottom are constantly locked at 100% for the fans and sound like a machine gun going off and the top one throttles the fans accordingly, exactly like my first server I purchased. I have the bios set to the lowest elevation and the options for setting the performance are grayed out but set to acoustic. What could possibly be going on here? Read most of the posts and besides changing the *.srd file is there any other options to throttle the fans to a normal level? Is the option to configure the acoustic level supposed to be grayed out? Any help would be greatly appreciated because these reside in my office and can't handle the noise.

[Edward_Z_Intel]

First check if the fans are connected to the correct headers. See the http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-032383.htm Quick start guide. Check http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=19960 SEL for errors. Was the chassis detected correctly during FURSDR update?

[idata]

Thanks for the response and after pushing all update from deployement and management software FURSDR worked and figured out what was going on. The SEL didn't post any errors but I tried the last push on a different day so might have been something goofy with my firewall intrusion shutting down the detection or who knows. Was weird but sometimes brute force works and quit as can be now.

[idata]

Also great products have five of them and they get pounded with no issues. Keep it up.

[idata]

Sorry for diggin it up guys, but I have the same problem.

I just have received that server a few days ago. My configuration is identical except the CPU - I have E3-1220v2.

My server is running like a jet engine. System fans are connected to the right headers. In BIOS, the chassis version is not detected (fields are blank).

Andrew, what did you do to level down the noise coming out of that server?

[AMadi2]

Download the latest BIOS from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22084&lang=eng http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22084&lang=eng (This is for the S1200BTL) - extract to the root of a USB stick, and upgrade the BIOS and other components via EFI. Record the server chassis and board serial numbers so that you can input them back in. My supplier was shipping systems in the same state as yours and those fans are loud.

[idata]

Thanks Alan. Just came back here to report that I have solved the problem when I noticed your post. I did exacly what you suggested and the fans are now working correctly (my server is so quiet now that I am still in "cant believe" state). However, I could not find chassis P/N and S/N - I put the system P/N and S/N, and shortly after the update script asked for the latter ones, so I put the same numbers again.

Where on the chassis can I find its P/N and S/N?

---OT----

Moreover, I see you guys use 4 x 2TB drive configuration. I wonder if you use RAID10 or RAID5 option. My problem is that I need to have RAID10 configuration so that would be a span of a size of 4TB which is far beyond the 2.2TB limit that can be managed by MBR. How do you change a RAID matrix to GPT volume not having any system in place? None of my linux/XP boot USBs have tools that can switch MBT to GPT for a RAID span. How do you do that? I assume as R1304 is an UEFI capable system, I will be able to boot SBS2011 Essentials from that machine, or I am wrong?

---EoOT---

[AMadi2]

I'm not sure whether I would call it the chassis or system serial number but my P4304 has a sticker just by the VGA connector. I looked it up in the BIOS and recorded it for inputing it back in (the second time I did it of course.)

----OT----

Be aware that SBS2011 Windows server backup is going to have issues with partitions larger than 2 TB. You can backup individual folders but not be able to do snapshots of a GPT volume. I've never tried putting the OS on anything but MBR volumes but I know from experience that a iSCSI GPT data volume has issues with the included backup.