SuperMicro Server - Chipset cooling

[FatRakoon]

My Board is a superMicro Dual Opteron effort. This is the very one :-

http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Opteron6000/SR56x0/H8DG6-F.cfm

Anyway... I have a few issues with crashing at stupid times and in the quest to cure this, my next step is to make the chipset as cool as I can.

The board has 2 large chipset coolers on it, plus one smaller, slightly taller cooler, just above the top PCIE slot.

The 2 large flat ones are nearly useless, the alloy they have used is clearly not very efficient, and for such an expensive Motherboard, I find that to be an insult for them to cut such corners and not have at least better alloys, or hell, even copper.

Now, I am seriously considering simply buying a flat heatsink thats big enough, but then drilling a couple of holes into it to match the alloy ones and then using the copper heatsinks instead. I have seen a few options that look like they will do the job.

Similarly, there are 2 smaller square heatsinks just below these larger ones, however there is plenty of options for these... I just wonder why one is black and the other uncoloured/grey?

The one just above the PCIE slot however is one that I dont know what to do about?

Does anyone have an ideas, other than simply trying to get a good airflow over it?

 

[On Holiday]

What case are you using? They are designed for 2u cases really with very high airflow.

Have you set up IPMI / can you view sensor readings? (i.e. are you 100% the Chipset is getting hot enough to be an issue?)

 

[FatRakoon]

Yes, I agree they should be for a Rackmount, however...
I was first using it in a Thermaltake armor, as I wanted it to be my main PC ( purely cos of the sheer amount of RAM and cores as I do a lot of Video works and I also like piddling about with Virtual Machines ( but in a purely novelty way ) ).
I have since moved it into a Lian Li V2100 Pkus II case as this has a little more room. and also the ability to have dual PSU as well as loads of HD space, and therefore let me cut down on the ridiculous fact that I have 3 NAS boxes here, and I would prefer to have just one for backup and my main server with everything in.

IPMI

No, I have done nothing with this. Its a whole new area for me and I have yet to learn what it is for let alone what it can do. I am therefore pig ignorant to IPMI

The Chipset temps.
Oh, no absolutely I dont have a clue no! - this is purely based on that I have been talking to SuperMicro themselves and they have said that the chips need to be cooled and that if they are too hot then that could point to my stability issues, and so n, this is NOT the definite article by any means... I am simply looking at all the options that I know I can sort out and taking things from there, and the Chipset heatsinks are such an option.

Now, in saying that, I have adapted a PCI cooler that blows 2 80mm fans over multiple PCI cards from the side, and this is now blowing air directly towaredss the heatsinks that are there, and whether it is simply me, or just pure chance, the number of times the server has crashed, has dropped hugely from easily 10 to 15 times a day, down to only 4 or 5 times a day.

As you can see... its a daily thing and so its a big issue given that I have spent thousands on this so far.

This IPMI I clearly need to look into it sooner rather than later? - ok.. I will do.

I will also throw Linux onto the server instead of Windows. not for any reason other than I might get better answers as to why it crashes, I dont know? I wil admit to flying blind with this Mobo in so many ways.

 

[pastymuncher]

Depending on the size you could buy a couple of copper 1u cpu coolers and mod them to fit. Just make sure they are the type with a flat base. You can then cut them to size and drill holes for mounting points. The last one I bought from ebay was only £6 delivered and I cut it to fit my gpu's vrm's.

 

[On Holiday]

IPMI - set it on a local IP and access from another device on the same network in the browser - default user/pass ADMIN ADMIN. You can completely remotely control the server through the web interface and java applet.

Will show system event logs, RAM errors (if any), temperatures for everything with a probe etc.

Does sound chipset temperature related then if you're crashing less frequently after the cooling changes.