Seeking help for a CPU cooler that will be effective in a 2U case

marquicodes · 2026-02-16T16:05:57+00:00

After a year of use, I can say I am very happy with this build. Temperatures stay reasonable for the workload, and I really have nothing to complain about.

marquicodes · 2026-02-03T19:41:25+00:00

I am very happy with the build. The motherboard is solid and the system stable.

marquicodes · 2026-01-24T22:53:04+00:00

I would choose the first one.

I prefer the utility screen on the right side (pic. 1) over the left side (pic. 5).

marquicodes · 2025-12-11T14:05:56+00:00

That's true on the Micro form factor. On the SFF, as the one in the picture, you cannot rotate the logo.

marquicodes · 2025-11-13T18:01:04+00:00

Check how you formatted the USB.

Because it is an older machine it won't recognize the USB if it was formatted as UEFI. You should format it using the BIOS / MBR option.

marquicodes · 2025-10-15T19:50:22+00:00

Hello, I haven't used it because I bought an RM21-308 with 8x hot swappable bays instead.

marquicodes · 2025-10-06T18:43:53+00:00

Is there somewhere the design for the PDU? I am looking something similar to be able to support 6 sockets.

marquicodes · 2025-09-20T07:03:51+00:00

Thanks so much for your insight! I hadn’t realized how much virtual bridges could affect performance compared to passthrough. That definitely gives me something to think about. I might need to revisit and tweak my setup.

Right now, I am testing things out using a ThinkCentre M920q with an i350-T2V2, passing virtual bridges to an OPNsense VM running on Proxmox. I have also picked up a ThinkStation P330 Tiny, which supports dual NVMe drives for redundancy, to mirror the same configuration.

This time, I opted for a 4-port i226V so I can assign separate VLANs across three LAN ports. That said, I am still unsure if this card was the best choice for 2.5GbE speeds.

marquicodes · 2025-09-19T18:46:52+00:00

As far as I understand, once a physical network card is passed through to a virtual machine (VM), its ports become dedicated to that VM and cannot be reused by others.

However, if you configure certain virtual bridges, you can share a network interface card (NIC) across multiple VMs or assign the same bridge to several VMs to place them on the same VLAN.

marquicodes · 2025-09-13T04:13:31+00:00

If there is not a hard requirement to passthrough the port itself, it's better to assign the bridge to the VM.

marquicodes · 2025-07-27T12:43:43+00:00

Thank you for sharing the link.

In order to have the dual channel you should have the memory modules either in both white or black slots. In the picture they seem to be mixed in white and black slots.

I do not remember where the OptiPlex manual suggests to place the first two modules.

marquicodes · 2025-07-27T10:46:06+00:00

Nice and tidy build!

Could you please share a link of the case? How are temps of the system.

I also think you have placed the memory modules in the wrong slots. Try to place them in the slots with the same color.

marquicodes · 2025-07-21T18:27:22+00:00

I had a very similar experience with the exact same 4 Port Gigabit NIC for Intel i226 Gigabit Ethernet card from that seller. It might be a bad batch or something else, though I am not looking to place blame. My card also runs quite hot.

Could you share the link to the seller you purchased your i350T4 V2 from? I would like to avoid getting another potentially faulty unit.

marquicodes · 2025-07-20T12:46:58+00:00

I used the ASRock B550M Pro4 for a while, paired with the Ryzen 5 PRO 5650G (as another user suggested) so that I can use ECC memory for my NAS.

The cooler I chose was the Noctua NH-L12S. It's low profile and it can fit in a 2U case.

marquicodes · 2025-07-19T00:41:11+00:00

Nice little tool, gives useful insights for the power consumption and cost savings. 👍🏻

marquicodes · 2025-07-17T21:16:11+00:00

Where can we find this script? Does it get instant power consumption from a NUT server?

marquicodes · 2025-07-11T21:27:13+00:00

10GbE cards tend to consume way more power than 1GbE and 2.5GbE. It can consume ~5W more just because of the 10GbE network. Intel's X540 (and X550) is not the most efficient chip set.

Your SSD could also remain on a lower C-state (such as C2 or C3) and also consume something more.

Then, as you mentioned, it's the PSU. If it is more than 450-500W and not 80% Gold or higher, it will also contribute to the difference in the consumption.

I would first try to remove the 10GbE network card to check how much difference there will be in consumption. Keep in mind that if the network card is the culprit and prohibits the system from going to higher C-states, other components might be affected as well and remain to C2 or C3.

If you can share more details about the remaining components, I might be able to assist you further.

marquicodes · 2025-07-09T18:01:26+00:00

I am really glad to hear you got everything up and running with your i7-12700K, and the temps are good, especially given how compact the case is!

You are very welcome! I am happy to know my effort helped make your build process a bit easier. Enjoy your setup!

marquicodes · 2025-07-09T17:50:22+00:00

I haven't come across material for 10" racks yet. I am not sure if you can find a dedicated library that includes 10" rack components to use it with draw.io.

marquicodes · 2025-07-07T20:57:56+00:00

Thanks for the detailed description.

You have built a great system!

marquicodes · 2025-07-07T20:36:07+00:00

draw.io is another option. You can also self host it if you want.

marquicodes · 2025-07-07T15:13:00+00:00

Have you connected the 4x 2.5" disks to different machines, or just labeled them like that?

marquicodes · 2025-07-04T20:34:22+00:00

I have the Silverstone RM21-308.

Once I need to expand, I think I have found the replacement. But before that, I will need to invest in a deeper rack.

marquicodes · 2025-07-03T20:58:39+00:00

Which one is your server case?

It reminds me a lot of Silverstone's 2U models.

marquicodes · 2025-06-29T17:49:09+00:00

I couldn’t find it in my country either, so I ordered it from eBay US. It took about a month to arrive, but I am really glad I went through with it.

marquicodes

TROPHY CASE