pfSense Firewall Upgrade - Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX 40mm Fan Unboxing & 1U Rackmount PC Silent Upgrade

In this video I perform fan upgrades on my pfSense Router / Firewall server - including changing out the CPU cooling fans while the system is still LIVE and online. This system was built into a small 1U rackmount case and was designed to be low power consumption & silent, however usually all 1U rack mounted systems are loud as they use small cooling fans operating at high speed to shift lots of air.

This upgrade started because I wasn't entirely happy with the noise level coming from the system when I was sleeping (currently I sleep above of it, as it lives under my bed for now).

The Sunnon fans I had originally fitted did a great job and didn't make too much noise, but I felt there was definitely room for improvement so in came a pair of trusty Noctua fans! (Expensive, But hopefully worth it in the long run..)

The chosen model of Noctua fan is the NF-A4x10 FLX 40mm model, I also show a quick unboxing of these and the amazing amount of accessories that Noctua include! Connectors, Extenders, Low Noise Adapters, etc..

I've used Noctua fans many times in the past but only ever in full size gaming systems / workstations (120mm+ fan sizes) and they've always delivered brilliant performance while being whisper quiet (after some tweaks to the fan controller settings and slopes).

System specifications:
X-Case ITX 19-02-1u Short Rack Case
SuperMicro X7SPA-HF ITX Motherboard
Intel Atom D510 Dual Core Hyper Threading 1.66Ghz CPU (Onboard)
4GB Hynix DDR2 5300 Memory / RAM (2x 2GB Sticks)
40GB Hitachi 5400rpm 2.5" SATA HDD (My original RAID-1 Mirror 2x20GB drives died, together!)
Seasonic SS-250SU Flex 250W Power Supply (1U Height)
Intel Pro 1000 Dual Port PCI-E 4x Dual Gigabit NIC
Dual 40MM Front Intake Cooling Fans (Previously Sunnon brand running At 5V, Now Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX + Low Noise Adapters)
System Running pfSense 2.3.3-RELEASE-p1 (amd64) Currently

Video recorded Using A Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-i9505).

[dronesrus]

Looks like you had enough room for 40x40x20mm you could have used the Noctua NF-A4x20 FLX that are faster. quieter, and move more air. Would help get the temp down even further.

[whtube]

We’re these louder without the low noise adapters than the original fans? 🙏

[timlipinski]

Put a couple of quiet fans in an ebay Dell 24-Port Switch and has been running quiet for the past year. The next time I will up-grade to Noctua quiet fans... Thank you for the video ! tjl

[pwiest]

Hi there. Well I have a question ^^ But it doesn't have anything to do with PC cooling, but head cooling. In your opinion, do these fans are strong enough to cool me down if I would instal them in a helmet? (Stormtrooper helmet to be exact, and it gets pretty warm in them). There are special kits for that, but I think these fans might be stronger and for sure cheaper than buing the kit. Cheers ^^

[TableWolfMusic]

A friend of mine is setting up a linux box. Considering pfsense wants aes-ni capable CPU chips these days, will a dual core 1ghz asrock c70m1 motherboard bundle do that?

[AutodidactEngineer]

I know this is a pretty old video but I have a question?
Can you rotate the gpu 180° so that the IO ports are on the inside and would the PCI extension cable let you do that? Or would I need two extension cables?

[DemonicEuphoria]

What kind of setup will you be going with, considering the change to pfSense and the new AES requirements? From what I can tell the Intel Atom D510 does not support AES. I ran in to this with my current setup. Have to rebuild another box now.

[Hypernerdwithcam]

How much are you able to push with this? And are you able to handle much connections with Haproxy also?

[NinoJoel]

Wy do you want the Temperature to go down this far ?

[Reconseal]

Your not suppose to work on the hardware while the machine is on. Doing so might fry components