I've got 2 e5-2660 v2 procs on a SuperMicro MB and I'm testing things out before moving from my old server

 

I'm wanting to make sure I've got adequate cooling. So I've done a little load testing.

 

The data was pulled using a script with these commands (5 second sampling intervals):

ipmitool sensor | grep -E 'RPM|CPU.* Temp' | cut -d '|' -f 2 | awk '{$1=$1};1' | awk '{print}' ORS=" "
lscpu | grep 'CPU MHz:' | cut -d ':' -f 2 | awk '{$1=$1};1'

 

This is what it looks like for roughly 10 minutes with the system at complete idle:

 

CPU clock pulled from lscpu, left scale
CPU temps right scale

Fan speeds left scale

 

Average 2637.53

 

And this is what it looks like for roughly 10 minutes under a load, on 1 of the processors. To create load, I used a docker of Handbrake assigned it to all CPU2 via pinning and then launched the transcode of a 4K HVEC video to 720p.

 

 

Average 1865.39

 

 

So my questions are:

1 - Is the output from lscpu the best way to get clock rate on dual Xeon? Because I can only assume this changes for both in unison?

2 - This is obviously thermal throttling right?

3 - Does this represent horribly bad thermal throttling, or is this fairly standard?

4 - I don't plan to have this sort load regularly, I put 1 CPU to 100% for this time to simulate a worst case scenario. Is this adequate cooling in your opinion?

5 - FanB seems to wobble in speed about 75 RPM delta from FanA. Might that be because it's "behind" FanA in term of airflow?

6 - Am I being OCD here? hehe

 

 

These are the CPU coolers I have:
https://noctua.at/en/nh-d9dx-i4-3u

 

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 20197 yr by CowboyRedBeard

I guess I'm just trying to get a sense if this is totally normal and I should calm my OCD... or am I doing it wrong?

 

The other thing I've contemplated is water cooling, but I have no experience with it. Is that viable for a server / system that is on 24/7?

 

I could install those SM fans, but they run at 4,000 RPM which means they're probably super loud... And this is in my office about 3' from my desk.

Netdata docker has throttling shown in the charts.

OK... that docker is AWESOME...  I feel like I should delete my above post out of embarrassment.... 😳

So, I've over complicated my effort to look for throttling ... check. And... it wasn't an accurate measurement....

 

Told you I'm a n00b...

 

Here's the results having another go at it. CPU stayed at 65C too... I'd say that's adequate cooling. Check.

 

 

 

THANK YOU FOR THAT RESPONSE

 

To all other n00bs that might find this:

https://github.com/netdata/netdata/wiki

 

 

Edited March 15, 20197 yr by CowboyRedBeard