White Papers

Direct from
Development
PowerEdge Product Group
Currently, sound cap must be enabled manually in each compute sled installed in an MX7000 chassis to be most
effective. Sled reboot is required to enable or disable sound cap. Currently, sound cap can only be enabled in a sled
iDRAC interface or in the BIOS options during sled boot up, sound cap cannot be enabled through MSM.
Table 2: Sound power
1
impact for typical and feature rich configurations of PowerEdge MX7000 chassis when all
CPUs are stressed to maximum power.
Configuration
Sound Power with All
CPUs @ Max Stress,
Sound Cap Off,
(bels)
Sound Power with All
CPUs @ Max Stress,
Sound Cap On,
(bels)
Typical A
2
9.3
6.9
Typical B
3
9.3
6.8
Feature Rich
4
9.3
7.6
1. Sound power reported in this table represent engineering measurements collected during the course of development and are
not official declared sound power measurements for MX7000. For official MX7000 sound power output data, refer to the
MX7000 environmental data sheet.
2. Typical A configuration includes 4 MX740c sleds, 2 MX840c sleds, 4 MX5108n IOMs and 2 MXG610 IOMS. MX740c sleds
configured with 2 140 W TDP CPUs, 12 32 GB DIMMS, 6 1.6 TB SAS SSD Drives, 2 25 Gb Mezzanine Cards, 1 Fibre Channel
MMZ. H740+ PERC. MX840c sleds configured with 4 165 W TDP CPUs, 48 16 GB DIMMS, 6 1.6 TB NVME Drives, 2 25 Gb
Mezzanine Cards, 1 Fibre Channel MMZ.
3. Typical B configuration includes 6 MX740c sleds, 4 MX5108n IOMs and 2 MXG610 IOMs. MX740c sleds configured with 2 140
W TDP CPUs, 12 32 GB DIMMS, 6 1.6 TB SAS SSD Drives, 2 25 Gb Mezzanine Cards, 1 Fibre Channel MMZ. H740+ PERC.
4. Feature Rich configuration includes 6 MX740c sleds, 2 MX5016s sleds, 2 MX9116n IOMs, 2 MX7116n IOMs, and 2 MX5000s
SAS Switches. MX740c sleds configured with 2 165W TDP CPUs, 24 32 GB DIMMs, 6 1.6 TB NVME Drives, 2 25 Gb
Mezzanine Cards, H745p PERC. MX5016s sleds configured with 16 1.6 TB SAS SSD,
Acoustical Baffle
Finally, for persistent acoustically-sensitive deployments, Dell EMC has developed a hardware baffle solution,
available as an optional add-on package to the MX7000 chassis. The baffle fits behind the MX7000 chassis and is
designed to reduce the acoustical contribution of the rear fan modules. The baffle features a tool-less install; and fits
within a standard rack depth without impacting cable management or rack door operation.
For more information about the MX7000 Acoustical baffle, see the Direct from Development tech note, “PowerEdge
MX7000 Acoustical Baffle”.
Customer-driven design
During product development, the MX7000 acoustical baffle and sound cap were tested under iterative usability studies.
26 IT professionals provided their experiential insights and acceptable performance tradeoffs for the MX7000
acoustical baffle and sound cap under simulated MX7000 workloads. The baffle alone was reportedly effective in
reducing some shrill tones, even at 100% CPU utilization. Usability testing resulted in resoundingly positive testing
scores, as the baffle scored the highest grade averaging an ‘A’. IT Professionals reported the acoustical benefit of shrill
tones being blocked, making the MX7000 an acceptably quiet chassis to work around. Thus, the sound cap coupled
with the acoustical baffle was worth the acoustic-to-performance trade-off in certain work environments. In these
unique work scenarios, peer communication and employee discomfort-to-noise can be managed where employees
may be mandated to work around exceptionally loud blade servers.
Conclusion
The new PowerEdge MX7000 chassis is a versatile and dense modular infrastructure that comes with acoustical noise
tradeoffs. For the majority of MX7000 deployments in unattended data centers, the acoustical experience will meet
customer expectations. For customers deploying MX7000 in noise sensitive areas, these three pillars can help reduce
the acoustical noise output of the PowerEdge MX7000.
Notes:
1. See the Direct from Development tech note, “PowerEdge MX7000 Chassis Thermal Airflow Architecture”
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