Technical Guide

NOTE: This system is also designed to connect to the IT power systems with a phase-to-phase voltage not exceeding 240
V.
NOTE: Heat dissipation is calculated using the PSU wattage rating.
NOTE: When selecting or upgrading the system configuration, to ensure optimum power utilization, verify the system
power consumption with the Dell Energy Smart Solution Advisor available at Dell.com/ESSA.
Thermal
PowerEdge servers have an extensive collection of sensors that automatically track thermal activity, which helps regulate
temperature thereby reducing server noise and power consumption.
Thermal design
Thermal management of the platform helps deliver high performance with the right amount of cooling to components, while
maintaining the lowest fan speeds possible. This is done across a wide range of ambient temperatures from 10°C to 35°C (50°F
to 95°F) and to extended ambient temperature ranges.
Figure 14. Thermal design characteristics
The thermal design of the PowerEdge T550 reflects the following:
●
Optimized thermal design: The system layout is architected for optimum thermal design.
● System component placement and layout are designed to provide maximum airflow coverage to critical components with
minimum expense of fan power.
● Comprehensive thermal management: The thermal control system regulates the fan speed based on several different
responses from all system-component temperature sensors, as well as inventory for system configurations. Temperature
monitoring includes components such as processors, DIMMs, chipset, the inlet air ambient, hard disk drives, and OCP.
● Open and closed loop thermal fan speed control: Open loop thermal control uses system configuration to determine
fan speed based on inlet air ambient temperature. Closed loop thermal control method uses feedback temperatures to
dynamically determine proper fan speeds.
● User-configurable settings: With the understanding and realization that every customer has unique set of circumstances or
expectations from the system, in this generation of servers, we have introduced limited user- configurable settings residing
in the iDRAC BIOS setup screen. For more information, see the Dell EMC PowerEdge T550 Installation and Service Manual
at www.dell.com/poweredgemanuals and “Advanced Thermal Control: Optimizing across Environments and Power Goals” on
Dell.com.
● Cooling redundancy: The T550 with >4 fans allows N+1 fan redundancy, allowing continuous operation with one fan failure in
the system.
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Power, thermal, and acoustics