Silencing a PoE powered Raspberry Pi cluster

[red-lichtie]

As you once mentioned in one of your videos, the PoE hats can be fairly loud and annoying. I can only agree with your assessment, so I decided to try something out.

I now use a Noctua NF-A14 5V PWM controlled 140mm fan powered directly off the USB port from one of the PIs in my cluster.

As quiet as the Noctua might be, when directly connected to the USB port it constantly runs at 100% and that isn't really what I want as it is almost as loud as the PoE fans. So I also use the Noctua NA-FC1 Fan Controller to regulate the speed.

The cluster is now silent:

• the PoE fans don't spin up
• the PIs are cool

It would be great if you could add a "Silencing the cluster" section to the Wiki.

Here is what it currently looks like (I am working on a simple 3D printed bracket for fixing the fan to the "rack").