I work at a small MSP and this is an old clients retired server, dell t320 - nothing special but it lets me run a hyper V server for learning Active directory without bogging down my workstation. Anyway, upgraded that horrendous fan to a nice one for $10 off Amazon.
Holy crap what a difference. It went from sounding like a jet engine when turning on and you could hear the fans from the hallway (I’m at the front of the office) to I didn’t even know it was on until I remoted into it and it’s sitting right next to me on the floor lol.
Thanks to an earlier post about someone who did this exact thing and gave me the green light to do it. I can’t express how nice and quiet it is again at my desk now and I’ve got a physical server to play with!
Keep in mind you may be getting a lot less air flow with the lower power fan.
If that’s the 140mm pure wings, it’s rated at 61.2 CFM versus what appears to be 172 CFM listed on the one you replaced.
But if you didn’t need the higher airflow, then lower power and quieter is the way to go 👍
I’d put it on the power saving profile, it’s still plenty fast for a homelab and way more efficient.
The CPU is not going to be adversely affected by the airflow change at all. Even at 100% usage that airflow is plenty for that heatsink for the CPUs that even can be installed in that.
Better to have 1/3 the flow than none because you had to unplug the existing fan.
The workload that’s described doesn’t sound to be too taxing: I’d be surprised if the new fan couldn’t keep up assuming the interior is kept clean and the thermal paste/tape has been refreshed.