Running a dual cpu dell T7600 without the memory cover shrouds

[stevehuhdds]

Hello. I recently bought a used Dell Precision T7600 on ebay that's running two Xeon E5-2660v1 CPUs. It was bought as is and warranty from Dell is expired, but it was really cheap and it's not running anything mission critical - it's my home photo and video editing PC. I had some parts left over from server upgrades at the office - so I decided to recycle some parts and build a frankstein PC for minimal cost, using parts that came with the workstation as much as possible.

I noticed that pictures of the internals of the T7600 online show two memory cover shrouds (Dell HN-621), which my workstation is missing. I was wondering if this would cause significant airflow/heating problems or if it really doesn't matter or if it depends on usage. It would stay on almost all the time, sharing out the photo folder to the home network. I do run online and local backup. I know I said it's not running anything mission critical, but I would like it not to fail anytime soon if possible. Any hints from the experts here would be appreciated.

In case I didn't provide enough information, here are some more specs:
16 GB 12800 RAM 4x4GB sticks
Nvidia Quadro 600
Perc H310 RAID Controller
4x Samsung 840 Pro 256GB in RAID5
4x Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 1TB in RAID5
It's got a 5.25 DVDRW drive

OS is Windows 10 Pro

OS: Windows 10 Pro

 

[jsmithepa]

Post or link relevant pic(s).

What components you got is almost irrelevant, I want to see how the shrouds installed location affect your airflow.

 

[Snipergod87]

I wouldn't worry about the shrouds, DRAM in general (unless it was older fully buffered DDR2 which is not the case here) does not get very hot.

I assume you are talking about these shouds:
http://zh.community.dell.com/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-04/7776.work-station-02.jpg

but it looks like:
https://static.videomaker.com/cdn/farfuture/CxmI5RC6X-LIKTRS8OE_-Bo-waxE2E2NWXBBlEEVyVc/mtime:1355786393/sites/videomaker.com/files/video/thumbnail/2012/767-dell-precision-T7600-workstation.jpg

All they do is direct airflow.

 

[stevehuhdds]

Post or link relevant pic(s).

What components you got is almost irrelevant, I want to see how the shrouds installed location affect your airflow.

I figured the components didn't really matter, but just in case.

I don't have the PC in front of me, but here's a link to another picture of a T7600 with the shrouds - they're the two grayish black horizontal plastic slat below the NVIDIA Tesla C2075graphics card and above the NVIDIA Quadro 5000.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-El7R1l5mW98/UQnkRL2pknI/AAAAAAAABTE/MaEH2nHE5L4/s1600/Dell_T7600_Nvidia_video_cards_position.jpg

Here's a picture of one without them.
http://s311.photobucket.com/g00//user/guanwan711/media/IMG_2062_zps373d6ef2.jpg.html

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[stevehuhdds]

Yea those are exactly the pictures. The shrouds run above and below the CPUs, I guess directing airflow from the fan to the CPU heat sinks.

The memory is fully buffered ECC but DDR3, so I guess it's ok. I'm not sure what the shrouds would to do help with heat from memory anyway by covering them.

Thank you for your answer Snipergod
___________________________________

I wouldn't worry about the shrouds, DRAM in general (unless it was older fully buffered DDR2 which is not the case here) does not get very hot.

I assume you are talking about these shouds:
http://zh.community.dell.com/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-04/7776.work-station-02.jpg

but it looks like:
https://static.videomaker.com/cdn/farfuture/CxmI5RC6X-LIKTRS8OE_-Bo-waxE2E2NWXBBlEEVyVc/mtime:1355786393/sites/videomaker.com/files/video/thumbnail/2012/767-dell-precision-T7600-workstation.jpg

All they do is direct airflow.

 

[jsmithepa]

Close enough.

I say it's probably OK without them, but vendors don't put stuff there for no reason, gosh they are often maligned for not spending another 20 cents for an extra resistor. It's just a piece of plastic thing, you can always fabricate it yourself.

 

[stevehuhdds]

Close enough.

I say it's probably OK without them, but vendors don't put stuff there for no reason, gosh they are often maligned for not spending another 20 cents for an extra resistor. It's just a piece of plastic thing, you can always fabricate it yourself.

______________________________________________________
Thank you for your advice JSmithepa. The shrouds are like $40 each, and I was trying to choose between adding more RAM or buying those. I'll get RAM and look into fabricating them myself if necessary. I was worried a little bit about having sufficient airflow to the CPU farther away from the fans, but it's been running a week without overheating.