DISCLAIMER: If you are not very good / licensed to work with electrical equipment and wiring, please do NOT do this Mod yourself. You risk electrocution and grave injury. Hire a licensed electrician or professional. SemoTech and all associated staff and entities are not responsible for any injury or property damage, resulting from you trying to do this yourself!
The Vertiv GXT5 series UPS’ are very nice rack-mount or tower/floor standing units, and come in multiple capacities from 1000VA to 20KVA, but most of them seem to have an inherent flaw; very loud fan noise from a standard 80mm fan that seems to run at full speed regardless of the load or state of the UPS. Seems it is actually louder at idle and lower loads, which makes no logical sense. If you plan to place a GXT5 in a data room it’s fine, however for Office or Home Office deployments it’s unbearably loud and hard to be next to. I wonder why Vertiv did not use a better quality fan? Hmmmm…
After multiple failed attempts to get Vertiv to provide firmware that better manages the fan speeds, I decided to take matters into my own hands and replace the fan on my GXT5-1500LVRT2UXL 2U model, with the highest rated and quietest model currently available, the 80mm Noctua NF-A8 PWM Fan. This Noctua fan is amazing and retails for only about $16 as of this writing. It also comes with all the adapters and extra cables, so no need to buy anything else.
Before proceeding any further, please see the disclaimer above. If you still want to proceed, at your own risk, use the UPS menu and initiate a shutdown, then unplug the UPS when you see the notice to do so on the LCD screen. Do not plug it back in until the mod is done!
Now, the most challenging part of this mod is opening the UPS case parts, and getting to the original fan. There are a total of 10 Torx T-10 screws holding the top metal cover in place: 3 on each side and 3 on the back, plus 1 on the top front.
The Bezel that exposes the battery compartment opens from the left side by pressing the logo, and it swings out. There are 2 Torx T-10 screws right under the middle hinge which are a pain to reach/remove, as well as 2 more on the right side under the fan cover.
To expose the last 2 screws, slide the black plastic grille fan cover towards the right edge carefully and then pull it out. Careful with the two plastic tabs, I broke mine.
Now you can see the power supply black cover and the fan is underneath. You’ll need to use a flathead screwdriver to pry out 7 white fasteners from the power supply shroud. 2 on the left side, 3 on the right side and 2 on top closest to the front of the unit. This finally exposes the original fan. I also took a shot of the 2 fans (original and Noctua) next to each other…
The fan pulls air in, and there is a small chrome metal grille in front of it. Both the fan and the grille are attached with 4 Phillips stubby screws. Remove them and the original fan will be loose. The original black screws can be reused for the Noctua.
(Note: I took this pic after I installed the Noctua but using the same screws & locations, so the reference stands)
Carefully remove the hot glue which is holding the original white fan connector in place on the power supply, and take the entire original fan, connector, and cable out.
The Noctua fan uses a standard Female fan connector, however the original UPS one (white) is thinner, so the Noctua connector will not fit directly into the original power supply slot. This is actually a good thing, since the pinout is different and would have caused issues.
To proceed to fix the pinout, you’ll need to cut the original fan cable, leaving about 2 inches of wire on the white original connector. Do not cut it too short, or it will be hard to splice it. Now take one of the Male to Female connectors that comes with the Noctua (NOT the one permanently attached to the Noctua Fan) and cut it the same way. You should now have 2 connectors each with 4 colored wires. The Noctua Male connector will allow the Noctua Fan cable to connect to the white original connector.
Using the color code below and as seen in the pictures, solder the 4 wires of each of the connectors and use heat shrink tubing to ensure no shorts and a neat job.
This “adapter” will also allow you to easily swap the Noctua fan out in the future, should it fail, tho I have a feeling it will outlast the UPS itself 🙂
White Connector | Male Adapter
Black (Ground) → Black
Yellow (Tach) → Green
Blue (PWM) → Blue
Red (+12v) → Yellow
Now connect the original white connector on the UPS’ power supply board, and the other end to the Noctua fan cable.
Before putting the case and all back together, place the Noctua fan on top of the black cover of the power supply, ensure there are no tools, screws or any metal near the UPS, and plug the UPS back in. The UPS should power on, and if you wired the Noctua fan adapter correctly, there should be no fan error on the LCD and the fan should spin. You’ll now be amazed at how quiet it is, you’ll have to look at it to make sure it is spinning. Well done!
Now power OFF the UPS properly, and unplug it one last time. Route the fan cable and adapter to the right side of the case and our of the way of the airflow, use the 4 fan screws to secure the fan and grille to the front chassis and attach the long plastic bezel on top of it, with its 4 x T-10 screws. Close the battery cover and place the top metal cover on and screw in the 10 x T-10 screws you removed earlier. You are done!
Plug the UPS back in and go through the power-on cycle. It will now run virtually silent!
I measured about 65 dB with the original fan and 45 dB with the Noctua fan, a HUGE improvement and noise reduction and I can now have this UPS right next to me without even hearing it.
