IT managers are often concerned about excessive noise in server rooms and network closets, particularly when the room doubles as an office or the space was not originally designed to hold IT equipment. Inadequate cooling is sometimes the culprit. When servers are too warm their cooling fans run at a higher RPM, and this creates noise.
A portable air conditioner is a good solution for a small server room or closet with heat problems but ironically, the cooling unit itself can be the source of excessive noise. Recently a customer purchased Tripp Lite’s SRCOOL12K to replace an older 7,000 BTU AC unit in a small server room. The older unit was loud enough to make conversation difficult, whereas the noise generated by the SRCOOL12K was barely noticeable.
So just how quiet is the SRCOOL12K? It generates 57 decibels, which is about the same level of noise as a 12-inch fan set on medium, or the background noise you would expect in an average office.
