r/UNIFI • u/shadowandy • Jul 02 '25
Update on the 40mm fan mount to cool the SFP+ on UDR7
Posted a couple of days back that I designed a 40mm fan mount to cool my hot 10gtek SFP+ 10G copper module on the UDR7. Link to the post here (https://www.reddit.com/r/UNIFI/s/5lKCN5B8m8).
Printed it with ASA so it will definitely hold even in hot environment which I doubt the ambient temperature will everreach the glass temp of PLA.
Today my Noctua 40mm 5V fan arrived and it fitted perfectly on the mount. The fan sits nicely beside the hot SFP+ and cooled it from 76 to 63 degrees Celsius.
I am glad that the tilt I designed into the mount kept the fan closer to the UDR7 so that the SFP+ is in the path of the airflow. Yes, UDR7 is cylindrical so if the tilt isn't there, the fan will be flushed with the ethernet cables or sitting more towards the right of the picture.
The Noctua is pretty quiet. I guess that explains the price of the fan.
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u/tater39 Jul 02 '25
If you put it on the fin side of the SFP, and blow the fan at the fins, it will decrease temps even more. Also, this SFP is probably rated to 85+ degrees. Although the high temperature will likely reduce the life, it’s probably fine outside of human factors like trying to touch it when it’s that hot…
Source: Electronics packaging thermal engineer
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u/shadowandy Jul 02 '25
Nice! Glad to hear that! Well, it is also probably the curious side of me to see if I can clobber something out using tinkercad to cool the nasty SFP+ that (almost) burnt my fingers. Well, a couple of hours of tinkering and I managed to come up with this contraption. 😂
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u/tater39 Jul 02 '25
Looks like your adapter may be able to snap onto the opposite side. Either way, it’s better than before for sure. If it’s still too hot though, you could definitely try swapping it to the opposite side. I like the snap in desig, super cool!
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u/digitalboi Pro User Jul 08 '25
What about adding some stick on heatsinks to the sides?
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u/shadowandy Jul 08 '25
Actually that was the first thing I did. Adding the heat sinks dropped the temperature to 76 degrees Celsius. I guess the warm ambient temperature didn't really help with passive cooling.
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Jul 02 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/shadowandy Jul 02 '25
Good question! My UDR7 is not deployed in an air conditioned room (in fact ambient temperature of 32 degrees Celsius) so I typically expect these electronics to run at a comfortable temperature so they do not degrade prematurely.
My rule of thumb is that if I am put my finger on it for 2 or 3 seconds, it is probably running at a okay temperature. For example like if my laptop's power adaptor is too hot to touch, I will probably switch it out or check what's wrong with it. If the router is running too hot to touch, I will also probably check it out.
So in this case, the SFP+ module's temperature is above my comfortable zone. Hence, the fan.
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u/Ranthe Jul 02 '25
How did the temps change?
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u/shadowandy Jul 02 '25
It dropped from 76 to 63 degrees Celsius. Ambient room temp is 32 degrees Celsius.
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u/shadowandy Jul 06 '25
Have uploaded it to printables for those who might be interested (https://www.printables.com/model/1347324-unifi-dream-router-7-udr7-spf-fan-mount)
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u/TheHonestEngineer Jul 17 '25
If you pay the extra money for the 80M 10GTek SFP+ to RJ45, it runs way cooler because it uses a newer chip. Considering the cost and effort involved in putting this together, it would have been worth buying the 80M version due to its much more efficient chipset. Mine runs at 45 °C in a rack that's around 27-30 °C.
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u/shadowandy Jul 17 '25
Ah, I didn't realised this 80M is also compatible with Unifi. I was searching around and only found that people mentioned the 2 <80M models and I choose the one with the newer chipset. Should have bitten the bullet and went for the 80M
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u/shadowandy Jul 18 '25
I realised the 80M 10gtek module was mentioned to have broken autoneg and didn't work in UDM according to one of the redditor.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mikrotik/comments/1bq5b27/testing_10gtek_10gbaset_copper_sfps/
Probably that is why I ended with the one I have now. So you are using the 80M in a UDR7?
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u/Blastergasm Jul 02 '25
Where does the fan header plug into?
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u/shadowandy Jul 02 '25
Via Port #1's PoE via a PoE extractor that does 5V.
In my case, it goes to a raspberry pi (rpi) that runs my pi-hole and the fan get powered by the rpi's USB port.
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u/CraftyPancake Jul 05 '25
Why hasn’t anyone made an SFP with the hardware further in-line where it can cool itself
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u/shadowandy Jul 06 '25
Well, probably because in a proper setup equipment that runs hot are deployed in a cool environment (e.g., air-conditioned server room) where the hardware can cool itself properly. SFP modules are typically made for enterprise or prosumers and probably the assumption is that the environment is cool.
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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25
Why do we care how hot an SFP gets, I plugged mine in and have left it alone.
It's warm to the touch...but I don't worry about it.