3D Printed · ASA · One or Two 40mm Fans
Cooling Shroud for LSI 9305-16i, 9400-16i & Lenovo 430-16i SAS HBA
Ducted airflow for 16-port SAS controllers running outside a server chassis.
Fan intake → Full fin stack → Out the PCI bracket
The shroud seals the top of the heatsink so air has one path to take. A fan zip‑tied to the card just stirs the air above it.
Why these cards need it
The 9305-16i and its relatives ship with a passive heatsink because they were designed for rackmount chassis with forced front‑to‑back airflow. In a desktop or tower homelab that airflow does not exist. The controller heat‑soaks, and the results are thermal throttling, drives dropping out of the array mid‑resilver, and a shortened life for a card you probably bought to keep data safe.
Fits
- LSI / Broadcom 9305-16i
- LSI / Broadcom 9400-16i
- Lenovo ThinkSystem 430-16i
These share the same PCB and heatsink footprint. This shroud does not fit the 9305-24i — that card has two extra mid‑board connectors and needs the 24i body, which I sell separately.
Choose one fan or two
Same shroud either way — pick the configuration that suits your build.
- Two fans — airflow across the whole fin stack. The right choice for a warm case, a full drive count, or an array that spends real time rebuilding.
- One fan — noticeably quieter, and still far more cooling than the card gets passively. The second bay is capped, so you can add a fan later if you change your mind.
What you get
- Printed shroud body, ASA
- One or two 40 mm fans, pre‑installed, per your selection above
- Socket head cap screws and hex key
- Brass heat‑set inserts, already installed in the body
The HBA card is not included. Cables shown in some photos are for fit demonstration only and are not included.
Fan specification Size40 × 40 × 10 mm Power12V DC, approx. 0.06A per fan Speedapprox. 4500 RPM at 12V Voltage range7–13.5V DC, 7V startup BearingSleeve Connector3‑pin, 250 mm (9.8 in) lead — 12V, ground, tach Mounting hardwareM3 × 14 mm socket head cap screws into brass heat‑set inserts Accepts40 × 40 × 10 mm or 40 × 40 × 20 mm fans (mount fits both; check case clearance) Height above PCB35 mm as shipped, approx. 45 mm with a 20 mm fan
Fan model varies by production batch, so the figures above are typical rather than exact. What does not change: every kit ships with 3‑pin fans that report RPM to your motherboard, on a standard 40 mm mount.
Installs without touching your card
The shroud is held on by printed clips that grip the edges of the PCB. Nothing gets unscrewed, the factory heatsink and its thermal interface are never disturbed, and the whole thing comes off as easily as it went on. If you sell the HBA later it goes back to stock in under a minute.
The fans bolt to the top of the shroud with the supplied M3 × 14 mm screws, so fitting a quieter or ball‑bearing fan later is four screws and a fan header. The mount takes both 40 × 40 × 10 mm and 40 × 40 × 20 mm fans — a 20 mm fan needs longer screws, which are not included. Slot spacing and case clearance vary, so measure your build before going to a thicker fan.
Speed and noise
These fans report RPM to your motherboard but are controlled by voltage, not PWM — set the header to DC mode if you want to slow them down. The 7–13.5V range is wide, so a header at 7V drops them to roughly half speed and the card still gets far more air than it does passively. Run them up when the array is rebuilding, quiet the rest of the time.
Each fan has its own 3‑pin lead. If you take the two‑fan option and only have one free header, a standard fan splitter works — note that a splitter passes the RPM signal from one fan only.
Set your expectations
At a full 12V these are audible. This is a cooler for a server card, not a silent‑build component. If you want it quiet, undervolt to 7–9V. Sleeve bearings in a horizontal‑shaft orientation typically go noisy before they fail, and the fans are swappable for exactly that reason.
Material
Printed in ASA. It is UV stable and holds its shape well above the temperatures inside a running server. PLA does not — it softens and sags sitting on a hot controller, which is why you should not buy a PLA shroud for this job.
Ships in a rigid box, not a poly mailer — the fan blades and leads arrive the way they left.
Designed, printed, and assembled in Ohio.
Need a shroud for a card that is not listed here? I do custom design and small‑batch printing, including working from photos and measurements. Message me through .
