3D Printed · ASA · 40mm Fan
Cooling Shroud for LSI 9305-24i 12Gb SAS HBA
Ducted airflow for the 24-port controller, with the mid‑board connectors left clear.
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 this card needs it
The 9305-24i ships with a passive heatsink because it was 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
This body is specific to the 24i. It is cut to clear the two mid‑board connectors that the 16-port cards do not have, so it will not fit a 9305-16i, 9400-16i or Lenovo 430-16i — those take the 16i body, which I sell separately.
Your middle ports stay usable
The shroud is notched around the Ports 16‑19 and 20‑23 connectors rather than bridging over them. Tested with standard SFF‑8643 breakout cables: they seat fully, the latches release, and you can unplug a cable without taking the shroud off.
What you get
- Printed shroud body, ASA
- One 40 mm fan, pre‑installed
- 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 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 a 3‑pin fan that reports 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 fan bolts 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
The fan reports RPM to your motherboard but is controlled by voltage, not PWM — set the header to DC mode if you want to slow it down. The 7–13.5V range is wide, so a header at 7V drops it to roughly half speed and the card still gets far more air than it does passively. Run it up when the array is rebuilding, quiet the rest of the time.
Set your expectations
At a full 12V this is 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 fan is 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 .
