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Diasabling the fan on a Synology containing only SSDs

uncl_nigel

uncl_nigel

pfm Member
I have a Synology 420+NAS (4 bays, 2 empty and 2 with SSDs) which is used for Roon Core only.

When listening late at night I can hear the fan from my chair 4-5m away. So far, I've put an IKEA Eket over it but this is not exactly pretty.

I have nowhere to put the NAS apart from the hifi rack.

I'm thinking of unplugging the fan and disabling the associated alarm.

Has anyone else tried this?
 
Heat is the enemy of SSD’s, like all electronics. If you’re going to remove the fan you’ll likely shorten their lifespan. I’d look for a larger aftermarket fan e.g. Noctua that is quieter but still moves sufficient air to ensure cooling.
 
evand said:
Heat is the enemy of SSD’s, like all electronics. If you’re going to remove the fan you’ll likely shorten their lifespan. I’d look for a larger aftermarket fan e.g. Noctua that is quieter but still moves sufficient air to ensure cooling.
Click to expand...

This!
 
As above, switch out for a a noctua fan, and set it to silent/quietest setting in the software.

Ideally located it in a different room, this makes the biggest difference - we use an 8 bay with 16tb drives in it for work stuff/movies/music/everything else and its located in a cupboard in the hallway, wired network.. Its noisy rattling away 8 drives but you dont hear it from living room at all.
 
^^^ Useful if you’re buying new.

I quite like QNAP as a brand. Have 8 bay and 2 bay enclosures. 8 for backups, 2 for 14TB drives housing media.
 
The fan in my little 2 bay QNAP is a nonstandard size (70mm) which made it difficult to swap out. The casework is so cheap that resonances are still a problem with a smaller, 60mm Noctua on a custom bracket. I don't know if the Syns are the same...
 
My Synology has options in the DSM menu for quiet running (lower fan speed). Have you checked this?
 
Smart speed fan setting is best. I’ve had my QNAP in the listening roon for 3-4 years now. It’s in the media unit below the TV, It’s had SSDs since day one. Never heard the fan on a day to day basis. It did spin up when I had Roonserver installed on it, and was compiling the initial database. But since the beginning of this year I added a roonROCK NUC and relegated the NAS to PLEXserver for movies and file server for roon. Both the NUC and NAS have fans that run approx 1000 rpm each, they are inaudible unless I stick my head in the media unit.
 
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Can you not move to a fanless NUC? That is how I run Roon Core (Nucleus in my case) and store files; it is barely even warm. The case at the moment is at 24C which is +3C on ambient room temp. Completely silent, obviously.
 
SSD is not so hot in reading mode that they need active cooling. Can you see temperatures? Probably CPU is hoter. Noctua fans comes with adaptors for lowering speed, you can avoid system management if that is not good. Or just disconect fans and take off lid for late night listening, it should be enough for heat to dissipate.
 
What size is the fan - I've got a couple of noctua fans I don't use somewhere and would be happy to send you one if you want to try it?
I'm not sure what size but can dig them out later..
 
Temporary fix which might become permanent or serve as the design for permanent.

One white IKEA Eket single cube (25x35x35) two pieces (36x36cm and 31.5x31.5 cm)of 15mm plywood and some black paint.

I made a tight-fitting lid from the two squares of plywood - slightly larger top piece so I have something to pull on. I've drilled a 2cm hole in the rear of the Eket for cables and symbolic air-flow.

So far, after 3 hours of music, the NAS monitor is displaying temp as "normal" with the fan set to "calm" and I have to get seriously near to hear the @&é"' fan.

I wanted to keep the Synology 420+ rather than get a QNAP hs 453 dx because I feel it is better suited to my storage needs. At the speed I'm acquiring albums I will soon fill the 1.1Tb left on the SSD.
 
I wouldn’t disable the fan. If you have to have the nas close I’m not sure of the point of having one over just using a drive. The beauty of a nas is you can hide it away and forget about it. Mine is in a cupboard with my router and wired out.
 
@mark.king
The NAS linked directly into the pass through ethernet socket of the dCS sounds much better than an external drive connected to my Mac serving the same files via the network...

Both solutions using Roon (currently Core on the NAS, previously on the Mac).
 
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