DoeBoye Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 For those who are considering replacing the fans on the rear of the Norco case, Just thought I'd post a link to an easily purchased fan that actually fits, with a minor tweak. For whatever reason, in Norco's infinite wisdom, the stock fans are just a smidge narrower than standard, so replacing with 2 other 80mm fans can be challenging... These are the ones I used: The Arctic Cooling Arctic F8 Pro PWM 80mm Case Fan. All it took to make them fit is trim an inch or so of the plastic cage around one of the fans with a pair of wire snippers (Obviously on the side that comes in contact with the other fan). No skillz required! Because they don't have a rigid frame like most fans, it's extremely easy to do... If you can run with scissors, you can 'mod' this fan . Hope this helps others looking to quiet down their Norco! PS: These fans are quiet. Once I replaced them and the middle ones with 120mm fans, my server could sit beside the desk without being irritating (not that it does... but it could! ) DB [EDIT] Here's a link to the fan on NewEgg Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Thank you! That's very useful info. In the past I've always struggled to get 80mm fans to fit. My solution was a hacksaw and a large file...not terribly subtle. I'm glad you've found a good substitution, I'll probably use these next time. However, with all the testing I've done with the 4224 I've decided that the rear 80mm fans are largely superfluous. Those fans are really only in a position to cool the CPU and motherboard. I believe that the stock 80mm fans that cool the drives (or replacement 120mm fans) are more than adequate to cool both the drives and the rest of the components. Granted, I haven't ever tested this theory with 24 7200rpm drives, but with 10 green drives I haven't seen any heat issues. I also haven't seen any drive temperature differences when using the rear 80mm fans versus not using them. YMMV. Another option is to install only one rear 80mm fan. Quote Link to comment
DoeBoye Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 However, with all the testing I've done with the 4224 I've decided that the rear 80mm fans are largely superfluous. Those fans are really only in a position to cool the CPU and motherboard. I believe that the stock 80mm fans that cool the drives (or replacement 120mm fans) are more than adequate to cool both the drives and the rest of the components. Granted, I haven't ever tested this theory with 24 7200rpm drives, but with 10 green drives I haven't seen any heat issues. I also haven't seen any drive temperature differences when using the rear 80mm fans versus not using them. YMMV. Another option is to install only one rear 80mm fan. No Problem! I've had so much help on this board, I'm trying to give back what little I've learned re: cooling: You could be right. I never actually tested without them on, but I figured since they are fairly inexpensive, may as well keep fans in that location (especially as they really don't add anything to fan noise). I actually tried just one at first, but the OCD in me couldn't stand it . The other nice thing about them is they are PWM fans, and their plugs are designed to 'stack'. In other words, you can plug them into each other and plug them into the same PWM header on your mobo. Not a huge deal, but keeps wiring nice and clean. I personally don't use PWM, since they are already so quiet at full speed, but for those absolute hard core "I-suspend-my-hardrives-with-elastics-and-panty-hose" types, it might be an added feature . Quote Link to comment
DoeBoye Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 Thought I'd mention, in case it wasn't clear by the description: These fans use a 4-pin power plug (Like a CPU fan). My motherboard cpu fan header is right beside the rear fans (and because you can stack them, they all plug into the same header. Not too worried about amp draw, seeing as all 3 fans are fairly wimpy), so it was a perfect fit, but if your motherboard is laid out differently, make sure there is an accessible 4-pin fan header available... The fan seems to have a 3-pin header version, but doesn't look as common, and I have no personal experience as to its noise level... (Though it has the same flimsy cage, so still easily modified) Link to manufacturer Quote Link to comment
Jomp Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 I'm confused, since my Noctua 80mm fans fit onto the back of my 4224 without any problems. Do most 80mm fans not fit? Quote Link to comment
DoeBoye Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 I'm confused, since my Noctua 80mm fans fit onto the back of my 4224 without any problems. Do most 80mm fans not fit? Lucky! . TBH, I only tried the ones I linked to, and a couple of old no-names I had lying around the house, but I do know other members (Rajahal for example) have experienced similar issues with the rear fans... Those Noctua fans are fantastic (I'm using 120mm Noctuas on the fanwall in front of the drives), but a bit pricey. In my case, I was looking for some cheap quiet guys, which is how I came across the ones I'm using... Quote Link to comment
joshpond Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 I've also go the arctic cooling pwm 80mm fans on the back of my norco 4224 case but i didn't have to mod anything. They just screwed in....... Josh Quote Link to comment
Jomp Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 I knew I had a picture up somewhere. It's tight, but they fit Quote Link to comment
Ouze Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 Timely advice, I'm going to order a pair. On a side note, what do you guys recommend for quiet 120mm fans, internally (assuming 120mm fanwall)? The ones in Raj's thread are out of stock (and, as indicated in that post, also maybe not powerful enough for 20+ drives anyway). Quote Link to comment
arcane Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Timely advice, I'm going to order a pair. On a side note, what do you guys recommend for quiet 120mm fans, internally (assuming 120mm fanwall)? The ones in Raj's thread are out of stock (and, as indicated in that post, also maybe not powerful enough for 20+ drives anyway). I picked up these http://goo.gl/Nogan . I haven't received my parts yet, so I can't verify that they will fit the fan wall without problems. Quote Link to comment
DoeBoye Posted April 18, 2011 Author Share Posted April 18, 2011 I picked up these http://goo.gl/Nogan . I haven't received my parts yet, so I can't verify that they will fit the fan wall without problems. I don't believe there is an issue with the 120mm fanwall. You should be fine . I believe it's just the back fans that are a little tight... In fact, seeing as Josh in a couple of posts earlier mentioned he had no problem fitting the same 2 fans without a mod, it looks like this is a bit of a YMMV. I guess the good news is if Josh is using them without a mod, and I am using them with only having to snip one of the fans' housings, they should work for just about everybody (Seeing as the second fan can still be snipped to recover another mm or two...) Quote Link to comment
arcane Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 I've also go the arctic cooling pwm 80mm fans on the back of my norco 4224 case but i didn't have to mod anything. They just screwed in....... Josh Same here. These fans did not require any modifications. Quote Link to comment
teamhood Posted April 19, 2011 Share Posted April 19, 2011 FYI - I finished my Norco 4224 and have been running parity checks and not one of my HD's have gone over 40 degrees. I also disconnected the rear fans and I'm just running the 4x80mm stock fans. This thing is really quiet!! Looks like with all drives (21) spun down I'm at 70watt!!!! Quote Link to comment
Ouze Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 These are the ones I used: The Arctic Cooling Arctic F8 Pro PWM 80mm Case Fan. I had a pair just arrive this morning on this thread's advice. They are indeed nearly silent. I do have a piece of advice to add: when you screw these in, leave them pretty loose, halfway at best. The give them a spin with a screwdriver to make sure they spin freely, then plug them into headers, then tighten all the way when you're sure they are spinning freely. I had to mess with mine for a minute to get them to fit right, as I put them in tightened all the way initially, and one would not spin. Good fans. Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 FYI - I finished my Norco 4224 and have been running parity checks and not one of my HD's have gone over 40 degrees. I also disconnected the rear fans and I'm just running the 4x80mm stock fans. This thing is really quiet!! Looks like with all drives (21) spun down I'm at 70watt!!!! Thank for sharing, question I am assuming you ran the parity check with all 21 drives assigned in unraid (correct), and did they all have data on them? What speeds are the 21 drives consisted of ? (example (3) 7200k / (18) Green) Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 FYI - I finished my Norco 4224 and have been running parity checks and not one of my HD's have gone over 40 degrees. I also disconnected the rear fans and I'm just running the 4x80mm stock fans. This thing is really quiet!! Looks like with all drives (21) spun down I'm at 70watt!!!! Thank for sharing, question I am assuming you ran the parity check with all 21 drives assigned in unraid (correct), and did they all have data on them? What speeds are the 21 drives consisted of ? (example (3) 7200k / (18) Green) FYI, it wouldn't matter one bit (pun!) if the drives had data on them or not. The parity check just looks at 1s and 0s. The rest of your questions are valid. Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 FYI - I finished my Norco 4224 and have been running parity checks and not one of my HD's have gone over 40 degrees. I also disconnected the rear fans and I'm just running the 4x80mm stock fans. This thing is really quiet!! Looks like with all drives (21) spun down I'm at 70watt!!!! Thank for sharing, question I am assuming you ran the parity check with all 21 drives assigned in unraid (correct), and did they all have data on them? What speeds are the 21 drives consisted of ? (example (3) 7200k / (18) Green) FYI, it wouldn't matter one bit (pun!) if the drives had data on them or not. The parity check just looks at 1s and 0s. The rest of your questions are valid. OK learned something again today, are there any 1s & 0s on a formated drive with no data on it? Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 OK learned something again today, are there any 1s & 0s on a formated drive with no data on it? If the drive is in the array then it has a partition on it. The whole partition gets read every parity check. The drive must have 1 or 0 bits on it, since the media surface must hold one or the other no matter if it's storing data or not. An empty drive just added to unRAID is purposely cleared so the partition is all 0's. Peter Quote Link to comment
madburg Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 OK learned something again today, are there any 1s & 0s on a formated drive with no data on it? If the drive is in the array then it has a partition on it. The whole partition gets read every parity check. The drive must have 1 or 0 bits on it, since the media surface must hold one or the other no matter if it's storing data or not. An empty drive just added to unRAID is purposely cleared so the partition is all 0's. Peter Understood now thank you, so does a parity check go faster on a empty cleared drive that has all 0's or the same amount of time as would a drive with data (0/1,s), both drives with equal size? Quote Link to comment
prostuff1 Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 OK learned something again today, are there any 1s & 0s on a formated drive with no data on it? If the drive is in the array then it has a partition on it. The whole partition gets read every parity check. The drive must have 1 or 0 bits on it, since the media surface must hold one or the other no matter if it's storing data or not. An empty drive just added to unRAID is purposely cleared so the partition is all 0's. Peter Understood now thank you, so does a parity check go faster on a empty cleared drive that has all 0's or the same amount of time as would a drive with data (0/1,s), both drives with equal size? it would be virtually the same. Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Right, it wouldn't make any noticeable difference. When calculating or checking parity, the CPU has to compute millions of strings like this: 0 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0....+ 1 = an even number, so write a 0 0 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0....+ 1 = an odd number, so write a 1 So a cleared drive would look like: 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0....+ 0 = an even number, so write a 0 modern CPUs are very good at simple addition Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 Understood now thank you, so does a parity check go faster on a empty cleared drive that has all 0's or the same amount of time as would a drive with data (0/1,s), both drives with equal size? Every complete data drive has to be read and the bits being 0 or 1 make no difference to the read speed of the drive. Peter Quote Link to comment
Josh Posted April 22, 2011 Share Posted April 22, 2011 FYI - I finished my Norco 4224 and have been running parity checks and not one of my HD's have gone over 40 degrees. I also disconnected the rear fans and I'm just running the 4x80mm stock fans. This thing is really quiet!! Looks like with all drives (21) spun down I'm at 70watt!!!! What's your room temp with the parity checks? I hit 41 degrees but it's 80 in my office during the day, 3 120 fans. I never even fired it up with the 80's, went straight to the 120's, maybe I should have. 23 drives, 21 are green Thanks Josh Quote Link to comment
teamhood Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 FYI these 80mm fans fit the back 2 Norco 4224 PERFECTLY and are very, very quiet http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103071&Tpk=Cooler%20Master%20BladeMaster%2080mm Quote Link to comment
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