The 5X3 Cage review - Norco, SuperMicro, iStarUSA and Icy Dock


Whaler_99

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Also has anyone else corrupted/damaged hard drives by using a trayless 5x3 cage ?

 

I've been using trayless for more than two years without problem.  I'm puzzled by the report of damaged drives because of inadvertent contact - not enough detail of how the contact occurred and I don't see how contact could damage the drives anyway (unless you were to drop one, from six feet, onto the other!).

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So I bought the SilenX Effizio from Germany (not sold in the UK) and now the server runs, about 10 degrees hotter than before.

The fans are much quieter than the stock ones, and they do get noisier as parity calculates, so I guess the Thermistor does work (they didn't spin for a few minutes until temperature was higher than the minimum level)

I have setup parity and let it go on for an hour, temperatures reported are in the pic below

I don't like to see red, and I do wonder if 50 is above what I can accept...

Shall I send them back or can I live with 50 C?

So you were running at around 40C with the stock fans? As I wrote here I'm seeing drive temps in 35-37C during parity calculation with the SilenX Effizio. So the difference must be in the drives and/or the case. I'm mostly running Samsung Spinpoints which are pretty cool and I do have multiple 120mm fans blowing air out of the back of the case. I wouldn't recommend going over 45C.

 

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I don't let any disk get above 45°C.

Me too.  I ran 12 disks at 60c during a parity check when a fan died and the drives have problems now with smart errors and just general drive slowness (i.e.  I doubled the time required for the drives to complete a parity check).  I have now replaced all of those drives and just use them for off line backups.  I prefer to keep my drives in the 30s if at all possible.
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not to sounds like a jerk but are you sure you installed the fans so that the air is blowing out of the cage and not in.  Getting the fan backwards can be an easy mistake to make.

 

The fans label is visible from the back of the cage is that the right way?

I have two 120mm fans at the back of the cage. Room temp is 20C.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

 

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So I bought the SilenX Effizio from Germany (not sold in the UK) and now the server runs, about 10 degrees hotter than before.

The fans are much quieter than the stock ones, and they do get noisier as parity calculates, so I guess the Thermistor does work (they didn't spin for a few minutes until temperature was higher than the minimum level)

I have setup parity and let it go on for an hour, temperatures reported are in the pic below

I don't like to see red, and I do wonder if 50 is above what I can accept...

Shall I send them back or can I live with 50 C?

So you were running at around 40C with the stock fans? As I wrote here I'm seeing drive temps in 35-37C during parity calculation with the SilenX Effizio. So the difference must be in the drives and/or the case. I'm mostly running Samsung Spinpoints which are pretty cool and I do have multiple 120mm fans blowing air out of the back of the case. I wouldn't recommend going over 45C.

 

I am running mostly Seagate drives, four Norcos at the front, two 120 mm fans at the back in a coolermaster stacker case. The only thing I can think could mess the airflow is the big round grill on one side of the case. I can try to block that and see if it improves airflow.

 

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not to sounds like a jerk but are you sure you installed the fans so that the air is blowing out of the cage and not in.  Getting the fan backwards can be an easy mistake to make.

 

 

I attached pictures of both fans, in the same way they were installed (I think)

- label up for the stock fans (black)

- the same way, I think, as shown in the other picture for the SilenX fans. I will check when I get home tonight.

silenx_small.jpg.69769022e61c3bd117ce70b498eab065.jpg

stock_small.jpg.cec40198f93275498f23982698bcf917.jpg

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From the Effizio instructions:

 

*Determine whether the fan will be used for intake or exhaust. The label faces the direction of the airflow. If you want to sue the fan for intake, the label should face into the case. If you want to use the fan for exhaust, the label should face away from the case

 

In this case, as I am sucking air through the front to the back of the caddy, the fan, if understand correctly, is being used for exhaust.

Therefore, I should be able to see the label from the back of the caddy, once the caddy is put back together, right?

I was able to see the label of the stock fan at the back or the x-case...

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So I taped up side and top openings, which has helped the airflow, it seems judging by the temps.

I attached a comparison chart of idle temps with the stock fans, the new ones during parity calculations before and after taping the other openings on the case.

I wish I recorded temps when calculating parity with the stock fans now...eparysez.jpg

 

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Also interesting

- the hottest drives are the Seagate ST3500

- parity (a 4TB Seagate) is in the middle of an xcase enclosure, and yet is as cool as the Samsung drive, a whopping 10C cooler than the hottest drive

- the five hottest drives are in the xcase enclosure between the other two xcase enclosures (which I expected)

- two identical WD drives sitting near each other in the top enclosure are exhibiting temperature variance of 10C!

 

Well, I can only enrich this with replacing the fans and running parity with the old ones so I can have a fair comparison and make a decision.

 

aqy8yny7.jpg

 

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I think you can only really compare drives that are exactly the same, or to themselves in old/new setup.

 

You have a BIG mix of drives, older 500gb 7200rpm, newer 2TB 5400rpms, and even a 4TB 5900rpm NAS drive.

 

I expect them to all have different operating temps, even those two WD drives ARE slightly different models.

 

Regarding your fans directions, just use a piece of paper, if it sticks to the fan, its sucking air, if it trys to move away, its blowing air.

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If your temps are running that high, you may want to consider switching from a 5-in-3 hot-swap cage to these 4-in-3 cages with front fans.    They cool notably better than any of the 5-in-3 cages.  [A 120mm fan blowing directly over the drives instead of smaller fans "sucking" air in]

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002

 

That's what I was using before, but the big fan was just as loud as the stock fan for the xcase, and drive upgrade was a pain in comparison. I can also fit another five drives in my server with this setup. Worse case scenario I go back to the stock fan, will test temps during parity calculation this weekend.

 

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Comparison between the two fans:

 

http://www.pc-cooling.de/Silent+PC/Cooler/Temp.+geregelt/200100245/SilenX+Effizio+80+x+25+mm+-+15+dBa+-+Thermistor+-+L%FCfter.html?language=en

http://zhanyu.manufacturer.globalsources.com/si/6008839870006/pdtl/Cooling-fan/1061332860/Cooling-Fan.htm

 

                Effizio                      ZY8025

RPM        1700                        2000+10%

Output    max. 54.4 m³/h      25.6 CFM (43.49 m³/h)

Noise      max 15dB                20+2dB

 

I wonder if the problems is the thermistor part of it. In theory (Effizio's site does not actually publish output figures, I found them on the german site I bough them from) the Effizio move more air in an hour. In reality, this is a max measurament, and when I put the hand near the back of the case, the fans feel like they are not moving much air at all..

RPM is almost 23% less than the ZY8025 at the maximum Effizio setting.

Thermistor means that they are supposed to spin up as heat increases. I inserted the thermistor cable right in the drive cage, near the hard disks and yet, if I reboot the server, the fans won't start up for over a minute.

 

 

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I think you can only really compare drives that are exactly the same, or to themselves in old/new setup.

 

You have a BIG mix of drives, older 500gb 7200rpm, newer 2TB 5400rpms, and even a 4TB 5900rpm NAS drive.

 

I expect them to all have different operating temps, even those two WD drives ARE slightly different models.

 

Regarding your fans directions, just use a piece of paper, if it sticks to the fan, its sucking air, if it trys to move away, its blowing air.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. Other ppl with new drives are fine using the Effizio fans, cause their drives have a slower spin, so they don't get hot. I have many older 7200rpm drives, and those are much hotter due to the higher spin rate, so the fan is struggling to keep temps down.

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So I did reinstall the old fans, which to be fair are fairly quiet, so I can stay with them even in the movie room.

Performed parity calculation for more than two hours, and now temperatures even of the hottest disks are 7C less than with the Effizio.

I put my hand behind them after restarting the server and boy I can feel double the air being shifted by the fans.

I will test a SWIF2 fan tomorrow, as it didn't arrive on Saturday.

I am also toying with testing the Noctua's, they should move a fair amount of air

 

http://www.quietpc.com/80mmfans

 

evajusys.jpg

 

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The SWiF2 fans are rated at 23,4CFM compared to <32CFM from the Silenx Effizio EFX-08-15T. I would not expect SWiF2 to be any better or there is something wrong with your Silenxs. Could it be the thermistor placement?

 

To be clear, on my system the Silenxs do run ~5C hotter than the stock fans but are far more quieter. At least on my units the stock fans were noisy but I'm quite sensitive to fan noise.

 

Noctua NF-R8 will for sure move ~32CFM (17dBA) of air and you can always use the adapters to go lower. I'm using Noctua for all other fan purposes and they are excellent. In the future I will most likely go with them also for the cage replacement.

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The SWiF2 fans are rated at 23,4CFM compared to <32CFM from the Silenx Effizio EFX-08-15T. I would not expect SWiF2 to be any better or there is something wrong with your Silenxs. Could it be the thermistor placement?

 

To be clear, on my system the Silenxs do run ~5C hotter than the stock fans but are far more quieter. At least on my units the stock fans were noisy but I'm quite sensitive to fan noise.

 

Noctua NF-R8 will for sure move ~32CFM (17dBA) of air and you can always use the adapters to go lower. I'm using Noctua for all other fan purposes and they are excellent. In the future I will most likely go with them also for the cage replacement.

 

I can see you are running in your system the following drives

3 Samsung HD204UI @ 5400 RPM

2 Samsung HD154UI @ 5400 RPM

6 Samsubg HD103UJ @ 7200 RPM

 

How hot do your 7200RPM after 2Hrs parity calculation?

-

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