NORCO SS-400 4x3 modifications

[RokleM]

First impressions:

• Heavier than imagined
  
• Few more screws would have been nice
  
• Well put together
  
• Way too little flow yet sounds like a wind tunnel.  My case went from barely being able to know it was on to quite loud in my opinion.  I haven't had a system this loud since a 3x120mm radiator massive water cooled gaming rig running at RIDICULOUS overclock speeds (almost double stock).
  

My primary issue is the last.  My drives are running 5-10 degrees warmer (35-40), which causes me concern.  Not as much that 40 is a warning area, but if it's at 40 with this noise, I'm not sure I have much wiggle room.  These fans are so noisy yet supply so little airflow, when I pop open the side of my case all the other fans double or quadruple in output due to the restriction removal.

 

So my question is, who's modified these and how?  New quieter fans is the obvious first thing, however how does one overcome the lack of airflow through the unit itself?  Quieter (and likely slower) fans will just create more heat within the unit.

 

Thoughts?

[RokleM]

Nobody?  Everyone left it stock?

 

I swapped them out with same vantec stealths I had.  Temps jumped to 40ish in the chassis.  Whisper quiet, but a little warmer than I want.

 

I could also probably run the fan leads out to a controller.

 

So I'm thinking something with a little more umph than the stealth, the question is... what?

[Rajahal]

I like to replace the fans with these for a quiet build:

 

Coolink SWiF2-801 80 x 25mm Hydro-Dynamic Bearing Fan - (1500RPM/31.5ml/h/11dBA)

 

They may not provide enough cooling for hot running 7200 RPM drives, but for green drives they are great.

[RokleM]

Thanks, I actually went one step up to the SWiF2-80P but didn't update the thread.  Very quiet and seems to be doing the trick.  It isn't even comparable to stock and my hottest drive (7200 RPM old 750g drive) only hit 41 degrees during a full parity check.

[jowi]

I've replaced the loud stock fans with silent Noctua fans which according to specs, should have the same airflow, but are a lot less noisy. Still, it does not make it silent. First i used the low power mode of the fans, this would make them very silent but cooling was very bad. My Hitachi 7200rpm drives would heat up to over 55C... so back to full speed. Now, when running all disks at full speed, eg doing a parioty build, they will do about 50C, and in normal usage (1 or 2 disks up, streaming or copying some data) the will be 42-44C.

[Ookami313]

Trying to decide on which fan to go with to replace the stock ones in my 3 SS-400s. Is there any real difference between the 80P and the 801 other than the 80P is a variable. Both are the same price on FrozenCPU, but if the 400 isn't going to be able to take advantage of the 4pin variable speeds I'd rather go with the 801 that has a constant 1500/11dBA. Thanks.

[RokleM]

Trying to decide on which fan to go with to replace the stock ones in my 3 SS-400s. Is there any real difference between the 80P and the 801 other than the 80P is a variable. Both are the same price on FrozenCPU, but if the 400 isn't going to be able to take advantage of the 4pin variable speeds I'd rather go with the 801 that has a constant 1500/11dBA. Thanks.

I went with the 80P since it had the higher RPM/flow, yet is still quiet.  If the fan isn't throttled, technically it should run a the full 2000 RPM.

 

They still seem to be doing well, but I wish norco had changed quite a few things on the design.  While this is one of the better units, it's far from ideal.