pras1011 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 What I used to do was to put the old screamer 80mm fans and fanwall right at the front on the case and then let it run whilst the parity check was going. Unfortunately I think the ultrastar enterprise hdd run very hot anyway! Quote Link to comment
c3 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 What I used to do was to put the old screamer 80mm fans and fanwall right at the front on the case and then let it run whilst the parity check was going. Unfortunately I think the ultrastar enterprise hdd run very hot anyway! Don't blame the drive, you do not have proper airflow. Just placing fans in front will have a marginal effect without proper ductwork. The majority of the air will just spill over and the 800rpm quiet fans will actually block the extra flow. Swap the fans. Quote Link to comment
pras1011 Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 I have plugged up all of the holes in my case and the temp has dropped from 59 to 55c. Unfortunately certain drives do run much hotter than others. I will change out the Coolinks as they are rubbish. The 80mm fans at the rear (Noctua R8s) are blowing cool air. Quote Link to comment
lionelhutz Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Quiet is, of course, in the eye (or I should say ear) of the beholder. Isn't that the truth. My HTPC has 1 x 120mm fan as the only moving part to get it quiet enough for me. The server is in the basement. I don't even want to think about living with 5 or 6 fans running 3000rpm in my living area. Quote Link to comment
mrow Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 The NF-P12 will be running at near max speed, not the quietest setting (but quieter than factory), to equal the airflow of the factory fans. Given a temperature controller or script you may not need that much airflow and the fans can back off and quiet down. I have all 6 of my Noctuas (4 NF-P12s and 2 NF-R8s) running at full speed all the time and you'd be surprised at how quiet it is. My Seasonic X850 PSU is in hybrid mode and the fan in it never runs so that helps. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 I've used several Noctua's over the years -- have several in my HTPCs -- and they are indeed excellent and VERY quiet fans Quote Link to comment
pras1011 Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 I replaced the Coolinks with Noctua NF-P12. The temp after two hours of a parity check is 49c. Not bad! The R8s are blowing warm, finally. I noticed that at the back of the case there are holes/gaps for the expansion cards. Do I need to block these off too as I think the R8s will suck air from those holes/gaps? Quote Link to comment
electron286 Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 49C is still a bit warm, and I would not like to leave it there for long. The big thing is not only enough air-flow, as you have already come to think about, but PROPER air flow direction! I would check with a small piece of paper, and or feather... what the air flow is actually doing. The places you NEED the air to go in is of course at the front, over the drives. Air going IN the case at any other point will reduce the important drive cooling air flow. My other concern is that if you just block the rear vents, you might reduce power supply air flow. Sadly the other NEEDED air intake is on the power supply. One issue I have with the small (for what it does) case with limited air-flow options of the Norco series cases, is the internal airflow gets complicated by adding a "standard" power supply which also has air flow from the outside, over the power supply components and into the computer case... This increases air intake can, and often does reduce the needed cooling over the drives. The total air from all other locations on the case are the only exhaust options possible. So ALL other places need to be EXHAUSTING air from the case. If not, the drives, and possibly the power supply are being starved of needed cooling. One thing that CAN help also, is to REVERSE the fan on the power supply... This may or may not be good to do, and should only be done after fully understanding what your air-flow is currently doing. The goal here, if this path is chosen, is to remove the power supply as a source of starving drive cooling air flow. The ambient temperature will NEED to remain lower, than would otherwise be allowed in this situation to prevent power supply over heating. But I am much more concerned with the temperature your drives are already running at. If you choose to reverse the power supply air flow, it will also pull air OUT of the case and exhaust out the back, as your rear case fans already do. You will then also need to test blocking the other spots in your case that do not actively blow air out, to further assess if you need to block or not for overall best case cooling. (but I would think with the extra exhaust from the reverses power supply fan, that it may work out well to leave the other spots open.) You may also want to look at temperature changes from ambient, rather than just the drive temperatures. If you room and server area temperatures are increasing also during parity checks, this may be a bigger issue than the actual air-flow of the case! Also, you may want to look also at the internal case temperatures, CPU temperatures, and power supply temperatures... Some of these possibly just by feel, like touching the case top, bottom, power supply back, etc. Just to get an idea if things are over-all warm, cool, hot... not just what the drives are doing. Sorry no definitive answer here, it does sound like things are getting better though. I am just not comfortable running even in the 40 C range for extended periods of time, let alone 50 C or close... Quote Link to comment
pras1011 Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Well I taped off the rear of the case and the temps dropped from 49 to 46. Not bad! And the PSU feels cooler when doing a parity check. The rear fans are so close to rear opening that they must have been sucking air through those. It is well known that Hitachi HDDs run hotter especially the 7200 rpm ones. 5400 rpm ones now run even cooler now in my case. Quote Link to comment
mrow Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Do you have a room fan you could point directly at the front of the case? Believe it or not, when I tried this one time to see if it made a difference drive temps dropped quite a bit. Perhaps if your case is raised up off the ground a bit angle the fan upwards so it's pulling cooler air from floor level. Quote Link to comment
pras1011 Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 I think 46c is excellent! I did the fan method and that worked. Also placing the screamers outside at the front of the case worked as well. Quote Link to comment
electron286 Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Good to hear the temperatures are lower again! While I would like to see still lower temperatures, I would not complain either with what you now are getting. Quote Link to comment
BetaQuasi Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 I'm using the Arctic Cooling PWM fans (2x80mm, 3x120mm) in my 4224. Total of 13 bays populated, no extra blocking of unused bays or holes in the fanwall etc... so far, the highest disk temps I've seen was 46C, and that was on a 40 degree day during the summer. I chose the Arctic Cooling fans based on a post over at overclockers.com.au which suggested they were as good as the Noctua's, if not better, for much less $$.. so far so good! Will be keeping a closer eye on the temps come summer (winter here atm, it's 5 degrees outside!)... but yeah I've only blown the dust out of the case once since building it a year ago and never had a high temperature alert. Both 120mm fans claim to move ~54CFM... difference being the arctic 120MM PWM's cost $9 here in Aus, as opposed to the Noctua's costing $29. Big difference! All the drives are green, some Seagates, some WD. I will admit though, I only do manual parity checks, and I always run them when I feel that the ambient temperature isn't going to cause them issues. Quote Link to comment
jamerson9 Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Going by the number of fans it sounds as if you all have the more recent version of the Norco cases. Last weekend picked up off cragislist an old version 1 4020 with five 80mm in the middle and 2 contra rotating 80mms at the back for cheap. I thought the darn thing was going to take off the first time I powered it on. Even with the most offending rear counter rotating fans replaced with two spare masscools, I can still hear it though the floor boards from the basement at night. It looks like the 120mm midplate is not compatible with this old version. So don't think that is an option for me. I'm thinking of replacing the 5 80mm with something less noisy. I suppose I should look for one with high static pressure rather than cfm. Anyone who just replaced their 80mm with another quieter 80mm and still get decent cooling? As a FYI if you need extra screws for the drive trays, make sure to get ones that actually advertised to work with norco trays or ones designed for thin sheet metal trays. Tried with some screws for a dell server trays that I had, but the neck of the heads were too thick. Quote Link to comment
pras1011 Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Get the noctua r8. They push loads of air and are very quiet. Quote Link to comment
jamerson9 Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Thanks for the suggestion. Noctua r8 might be an overkill as the server lives in the basement, not in the living room. I think the deltas are just old and tired leading to all the screaming. Just wondering what others replaced their 80mms with if they haven't gone to the 120mm conversion. Quote Link to comment
garycase Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Noctua r8 might be an overkill as the server lives in the basement, not in the living room. ... Just wondering what others replaced their 80mms with if they haven't gone to the 120mm conversion. If noise isn't a significant issue virtually any good 120mm fan will work. Just check the rpm and CFM ratings to be sure you know what you're getting. Quote Link to comment
pras1011 Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 Now that the summer heat has picked up considerable in the UK, I am curious to see if the noctuas will keep the hdds cool whilst doing a parity check. It was about 24 degrees in the house at the start of June but now its about 28 degrees! Quote Link to comment
axeman Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Now that the summer heat has picked up considerable in the UK, I am curious to see if the noctuas will keep the hdds cool whilst doing a parity check. It was about 24 degrees in the house at the start of June but now its about 28 degrees! but but in the colder months it's ADDING to the heat of your home so it's a net zero :-) Quote Link to comment
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