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Forum Discussion
NAS204 HD and CPU Temp
I purchased a NAS204 and I am using 2 WD Hard drives in it.... WD2001FFSX, 7200 rpm, 64mb cache, Red Drives @ 2TB each.
I am new to this NAS and slowly getting the hang of it. Seem to work well...
Well, with a 120mm fan on the front and an 80mm on the rear:-
Which is really where it should be. I suppose that the one thing about the WD Red drives is that they do run a lot cooler and a bunch of hot drives don't help, especially when they're 3.5" ones and will subsequently restrict airflow but this should really be accounted for.
I also have looked at alternates, installed FreeNAS into a virtual machine yesterday, then attached 3 drives to the PC, gave the VM direct physical access to those, stuck them together in a RAID set in the FreeNAS VMware environment and then offered that volume back to the Windows host as a single iSCSI volume. I've just found a use for an idle miniPC that was sitting around...
Anyway, back to Netgear, more attention to thermals please!
I've come back to this thread as I continue my journey with my new unit.
I've now populated it with 4 x 2TB WD NAS drives which run cooler than the others I had in there. My CPU temp is between 75 to 76 degrees without running my extra fan stuck to the back of it.
I know that firmware 6.5 has some fan control but my question is, what should we expect to see on these units with these drives? 4 x 3.5" drives are going to restrict airflow but this CPU temperature is too high in my view, regardless of whether it's at the alarm point or not. I did read that someone else with 76 degrees was sent a replacement unit so i'm a little concerned about the longevity.
I've submitted the same question to support as i'd have expected this to be a tested and known value and if they ask me to try the 6.5 firmware i'll do that and see where it goes.
Well, since we last wrote.... I gave up on my Netgear 204 due to temps and lack of fan control.
I bought a Qnap 453A and it is a terrific unit... Can not believe everything this NAS does. Intel Processor is faster, had 2 to 3x the DDR3, running Quad core, and much more....
Various fan control options and running much cooler than my Netgear RN204 (which I returned to the store). Currently my cpu temp has been in the 80 to 90F, and my WD Red's
in the 70 to 80F range. I set my fan to run full at 1,700 rpm's and it is a larger fan than Netgear.
Granted it varies depending on activity and ambient temps. Today my home is hotter than normal and my cpu was maxing at about 98F vs. the 150F on Netgear. My home temp right now is
78F so I am going to kick on the A/C. At night, when cooler, my Qnap CPU is in the 80's and varies, and HD's lower temps- but does vary too; still less than Netgear. The ability of this Qnap is mind-blowing, so many features... things I have never even heard of for options. The manual is like 80 + pages long - so will take some time to go thru.
But relating to our topic.... I was too worried about heat and not controlling my fan speed was the killer with Netgear. I was not going to worry about my WD Red Drives.... too expensive If you compare
my cpu temps.... I am running as much as 70F (lower) than Netgear in the same environment using the same Red Drives. The box also seems to have more room to breath.
What also made me give up on Netgear was some remarks by their tech's. I was told one thing, copied the e-mail's and responses, but some senior corp tech told me the info I got from the tech was wrong. Everyone was getting too irriatated over my questions and issues, including me. Just too much stress and I only had it running for a day or so. The Qnap 453A worked so smoothly I have no regrets returning my RN204.
Yes, though that's also just about twice the price of the Netgear unit and does more than I need. If I were going to spend that on a diskless system with disks extra, i'd have just knocked up a PC case with a 5 into 3 disk chassis and run FreeNAS.
I am currently where I am so am eager to hear Netgear's expectation for CPU temp on the RN204.
Yes, I agree !!!
I built a new computer sitting here with Windows 10 Pro (which I hate !!!) running 4.5 ghz with 8 GB DDR3 or 4 (I forget) - sitting in a box now. I did not even think about FreeNAS (which is not free) at the moment because i was in the process of selling the computer, but I know FreeNAS was cheap. I talked to them and for what i need it was like $50 for the program with all the bells, etc... I could have taken my WD Reds and put them into the tower. Have all the program... making a bootable USB stick, the program, etc... for FreeNAS. Anyway, at that moment I did not even think about it.
Then after I got my Qnap, the light went off in my head to remove my HD with Windows 10 and just use my Red Drives in the tower with the FreeNAS program... but I already set up my stuff with Qnap and it is much smaller than my tower, so going to keep Qnap.... but still kicking myself in the butt for not using my tower. If / When I sell my tower, will be fine with respect to cost. Nearly 60 years old and my mind not as good as it use to be..... you tend to forget things as time goes on (laugh).
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