Replacing the fan in ReadyNAS Duo - possible?

Daryn wrote:

I have my duo in my family room and it was clearly audible 12' across the room when idle. It was very annoying when under any load because it was often louder than the tv. My wife kept telling me to get it out of the room. I just installed a Noctua NF-R8. All I can say is: WOW! Initially, I thought the fan was defective since it was virtually silent during startup and didn't feel like it was pushing much air. I recalibrated the fan and I thought the calibration wasn't working since again the fan was silent. I'm used to the hairdryer of the stock Crown fan. The fan is perfectly fine, and the drives run at 34C instead of 40C+. My duo is now the quietest thing in my home theater. It's quieter than the DVR and PS3. My wife thought I was wasting more money until she heard, or actually couldn't hear!, the duo. I bought a Noctua NF-R8, 60mm to 80mm adapter, and a fan grill for $20 + shipping from coolerguys.com. I had to use a utility blade to shave a little bit of plastic off the corners of the adapter so the side panel would slide back on. If you are reading this thread, get this fan, you definitely won't regret it. Sorry for the poor picture quality, but I'm too lazy to take it again.

I just did this mod and of all the things I've done in my life this was one of the simplest, easiest and most straightforward. You need a Noctua NF-R8 fan, a 60-80mm adapter and a fan grill for about $20, a Phillips screwdriver, a pair of pliers and 10 minutes of your time. That's it. After that, your ReadyNAS Duo is barely noticable noise wise.

Steps:
* Turn off the device.
* Disconnect network and power cables.
* Remove drives.
* Remove the left side panel (two screws on rear, then pull backwards).
* Disconnect stock fan cable.
* Remove stock fan (four screws).
* Cut the stock fan finger protection with a pair of pliers and remove.
* Wire the Noctua NF-R8 through the rear casing (see picture above).
* Fit the 60-80mm adapter to the rear of the NAS using the rubber screws that came with the Noctua NF-R8.
* Fit the Noctua NF-R8 on the adapter using the four metal screws that came with the Noctua NF-R8.
* Fit the fan grill to the Noctua NF-R8.
* Connect the Noctua NF-R8 cable to the ReadyNAS (same socket as the stock fan).
* Fit the left side panel.
* Attach the drives.
* Connect the network and power cables.
* Power up.
* Recalibrate the fan in FrontView.

My drives ran at 2000rpm/38C with the stock fan and now run at 1600rpm/27C with the Noctua NF-R8. Hats off for Daryn!