Replacing the fan in ReadyNAS Duo - possible?

I have joined the many who have replaced the stock ReadyNAS Duo fan with an aftermarket fan. I have to say that the noise difference is dramatic and well worth it. However I am worried about the potential for problems after getting thoroughly confused by this thread which goes into much more detail about matching the CFM, RPM and wattage between the stock fan and an aftermarket fan. Instead of trying to understand all of this, I took a leap of faith. I followed the many users in this thread who have had success with the Fractal Design 60mm Silent Series fan http://fractal-design.com/?view=product&category=4&prod=15.

For those of you in the US looking for a place to buy this fan, I couldn't find any place that had reasonable prices and availability. I would like to recommend Quiet PC http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/fractaldesignfans/fd-fan-60 located in the UK. Simply change your country and currency in the upper left corner of the site and you can see that the Fractal Design fan will cost you $11.33 shipped. My fan arrived in less than a week which is faster than some domestic deliveries and the shipping price is great for international.

Prior to installing the fan I took a screenshot of my Duo's Health tab in Frontview. I run two Seagate ST3500630AS 500GB drives in my setup. I don't have any streaming services running, I simply use it as a file server at this time.

The temps and fan speed using the stock fan at the time I took the screenshot were:

• 1704 RPM


• 42 C / 107 F


• 37 C / 98 F

I realize that this fans RPM fluctuates based temperature, but I know that it has been around 1700 RPM in the past when I have checked. I also have my HD's set to go into sleep mode after periods of not being used.

Following the nice video guide uploaded by danielrc15 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_68Bw2qgN4E I was able to install the new fan in a few minutes. It is really simple, and the only note I would make is that the Fractal Fan has a much longer cable so I wrapped it conveniently around the fans outer frame which keeps the cable away from any of the electrical parts on the board.

After reconnecting my Duo and starting Frontview, I proceeded to recalibrate the fan once. After waiting for a period of time for the hard drives to heat up here are the results:

• the fan speed settles between 1630 -1650 RPM


• my HD temps are 40 C / 104 F and 35C / 95 F


• the noise levels are lower.


• This is on a cool day so I am sure the temps will rise along with the fan RPM when summer hits.

The one question I have is regarding the minimum fan speed. I am aware that there is a minimum fan speed utility posted on Netgears site with some rather ominous warnings http://www.readynas.com/?p=4216 . My Duo seems to be fine when the hard drives have been running for a few minutes and the fan RPM settles. I am concerned that when the HD's go to sleep, that the minimum fan speed is dropping to around 1000 RPM as the fan barely produces enough air to feel it blowing out of the back and upon initial FrontView access when the HD's were sleeping and prior to them fully heating up, I can check the health and see RPM's around 1300 or less on the fan even though the HD temps are much cooler like 25 C and 28 C. Should this be acceptable fan speed reduction as long as the HD's are in sleep mode or should I be concerned enough to apply the "discouraged use" minimum fan speed addon and set it to around 1300?

Thanks for the great thread and any helpful advice. :D I wish I could post links using BBCode... :(

Hi Sulu,

Apart from the HDD's, be aware that the CPU also needs a minimum amount of cooling. I wouldn't go below 1500 - 1600 Rpm in any case and keep air inlets (front AND side) free of accumulated dust.

Thanks for the reminder about the CPU. Since you have installed the minimum fan speed addon is it as dangerous as Netgear makes it out to be? Is it complex to configure?

No not all, follow the guidelines given to install the utility and restart.

Then in Frontview under System --> Power you will find "Fan RPM Override Option". You can set there minimum fan speed as desired and "Apply". That's it.

The "Danger" is that you set fan speed too low. I.e. if the noise of your fan is perfectly acceptable at 1800 Rpm then don't set it lower.

I've been considering to buy a ReadyNAS Duo, but I wanted to investigate the noise levels first. Found this thread very interesting.

There is one thing here which people talk about which I don't understand: "calibrating the fan". How do you do that?

There is an option in the admin panel to calibrate the the fan

thomthom wrote:
I've been considering to buy a ReadyNAS Duo, but I wanted to investigate the noise levels first. Found this thread very interesting. There is one thing here which people talk about which I don't understand: "calibrating the fan". How do you do that?

I don't know if some people are very sensitive to certain noises more so than others, but some members in the past have complained about the noise level of almost every ReadyNAS made. I have an NV+ that some think is noisy and I hear the drives over the fan, the same thing is true of my NVX units. I may be fortunate three times and gotten quiet units, or they may be more sensitive than others.

Also keep in mind that if you have a home network, you don't have to have the unit right beside you. Anywhere you have a good wired connection, it will probably be happy. Some people even use rack mounted units that are definitely noisy (fans run full speed all the time as they were designed for use in server rooms, not next to users), but they are in a basement location.

I don't know if this applies your case, but here is how I opened my ReadyNas Duo case. Remove the four tiny screws from around the edge of the back of the unit. You can optionally remove the foot pads from the bottom of the unit in order to reduce the friction when you slide back the side panel. Then slide the side panel away from the front of the box, towards the back. It was pretty stiff on my unit, and I had to work at it a little bit. For access to the memory chip, you only need to remove the left hand panel (looking at the box from the front).

There are report for internal temp with fractal design fan and high ambient temperature (30°-32°C on summertime)?

Could be true, but keep in mind that to get that low in temperature the nas has to be equipped with disks that don't run so hot.
My old Seagate disks are booth noisy and hot. Infact I only hear my disks, not the replaced fan.