Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Jun 03, 2018

ReadyNAS 2120 runs cooler with custom fan - less noise too.

If there is one thing I hate about servers, its the noise from the fans. So, I decided to pop the lid off and install a custom fan. I dissabled the internal small fans. I compared the temeratures and...

Performance

Frank888

NETGEAR Expert

Jun 05, 2018

Hi Shardie,

The solution can cool down the temperature of CPU.

Another important factor in NAS is the temperaure of HDD, will the solution cool down the HDD as well?

I doubt it.

shardie

Aspirant

Jun 05, 2018

Frank888 Hi, as you can see the unit remains open. The harddrives are absolutely cool. Remember that the problem with many cases is that they keep the hot air inside therefore strong fans are needed tompull the heat out. The cooling is because of airflow and not a fan blowing directly on components. Its like the power supply unit that doesnt have a fan because it too is open. Anyway, yes the harddrives are absolutely cool.

I do come from a background of gaming and pc modding for many years, so getting computers silent and cool is also not rocket science.

StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Jun 05, 2018
shardie wrote:

Anyway, yes the harddrives are absolutely cool.

I think a key aspect here is that you've mounted the modified chassis with a good amount of space above it, so the natural air-flow can handle most of the cooling. That does of course mean that the rack space utilitization isn't quite as high, but for many folks that's probably not a concern.

One risk is that since everything is open, it is also unprotected - something could fall onto the circuit board and do some damage, and it could potentially touch unprotected power leads. So anyone doing this does need to watch out for that (and in some environments that could be a serious drawback). I don't see Netgear shipping a NAS with an open frame.

Did you measure the temps with new fan, but with the original frame?