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Post by rookie on Jan 25, 2007 4:56:48 GMT 7
The main goals for buying my Thecus N2100 were: -RAID1 harddisk redundancy -Easy accessiblility for data, music, ftp and webdisk usage for Windows and non-Windows devices -24/7 operation, low power & low noise I placed two Western Digital RE2 500gb(WD5000YS-01M) harddisk in the box. From the moment I opened the box and placed the two harddisks in I noticed 2 things: 1-Real small fan, more noise and less airflow will be inevitable 2-No good airflow possible, due to the lack of space between both harddisks and N2100's case also due to the lack of holes in the last mentioned. From the moment I started working with my precious (costed a lot of money  ) temperature was showing arround 50 and even 60 degrees. This would probably kill my disks soon. Also the tiny fan was making a lot of noice and driving me crazy. In the past few months I've tried several solutions, but now I'm happy with my final one. The following I've done: -Placed harddisk-case heatsinks on both sides -Removed the tiny fan and cut one protection-bar -Made a big hole in the top cover from about 120mm -Mounted a 140mm to 120mm conversion set on the top cover -Mounted a low-rpm and low-power 120mm Papst fan(4412F/2GLL) on the conversion set -Mounted a 120mm fan-guard on the new fan -Upgraded to firmware 2.1.03 and set fan-options to normal -Installed the FANRPM-module and set fan-options to low -Set the Disk Power Management option to 120minutes -Put 4 rubber feet under the plastic case Maintained goals: -An almost silent NAS device with fan running between 600/800 rpm -An even more silent NAS device if harddisk powerdown -A real cool NAS device with harddisks and cpu 35/40degrees when disks are operational and arround 20/25degrees with spindown. To make my story more clear, I will put some pictures beneath. I hope this will help some N2100 owners to get more happy with their expensive (but usefull) device ! My thanks go out for the Thecus support because of keeping the good work up by enhancing firmware revisions (still much to do ). Also to the website onbeat.dk/thecus/index.php/Main_Page for supplying the FANRPM-module.     Regards. |
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Post by jasok2 on Jan 25, 2007 6:28:06 GMT 7
That is the best looking Fan mod I have seen yet.
I think ill copy you ;D
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Post by dbridges on Jan 25, 2007 7:47:07 GMT 7
Where did you get the heatsinks and how did you attach them?
It's something that i wanted to do but couldn't come up with a practical means of achieving it. I couldn't find screws long enough for what i wanted.
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Post by spiken on Jan 25, 2007 14:30:11 GMT 7
Waou, the biggest fan mod !
Why don't you used a 140 mm fan instead of the 120 mm ?
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Post by rookie on Jan 25, 2007 17:32:50 GMT 7
Where did you get the heatsinks and how did you attach them? It's something that i wanted to do but couldn't come up with a practical means of achieving it. I couldn't find screws long enough for what i wanted. The heatsinks I stripped from a dead WD Essential external drive, but I don't know if you can buy them. At first I did not have this heatsinks and it does not do a big job of cooling, so you can do without.  I have a 'big' collection of computer screws and had 2 slightly longer screws wich I mounted the harddrive and heatsink with. (yes, the harddisk is mounted with only 2 screws, but stays fine ) Waou, the biggest fan mod ! Why don't you used a 140 mm fan instead of the 120 mm ? Good question! As I mentioned I have tried more solutions before now and one of that was an Aero Cool 140mm fan. But I had a few 'problems' with that: 1-Could not find a fan-guard 2-It was running on 7.2 watts (because of leds), instead of 0.7 from the original and Papst fans. 3-It was very silent and keeping my case cool, but every 20 minutes the box beeped because I could not get this fan to run above 500rpm. Ok, now I now the FANRPM-mod, but I'm happy now and number 1 & 2 are important too. If you people have tips&tricks to improve the concept, that will be nice to read inhere. By the way: In my opinion the cooling & noise problem is a design failure and should be fixed in new model. |
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Post by rookie on Jan 26, 2007 17:25:33 GMT 7
With the advice of a good friend (thanks J.  ) I changed the cable of the fan to the inside of the box. Here's the picture :  |
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Post by ryebank on Jan 29, 2007 20:38:56 GMT 7
Is the fan blowing in to the box or blowing out - I guess as it is on top it should really be blowing out so most replacement air intake will be coming in via the old 4cm fan slots.
Also what is the power rating of the 12cm fan?
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Post by rookie on Jan 29, 2007 23:32:24 GMT 7
Is the fan blowing in to the box or blowing out - I guess as it is on top it should really be blowing out so most replacement air intake will be coming in via the old 4cm fan slots. Also what is the power rating of the 12cm fan? The fan is, indeed, blowing out of the box. The specifications are: * Type: 4412F/2GLL * Afmetingen: 120 x 120 x 25 mm. * Vermogen: 0,72 W. * Toerental: 1200 RPM. * Luchtverplaatsing: 70 m³/h * Spanning: 12 V * Aansluiting: 3-pin * Lagering: Sintec * Geluid: 18dba (Sorry for dutch, but I think you will understand) |
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rudyk
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Post by rudyk on May 7, 2007 3:53:18 GMT 7
Following in the footsteps of others in this thread, I was concerned that the temperature of my N2100 averaged around the 44 degrees celcius mark with too much noise. Rather than go overboard I dug out an old Antec 120mm 1200 rpm fan and mounted it in the side of the lid as per others in this thread. Interestingly the average temperature with the fan blowing air into the case dropped to 38 degrees celcius, however, when I mounted it to extract air from the N2100 and drilled an extra 8 holes in the rear to allow more air to be drawn in it dropped to a very respectable 32 degrees celcius and is now almost inaudible.  |
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Post by gunny2k6 on May 7, 2007 7:12:01 GMT 7
i do like your ideas of concerns around temps as i m as well but what makes me question what youve done has basicly voided ur 2 year warrenty and hence why i wouldnt do not consider modding mine untill 2 years up ...
but i have 2 identical Maxtor 300gb not maxline as they didnt have hem in stock when i went so had to go desktop diamond max range and it spin down now for a good few hours down stairs next to my tv and router is the thecus sitting at 17 days up time, 39 C HDD Temp, 40 System Temp and 4335 RPM Fan?
so how come your having very High Temps ?
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rudyk
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Post by rudyk on May 7, 2007 12:52:50 GMT 7
High internal temperatures are dependent on the amount of heat being generated, which is predominantly a factor of the average cpu load and heat dissipation of the drives installed, the effectiveness of the cooling system and the ambient temperature of the room the device is sitting in.
In my case the ambient temperature is 22 degrees celcius and the device was under an average file transfer load. At this basic loading the 44 degrees internal temperature is high but shouldn't be an issue for modern drives. However, experience has taught me that once the summer temperatures kick in that the device will quite quickly significantly exceed 50 degrees celcius. It is not healthy for the longevity of your hard drives to operate for months on end at such a temperature. For me the whole point of this device is reliable RAID1 family media storage, something which conflicts somewhat with excessive heat.
As I cannot do anything about the amount of heat generated by the drives or memory installed or much about the ambient room temperature the only choice is to modify the cooling system. I agree with previous comments that both the noise and temperatures generated by this device are serious design flaws.
Yes, you are of course correct that modifying your N2100 will void any warranty and I can understand why some are uncomfortable about this. My view is that if your device survives it's first few weeks then bearing in mind that it's entirely solid state that it's unlikely to fail. The most likely part to fail (apart from the fan which I no longer use) is the power supply which can be easily replaced. If anything, reducing the N2100's operating temperature by over 25% should increase its reliability.
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Post by rookie on May 12, 2007 22:11:32 GMT 7
Don't you miss the fan-rpm information in the webinterface with your 2-wire fan? Not that this will be a big issue, but it's handy. A nice fan with fan-cover is not very expensive and your sweet looking Thecus will than look even more sweet I must admit that with the 1200rpm fan, the device is so silent that I really have to stand next to it to hear it's running and than... I smile  Updated info on my case-mod: -Firmware revision 2.1.05 -Because of the RPM fix in the new firmware, no FAN-RPM module installed anymore -Fan RPM between 450-550 |
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rudyk
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Post by rudyk on May 13, 2007 15:59:45 GMT 7
Ideally a 3 wire fan would have been nice, but the Antec fan I happened to have lying around was only a 2 wire one and I really couldn't justify spending another £10 on a new 3 wire 120mm fan.
I still have to use the fanrpm module to disable the fan alarm every 30 minutes.
I'm not too bothered about the N2100's looks or fan noise because it's installed in my garage within a thermal block enclosure in order to protect my precious media from both theft and fire so I'm never going to hear it no matter how loud it is!
Temperature was the most important thing for me and so far I'm averaging 31 degrees celcius which is excellent.
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Post by laonightwolf on May 13, 2007 22:51:03 GMT 7
Following in the footsteps of others in this thread, I was concerned that the temperature of my N2100 averaged around the 44 degrees celcius mark with too much noise. Rather than go overboard I dug out an old Antec 120mm 1200 rpm fan and mounted it in the side of the lid as per others in this thread. Interestingly the average temperature with the fan blowing air into the case dropped to 38 degrees celcius, however, when I mounted it to extract air from the N2100 and drilled an extra 8 holes in the rear to allow more air to be drawn in it dropped to a very respectable 32 degrees celcius and is now almost inaudible. Could you post a bit more pictures? also from the holes you drilled? |
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rudyk
New Member
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Post by rudyk on May 14, 2007 2:53:45 GMT 7
Sure, no problem, I'll post some more pictures in the next few days. You can see the 8 holes I drilled in the rear quite clearly in the picture above, have another look in comparison with rookie's pictures.
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) temperature was showing arround 50 and even 60 degrees. This would probably kill my disks soon. Also the tiny fan was making a lot of noice and driving me crazy.
) I changed the cable of the fan to the inside of the box. Here's the picture :