- I'm really enjoying my Synology RS1221 NAS.
This is a rack-mount NAS, it has a short depth,
and fits perfectly in my closet rack.
It has eight built-in base and can be extended up to 12,
which is just what I need for my file storage and backups.
But, there is one thing that I don't like about it,
and that's the fan noise.
Hey, I'm Jerry.
And since migrating to the RS1221+ a couple of weeks ago,
I have not had any issues with this Synology NAS.
It's fast for what I need.
It has plenty of storage bays to expand if I need to,
and it sits mostly out of the way
in my master bedroom closet.
My only complaint about the NAS so far is the fan noise.
And yes, I fully expected the fans to be a bit loud,
because of the fact that this is a rack-mount unit.
And I don't hear it during the day at all,
because I'm not sitting around it.
But as silly as it sounds,
I do hear it when I'm in my master bedroom,
and I don't want to keep the closet door closed,
so I'm going to be swapping out the fan, fans,
for hopefully much quieter Noctua fans.
Thanks to this Reddit post
about changing out the fans in the RS1221
and this comment from Dwn2Clwn,
I ordered these 80 millimeter Noctua CF-A8 PWM fans,
to replace the noisy stock fans inside.
And this is a good point to stop and say that,
any modification like this could have an adverse effect
on your warranty, so proceed at your own risk.
Also, I don't have a ton of equipment in the closet
where this is going to be sitting
and the temperature is in controlled
and I don't push this device very hard.
So I'm not worried about a slight increase in temperature,
that may happen due to possibly less airflow.
Now, just to set a baseline for noise and temperature
in this room without the RS1221+ running,
the noise level as my Apple Watch hears it,
is at about 34 decibels.
With the RS1221+ running in this room
with the default factory fans running in quiet mode,
the noise level is around 50 decibels.
As for the temperatures with the NAS turned on,
I have a Windows 10 VM running on this Synology,
and it's running a speed disc test,
Plex is streaming to my iPhone
and the backup is running all at the same time.
The internal CPU temperature is at about 40 degrees Celsius,
and the hard drive temps for my IronWolf 6TB Drives
is at about 30 degrees Celsius.
Again, all of this is with the fans set to quiet mode.
Okay. With the NAS turned off,
we can remove the eight screws on top
and open up the case to see what we're working with inside.
Okay. So with the top off
you can see both of the fans in the back.
One of the fans runs the cable under a piece of tape
and then up and around.
This fan looks like it just comes up from the bottom
and plugs in right here onto the motherboard.
So this should just be simple swaps, a couple of screws
on the back, pop these out, unroute the cable,
route the new cable in, and hopefully we're all good.
So let's go and do that.
(soft relaxing music)
All right. So I think we got everything in there.
The cords are out of the way
so they're not going to get sucked into the fan.
The cord over here is taped down like the original one was
and ran underneath this cable over here.
So hopefully we should be all set.
Let's go ahead and get this top on and we'll get it
powered on and see if it made any difference.
(metal clanking)
All right.
We'll hold off on the screws for just a minute.
Let's go ahead and plug this thing in
and see what kind of noise reduction we got out of this
with the new Noctua fans versus the original stock fans.
And just right away, I hear almost
like a little vibration or something hitting something.
So something's not quite right. What did I do wrong?
(buzzing sound)
It's this fan over here.
Nope.
(buzzing sound)
Oh, the power supply.
The power supply fan right here is hitting this cable.
So I need to reroute this cable a little bit.
So what I'll probably end up doing
is just undoing this tape and do two routes
through this tape with the wire
and that should hopefully fix that issue.
Keep it out of the way.
(metal clanking)
All right, here we go.
And yeah, just initial pressions, impressions
is that those fans are absolutely quieter right away.
And after a few seconds, they quieted it down even more
so you can barely even hear them. They're almost inaudible.
All right. So the hard drives just spun up,
so we'll give that just a minute to finish booting up
and then we'll check the noise level
with the new fan configuration.
Okay. So we are fully booted up.
So let's go ahead and check the noise level
which is audibly different to my ears
with the new Noctua fans versus the stock fan of the 1221+.
So let's see what the Apple Watch says.
Wow. So about 37 dB.
All right. So at just 37 decibels
versus the standard room noise of about 34, 35 decibels,
that's a huge improvement over the stock fan.
So let's go ahead and see what the temperatures
look like on the inside.
All right. So we're running the same test
that we were previously.
We have a backup running,
we have Plex streaming to my iPhone
somewhere.
There we go.
And we have a speed test running on a VM
that's running on the Synology at this moment.
So let's go ahead and check the speed,
I'm sorry, the temperature of the hard drives.
So if we look at the hard drives,
we're running around 33, so just 32, 33.
Just slightly higher than what the hard drives
were running previously with the stock fans.
And the 34 degrees Celsius,
so three to four degrees higher
than what we were getting previously.
What about the CPU?
The CPU, I believe previously was running
about 40 degrees Celsius with the stock fans on quiet mode.
So with quiet mode on the Noctua fans
were a bit higher at 61 degrees Celsius.
So that may be a concern for some,
if you're going to be running
a little bit higher temperature but we are on quiet mode.
So let's go ahead and see what the other modes sound like
compared to the stock fans.
The stock fans were just super loud at the quiet mode
but in cool and full speed mode were just insane.
So let's try cool mode and see how that sounds.
So the fans, I mean just ever so slight increase in noise.
I can actually hear the hard drives churning in the box
even in cool mode with the Noctua fans
versus the stock fans in quiet mode.
They were so loud.
I couldn't hear the hard drives at all.
So let's try full speed and see how that sounds.
All right.
So at full speed, it actually sounds quieter
than the stock fans did in quiet mode.
Let's actually verify that with the Apple Watch.
All right. So yeah.
The Noctua fans are about 45 decibels
using full speed mode, which is still quite a bit quieter
than the stock fans in quiet mode.
So after just a few minutes of running the fans
in full speed mode with the Noctua fans,
we are down to around 50 degrees Celsius.
So probably a bit more palatable for some.
Alright. So I guess that's it.
Pretty simple process to swap out the stock fans
of the RS1221 with something more quiet
like the Noctua fans and I'll have those
in the description below, if you're interested.
Some people may have concerns
about the slight increase in temperature
of the CPU and the hard drives.
That's not something that I'm necessarily concerned about
because the room that I have it in,
in my rack is temperature controlled.
And me pushing this device is not something
that's going to really happen all that often.
But I want to know what you guys think.
Is this something that you're planning on doing
with your 1221+ or any other Synology NAS?
Let me know below.
I'd also like to know is there another option for fan
that provides more air flow
but is still quieter than the stock fans.
I'd love to know that too.
If you're interested in seeing how I migrated
from a DS420+ over to the 1221+,
keeping all of my data without having to do restore
or do anything like that,
check out this video right over here.
Hit the thumbs up button if you liked it.
Hit Subscribe if you want and I'll see you next time.
(smooth jazz music)