NAS - Noisey Attached Storage

[Huggy]

Hey all, how's it going?

So I'm hoping to get people's thoughts on the noise of my NAS and what I can do about it.

I had an old big PC that I was using as Plex server/NAS which I was keeping in a shed in the garden. Long story short, we had to move. The new house is a new build of which we were given plans for before it was finished. The plans showed that an understairs cupboard just off the living room had electrical sockets and the broadband connection within it. The ageing PC had been out in the shed for quite a few years, it's drives were starting to show signs of failing and other issues, so I decided to buy my 920+ NAS and to keep it under the stairs. Now that the house is finished and we're about to move in, I'm finding out that the plans weren't reliable and the said cupboard doesn't have electrics in and that the broadband connection actually comes into the living room.

Currently I have the NAS inside a sideboard in our current living room, but omg it is loud. Not sure if having 4 X WS Red Pro drives is making it louder. I've set the fan to quiet mode but this makes little difference. I've placed the NAS on a bit of non slip rubber matting in the hopes of dampening the vibrations, which made a very slight improvement.

So, now we're moving next week and I need to do something about this. I've thought of lining the sideboard cupboard it's in with thicker foam but unsure whether this will be enough. I've also thought of moving the NAS to another room and attaching it to one of the mesh satellites I use. However, the only place I can think might work is another cupboard by my bedroom. It'll probably still need some sort of foam noise insulation, but I'm dubious about the NAS being connected through Wi-fi. The mesh router/satellite is fairly old now and as I use the NAS for Plex, and share my media with family members in different countries, I'm worried this might slow streaming down too much.

So, has anyone had similar experiences? How have people dealt with the noise of their NAS's? Would you recommend ethernet over powerline rather than WiFi? Or keep the NAS next to the router in the living room and noise insulate it somehow?

Thanks for your thoughts

 

[EAZ1964]

The pro disks do produce more noise, that is a fact.

You cannot effectively kill noise with foam, Noise is killed by weight and distance.
So the advice can be to use e.g. books on top and a spare stone tile below to reduce noise.

But first start at the source: make sure your pro disks are well seated, and you can use foam/rubber to reduce vibration, if that is the issue.

Foam can be used to reduce noise deflections. Which can be usefull inside a hard surface Ikea cupboard.
An open connection of 5% of the area, will let 80% of the noise pass. Unfortunately you need some open area for ventilation, creating a U or N shape ventilation path will reduce noise a lot

Very effective is to auto switch off the nas at night (saves some energy as well), and use hibernation whenever possible. Storing the nas in a seperate cupboard and use ethernet wired is for sure the best way to reduce noise

Success

 

[SynoMan]

Hi Huggy!

I am also in a situation where I need to have NAS devices (and all other equipment) in the living room. They are behind my TV on shelves, and it helps with the noise cancellation. Under DS418play (with HDD drives) I have a thicker foam to reduce vibrations, but they do make some noise, even with fans set to silent. In DS720+ I have SSD drives, so it is quiet enough for the living room.

I know, NAS devices are not for living rooms, but I have no other option. In your case maybe I'll go with the powerline option, rather than Wi-Fi, add thicker foam to reduce vibrations. Not sure what else you can do with it.

As for the old mesh router, hmm, not sure about it.

 

[Huggy]

Thanks for the advice and information. I'll have to give it some thought, but for the time being it'll have to live in the living room inside the sideboard cupboard. I did find some foam online that looked good, not the stuff they use for sound rooms that only cut the echos, but thick dense stuff that's supposed to absorb the sound and vibration. It's really expensive though, nearly 300 euros for just enough to line the cupboard its in, and @EAZ1964's fact of a 5% surface area gap will let out 80% of the sound makes me reluctant to try it at that price. Hopefully I'll be able to get another shed sorted before too long. @SynoMan you're right, NAS's are not for the living room .

Thanks again for your thoughts, I really appreciate it!

 

[fredbert]

It's a pity you can't force the house builder to honour the agreed design. If you had to pay to get it done, would it cost more than €300?

How close is the broadband and nearest power socket to the understairs cupboard? Is running extensions into the cupboard out of the question?

 

[Huggy]

It's a pity you can't force the house builder to honour the agreed design. If you had to pay to get it done, would it cost more than €300?

How close is the broadband and nearest power socket to the understairs cupboard? Is running extensions into the cupboard out of the question?

Hey @fredbert

Yeah it would seem we are just tenant's and have no say at all. The housing association who has bought the property doesn't give a monkeys either.

It's probably approaching 20 meters from the router to the downstairs cupboard if you follow the skerting boards. The upstairs cupboard is upstairs and the other side of the house. It does have an electrical socket in it though.

 

[Jan Janowski]

From a little bit of history with sound dampening..... When you are forced to co-exist with this...
Do not use an enclosure with 90 degree corners.... However those are not easily found, so, you want to change inside of enclosure so the back of the shelf is neither hard-nor parallel with the front.. (angles to side). and sides are narrower in front than back.... so sound echoing off sides and back is less apt to go forwards into the room.... (Think of shelf as a speaker enclosure--putting a speaker on a shelf seems to amplify sound) I've used dark foam to accomplish this. This does decrease the usable size of the shelf but decreases he sound level... a strip of foam at top near front is optional.... but will slightly increase temps by trapping warm air. A thin flat layer of foam across ceiling of shelf was better than a hard surface...

 

[speedmaster]

I used this neat velcro trick, to reduce harddrive noise a bit:

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I allso put a rubber-mat under my Synology, but discovered that after a while the weight made the Synology sink into the mat, and block the air-intakes under the NAS. The fans had to speed up to compensate for that.
Edit: just zoomed in on the picture. I believe your rubber mat might be blocking air-intakes under your NAS.

 

[Huggy]

I used this neat velcro trick, to reduce harddrive noise a bit:

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I allso put a rubber-mat under my Synology, but discovered that after a while the weight made the Synology sink into the mat, and block the air-intakes under the NAS. The fans had to speed up to compensate for that.
Edit: just zoomed in on the picture. I believe your rubber mat might be blocking air-intakes under your NAS.

Hey thanks @speedmaster, I watched that video earlier, also read about others using felt strips on the sides of drive mounts, same thing really. I'll check out my rubber matting just in case. My partner doesn't seem to hear the low noises, and has got quite used to it. For me it's different. I don't mind the disk access noises. It sounds a bit like bubbling to us, quite relaxing in a way. But the vibration noise is doing my head in now. Definitely going to try a rubber mat/vibration feet, some velcro/felt strips and maybe some books on top to weight it down. At least until I can find a home for it out of the living room. Thanks mate.

 

[Samir]

Out of sight, out of mind is usually the best solution when dealing with computer noise. You definitely don't want to starve them of airflow or they die.

My solution has been to just put them somewhere no one is--like an attic. And then let the fans run 100% if they need to in order to keep things cool--you can't hear it, lol.