The Taming Of The Screwed (RS1221+ Fan Fix)

[Robbie]

Decided that enough was enough with the RS1221+ being noisier than everything else in my rack put together and then some. For those not familiar with the RS1221+ it has an AMD Ryzen CPU that produces little heat, has a roomy chassis and fans that on their lowest setting push massive amounts of cold air out of the back.

Went for 2 x Noctua NF-A8 chromax.black.swap editions and selected the blue corners for the cold side:

Simple and easy swap with everything needed (and more) in the Noctua box.

Had to remove the Synology 10 GbE network card to fold the excess wiring out of the way on this side. One of the original 'beast' fans in the foreground.

The fans are totally silent at either 'Quiet' or 'Cool' setting and just audible at 'Full-speed' mode. Once all buttoned-up and in the rack even 'Full-speed' mode becomes effectively silent.

No adverse effects - DSM happy and drives and CPU remain cool under all workloads. With an ambient air of 23.8ºC the absolute maximum I could get the CPU to was transcoding 4k streams to achieve 100% CPU load, with a brief flicker to 78ºC before settling back a bit (it dropped to 77ºC just as I did the screen grab below). The CPU design value is 95ºC with a Tjmax of 105ºC so these temps are still on the 'cool' side of normal.

It does idle warmer though at 50ºC rather than 40ºC achieved with the bonkers airflow with the original fans but clearly that makes no difference at all.

The silence is bliss, when I am in the network cupboard that is.

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[Telos]

Be careful going to DSM7... there are many posts that state that 3rd-party fans are incompatible.

 

[Robbie]

The drive temperatures for 5 x SSDs, 2 x drive fillers & 1 x HDD:

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[fredbert]

Not sure why I cannot edit my own post

There's a time limit (set by @SynoMan ) for editing posts. I guess it's to stop older posts silently being modified with spam and inappropriate content.

As you already did, asking the moderators to edit or delete a post is the correct action once a post cannot be edited.

 

[SynoMan]

There's a time limit (set by @SynoMan ) for editing posts. I guess it's to stop older posts silently being modified with spam and inappropriate content.

Yes, it is set to 240 minutes.

 

[Robbie]

@SynoMan - Could we have it set to 1440 minutes?

It would still prevent the revisionist history but allow those of us juggling kids / spouse / dog / health / work et al to come back with fresher eyes and remove an accidental whoops moment.

 

[SynoMan]

Could we have it set to 1440 minutes?

Increased.

 

[Robbie]

Increased.

Thank-you indeed.



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[Robbie]

Be careful going to DSM7... there are many posts that state that 3rd-party fans are incompatible.

Do you have any more details or a source for this?

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[Telos]

Do you have any more details or a source for this?

Yea... Google

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Many more... but that should get you started.

 

[Robbie]

Thanks.
One of the ones that came up but nothing seen (yet) for the AMD users post-DSM7. Of course, the one quoted talks about issues before DSM7 struck and on a single-fan model too.

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[Telos]

You may be fine and clear... just raising a caution flag. There are too many variables to say for certain.

 

[Robbie]

I ran a number of tests to see the different levels of performance between the 3 Synology fan modes when fitted with the Noctua NF-A8s.

Case & Board Temperatures - These hardly varied between the modes and workload, so CPU temps will be the dominant factor:

sys_thermal_sensor:
    Remote1:    34~37 ºC
    Remote2:    34~38 ºC
    Local:      37~41 ºC

Full-speed Mode - Runs both fans at (or slightly above) full nominal RPM:

cpu_temperature:      46 ºC
sys_fan_speed_rpm:    2293 RPM  /  2313 RPM

Cool Mode - Runs both fans from around 1100 to 1500 RPM at typical temperatures and workloads:

cpu_temperature:      55 ºC
sys_fan_speed_rpm:    1431 RPM  /  1458 RPM

...and when cooling down a bit but still in Cool Mode:

cpu_temperature:      54 ºC
sys_fan_speed_rpm:    1162 RPM  /  1158 RPM

Quiet Mode - Runs both fans at the minimum level for the CPU; effectively this is never below that of Cool Mode at typical temperatures and workloads:

cpu_temperature:      55 ºC
sys_fan_speed_rpm:    1162 RPM  /  1158 RPM

I have selected Cool Mode for regular use as it seems the ideal balance and regulates the CPU nicely.

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[Telos]

Ran across this thread today over at the Community, FWIW.

 

[Robbie]

Thanks and so far it looks limited in its scope, probably just with 3-pin models rather than PWM fan controls. Not a great direction for Synology again but this may be accidental rather than by design, detecting the semi-passive mode for a full fan-stop fault condition.

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[leriak]

it looks limited in its scope, probably just with 3-pin models rather than PWM fan controls

It may just be that synology has tested its fans and in DSM7 allows the controller to lower the voltage more than in DSM6, and just so happens that the Noctua fans need a higher voltage.

Fans need a minimum voltage to spin, a certain voltage to start spinning and then a lower voltage to keep spinning.
The cooling fans I've worked with recently are 12V nominal fans that in the spec require a minimum 5V, but in testing it seems that after they start spinning with 4.0V they keep spinning (and even lower some of them), but if they stop for any reason they won't turn on again until voltage increases to around 4.5-4.8V

This does not happen with PWM control fans as those work at nominal voltage and they regulate their speed internally.

 

[jeyare]

some kind of explanation is in my post here:

Noctua NF-A9 FLX fan replacement for Synology DS720+

Hi all, I have 4 months old Synology DS720+ which work well so far. the plastic enclosure is a bit noisy because of the fan (when HDDs hibernate) so I tried with Noctua NF-A9 FLX which has a great quality fan!! the device started to beep after 1 hour. I guess that Synology measure the speed of...

www.synoforum.com

 

[jeyare]

in this (@Robbie) case was changed 4pin DC fan to 4pin DC fan
but
anything than the original Y.S.TECH FD128025EB-N cooling fan
will be better in this case
don't mention, that the Y.S.TECH fan needs 0.39A for the max airflow 59 CFM/4500rpm (44dB). And the mentioned Noctua with the heavy 94 CFM/2200rpm/17.7dB needs 0.08A only is a king in this comparison.

Edited data for the crappy Y.S.Tech fan (even worse), according to diff product sheet:

https://www.mc-components.at/uploads/tx_produktdatenbank/FD8025N.pdf

 

[jeyare]

in end user prices:
20€ ….. the Noctua fan …. approx. 22.6$
20$ …. the Y.S.Tech fan

in wholesale prices the gap must be even thinner diff. for two fans (max. 2€). There is common question:
it really worth to save 2€ on the NAS production costs to get such a dramatically (worse) result in the airflow?
We do not have to explain that airflow is the basis for sufficient performance and lifespan of individual elements in the NAS. And I think everyone would like to pay that 2€ (even 5€)to the price of that NAS which is over 1500€.

 

[Robbie]

The original fans did spin fast and pushed an enormous amount of air compared to the Noctua - you could feel it pushing against your hand with force.

My astonishment, which I expressed to Synology, was the perceived need of such a fan in a low-powered Ryzen-based NAS. It just blew massive amounts of cold air all the time. Pointless airflow, pointless noise.

The Noctua fans work like they were designed exactly for this NAS. Bliss.

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