Incremental Fan Control

[alback]

Using 204TE...
I noticed the other morning that my unit (not a week old) was making a whining noise. I pulled every drive out to check if the whine could be a hardrive... confirmed it was the fan.

I would like to have more control over the rpm of the pwm fan. I realize that Asustor techs have worked out a decent relationship between speed, temp and sound. These are good starting points, but I prefer a more personal setting based upon where my NAS is located.

I have done this with my computer case, a water cool system for my Cpu, I am able to adjust my settings to get my own preference between sound levels, temps and running performance as my computer takes on various work loads throughout a day.

From my Water Cooled software, I am able to set my fan control so it ramps up at varying degrees when the water temp rises to a setting of my chosing, and ramps up full if it gets to higher temp (min of 5 degrees above the first mark - recommended set as 10 degrees above first mark). I find that I barely notice the difference between 600 rpm, and around 900-1000 rpm yet 900 keeps my cpu much cooler - almost 41.0 C. Then as I max out my cpu usage, my fans begin to ramp up at about 43.0 C such that my cpu does not extend above 59 C at max cooling 2500 rpm. There are 2 auto settings available for those who decide this is their preference, one for quiet mode, one for agressive (all out) cooling mode.


So far, I have the following results: ( program running dlna file maintenance)
High: fan speed 1910, cpu 58, hdd 32 - too noisy to be comfortable
Med: fan speed 1345, cpu 60, hdd 34 - noticible noise but not noisy - cpu running to hot, hdd fine
Low: fan speed 544, cpu 69, hdd 39 - almost quiet but runs too hot.
Auto: fan speed 545, cpu 69, hdd 39 -

I find the cpu is running rather hot 60 C at med, yet cools with only 2 C with max fan.


thoughts?

ar

[orion]

Cool.
My as-304t is quiet. And quiet is more important for me. So I set FAN to low speed. I wonder if it's dangerous when I set to low. So I sent a support request to asustor to clarify this issue. They said that low speed is safe. In case that any of CPU or HDD temperatures are reaching to the limit, system software will make FAN faster to protect hardware (override user setting). In the other cases, the FAN will keep in low speed (550 rpm for my nas, bigger FAN). CPU temperature limit is 100 degree C. Any impacts on life time? No, there is no impacts on warranty. And it's normal usage.
So I keep low speed setting. It's very quiet. And so far, no problems at all.

[alback]

Orion: Thanks for the reply.

Correct 550 rpm is quiet, but so is 700 and even up to about 900 rpm. Currently we cannot try these fan speeds. Airflow increases substantially at slightly higher rpm. Fan noise increases substantially after 1100 rpm.

Your estimation limits on safe cpu and hdd temps are not correct. Any computer gives warnings and shuts down well before cpu reaches 100 C.

http://www.buildcomputers.net/cpu-temperature.html

cpu temp of 100 C is way over the max, actual limit it 72 C, which as I stated for my Asustor the low fan limit keeps my cpu temp at 66-69 C in an air conditioned room of about 25C. This is way too close to the limit for my liking. Asustor fan setting of Med 1350 rpm, keeps my cpu at 60 range, and the fan is audible. At full 1920 rpm I only get cpu temp of 58 C and extreme noise.

Hardrives need to be kept under 45 C otherwise you risk shortening their life, optimum is closer to 32C. At 550 rpm, my hdd run at just under 40 C with little load. Auto fan setting is also 550 rpm so drives are kept at the higher of the safety range. When you consider that you have about $800 in hdd, and copious qty of important data, my goal is to keep them running as safe as possible.

http://www.buildcomputers.net/hdd-temperature.html

Incremental doesn't mean you can't run at 550, it means you might also try any speed between 600 and 1000 which will keep your NAS in a safer temp range and keep it quiet too.

Once again thank you for your input.

[orion]

Interesting. Asustor guy told me that the limit temperature 100 degree C. After google it, I found it's simply a different measurement point.
http://ark.intel.com/compare/65700,7146 ... 6168,65692
http://ark.intel.com/products/65693/Int ... -3_30-GHz)

There are Tjunction and Tcase spec that provided by Intel. And, after google the definition, here is:
http://www.intel.com/support/processors ... 033342.htm

So I believe nas software should read temperature directly from CPU (DTS). It should be CPU junction temperature that shows in web page.

Regarding HDD temperature, I just search WD and Seagate HDD spec. The highest operating temperature for most of HDDs is 60-degree C which is much higher than my current record. So I still choose to be quiet (my nas is just beside my TV).

[alback]

I never run any computer equipment close to the temp limits, components simply lasts longer to keep things cooler.

If mine were beside my TV, I would want it as quiet as effectively possible. You would still be able to operate the fan speed at 550 if 'Incremental Fan Control' was added to the Asustor firmware. My feature request does remove the lowest setting.

Right now we have 3 choices.
Low - 550 rpm quiet fan
med - 1350 rpm noticable fan noise
high - 1910 rpm uncomfortable fan noise noise

Incremental fan control would improve the product, it already has a PMW fan.

[orion]

Ok, I see. I guess the current "auto" mode should be similar to incremental FAN control. However, it must be good to have parameters being tuned by user.