Is a 4224 with 120mm Noctuas too loud for bedroom/living room environment? Also question about power

[Chazboski]

I'm a "buy it for life" guy, and I've kinda talked myself out of the smaller 8 bay build I was going to do in favor of something with a 4U server that I'll potentially never outgrow. My only concern is that I live in a one bedroom and the original idea was to hide the build in my entertainment system, and I'm wondering if the noise would be too much.

Also, what would I expect power usage wise with a build like this? More storage was priority one, but the other big factor in building a NAS was to make it so that my gaming rig didn't drain power 24/7, and I'm not sure if I've overstepped myself here.

 

[nick779]

Noctua makes a plethora of different specced fans from super quiet to fairly loud.
I went with Scythe gentle typhoon 900rpm fans ($20 each on amazon) theyre inaudible and move more air then you would think.
The loudest part of your NAS will probably be the CPu fan unless you go aftermarket.

Personally im trying to hunt down a rattle that is driving me crazy.

Theres nothing wrong with what you want to do, and its pretty simple to achieve. Look at my signature for power consumption of a 6 drive system, just keep in mind that 2 of the drives are WD Blue desktop drives and not WD reds so they use around an extra 2.5W each. Id love to change them, but I dont see a reason to spend $200 for 5W.

 

[Ericloewe]

The 120mm NF-F12 IndustrialPPC 3000PWM are loud at full speed. Not unbearable, but I wouldn't want to sleep next to one (or four).

At lowish speeds, they're nice and quiet, but don't expect cooling miracles in a tight rack.

 

[Chazboski]

I'm trying to walk a fine line noise wise. The only two places I have for this right now are directly under/next to the TV and in a closet next to the bed, so it's not exactly going to be out of the way.

 

[cyberjock]

From my own experience with the Norco 4224 (which I documented my escapades in a multi-day thread because I had to replace the fans to get good cooling) I don't think it's a fine line. Either you have lots of noise and good cooling, or you have little/no noise and unacceptable cooling (my hard drives were overheating which prompted me to take action). Even with the noisy fans that I have and the fans set to auto so they ramp up speed when under load, they still get *plenty* noisy when the system goes under load.

 

[Chazboski]

I was hoping you'd chime in. I know it's subjective, but what would you say "plenty" noisy is? I'm guessing enough to be distracting with a TV in the room, which would be enough to kill the project.

Sounds like that a U4 just isn't the way for me to go right now. Outside of stashing it in a bedroom closet and running cat 5 cables while hoping for the best, I don't think I'm going to get something quiet enough for the living room to make this viable. 8 bay smaller build may be the way to go.

 

[cyberjock]

By "plenty" I mean "no way I'd try to watch tv while it was in the same room".

I don't even try to sit in the same room as it, even if I'm just doing stuff on my own.

 

[Chazboski]

My dream is thoroughly crushed. Oh well, time to buy a house so I have a place to put a server. That's how adults think, right?

While I have your attention, mind telling me what case you have?

 

[Bidule0hm]

The simpler solution is to change the case instead of changing the house...

 

[Chazboski]

Was more of a joke. I'm probably just going go back to an 8 bay option which while limiting, still offers a lot of storage. I was just getting a bit excited of having almost unlimited potential.

This was the case I had in mind before I started thinking of u4's.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/silverstone-case-ds380b

 

[Ericloewe]

A solution like mine (ATX chassis plus a bunch of hotswap bays) is reasonably quiet. With some messing around (PWM fans for the hotswap bays and proper control to keep them cool), it could run even more quietly.

 

[Chazboski]

I'll definitely take a look into that, Eric. I've had a hard time deciding on an ATX case since if I limit myself to 8 drives I'm better served micro, and trying to find one that has a lot of space starts bringing me closer to server chassis.