Dear LTT community,
A month ago, I built a NAS running FreeNAS. I use it as a media server and to backup files across my devices. It has been running for a month now and it is working great.
I am living in a one room flat in a quiet town, so noise was a big concern when I chose the parts, as the NAS had to be located in the same room as I sleep in. The NAS itself is extremely quiet with the exception of the 3 hard drives, that are really starting to bother me a night given the fact that they are the only noise source I hear.
One of the problems is that FreeNAS accesses my hard drives every 10 seconds to write to the .system dataset / to write logs, so I hear the write heads moving every 10 seconds (no one is accessing the NAS when I am sleeping so that has to be the only thing). My idea for this was to move the .system dataset and logs to a separate pool consisting of one or two low capacity SSD's, to remove the write noise. I am aware that the lifespan of the SSD will be reduced due to the fact that it is written to every 10 seconds but it is a small amount of non vital data and with SSD prices these days I am willing to do that.
The main problem is the noise the HDDs do just by spinning. I have 3 western digital red 4TB drives running at 5400rpm. The drives produce a low frequency noise that is very audible to me as it is the only noise source in the room. I am thinking of two possible solutions to solve this problems, but each one with negative consequences, so I am asking you for advice.
1. I can make the drives spin down when they have not been accessed for 10 minutes. This way the NAS will be completely silent but, as I understood, spinning up a drive puts a lot of stress to it and the drive will have a lower lifespan than letting it spin 24/7.
2. I can put the NAS in a small closet with sound insulating panels, and hope that the low frequency noise will not be audible from outside the closet. This will completely destroy airflow and will increase temperatures, but I selected only low powered parts so I think it should be ok. But I can't say for sure before I tried. Another concern with this solution is that I don't know if there is a chance that it catches fire. I don't think that this should be an issue given that the NAS is in a metal case and I bought a PSU that should be good. But still, I don't really feel comfortable putting electronic equipment that runs 24/7 inside a wooden closet that has flammable sound insulating panels in it.
The CPU temperatures at idle are 28°C and 45°C under load. The drives idle at 28°C-30°C and reach 34°C under load. This is with the NAS outside of any closet
Here are the specs of my NAS, for anyone interested :
- Case : Fractal Node 304
- Motherboard : ASUS P10S-I
- CPU : Intel Core i3-6100T
- Ram : Samsung M391A2K43BB1-CRC
- Boot SSD : Toshiba RC100
- Data HDD : 3x WD Red 4 TB
- PSU : be quiet! Pure Power 11 (400W)
- CPU Coller : Arctic Freezer 11 LP
- Intake case fans : 2x Arctic F9 PWM PST
- Exaust case fan : Noctua NF-S12A PWM
What do you think of these two solutions ? Witch one would you pick ? Do you think that the whole thing catching fire should be a concern or are modern electronics safe enough ? Has anyone faced the same issues and what solution did you come up with ?
Any input is appreciated !
