Is it possible to build a near silent NAS for Xpenology?

Goose · 26 Sep 2015 at 17:25

I bought an HP Microserver Gen8 to run Xpenology and i'm rather disappointed with the noise levels since it will be situated in my very small front room.

I was wondering if it's possible to built my own NAS with similar performance and physical dimensions as the HP using good quality low noise fans without having to spend hundreds of pounds?

Goose · 26 Sep 2015 at 20:35

Apparently the stock fan has a bizarre 6pin connection and so takes some modding to use a regular pwm fan. I've never really been one to mod things so i'm not really confident in modding a new server that i may ultimately want to send back.

Goose · 27 Sep 2015 at 11:14

BlizzardX said:
Have you tried the CPU governor scripts on the xpenology forum? Before giving up with the unit, you might want to try and get those running as Xpenology/DSM keeps the cpu at 100% speed rather than throttling back and that might help?

Do you mean this? I'll be honest, I didn't understand a word

Zefan said:
There is a way of reducing the fan sound, I can't remember where I read it but it was on a forum and it involved some BIOS flashing. It's something about when you replace the fan with another, the system doesn't receive the correct feedback from the fan do assumes it's not working, and shuts down.

This is all i've found in regards to changing the fan but I dont actually know what it is you're meant to do to get it to work.

Goose · 27 Sep 2015 at 14:58

I thought i'd try and record the noise my system makes to see what people think. I recorded this with iLo reporting the fan speed to be 12% and after a 7 or 8 seconds you should be able to hear a high pitched buzzing sound. I have a feeling that sound is being produce not by the system fan but by the PSU. Although it isn't especially loud the room it's going in is really very small and the buzzing is very noticeable and extremely annoying.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Goose · 27 Sep 2015 at 16:40

Would something like this do for the basis of a NAS?

Goose · 27 Sep 2015 at 20:15

Aye, i'm only after simple DSM NAS for a modest amount of media, backup of photo's and such, really nothing terribly demanding.

Goose · 27 Sep 2015 at 21:11

The u-nas looks good but i think i'd rather buy a case with no fan or PSU so i can choose them myself and make sure i get ones as quiet as possible.

Goose · 28 Sep 2015 at 11:16

Steveocee said:
Just to throw it out there. What about getting a G7 N54L? They are quiet in the first place and if the noise offends you it's an easy swapout for the main case fan and PSU fan if you want to swap them, there's even a tutorial link on here somewhere how to do it.

Yeah I did actually think about that, if one comes up 2nd hand for a reasonable price I'll probably go for it. Is the N54L upgradeable like the Gen8?

crinkleshoes said:
You could always just build your own with quiet fans... that's what I did for my first home server, before things like the Gen8 were available.

This would be my proffered option, just need to find out how much it will cost.

Goose · 28 Sep 2015 at 12:59

Thanks for that.

Is 2gb and a dual core cpu enough for running DSM without it being terribly laggy navigating the UI?

Goose · 28 Sep 2015 at 14:28

Ok cool. Having done a bit more research it seems I will need a fast CPU you than you want specc'd because I'll want to run the NAS as Plex server too which will need to transcode 1080p. According to the Plex help page the CPU needs a passmark score of 2000+ which the A4-4000 falls short of.

Goose · 29 Sep 2015 at 19:28

ecksmen said:
Is it not possible to just keep the G8 and just move it to a location where it can't be heard and invest in suitable network infrastructure to make it work (cables, wifi, home plugs etc...)?

My NAS is in the garage, an NL54. It was in the attic previously. It's wired to my desktop via 1Gbps. My TV, HTPC etc... reach it via homeplugs and my laptop and phones etc... via wifi.

Unfortunately not in my teeny tiny little flat

Goose · 30 Sep 2015 at 12:07

I was wondering if I could actually build a system that would be both an HTPC and a NAS? What I mean is that I could run a Windows machine that would be the HTPC and then run Xpenology in a VM to act as the NAS.

Goose · 30 Sep 2015 at 14:32

I was thinking something along the lines of this, max budget of £200.

I'm not opposed to buy some parts 2nd hand fwiw. You can actually buy the Celeleron g1610T CPU from the HP Gen8 on ebay, the only issue being the need to also source a M-ATX 1155 motherboard.

Goose · 30 Sep 2015 at 15:36

I only just bought a new 1080p TV a couple of weeks ago so 4k wont be a consideration for me for a good few years yet.

Thanks for pointing out the mobo/case compatibility, never done a SFF build before

Goose · 30 Sep 2015 at 19:41

A lot of people seem to run multiple VM's in ESXI, including Xpenology, so I might try that. This is all new to me and i'm quite keen learn about it all. I'm not overly concerned about the increased risk of data corruption since it will only really contain my music, movies and tv shows, all of which I can recover from various sources.