Ways to reduce HDD noise?

[Trev]

Like I said. Once warmed up, my temp is always around the 45-46C region and never gets much higher.

 

[Owen Smith]

Like I said. Once warmed up, my temp is always around the 45-46C region and never gets much higher.

I think the other poster was claimng that if the temp did get higher (eg. Sunny day) the fan package would prevent the Humax software turning the fan speed up. I was being clear that this isn't the case.

 

[DaveMe]

I think the other poster was claimng that if the temp did get higher (eg. Sunny day) the fan package would prevent the Humax software turning the fan speed up. I was being clear that this isn't the case.

Yes, you are correct Owen. I did install the fan package but only to test if the fan was working OK, by temporarily whacking Min fan speed up to 100%. It worked just fine Since then I just left it at the default of 0% because I have no noise issues from the fan.

 

[Owen Smith]

Yes, you are correct Owen. I did install the fan package but only to test if the fan was working OK, by temporarily whacking Min fan speed up to 100%. It worked just fine Since then I just left it at the default of 0% because I have no noise issues from the fan.

Even if you don't have noise issues, you would still benefit from 50% fan because your hard disc will run cooler and likely last longer as a result.

 

[Mick]

I recently had a hard drive failure in my Fox T2 and I noticed the original drive was a Seagate "Pipeline" drive (now in the bin) and I did a temporary replacement with an old, fully working Samsung drive I salvaged from a PC. This drive was quite noisy. I ordered a new drive, a "WD AV 1TB 3.5" SATA Media Hard Drive", which proved to be as quiet as a mouse. These WD drives are designed for quiet operation (only 5400 rpm spin speed) in AV and desktop boxes.
It maybe that your drive has been replaced at some time or the drive is starting to fail. The WD AV drives will be a lot cheaper than SSD and you could also add a WD AV drive of 2GB capacity. (Don't go any higher because Humax T2 doesn't directly support higher than 2GB)
When I removed the old drive from the T2, I noticed it was mounted in a plastic frame with vibration resistant mounts around each mounting screw which should not be tightened too much.
Also, you may like to check the fan as this can be quite noisy when it comes on. It is not on all the time as the T2 controls the on/off times according to internal temperatures. To test when the fan is on just stand a small piece of paper at the back of the unit to cover the fan and when it blows over you can see the fan is on at that time and monitor the noise level then.

Good points - thanks. I've owned the box from new (over three and a half years now). It still has the original drive, although I'm happy to swap it out if the existing one is on its last legs.

Mick

 

[DaveMe]

Even if you don't have noise issues, you would still benefit from 50% fan because your hard disc will run cooler and likely last longer as a result.

Good point Owen. I installed the System monitor app and before I set the fan to 0% minimum which produced a hard drive temp of 54 degrees C. After forcing a 50% minimum fan speed the hard drive temp levelled out at 37 degrees C and I can't really hear the fan at all. Thanks for the info. I'll email you in a year when my fan fails

 

[DaveMe]

Good points - thanks. I've owned the box from new (over three and a half years now). It still has the original drive, although I'm happy to swap it out if the existing one is on its last legs.

Mick

The best way to test the hard drive would be to install the custom firmware and then run Diagnostics on the hard disk from the Webif interface.

 

[Mick]

The best way to test the hard drive would be to install the custom firmware and then run Diagnostics on the hard disk from the Webif interface.

I've had the custom firmware on the box pretty much since the day I bought it - I'll give the diags a go; cheers.

Mick

 

[Owen Smith]

Good point Owen. I installed the System monitor app and before I set the fan to 0% minimum which produced a hard drive temp of 54 degrees C. After forcing a 50% minimum fan speed the hard drive temp levelled out at 37 degrees C and I can't really hear the fan at all. Thanks for the info. I'll email you in a year when my fan fails

Bearing wear increases faster than linearly with fan speed. Running it at half speed will wear the fan out considerably slower than half the rate, so your fan should last longer this way since it won't be running at full speed ever (hopefully). I think heat in bearings goes up with the cube of the speed or something like that, it's a pretty steep curve.

 

[Trev]

But it's on all the time at half speed rather that occasionally at full speed. To prove/disprove this fan wear theory you would need to know the duty cycle of the fan under SUI control.

 

[Black Hole]

I can't imagine there's much to worry about. I don't recall a single post about a failed fan, except as infant mortality - and my four are still going strong.