Quieter Power Supply Fans?

[aemilia scott]

Hi Everybody. Here is a tough one.

I just purchased a Sans Digital EliteStor 12gb Raid enclosure. I'm incredibly happy with the buy, with one exception. The thing is as loud as a hair dryer, and unfortunately has to live with me under my desk. (a longer cable for this type of SAS runs nearly 500 dollars, which I don't have right now). I've replaced the case fans with Noctua fans, but now I realize the power supplies (Emacs GIN-6350P) are also incredibly loud.

http://www.amazon.com/EMACS-GIN-6350P-Swap-Power-Supply...


I'm desperate to replace the fans on these, but I'm worried about overheating. Are these incredibly powerful and loud fans replaceable if my enclosure is exposed to air and not in a rack or in a server closet?

Thanks for any help or advice.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I would get in touch with Sans Digital and tell them you need a quieter solution and see what they recommend. Not sure if there are quieter fans to be had for those power supply units and the hot-swap type PSUs like this tend to be noisy, regardless of the supplier. They're designed for server rooms, not quiet office environments. A longer SAS cable isn't going to solve this one. It may get the unit away from the desk a bit, it's still going to be noisy. I believe their EliteStor units are all targeted to the same sort of environment -- as in not designed for quiet office/ desk usage. This is an ongoing battle with most makers of RAID and server cabinets. Especially when it comes to rack-mount gear. They don't understand the concept of "quiet."

 

[Eric Bowen]

Its the Rack PSU's for 3U racks and smaller which use proprietary PSU's instead of standard ATX case PSU's. We never have found suitable options for 1 and 2U racks with our audio systems because all of these PSU's are loud. Only the standard ATX design PSU's have several quiet options.