Quiet box for one or two disks

[ghz]

Hi, I am planning to buy a NAS that hosts one or two drives.

Requirements:
- low noise
- low power consumption
- moddability

Would be nice:
- more flash to store the OS on it and only data on the disks

I have read a lot of reviews here and on other sites as well but could not find anything regarding noise. Synology and qnap devices seems to be ok but I am not sure whether their fans will shut down after usage or not. Like disks spinning down etc. What about one-disk devices and what about two disk ones? As I know there are some single drive systems with passive cooling. Are there similar ones with two bays?

So can you tell me about your personal experiences as noise measurement numbers stated on the tech specs sheet are usually not as informative as normal daily operation.

(Besides I am thinking about buying two single drive NAS-es rather than one box with raid1 mirroring but I think I will go with a two disk box.)

Thanks,
Andras

 

[thiggins]

Noise data can be found in the NAS Chart Feature tables. It is subjective (low, medium high), since dB noise measurements are difficult to relate to.

Units with fans do not shut off the fan when spinning down drives. But most now have variable speed fans.

I don't recall any fanless two-drive products. I think QNAP has the most fanless single-drive products.

 

[bigclaw]

Units with fans do not shut off the fan when spinning down drives. But most now have variable speed fans.

The 2-drive D-Link DNS-323 stops the fan if the temperature is lower than 43C (with the latest firmware).

 

[thiggins]

Good to know. Thanks. Do the fans ever shut off?

 

[bigclaw]

Good to know. Thanks. Do the fans ever shut off?

I can't hear the fan anyway as the NAS is in another room.

It's funny that people in the DNS-323 support forum used to complain about "loud" fans that interrupted their sleep. After the latest firmware upgrade, at least the same number of people now complain about fans not running when they think they should.

I'm sure if D-Link implements complete customization of fan control in the next firmware release, even more people will start complaining that it's too complicated to use.