TS-870 Pro Fan Replacement

[edddeduck]

It’s just a standard fan so you can get a replacement fairly easily but it is a PSU so opening it up is at your own risk.

I recall a number of people have done this and replaced the fan with a newer quieter model. I think Noctua make a few nice fans that will run quieter and not have the ball bearing wear out and squeak.

[cameo]

Thanks. Opened up the PSU and found 2 fans in there.
The fans are 40mm each; one 10mm deep and the other 20mm. Both fans are soldered to the boards directly.
It is all very tight in there...

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Also there was a lot of schmutz. Removing it, however, did not bring silence again.

I ordered two of those Noctua fans...
I'll let you know the result.

[cameo]

edit: since the images got lost on the forum, here's a link to the post with images: https://www.evernote.com/l/AHohlstfqD9F ... U0dgFdp6Mk


Hey, just wanted to let you know, that I did the replacement and it works better than expected. The NAS is super quiet now, and all I can hear is the sound made by the HDDs.

I ordered these two fans:
http://noctua.at/en/nf-a4x10-flx and http://noctua.at/en/nf-a4x20-flx

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I am sure other fans will work, too. I am not affiliated in any way with noctua, but for me they worked well.

The procedure was fairly easy.

First, remove the power cable!

Then I numbered all HDD and removed them.

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Opened up the NAS and unscrewed the PSU which is accessible without removing any other parts.
I choose to leave all internal cables installed because some of the connectors (especially those to the front panel) are hard to remove. The cables are connected to very tight spots and it would have meant removing more parts, which I thought would not be necessary.

I took the NAS outside and used lots of pressured air to blow out all the dust and dirt.
That's why the NAS itself is covered in an old newspaper.

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The cables of the fans inside the PSU are soldered to the pcb.

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I decided against soldering on the board and decided to simply cut the old fans' cable and connect the new fans by soldering and some shrinking tube.
The old fans have two wires (red and black) while the new ones came with three. I assume the third one (yellow) would be for measuring fan speed, since there is no use for that in this PSU, I simply cut the third cable.
Here's the first fan installed and the soldered cable crammed into the space on the front right.

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The second fan installed. The connection of old and new cable is hidden inside the yellow shrinking tube.
Packed all the cables together with a small zip tie.

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The new fans' screws were a small issue. They are bigger than the old screws, but the new fans have also bigger holes, so the old screws would not hold sufficiently. The new screws are self tapping, but I found it easier and more precise to get a metal drill and just make the existing holes of the PSU case bigger. The new screw heads are also a little bigger and I did not want to properly countersink. So, in the end the screw heads sat a little bit proud.

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The screw heads of the 20mm fan usually sit flush with the back of the NAS chassis. I guess properly countersinking the screws or maybe even making them thinner with a Dremel could have made it easier to get the PSU back in place.
But for me the PSU with the proud screws fit inside (with some forceful persuasion) the NAS case, so for me that was a done deal.

For reference, here's a pic of the two fans removed.

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After putting everything back together, I hooked up the power and checked that both new fans were actually spinning. They did very quietly.

The system is now back in place and running for some days without any issues.

Regards,
Dietrich

[ieagle]

I made my QNAP TS870 Pro. It is about 30 minutes work. I did replace both fans at the same time.

Also made a small manual to make it easier for people. I did use the Noctua HF-S12A PWM 120mm Premium Fan

https://www.dropbox.com/s/92twypo46pvej ... o.pdf?dl=0

[alyf80]

In case anyone else wants to replace the power supply fans of their TS-870, do note that they are voltage controlled with a curve designed for the original parts (which are high-RPM ones that start at around 3.5V and are extremely noisy when run at full 12V). As there is no obvious way to change the regulation profile (the two trimmers are NOT for that), you have to make sure that the replacement fans can be run at the lowest voltage put out by the controller, which is around 4V.

While I also used a pair of Noctua 12V fans, I found out that the 40x25 would not start reliably at 4V. Since I did not want to risk ending up with no airflow, I connected them directly to one of the 12V outputs of the power supply, which is fine as they are really quiet anyway.

[OneCD]

* topic locked to prevent further necroposting *