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OWC Mercury Elite Pro RAID fan noise
- Thread starter js81
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It's no louder than a Mac Pro at idle. The fans are not variable speed. I have been using mine for about a year.
In fact, I'm about to go mobile and need to sell it soon.
In fact, I'm about to go mobile and need to sell it soon.
Thanks for letting me know. I had previously purchased an off-brand enclosure and it was REALLY loud and had a "whiny" fan. Glad to hear. And I actually just ordered mine a few hours ago...
Got the Mercury Elite Pro today... and I'm sad. It IS noisier than I'd hoped, but it's not that bad. Looks gorgeous, though, and extremely well-built.
On the same order, I also bought a Elite Pro Dual Mini. This one, I am in love with. It uses 2.5" laptop drives, has no power adapter OR fan, and, of course, is smaller.
So I will be selling the bigger Elite Pro with 2x 1TB drives sometime after Christmas and buying another Dual Mini with 2x 1TB 2.5" drives.
On the same order, I also bought a Elite Pro Dual Mini. This one, I am in love with. It uses 2.5" laptop drives, has no power adapter OR fan, and, of course, is smaller.
So I will be selling the bigger Elite Pro with 2x 1TB drives sometime after Christmas and buying another Dual Mini with 2x 1TB 2.5" drives.
Got the Mercury Elite Pro today... and I'm sad. It IS noisier than I'd hoped, but it's not that bad. Looks gorgeous, though, and extremely well-built.
On the same order, I also bought a Elite Pro Dual Mini. This one, I am in love with. It uses 2.5" laptop drives, has no power adapter OR fan, and, of course, is smaller.
So I will be selling the bigger Elite Pro with 2x 1TB drives sometime after Christmas and buying another Dual Mini with 2x 1TB 2.5" drives.
OWC has excellent customer service and will probably let you do an exchange.
Agreed, but I bought it as one of their "garage sale" items (read "clearance") and it said no returns. I will ask, though.
If not, I'm sure I can make a good amount on eBay...That's strange. Mine is just as quite as the Mac Pro. Are you talking about fan noise or hard drive noise?
Definitely fan noise. I'm using it with a practically dead-silent mini, though; if I still had my noisy PC tower it would've been fine. Guess I got spoiled by the few days of silence in my office.
Definitely quite a bit of fan noise. The fan is constantly running, even if drives spin down -- I had the first one replaced, as I thought it was defective, but alas, the second one exhibited the same noise level. I'd say unbearable for any work environment, esp. since my Mac Mini is whisper quiet.
My solution: Replaced the stock fan with a Noctua NF-B9 redux-1600 (17 dB/A), very easy to do, and much much quieter. Can still be heard, but much better than the original fan. With a 2-3 meter USB cable I can place the Qx2 far enough away to be bearable.
Without the fan replacement I would have definitely returned it.
What I don't get is why OWC doesn't include a better fan -- esp. since they offer a more quiet replacement fan on their website. Other than that my experience was that their service is impeccable.
All in all, recommend the product -- with the replacement fan.
My solution: Replaced the stock fan with a Noctua NF-B9 redux-1600 (17 dB/A), very easy to do, and much much quieter. Can still be heard, but much better than the original fan. With a 2-3 meter USB cable I can place the Qx2 far enough away to be bearable.
Without the fan replacement I would have definitely returned it.
What I don't get is why OWC doesn't include a better fan -- esp. since they offer a more quiet replacement fan on their website. Other than that my experience was that their service is impeccable.
All in all, recommend the product -- with the replacement fan.
Fan noise is often an issue for any drive enclosure (particularly multi-drive). If people really like the enclosures save for the fan noise, they might just consider replacing the fan with a quieter one. There are several makers of fans for PCs etc., that have some very quiet fans and some are not only more on the quiet side but move more air.