PROMISE Pegasus R4 "Tuning" (noise reduction)

[florianuhlemann]

Go ahead and call me crazy XD but I felt like ripping my Pegasus apart and swapping the fan for a more silent one

It's not the standard fan connectors, but using the same fan type. 12VDC with signal for RPM. So i soldered the old connector to my new fan, works flawlessly. Exception: The utility now reports 700-800 RPM instead of 1000 so it's marked slightly orange now =D (the fan check) but I'm using WDC Green disks in it, so temperature won't be a problem, as it sits right next to my windows (and the cool air stream).

The fan of the power supply still makes some noise but it has gotten better than before.

Wanted to share this with you. Anybody else done something like that?

I used a KAZE-JYU Slim fan by Scythe. 2000rpm, 100x100x12

The photograph of the fan is the original one. the one installed is my new one.

EDIT: With all four drives now installed the fan is raised to 1000RPM and still remains more quiet than before. So no warning now All lights green pretty much.

 

[florianuhlemann]

Update

Due to the recent software and firmware update of the Pegasus R4 and Promise Utility, the minimum fan speed for green light has been reduced to 800 RPM and baaammm.. I'm all good now. RPMs vary between 800 and 1000, which is now perfectly within limits =) And this thing is now soo much more quiet and actually acceptable on a desktop right next to your imac

Cheers
Florian

 

[JesterJJZ]

Depending on the noise, I'd consider doing something like this as well.

 

[florianuhlemann]

Depending on the noise, I'd consider doing something like this as well.

Do you own a Pegasus yet?

 

[bergert]

Go ahead and call me crazy XD but I felt like ripping my Pegasus apart and swapping the fan for a more silent one

I ordered my R6 from the apple.com in August - and it arrived in the first week of Sept. The 6 Hitachi disks inside make as much (very little) noise as the fans. The Mini it is connected to is totally silent.

For me, noise is not an issue - maybe because I am used to the whining buzz of the external disk on my MacPro - or just luck (better fans) ?

 

[florianuhlemann]

or just luck (better fans) ?

That might be the case. I realized that the louder noise is coming from vibrations (of the fans or HDD) that are caused by the case of the Pegasus. If you push on the top or sides, the noise becomes much less annoying. (Still, the PSU fan is making a higher pitch noise due to the small build size)

But I though of maybe even adding either the computer case sound protection foam that you can buy to the inside of the case or put some sticky foam where the case is mounted so it can't start vibrating.

 

[park13]

I dont mind the fan noise. BUT is there a way to turn of Blue LED?

 

[clavis]

Thanks!

Dear Florian,

thanks for this! I'll tried the same with another Fan, Silenx Pro authentic, without Succes. Now I had ordered same than yours and lets see.

The power supply fan I replaced although, Silenx Pro authentic, but the same: Did not spin.

I have a question: Could you tell me on which Number (1,2,3) of promises' fan connector I had to connect which color of the new fan, please?

Cheers

clavis

 

[florianuhlemann]

Hm... the fan certainly will spin.. all you have to make sure is that you connect the correct wires!

the easiest way is to remove the sticker off the original fan and check which leads end where... it is labeled with gnd, + and sens on the circuit board of the fan in the center.

hope this helps

Dear Florian,

thanks for this! I'll tried the same with another Fan, Silenx Pro authentic, without Succes. Now I had ordered same than yours and lets see.

The power supply fan I replaced although, Silenx Pro authentic, but the same: Did not spin.

I have a question: Could you tell me on which Number (1,2,3) of promises' fan connector I had to connect which color of the new fan, please?

Cheers

clavis

----------

I dont mind the fan noise. BUT is there a way to turn of Blue LED?

sorry for the late reply. you can always disconnect the LED wires or install a switch inbetween to be able to turn them off when needed. but electronically/via software, there doesnt seem to be a way.

 

[clavis]

Hm... the fan certainly will spin.. all you have to make sure is that you connect the correct wires!

My Impression is, that these Silenx fans need to much power. The small had spanned after I pushed it with my finger. The bigger one do nothing, but twitching after I pushed it. I think the new fans will work, they are ordered.

...remove the sticker off the original fan and check which leads end where... it is labeled with gnd, + and sens on the circuit board of the fan in the center.

Is it labeled with "gnd, + and sense" on pegasus' main board, too? I'm in the office right now and can't look.

I had ordered some silicon washers for HDD installing, too. I report the result of it.

Did anybody know, when promise brings up a firmware with sleep-mode? I had read in test of ct-magazine they want to, but there its still nothing on their site. I'll write them now and post the answer here.

Cheers

clavis

 

[clavis]

Answer of promise

Hi all,

here is promise' answer belongs to sleep mode:

Response By:- Dayalan Subramaniam 18th May 2012 at 1:37
Hi Stephen,

Thank you for choosing our solutions for your storage needs.

Please open the System preferences in your Mac, Energy saver and select the option "Put the harddrives in to sleep Mode". I am sorry we dont have ETA for our next firmware release. Please check our website keep often.

Regards
Dayalan

 

[alq]

Strange, I own an R6 since August last year and the fan noise has never been an issue and the R6 is about 1 meter from my head.

alq.

 

[clavis]

I have read in test, that it is "very low noise". My own R4 is too loud for the living room... spooky...

 

[lilgto64]

Pegasus R6

I have an R6 connected to a Mini Server - sits under my desk on top of a cardboard box (for now, should build a shelf of or something).

Fan noise has not really been an issue for me - despite the Util showing 1200 RPM speed. Sometimes when it is busy and the fans ramp up I hear a gentle swooshing type noise.

The fan I do need to do something about is in my 24 port Gigabit switch - which is bolted to the underside of a desk above a shelf I added - and even with some acoustic foam around it - the fan noise it consistent and I think in part thanks to being surrounded on three sides by flat hard surfaces it about the only noise that is consistently a nuisance.

 

[bentleykf]

Definitely an issue with noise, esp. when it sits across from a new Mac Pro. Seems like the psu fans are the loudest, the hdd fan is less so.

Noticed that there's a slight vibration between the psu and the pegasus' external case, so I wedged a bit of thermal tape in between the tabs on the case to reduce the vibration (just along the psu side of the case), makes it slightly less whiny.

Will try out replacing both fans tomorrow and let you know the results.

 

[cfs.matt]

So did anybody eventually replace the PS fan in the Pegasus or Pegasus2?

If so, did it make a noticable difference?

I just received the Pegasus2 a few weeks ago and that 40mm fan is driving me crazy.

 

[Cubemmal]

Nice! My solution was to get a 10m TB cable and stick the two Pegasus2 units in a equipment cabinet.

I wouldn't mind swapping out the fans but prefer not to mess around with connectors and soldering.

 

[cfs.matt]

Nice! My solution was to get a 10m TB cable and stick the two Pegasus2 units in a equipment cabinet.

I wouldn't mind swapping out the fans but prefer not to mess around with connectors and soldering.

I only have the 2m Apple cable. What 10m cable are you running? I'm guessing not an Apple one. How does quality compare? Any performance hit with that long of a run?

 

[Cubemmal]

I only have the 2m Apple cable. What 10m cable are you running? I'm guessing not an Apple one. How does quality compare? Any performance hit with that long of a run?

The Corning optical TB cable, it converts TB to optical and back on the other end. Spendy ($300) but zero difference (performance or otherwise) with copper TB cables, with a bonus that the fiber optical cable is wonderful to work with.

 

[StrychnineUK]

Hi all,


Just made the same mistake and bought the noisy R2 only to find out I couldn't bear its noise. Although I am about to perform the same mod as flioranuhlemann (nice pics mate!), I would greatly appreciate some more details on the R2's fan connector as I'm no soldering artist and may purchase a spare few parts to practice my aim before coming up with a proper result ... Is this something that can be ordered on its own? Is the KAZE-JYU Slim fan the only one that would work? What about the 1000RPM version? ... Should I use rubber 'thingies' instead of the factory screws? ...

Apart form that, it seems that I have found a quick and dirty way to reduce the damn vibration noise by a great deal without modding (although modding would get me rid of the high pitch airy noise which drives me nuts).

I had a spare pair of mo-pads by Auralex (foam pads used in recording studios so as to reduce speakers vibrations). I just dumped the bloody R2 on a pair of them (the case rubber bits have pretty much sank into the foam) and I got rid of most (if not all) the irritating case vibrations. Still not perfect because of the fan noise but much better indeed ...


Hope this helps ...

 

[cfs.matt]

Hi all,


Just made the same mistake and bought the noisy R2 only to find out I couldn't bear its noise. Although I am about to perform the same mod as flioranuhlemann (nice pics mate!), I would greatly appreciate some more details on the R2's fan connector as I'm no soldering artist and may purchase a spare few parts to practice my aim before coming up with a proper result ... Is this something that can be ordered on its own? Is the KAZE-JYU Slim fan the only one that would work? What about the 1000RPM version? ... Should I use rubber 'thingies' instead of the factory screws? ...

Apart form that, it seems that I have found a quick and dirty way to reduce the damn vibration noise by a great deal without modding (although modding would get me rid of the high pitch airy noise which drives me nuts).

I had a spare pair of mo-pads by Auralex (foam pads used in recording studios so as to reduce speakers vibrations). I just dumped the bloody R2 on a pair of them (the case rubber bits have pretty much sank into the foam) and I got rid of most (if not all) the irritating case vibrations. Still not perfect because of the fan noise but much better indeed ...


Hope this helps ...

I'm opting to replace both fans. The power supply fan is the loudest and most irritating for me.

This is what I've ordered and I'll report back how it goes:

Noctua NF-B9-1600 92MM Ultra Quiet Cooling Fan
Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX 40mm Quiet Cooling Fan

The Noctua are nice because they come with lots of adapters and a resistor to put the fan into Ultra Quiet mode. (hopefully it will still move enough air)

FYI the HDD fan connector on the R2 looks custom and the PS fan looks to be directly soldered inside the unit.

 

[cfs.matt]

So I’ve been playing with this for a few days. I’ve swapped the enclosure fan and the power supply fan and this thing is whisper quiet. As quiet as the nMP now!

In the new version of the Promise software they removed the ability to control fan speed, so you end being stuck with automatic. Which means the RPM of the fan is below the expected threshold and they mark the fan as failed within the utility.

Temp comparison:

[Original Fans] Controller / Backplane: 36C / 32C
[Swapped Fans] Controller / Backplane: 44C / 38C

* I only have a single 1TB Samsung 840 Evo SSD in here currently.

I also wanted the ability to swap fans easily, so I ended up soldering on standard 3-pin fan connectors and building an adapter for both fans.

I ended up trying to 2 other 92mm fans so far to see if they do slightly higher RPMS, but no luck:

Arctic F9 PWM Rev.2 (I made a 3-pin to 4-pin adapter)
Gelid Silent 9

The Noctua NF-B9-1600 still appears to move the most air so far out of the 3 of them.

I may try the KAZE-JYU Slim to see if I can get the same results as OP on the original Pegasus.

I’ve got a ticket in with Promise to see if there is any way to toggle fan speed mode within the console app.

Overall I’m happy, the noise difference is night and day. Seems like a decent trade off for slightly higher temps that are well below warning / critical thresholds.

 

[cfs.matt]

Ok I caved and ordered a few more fans to try out:

Scythe Kaze Jyu Slim 100MM
EVERCOOL FAN-EC9225M12CA 92mm
GELID Solutions FN-FW09-20-B 92mm
XIGMATEK XSF-F9251 92mm

I'll report back how they do...will be interesting to see if the Scythe Kaze performs the same RPM as OP.

 

[StrychnineUK]

Hi there ...

@cfs.matt, it seems that you had quite a breakthrough with this fan setup. Many thanks for the pics. I think I will try my best and mimic what you did with the Noctua setup. One more question though ... the Noctua fans are available in both PWM and non-PWM versions ... Is it safe to assume the fans used within the R2 are non-PWM because of the 3 wire connectors? ...

 

[cfs.matt]

Hi there ...

@cfs.matt, it seems that you had quite a breakthrough with this fan setup. Many thanks for the pics. I think I will try my best and mimic what you did with the Noctua setup. One more question though ... the Noctua fans are available in both PWM and non-PWM versions ... Is it safe to assume the fans used within the R2 are non-PWM because of the 3 wire connectors? ...

Hey StrychnineUK! I did use the 3 pin version for the enclosure fan. But you can definitely use PWM 4 pin fans in the setup. I've only tested one so far though, all you need is to make a little adapter as 3 and 4 pin fans are backwards compatible. (I only needed an adapter because I didn't want to notch out the connecter I soldered on).

FYI the 40mm was 2 pin.

I'm going to be testing a few more fans this week if you want to wait and see my results. I'm hoping the Scythe Kaze Jyu Slim performs better and reports > 500 RPM to avoid the fan malfunction warning.

I might also throw in some 1TB WD Blacks to see how it handles the extra heat too.

Let me know if you have any other questions