Breathing some life into this thread again. First off, thanks so much to everyone for contributing to this and making it a great resource (especially cfs.matt and Cinema5D). I took the plunge and operated on my Pegasus R6 TB1.
It’s funny, I used to have six of these next to my workstation (2 R6’s, 1 R8, 3 G-Tech Studios) and was just used to the constant droning of fans. But five of them got moved back to my office, and when it was down to just one R6 in my home office it stuck out to me how obnoxious the pitch and volume of these fans are. So I stumbled onto this thread.
I’m probably far less adept at this type of thing than the other users here, but I was successful in swapping the fans for the GeLid (couldn’t find the -B blue one so I used green) and 40mm Noctua (it took me about 8 hours…). Mine is probably more jimmy-rigged than someone that knows what they’re doing. I bought a soldering gun for this, but found the process a bit intimidating and ultimately used the omni-join scotchlok connectors from the Noctua for both fan connections.
Here’s a few notes about my process in case they are of use to anyone going forward. I imagine this information is still relevant and at least somewhat translates to Pegasus2 and 3 models as well. For the pros here, feel free to point out if I was majorly flawed in anything (like using the scotchlok connectors instead of soldering).
- I ordered the noctua fan in both 12v and 5v since some users were reporting their fan was not spinning / getting enough voltage. The 12v did work fine for me, but it was handy having the extra as I used the extra scotchlok connectors and a silicon mount (since I broke one) from the extra fan kit.
- The correct order for the backplane fan proprietary plug is (left-to-right looking in from PSU side) red - black - yellow.
- It was a major struggle pulling the silicon mounts through the left of the PSU since there is so little space. I had to pull them through by grabbing them with a tweezers and pull them out far enough to grab with a pliers, and pull at a weird angle. I did break one but fortunately had extras from the 5v kit I didn’t use. I was successful via perseverance and sheer force of will. cfs.matt or Cinema5D, was there an easier way to do that? Side note: looking at the madness going on inside that PSU majorly spikes my anxiety!
- I tested everything while it was still disassembled (I put all the drives back in though, is that necessary?). The GeLid didn’t spin at first, I checked all the scotchlok adapters and after pressing in more on the connector for the ground cable it did spin up without issue.
- When putting it all back together, I routed the extra PSU fan cable and connectors outside the PSU, as it was really tight trying to fit it inside and I couldn’t close the box / was worried of damaging the connections.
- I used the silicon mounts for the GeLid and just snipped off some of the extra so the back panel could fit on (without drilling new holes). It’s not perfectly flat around the fan, but I didn’t have any issue lining up any screws and it isn’t at all noticeable unless you look for it.
All is still working 12 hours later. I know that noise sensitivity is subjective, for me it wasn’t as dramatic a difference as I’d hoped. But it is running 7dB quieter and the pitch is much more tolerable. Just don’t expect this to make it silent. If I didn’t mess anything up and the connections hold up, I would still say the effort was well worth it. I thought about making a video tutorial, but then realized I'd probably be giving bad advice and it might not be worth the 12 views I'd get haha. Pics attached!
P.S. Anyone have any recommendations for 4 to 6-bay TB RAID that is quiet / a pleasure to work with?
It’s funny, I used to have six of these next to my workstation (2 R6’s, 1 R8, 3 G-Tech Studios) and was just used to the constant droning of fans. But five of them got moved back to my office, and when it was down to just one R6 in my home office it stuck out to me how obnoxious the pitch and volume of these fans are. So I stumbled onto this thread.
I’m probably far less adept at this type of thing than the other users here, but I was successful in swapping the fans for the GeLid (couldn’t find the -B blue one so I used green) and 40mm Noctua (it took me about 8 hours…). Mine is probably more jimmy-rigged than someone that knows what they’re doing. I bought a soldering gun for this, but found the process a bit intimidating and ultimately used the omni-join scotchlok connectors from the Noctua for both fan connections.
Here’s a few notes about my process in case they are of use to anyone going forward. I imagine this information is still relevant and at least somewhat translates to Pegasus2 and 3 models as well. For the pros here, feel free to point out if I was majorly flawed in anything (like using the scotchlok connectors instead of soldering).
- I ordered the noctua fan in both 12v and 5v since some users were reporting their fan was not spinning / getting enough voltage. The 12v did work fine for me, but it was handy having the extra as I used the extra scotchlok connectors and a silicon mount (since I broke one) from the extra fan kit.
- The correct order for the backplane fan proprietary plug is (left-to-right looking in from PSU side) red - black - yellow.
- It was a major struggle pulling the silicon mounts through the left of the PSU since there is so little space. I had to pull them through by grabbing them with a tweezers and pull them out far enough to grab with a pliers, and pull at a weird angle. I did break one but fortunately had extras from the 5v kit I didn’t use. I was successful via perseverance and sheer force of will. cfs.matt or Cinema5D, was there an easier way to do that? Side note: looking at the madness going on inside that PSU majorly spikes my anxiety!
- I tested everything while it was still disassembled (I put all the drives back in though, is that necessary?). The GeLid didn’t spin at first, I checked all the scotchlok adapters and after pressing in more on the connector for the ground cable it did spin up without issue.
- When putting it all back together, I routed the extra PSU fan cable and connectors outside the PSU, as it was really tight trying to fit it inside and I couldn’t close the box / was worried of damaging the connections.
- I used the silicon mounts for the GeLid and just snipped off some of the extra so the back panel could fit on (without drilling new holes). It’s not perfectly flat around the fan, but I didn’t have any issue lining up any screws and it isn’t at all noticeable unless you look for it.
All is still working 12 hours later. I know that noise sensitivity is subjective, for me it wasn’t as dramatic a difference as I’d hoped. But it is running 7dB quieter and the pitch is much more tolerable. Just don’t expect this to make it silent. If I didn’t mess anything up and the connections hold up, I would still say the effort was well worth it. I thought about making a video tutorial, but then realized I'd probably be giving bad advice and it might not be worth the 12 views I'd get haha. Pics attached!
P.S. Anyone have any recommendations for 4 to 6-bay TB RAID that is quiet / a pleasure to work with?
