D-LINK 320 sysboard temperature

[Nicola C.]

Hi, I've setup two twin NAS units as a prmiary and secondary NAS backups, and as far as I can see everything is fine.

One thing I've seen is that even with disks in standby mode, every unit's fan periodically starts to cool down the system board.

This suggests that the board isn't in low power mode (let's name it "standby") and it warms up until the fan cools it down.

Isn't there a way to put the board in "standby" mode, thus saving power and heat, but letting it responsive to WOL signals and internal wake-up timers?

Thank you very much!

Nicola

[João Cardoso]

The DNS-320/320L/325 already have a "low power" CPU mode.

dmesg says:

cpuidle: using governor ladder

cpuidle: using governor menu

and 

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuidle/current_driver 

kirkwood_idle

That doesn't put everything on low-power, only the CPU.

That's all I know.

[Nicola C.]

Thank you João,

the point is that the system board temperature never goes below 32-34°C, while the room temperature is about 20-22 °C.

On summer time in our area the room temperature will be between 30 and 36 degrees, as a common rule, so I think the board temperature will reach 42-48 degrees at least.

And, because the disks too are warmed by the heat coming from the board (they are constantly at least at the same temperature the board is, even in standby mode), I think they will reach more or less the same temperature.

I think this range would shorten the disks life, because I know they should stay between 25 and 45 degrees, as a rule.

What are your (or maybe other users) experience with those NAS temperatures in summer time?

Should I think about putting them in my basement, where it's cooler at all times?

Best regards,

Nicola

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Alt-F" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/alt-f/jt0G1ahhSq8/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to alt-f+un...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/alt-f.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[João Cardoso]

On Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 10:37:40 AM UTC, Nicola C. wrote:

Thank you João,

the point is that the system board temperature never goes below 32-34°C, while the room temperature is about 20-22 °C.

On summer time in our area the room temperature will be between 30 and 36 degrees, as a common rule, so I think the board temperature will reach 42-48 degrees at least.

And, because the disks too are warmed by the heat coming from the board (they are constantly at least at the same temperature the board is, even in standby mode),

I don't observe that.

When disks leave standby they are at a lower temp than the system board. The system board can be at a higher temperature, but the developed amount of heat is low, it can't warm-up the disks (you can't easily boil-up a pot full of water using a fire match).

I just spun-up my DNS-325 disks, and the system temp is 30ºC with the fan off, the 1TB Samsung disk is at 19ºC and the 2TB WD at 26ºC. Ambient temp must be about 18ºC.

Some 10 minutes later, it was respectively 32, 24, 29 and some 5 minutes latter 33, 26, 32... 20 minutes after spun up it's 34, 28, 33, fan still off.

So the disks are heating the board, not the other way around (there is no CPU activity other than updating the Status page)

I think that the DNS-320 has a similar case then the DNS-325/DNS-323.

The DNS-320L has a poor thermal design, in my opinion. Its system temperature is consistently higher than the other boxes, and the fan is consistently turning on/off, as there is no convective cooling (heat don't naturally leave the box, as the fan opening is located in the middle of the box and hot air raises to the box top). And I think that I have read that the DNS-327 is even fan-less, having the same kind of case (from the pictures)! 

 

I think they will reach more or less the same temperature.

I think this range would shorten the disks life, because I know they should stay between 25 and 45 degrees, as a rule.

That depends on your disk brand and model. WD, e.g., specifies an operating temperature of between 0 and 60ºC for most disks. Of course having a lower temp is better.

 

What are your (or maybe other users) experience with those NAS temperatures in summer time?

Should I think about putting them in my basement, where it's cooler at all times?

That's a possibility.

You can first change how the fan cools your box, use Services->System->sysctrl Configure and read the online help -- the (?) blue icon near the page title.

There is anything else that I can do :-(

[Nicola C.]

Thank you for your answer, João.

I agree with you that the DNS-320 (and the "L" version, that has the same case and layout) has a terrible thermal design, with the fan on the lower part of the back panel.....

The board is located under the disks, horizontally, while both disks are placed on top of it, vertically, "plugged" into sata connectors fitted directly on card borders.

Ok, the operating range of my WD green drives is very large and as such I shouldn't expect heat related failures, I'm only concerned about such behaviour (as I expected the whole unit to enter standby mode or some kind of hibernation, while not in use, like windows or even linux desktops).

I'll already played with fan configuration, maybe I've to find a better tune to keep the fans from turning on when disks are not in use.

By the way, is there something I can do to change fans speed? I mean, to choose the rotational speed of the "slow" and "high" settings?

Again, thank you very much for your work!

Nicola C.

Italy

[Paulo Elifaz Andrielli]

Kind offtopic, but still on the subject.....

I'm thinking of using those coolers from an old power supply unit, and increase the potential of that tiny one.

I'm planning to use the USB port provided in the NAS for that. Did anyone try that before?

[]´s

Paulo

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Alt-F" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to alt-f+un...@googlegroups.com.

[Nicola C.]

From my point of view the best thing could be to enable the embedded system to enter some kind of "sleep" mode, such as any common desktop: when the system itself needs to do something it could use internals wakeup timers to get back (apart from wol, that obviously shuld work fine).

I'm borrowing this idea from my htpc, that is in standby mode all the time waiting for a ir remote command signal, or an internally scheduled tv program recording.

This could be the best scenario where the nas is used as a backup (like mine) and it shouldn't be online all day long, as it's only required for backup data replication maybe once or twice per week.

Best regards,

Nicola

[João Cardoso]

On Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 9:37:23 AM UTC, Nicola C. wrote:

Thank you for your answer, João.

I agree with you that the DNS-320 (and the "L" version, that has the same case and layout) has a terrible thermal design, with the fan on the lower part of the back panel.....

The board is located under the disks, horizontally, while both disks are placed on top of it, vertically, "plugged" into sata connectors fitted directly on card borders. 

Ok, the operating range of my WD green drives is very large and as such I shouldn't expect heat related failures, I'm only concerned about such behaviour (as I expected the whole unit to enter standby mode or some kind of hibernation, while not in use, like windows or even linux desktops).

That can't be done. Hibernation could, but it would probably take longer than the normal power on. Suspension requires hardware support.

ARM processors (the CPU used on our boxes) are low power by design (you see no CPU fan or heat sinks on any chip), and the motherboard only has a couple of chips. 

According to Amazon it would be possible to enter a sleep mode, don't know where they get that info:

Power Consumption:

* Normal Mode: 15.7 W

* Sleep Mode: 8.2 W

But D-Link itself doesn't supply that info. They give the box dimension and weight, but not its power consumption!

The processor supports a "cpuidle" feature, that makes it consume less power when inactive, and that is supported and active under Alt-F.

 

I'll already played with fan configuration, maybe I've to find a better tune to keep the fans from turning on when disks are not in use.

By the way, is there something I can do to change fans speed? I mean, to choose the rotational speed of the "slow" and "high" settings?

No, its a fixed speed design. Only the DNS-323-rev-A1/B1 supports variable fan speed.

Again, thank you very much for your work!

Nicola C.

Italy