[MasamuneXGP]

Hello all. About six months ago I purchased an Areca ARC1210 RAID card. It's been working beatifully, but recently the fan on the thing has been making a very unpleasent buzzing noise. The hardware moniter page shows the fan to be running between 2300 and 2200 RPM. This worries me, as I've heard the norm is 3000. That card was rather expensive, and the thought of the chip frying itself and possibly my data along with it is rather unsettling. What should I do? Can the fan be replaced? Where can I buy a replacement? The fan is easily removable so that's not a problem, but do I need to apply new thermal paste or anything?

Thanks

[Zark]

And this is why I could never take Areca seriously. A 10 cent fan on a $1000 card. What idiots.

[MasamuneXGP]

Yesterday I emailed Areca tech support and just now got the following response:

Quote

you can replace fan by a common graphic card cooling fan.
and because controller detece fan speed by the fan current, so please used a
fan with similar specification.
the fan specification is 12VDC, 0.08Amp, 0.96Watt.

...yeah. I've never changed out a graphics card fan before, so I have no idea what I'm looking for. Nor do I see a store that lists electrical specs. Can anyone help me with this?

This post has been edited by MasamuneXGP: 04 September 2006 - 01:42 AM

[FemmeT]

If you have sufficient free space below the controller, you can replace the HSF with a Zalman northbridge cooler.

Pic 1


Pic 2

I use this mod on an ARC-1120 and ARC-1160. The standard fan was running at 2770 rpm on my ARC-1120 (screenshot.

[GreyCloud]

MasamuneXGP, on Sep 4 2006, 04:12 AM, said:

Hello all. About six months ago I purchased an Areca ARC1210 RAID card. It's been working beatifully, but recently the fan on the thing has been making a very unpleasent buzzing noise. The hardware moniter page shows the fan to be running between 2300 and 2200 RPM. This worries me, as I've heard the norm is 3000. That card was rather expensive, and the thought of the chip frying itself and possibly my data along with it is rather unsettling. What should I do? Can the fan be replaced? Where can I buy a replacement? The fan is easily removable so that's not a problem, but do I need to apply new thermal paste or anything?

Thanks

Yep - happened to my 1220 too - fan completly failed. I too got the exact same message from Areca Support. On advice on here I went the Zalman cooler route, cheap enough on ebay. Never been entirly happy though as I know my case has poor airflow - would prefer a decent replacement if i'm honest.

GC

[MasamuneXGP]

unfortunately, I don't have that kind of space beneath the card. Is there no way to get my hands on a simple plain-jane replacement fan?

[Henrik Larsen]

MasamuneXGP, on Sep 4 2006, 06:47 PM, said:

unfortunately, I don't have that kind of space beneath the card. Is there no way to get my hands on a simple plain-jane replacement fan?

try to see if you can locate a Papst fan, they make the best fans you can get. Try getting one under 20 DB, they are lownoise..

Henrik

[Zark]

FemmeT, on Sep 4 2006, 05:44 AM, said:

If you have sufficient free space below the controller, you can replace the HSF with a Zalman northbridge cooler.

Pic 1


Pic 2

I use this mod on an ARC-1120 and ARC-1160. The standard fan was running at 2770 rpm on my ARC-1120 (screenshot.

How do you keep it attached? From the pictures, it looks like only one side has a mounting screw hole.

[MasamuneXGP]

Henrik Larsen, on Sep 4 2006, 03:10 PM, said:

try to see if you can locate a Papst fan, they make the best fans you can get. Try getting one under 20 DB, they are lownoise..

Henrik

Uh... yeah... I kinda assume not all fans will fit. What kind do I need? =\

[HMTK]

Six months old screams of WARRANTY REPLACEMENT.

Get them to send you a replacement controller, if possible with the same firmware and BIOS, and then send yours back. If they don't want to do this, start complaining.

Quote

A 10 cent fan on a $1000 card. What idiots

Indeed. Haven't seen fans on the IBM ServeRAID controllers we sell.