I recently got a deal on a used low time RS1221RP+ with 8 seagate iron wolf drives 8TB drives. 4 of the drives are on the approved list and 4 are not. The 4 that are not on the approved list boot and run fine, except for that warning about the approved list.
I care more about data protection than storage space. Should I format with Raid 10?
I backup 3,2,1 and will be setting up a 920+ as the off site backup.
P.S. OMG is that thing loud. PSU fans are like jet engines. Hence the deal me thinks.
Well due to the silence, I’m guessing a silly question. Raid 10 it is.
Thought there might be some advantage to SHR-2 aside from add disks of different sizes later.
I have a RS1221. I am running SHR on my disks, seems to work.
It was not easy to select the raid type so I can relate to your woes.
I bought the expansion unit, and boy was that a mistake. Sure the RX418 is not super expensive but it is not upfront with sucking more genitals than your average mainstream journalist.
It is limited by the USB-3, I think it is, to the main unit. So sure you can put disks in it, but you can not share volumes with the main unit, and do not under any circumstances buy SSDs to put in it as you can not use the speed of those, I mean not even close. Even just filling it with spinning rust would probably limit it.
I really really wish I would have bought a bigger Synology to start with. Like 24 bays or something, and more CPU, because you quickly run out of power on the RS1221.
Other than that Synology seems to be very mature as the software seems to work quite well.
I would love to hear if you ended up pleased with the raid 10🙂
I’m going to factory reset and put all 8 drives in RAID 10, That’s the setup on my 920+ right now, so it’ll be fine. Good to know about the RX418. Right now I trying to figure out what to do about the PSU fan noise. 72db at the front of the unit, 55db at the front of the closed closet doors. It’s as loud or louder then my R630 server in panic mode. I tried to installed new fans that are 5 CFM lower in flow but 20db quieter. No joy, the new fans won’t run in the PSU but bench test fine. So the stock fans went back in. 
Yeah I read about the fan problem, luckily for me I bought the one with just one PSU so mine is not that loud. Unless I push it a bit, then it ramps up a lot. But that is normal for rack stuff. But I can not imagine having two of those jet engines running 
I have seen people do fan switches online, but you have to be a bit careful as the system is designed to push a certain amount of air.
Also some disks are very expensive so if they break it would hurt. I am running on top of some normal disks four Synology 3.84T SAT5210 disks, and I would not dare mess about with the fans
My pictured write up on fans is on Reddit. Under Synology_Service. But here is a copy of that post.
So what are the problems with Noctua fans in Synology NAS’s?
Nothing really. Only as long as you match the fan correctly.
This means size, voltage, tachometer, and most importantly is current.
I see alot of people adding Noctua Fans for the NAS to sound quiter.
In my opinion it is pretty quite already.
And I would never put these in.
But some people do.
But it almost all cases, the unit comes here after using the Noctua fans for a few months. And either one fan isn’t spinning anymore, or one is very slow, and the other is normal.
The reason why is when you put these in.
You must make sure the current rating of the fan matches exact to the original fan.
Here’s one from today.
Synology DS1515+. And its original fan is .20AMPS. The owner bought some nice Noctua fans, and replaced the old with these. And see pic. It is only .07AMP
Now this might sound great. Less current for the new fans to stress the system less.
Well not so in Synology.
You see. Synology’s fan circuit is a active balanced fan circuit. Its live even with no fans installed. And Synology actually pulses the 12v supply side to change the speed of the fans. More pulses the faster. Less means slower fan.
And since this a live active circuit, and balanced critical to the resistance the fan is going to draw.
In the original setup. As in pics. This is .20AMP of fan power needed. So more power out. Means less inside that balanced circuit.
The Noctua’s have .07AMP draw. So that means. Less power out, more power in. More power in a balanced circuit, means something is gonna get hot.
And sure enough the 2 fan resistors are very strEssed and discolored, and burning out. One did. The other almost.
So when ever buying Noctua fans. Or any after market fan.
Make sure all matches perfect. Within …01AMP of the fan rating.
Below is an example from a DS1515+ that came in. See this on all models with these fans.
Last week was a DS1817+. And even on a smaller DS920+. Applies to racks too.
Enjoy!
Thanks so much posting. I’ve found everything you’ve said to be correct, usually the hard way. 
But happily all the magic blue smoke remains where it belongs.
I did the Noctua case fan mod and removed it immediately when airflow was backwards through the running Noctua case fans in all but the highest settings.
Yes, the two little PSU fans are that strong. The PSU fans are also 80dba at the back of the unit. I purchased some Wakefield-Vette 4 wire fans as replacements for the PSU 2 wire fans and they are quieter.
The installed fans in the PSU are 2 wire but I can not find them anywhere, they maybe proprietary. They do sell this 4 wire replacement to the factory Delta Electronics fans. If you don’t connect the PWM & Tach they run at full speed like the stock fans.
I’m also looking into wiring the PSU fans with PWM controllers and controlling fan speed based on PSU internal temperature.
Found the fan to PSU connector and Socket Contact
Not bad. You didn’t let the Genie out. Once out. Hard to catch that guy and get him back in. LOL!
I personally at the lab use Delta Fans for just about everything. When it comes to fans. Muffin or box. As high end fans last very long. Delta is that one. In fact all Synology Products are Delta made PSU’s. In about 95% of the product line up. Your PSU is probably Delta too. As are the desktops. Those Deltas should have Delta fans in them. I have seen a few with that green other name I forgot now. Sunon or something like that. They use to use Seasonic. But were pricey for them. Synology for adapters on the 4 disk or less use EMACs or Delta, and PGB brand. Now the EMAC’s I use is so high end. Synology couldn’t afford those for internal PSU’s. As those are medical and military grade. The only off name one I use in Racks. But solder in the wires. If you have a RS818+ replace that supply now. As it has a issue. The supply is rated at 100watts. The rack uses 100watts as a stable power. Those should never match like that. Always wattage of a PSU should be over the stable wattage of a system. Like it should have a 125watt supply or higher in it. Too close. And many dying now. So that’s a design flaw. Now your FANs.
You can build a simple circuit to monitor the fan speed by temp. Not too hard actually. Now the 2 applications for Synology Fans. PSU fans and or Synology motherboard fans have 2 circuit designs. The motherboard plugged fans with 3 wire and 4 wire use that series resistor fan setup. The fan being one of the resistors in that series. Why the resistor burns up if the Noctua fan or another name brand is not matched correctly. Now how Synology controls the speed of the fan for slow and fast. Synology just pulses the line with 12v. So its the cycles or hertz of that 12v power that determines the fan speed. So never put an LED fan in there. Your eyes will go crazy with pulsing light! LOL! The 2 wire setup uses voltages. The only problem with 2 wire is no monitoring. So you will never know if the fan is dead. As it has no feedback. The tach and or PWM line is missing on those. You can use 4 or 3 wire. And yes. They run full speed if the tach or PWM line is not connected. This is so the fan can be used in multiple applications. I never tried those Wakefield’s. Gonna have to buy some to test. Thanks for the link.
And that PWM circuit actually looks nice! At that price. Better than building one. Not bad!
On Another side note. This is me personally. I always felt the dual fan units for me were much quiter then the single fan units. As the PSU has 2 small fans in it. The only noisy part is the center fans. But overall not bad. When I test run serviced NAS’s Like the RS2416+ vs the RS2416rp+. I felt the rp+ was not as loud for some reason. As the 1 huge fan on the 2416+ is right there on the backside. You can’t even talk on a phone with that thing running. I won a few of my own. And even my RS18017xs+With dual redundant supplies is less noisy. LOL! Also that is my favorite rack I have now. May change some day. But 128Gigs of RAM. And gaming CPU. As the CPU is socketed in this model. And the 12 Bays. Is nice! And not that loud oddly.
Actually Synology specs show it to be louder. But in reality. Not as bad as the units with the huge fans on the back. Here we never use Synology specs too. Imagine using their specs. We would have such huge ram amounts or disk sizes in our NAS’s with what they post. LOL! We have found out otherwise better on our own.
BTW. Here is a simple DIY PWM circuit you can make. There are many online you can make for a few bucks only.
Thanks for all the info!
I purchased the PWM board because I already had these laying around from other 3d printer / cnc projects. The OLED and the temp senors are not needed, but what the hey they’re here.
QT Py RP2040
High Accuracy I2C Temperature Sensor
128x64 OLED Graphic Display
So if I ever get around to it, PSU temp and fan speed will be displayed on the front of the rack. Cause you know, why not.
I agree. I would get to save the headache. I never saw that adafruit stuff before. Even this temp display. I like that alot. As I feel all NAS’s should have something like that.
Adafruit seems to have the niche stuff we all need. Now I gotta get me a display like that from there. Love those for my NAS too. Even just as a temp monitor. Thanks! Now if I could ask you? What temps do you plan on monitoring with these? Air in the PSU?
Or air temp in the chassis? Because those 2 are gonna have different temps. Each one regulated on its own. As the PSU controls its fan outside of the NAS. So it has its own thermal control. Get one too that keeps am eye on PWM for the fan. After a few years its good to have an alarm for that. As the motherboard has no idea what is going on in the supply part.
It does the chassis fans. But not the PSU.
Also there are these to think about outside adafruit.
I’m going to monitor the PSU internal temps. Using a Fluke to get baseline temps in a stock PSU, with enough data to build a lookup table. Then use the table to adjust the fan duty cycle based on temp.
The PWM controller board can use a NPN BJT transistor to monitor temps if you don’t want use the temp sensor breakout. (super cheap)
Yes. You can use a transistor, or even diodes to do temp monitoring. And that is a perfect spot. Actually PSU temps pretty much tell you how much strain is on the motherboard. So it is the best spot even I would choose. Not bad! Good Job!
