NUC: Replace the fan? Max 2.5" HDD depth and noise?

Info & chat about quiet prebuilt, small form factor and barebones systems, people's experiences with vendors thereof, etc.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
smilingcrow
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1809
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 1:45 am
Location: At Home

NUC: Replace the fan? Max 2.5" HDD depth and noise?

Post by smilingcrow » Sun Aug 03, 2014 11:01 pm

The SPCR review of the Haswell NUC is favourable to me as with only the CPU loaded the noise level seems very good. I won't be stressing it more than the TPMGEnc test which gave 16 dBA @ 70C.
I’ve noticed that some of the other reviews were critical of the noise and that is probably because they maxed out the CPU & GPU using benchmarking software which is irrelevant for my usage model.
Even SPCR managed to push it to 30 dBA @ 82C with Furmark.

So one remaining question is how well the fan stands up over time and whether it is replaceable.
It’s not exactly unusual for fans to get nosier over time so being able to replace it is key if looking at this as a long term solution.
Any thoughts?

Also what is the largest size 2.5" drive that it supports? 9.5mm is confirmed but I'm not clear if that is the maximum.
Then there is the issue of how well it insulates the noise of a 2TB HDD. I'm probably using a Samsung ST2000LM003 which is likely the drive inside my Seagate USB 3.0 drive apparently.
Anyone using one with a HDD?

Post Reply