Transfer the four screws, rubber, foam, and the temperature sensor, and connect the SATA data and power cables. The Time Capsule has a strong reputation for running warm, and I can definitely see why. Even with the fan spinning at maximum, it’s hard to really tell that any air is moving, and the only time you can even hear the fan is with it at maximum. That said, the airflow pattern in the Time Capsule seems odd-air is drawn in from the side, over and through the power supply, into the fan, then blown over half the drive, and hopefully exhausts through some small vents at the other side. Google’s empirical study of disk failures has shown that between 40 and 45 C is ideal for prolonging drive life, so as long as things run in the fashion that I saw them run, it seems like drives shouldn’t fail due to excessive heat. 60 C is the maximum recommended operating temperature for the WD20EARS, so this makes sense. At around 140 F (60 C) the fan will spin at maximum and the front LED light will flash amber, and note overheating is happening in the Airport utility.
At below 110 F (43 C), the fan turns off. I played around with the drive and a heat gun (not the two together) alongside a contact-less IR thermometer, and found that the fan seems to turn on and spin at a moderate level at just above 120 F (49 C) and stays active during normal use when the sensor is around 115 F (45 C). The temperature sensor is used in conjunction with the SoC to control the Time Capsule’s fan. If you’re looking carefully, you’ll note one more foam piece with a cable leading off-there’s a thermistor attached to the drive using some foam and a plastic bracket. On the PCB side the four mounting holes are home to some screws which mate up with a rubber support on the Time Capsule’s base. It’s lipped with rubber and rests inside a metal caddy on three pieces of foam. I can’t speak for the 3TB Time Capsule version, but inside the 2TB Time Capsule is a relatively consumer level WD Green WD20EARS SATA II 2TB, 64MB of cache HDD. I suspect that some users are interested in doing things like buying a 2TB Time Capsule ($299) and bringing along their own 3TB drive instead of paying $499 for the 3TB version. The power supply easily lifts out, revealing the board underneath. With the lid off, you can already see that the mainboard has a short SATA cable, and the power supply has a SATA power connector in addition to another for the mainboard. Unlike the Airport Extreme, the Time Capsule has an internal power supply, and, of course, a 3.5” HDD for Time Machine backups. That requires some care to unplug gently to avoid damage. There’s a fan attached to the lid which is plugged into the mainboard, however. Construction overall is like the Airport Extreme, however, heat up the back to soften the adhesive, pry off, remove some screws, and then the top metal lid lifts off gently.
0 kommentar(er)
