I read somewhere, the 61 key models are generally louder than the others. This may result from the more solid case, because of the weighted keyboards.
First I assumed, the fan would be one of those small atom chipset fans (40mm x 40mm x 10mm) which rotate very fast at about 4500 rpm. I have one in my server and it sounds just like the Kronos fan. In my server I use the linux fancontrol software to make it more quiet.
But it is a 60 x 60 fan, which is located at the 30gig SSD.
The Kronos fan seems to rotate at full speed. When booting the Kronos, the fan turns more quiet for some time, so software control seems to be possible, but seems to be unused by the Kronos software.
A SSD never gets near to warm (I read on the net), so why do we need the fan at this place?
The Intel D510MO(B) board has a big passive heat spreader covering both CPU and chipset.
The board is designed for fanless use, but then the case has to fulfill some conditions to get enough air flow through the cooling fins.
I think, the fan should provide some air flow from the right of the case with the motherboard to the left where we have no hot devices at all.
The power supply is also on the right, but doesn't get much air flow from the fan.
I could imagine a better solution for this situation. I think the board should get more cooling and the SSD doesn't need any.
I tested disconnecting the fan, which seems to heat up the motherboard, may be too much.
Over the test period of some days this worked so far, but I have to mention that we have about 20°C here in Germany, may be the result would be worse with a higher room temperature.
May be a better fan could be placed near the motherboard and then operated at some lower speed.
(EDIT: see my photos from inside in another post)
Is it true that you disconnected the fan from your Kronos, and it still works?!!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very interesting!
Maybe you can give us some input over here:
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=62600
Thanks.
Yes, it is still disconnected.
ReplyDeleteI currently have not much time to play, but when I play, it's most often for some hours.
The right button area is hand warm after may be 30 minutes or more and seems to stay at that level.
and yes I will join the forum thread, soon...
I first have to catch up reading all those posts...
dear readers, for more information, please head over to the forum thread mentioned above...
ReplyDeleteThe fan's noise is not much of a problem. It is audible, but only externally. You don't get any line hum. (some people are confused by this issue). It's not much louder than an average PC. I don't see a problem w/this, especially if you're recording your vocals/acoustic tracks in a sound booth, or dubbing them after the Kronos tracks are recorded. I've read comments on forums where people are skeptical or refuse to buy the Kronos, only because of the fan noise. Most PCs have an audible fan too, so I guess those people will never use a PC based DAW or VST. (what a pity) If those people don't want the Kronos, simply because of it's audible fan, that is there choice.....& there loss, because there is no current keyboard the can match the Kronos. The "Black Beast" is unrivaled in terms of sounds, features & ease of use.
ReplyDeleteI have my new Kronos in the control room with me and the fan noise is bothersome since I often record vocals in that room (and not in one of the booths). Plus, I have no other synth in the control room (and I have 30+ in there) that has fan noise, so the Kronos is the only one. I love the keyboard but the noise makes it less ideal.
ReplyDelete