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Hub 4, is the fan on all the time?

kevinfakarhai
Joining in

I found out a few days ago that Gig1 service is available where I live, though after reading a review of the Hub 4 I hear it gets very hot and so has a fan.

I have a largely silent PC, having replaced my PSU with a fanless option, SSD's rather than HD's, Noctua DH15 for CPU cooling, etc... you get this drift.

I'm curious to know if the fan stays on all the time, if it does, it's probably unlikely I'll upgrade to Gig1.

13 REPLIES 13

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

I can't comment on the fan issue, other than to observe that Hub 4 power use at 15.3 watts peak is not dissimilar to the Hub 3 and I'd therefore be surprised at a need for active cooling with a fan.  Ignoring any noise, having a fan would be a disaster for long term reliability, as the devices often sit on the floor and would be full of fluff in a couple of weeks.  Other customers who have a Hub 4 (or forum staff) can advise on that.

I would suggest that before upgrading to Gig1, you search these forums and read the issues some other customers are having, and ask yourself whether you're willing to risk those sorts of problems; And then match those risks against the reasons you think gigabit broadband will benefit you. 

I would suggest as well that if you do go ahead, then to make optimum use of a gigabit connection with wireless devices you'll need to buy a premium router or premium mesh wifi system that support Wifi 6, adding a further £200-400 cost.  The hub 4 is constrained by miserable 802.11ac wifi, a standard that's now six years old.

BenMcr
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

There is a fan in the Hub 4, however in the time I've had one, I can say I've never noticed it.

The V6 box is noisier.

**********************************
I work for Virgin Media - but all opinions posted here are my own

Aaron2
Well-informed

Unfortunately I'm not in a Gig1 area (Virgin, pls). However the air cooling operating temperature is roughly 25-30° so you shouldn't hear it. I'd personally recommend keeping it somewhere out the way as if the room gets warm it could cause the fan to kick in and you may hear it. 


** I work for VirginMedia but all opinions posted here are my own.

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

BenMcr is right - there's a teardown (or at least dismantling) online of the Czech cable outfit's version of the Hub 4 online, and the fan sits on the underside of the hub.  

Give it a few years and these things will be failing in their thousands where they sit in dusty corners, and are usually left on 24/7....

BenMcr
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person
It is in the self install guides for the Hub 4 that it's got a fan in it and to put it on a hard surface.
**********************************
I work for Virgin Media - but all opinions posted here are my own

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

It is in the self install guides for the Hub 4 .....  to put it on a hard surface.

I think it says that for the Hub 3, but we know VM installers still shove the devices on the floor or behind TVs, and that even if the installer puts it on a shelf, it'll often get moved onto the floor and tucked away.  Let's say most people follow the instructions, I'd still wager that a minimum of 20% will end up on the floor, hoovering up the dust and domestic tumbleweed.  Looking at the heat sink in the pics of the Czech "Hub 4", that looks like a horrible dust trap as well, rather than being carefully designed as a smooth surface to offer long term reliability.  You have to wonder what Arris were thinking adding mechanical cooling to an "invisible" piece of kit like a hub?  Ignoring the heat issues, there's now a mechanical component that can go wrong on its own.  At 15 watts it should have been easily possible to dissipate the heat passively through more thoughtful physical design, or (heaven forbid) using more efficient chips so that the heat output was lower...

Looks to me like Arris designed the product for (relative) cheapness and expediency, a commodity hedgehog heat sink was easiest, a tiny little cooling fan (the sort that have such a good reputation) cost next to nothing, so that was what they used.  Then, the corporate customers' sales-led management have said "ooh, great, 1024-4096 QAM and higher - that's fantastic because we can add more customers on existing segments without laying new cable!", and anybody from operations or support who said "what happens when it fills with fluff, or the fan starts playing up?" was told to shut up, it wouldn't happen, it couldn't happen, and even if it did happen it would only be a handful of devices, and even those not for a decade.  

I suppose this is all getting off topic, but more than ever it confirms my view that a Hub 4 is to be avoided at all costs (though on a 200 Mbps connection, I don't think VM will be offering me one anytime soon).

No it’s not on all the time.

Ive heard it kick in a few times, namely a few weeks ago when the weather was hot, but it was off again within a few minutes. 


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I do not work for Virgin Media - all opinions expressed are of my own and all answers are provided from my own and past experiences.
Office 365, Dynamics CRM and Cloud Computing Jedi

Small fans like Mobo Chipset fans were prone to failure, cannot say I fancy VM's 1Gb Service anytime soon due to the HUB4's (LAN Port Speed Limitation and WIFI 5 AC Limitation) and now this fan I was not sure it had or not.

afperry
Tuning in

I had this same issue recently with a new Hub 4 installation, whereas I had no problem with the Hub 3 that it replaced. The fans were coming on most of the time wherever I positioned the hub on carpet. But since I positioned it on a solid piece of wood, the fans have not come on. So I reckon this must be the clear solution.