I’ve been running the Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K for about 18 months now. It’s been a great unit; however, it has always been a little noisy. And lately, one (or maybe more) of the fans inside appears to have developed a failing bearing and the noise has been far too loud for any production environment.
There is so little info that I could find online about what’s under the hood of the Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K. So, I had to pop it open to see what I was working with here. Since I was outside my warranty period, I wasn’t concerned with those consequences. If your fans fail within your warranty, feel free to go ahead and have Blackmagic to fix it.
Inside, there are three exhaust fans along the left side (one is already removed in the above image) and four fans atop heatsinks to cool internal components. The right side is open for the exhaust fans to pull the cool air from.
The three exhaust fans are 40mm x 20mm, while the heatsink fans are 40mm x 10mm (so, half-height on the heatsink fans).
I used Noctua fans in both locations. Specifically:
- 3x Noctua NF-A4x20 PWM for exhaust fan replacement
- 4x Noctua NF-A4x10 FLX for heatsink fan replacement
Because the connectors were different on the Production Studio 4K’s mainboard than what the fans shipped with, I had to cut and resolder the connections.
The wiring schematic for the exhaust fan uses a 4-pin connection and is mapped as follows:
- blue > blue
- yellow > green
- red > yellow
- black > black
The wiring for the 3-pin fans are 1:1 with black, red, and yellow.
I then used some shrink tubing (with a heat gun) to clean up the soldering job and protect the connections.
After all the fans were in place, it was time to put the cover back on and power the unit up.
Not only did we get the one noisy fan fixed, but the device runs so much quieter than when it was new.
Noctua fans are known throughout the IT industry as a quieter replacement option inside of switches, routers, and servers – most notably the noisy 1U devices. With a little bit of time and a soldering gun, they also managed to turn the notoriously noisy Blackmagic ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K into a near-silent machine.
nice! thank you for the post! You should work for blackmagicdesign =) obviously they dont know about existence of better fans
Hej, have you checked the different amount of air that is moved by the old cofan and the new noctua?
When I found the right data the cofan has 7.2, the noctua only 4.8. That gap could cause problems with overheating the units? How is the experience after some month? Thanks, Martin
The cofan has 7.21 CFM, the noctua
Still running fine for me after several months of 24/7 uptime.
Hey Eric, will replacing the fans stop the buzz that’s created from the ATEM? My atem is causing a really bad buzz and I’m about to blow that thing up lol…
Couldnt find any information on doing this for the ATEM 2 M/E – so decided to just bite the bullet and hope that the 2 M/E was similar to the 1 M/E
This article was very helpful in moving forward on that fan replacement.
Only difference you will need 6 40x10mm fans vs 4… and for the big fans its 60x25mm vs the 40x20mm
Did a video on it: https://youtu.be/V72MRBk_fk0
Dude! That’s awesome!
Appreciate the effort for the video. That’s sure to help folks out with the 2 M/E.
Thanks so much for publishing this. I had wanted to upgrade the noisy (and getting noisier fans) in my Production Studio 4K for some time.
After lifting the lid I realised I only needed two 40 x 10mm and one 40 x 20mm so have some spares 🙂 The reduction in noise is awesome!
Thanks again!
Awesome!
So glad this helped you and so many others out!
Hi Eric!
Currently following your steps with my 1/ME and I had to use some force to loosen the screws on the four fans which sit on top of the heatsinks. Unfortunately the heatsinks also became loose and now I am wondering what to do?
The heatsinks weren’t really tightly glued to the ICs, they came off with a little bit more pressure needed to open the fan screws, so I guess there was some thermal compound paste between the heatsinks and the ICs.
Now I am wondering if I should replace the paste between the heatsinks and the ICs before mounting my new fans – which is not my favorite option because it involves unmounting the motherboard.
Thanks,
Stephan
Thanks for doing the hard work in finding the right Noctua models! It’s a ridiculously loud unit.
Hi Eric, we have the same unit here at my work and, as you have rightly said, it’s too loud to be used in a production environment. I had a quick search to find a solution and thankfully your article came up. Referring to an earlier comment regarding how the Noctua fans don’t move as much air as the original ones, I just wanted to ask how your 1 M/E is going with the replacement fans now that it’s about two years since you did the fans upgrade yourself. I’m looking at using the same fans, and here in NZ they’re fairly expensive.
It’s been on practically 24/7 since the initial swap and there’s been no noticeable performance degradation and it’s still in use today.
Thank you so much for this clear and concise explanation of the process!
I am after replacing the fans. The difference is huge. However, I have noticed that the two heatsinks on the board hold tight, while the other two move slightly. Should I stick them somehow?