Silent Hard Drive

F

Frank4d

Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Messages
715
I bought a new DVD burner today and while I was at it I decided to isolate my hard drive. I went over to Office Depot and bought some heavy duty 12 inch rubber bands. They are 1/4 inch wide x 1/16 thick and I doubled two of them to make two 6 inch bands. I stretched two of them across a 5-1/4 inch drive bay and installed my 160GB hard drive. The rubber bands are held on both sides of the drive bay by two very heavy-duty drinking straws ( I would use pencils or Tinker-Toy sticks if I had to do it again). Here's a pic:
DCP_4234.jpg

(The rubber bands are the red lines above and below the HD).

The result is that my hard drive is now 100% silent. No more listening to it click...click while moving the read/write head or motor noise. I just defragged my drive and didn't hear a thing
 
Might I suggest you put an elastic over the entire drive lengthwise... Between the IDE and molex plugs, overtop of the other elastics etc.

I did this with some stretchy black uhh... stretchy-rubber-stuff and My drive slipped out when I moved my case.
 
I wouldn't do this on a PC that is frequently moved to LAN parties, but for a PC that sits in one place it works. The bands look like good quality rubber so hopefully I don't have to worry about the rubber rotting like normal rubber bands. I mounted the HD circuit board side up to minimize the chance of it shorhing out on the case if the HD falls.
 
I wish this would work in my Shuttle, then my desk wouldn't vibrate because of the two raptors :eek:
 
There is a aftermarket 5 1/4" hard drive cage thay uses large rubber O rings to isolate the hard drive, its the same princable as what your doing, it works rather well.
Sorry I can't find a link to it!
 
Heavy duty drinking straws? :D

Sounds like a good plan... You've got me thinking...

I wonder if those band will work with the HDD coolers I just ordered...
 
Move it to one of the lower cages.

This method is the best that you can do, period. Better than a silentdrive, better than soft grommets. SPCR said so.
 
Bbq said:
Move it to one of the lower cages.

This method is the best that you can do, period. Better than a silentdrive, better than soft grommets. SPCR said so.
Click to expand...

whaddoya mean?
 
I dunno, my drives are mounted normally and I can't hear a thing. Maybe it's because I'm deaf and partially blind. *shrug*
 
My hard drives are on rails and I dont hear a thing. The loudest thing in my case is my 7900GT followed by the power supply.

I bet you saw this in MaxPC :p
 
DeadlyAura said:
Heavy duty drinking straws? :D

Sounds like a good plan... You've got me thinking...

I wonder if those band will work with the HDD coolers I just ordered...
Click to expand...

I may re-do it using pencils. The straws are sort of weak.
 
if you are worried about the rubber bands rotting over time how about redoing it with cut peices of bungie cord?
 
Diablo2K said:
There is a aftermarket 5 1/4" hard drive cage thay uses large rubber O rings to isolate the hard drive, its the same princable as what your doing, it works rather well.
Sorry I can't find a link to it!
Click to expand...

What you are probably thinking of is NoiseMagic NoVibes 3. Google comes up with numerous places where to buy and reviews.
 
jonathonball said:
if you are worried about the rubber bands rotting over time how about redoing it with cut peices of bungie cord?
Click to expand...

Yes, that is a significant concern - I have seen rubber bands that "rot", crumble, etc. The folks over at www.silentpcreview.com often recommend using "Magic Stretch" as the best DIY drive suspension material.
 
I know some harddrives get hot... some even get really hot... hope yours is not one of the hot ones.
 
Those rubber bands WILL break. It's just a question of when. The combination of heat & tension will wear them very quickly. I strongly suggest you replace them with clothing elastic, thin bungie cord or similar. This type of material has multiple strands of rubber with a very tough woven poly-somethingorother woven around it, making it almost impossible to break accidentally. You have to cut it with a sharp blade, just yanking at them will only make you tired. ;) See the photo here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article8-page2.html
 
Unknown-One said:
The NoVibes 3 is a good silencer, but I'm partial to the Zalman ZM-2HC2 Heatpipe Hard Disk Cooler. I've used both, and the Zalman isolates vibration just as well as the NoVibes 3 while keeping the drive cooler.
Click to expand...
This is not our experience at SPCR. The rubber cylinders are way too hard & allow a lot of vibration from the HDD to pass into the chassis. Neither the Zalman nor the novibes is great for cooling because they have to be installed in 5.25 bays which usually have no airflow at all. The best position for suspended HDDs is directly behind the front intake vent where there's some airflow -- even just a bit is enough to keep most drives quite cool because there's so little heat to deal with -- typically just 10W or less for each HDD.
 
silent mike said:
This is not our experience at SPCR. The rubber cylinders are way too hard & allow a lot of vibration from the HDD to pass into the chassis. Neither the Zalman nor the novibes is great for cooling because they have to be installed in 5.25 bays which usually have no airflow at all.
Click to expand...
ok...do you happen to have a better product in mind?
 
NTJedi said:
I know some harddrives get hot... some even get really hot... hope yours is not one of the hot ones.
Click to expand...

Heats a non issue if your drive is running hot enough to melt rubber bands you wont have the drive much longer anyway.

never seen this done yet but have been considering it since Maximum PC did it 6 months ago. They used a certain type of band for thiers ill see if i can find it and ill post back.
 
I use zip ties. They don't transer any of the noise to the case and zip ties are not going to break.
 
Aren't you worried that as you hard drive fills up with data the extra weight might be too much for the rubber bands?










:p
 
Druneau said:
Aren't you worried that as you hard drive fills up with data the extra weight might be too much for the rubber bands?

:p
Click to expand...
^.^ Especially when they start to dry out man.

bands dry -> time goes on -> more data on disks -> weight increase -> a "smashing" failure

Its all your future. :D
 
I cleaned out my temporary internet files and cookies yesterday and the drive is hanging about 1/8 inch higher today. :D
 
Unknown-One said:
ok...do you happen to have a better product in mind?
Click to expand...
AFAIK there are no ideal off the shelf solutions that require no messing at all. However, if you have only one drive and a typical mid-tower case, then the NoVibes is the best. Just place it at the front bottom of your case, and use some double side tape, velcro strips or zapstraps to secure it. Even with out a fron fan, the residual airflow from the other fans pulling air into the from the front bottom intake is enough to keep the drive reasonably cool (usually not much higher than 40C in 20-25c ambient).

One note about the NoVibes -- if you use the 3rd o-ring that goes across the top, the whole suspension gets too tight, and it loses some of its vibration-isolating quality. I never use the top o-ring.

Also, with many cases there's no room to install anything like a novibes easily down there, which means you have to get creative. There are so many ways that the colthing elaastic I mentioned before can be used -- not only is it cheaper by far, it can also be more effective that the NoVibes. This is true when you have a HDD with high vibration; you can control how loosely or tightly to suspend the drive -- with the no vibes, you have only one "springiness" setting -- unless you change the o-rings, in which case, why not just roll your own.
 
pfunkman said:
Heats a non issue if your drive is running hot enough to melt rubber bands you wont have the drive much longer anyway.
Click to expand...
It's not a question of melting. Rubber bands dry out and crumble relatively quickly in hot, dry environments (like the inside of any computer case). That drive is heading for a nose dive.

H
 
Hurin said:
It's not a question of melting. Rubber bands dry out and crumble relatively quickly in hot, dry environments (like the inside of any computer case). That drive is heading for a nose dive.

H
Click to expand...

Holy old posts batman! If your not using a band from some dollar store 800 pack hell be fine. go to your local wal-mart there are some pretty heavy duty rubber bands for very little $$ i dont think anyone is suggesting pulling the band off of a newspaper and using that :p
 
NTJedi said:
I know some harddrives get hot... some even get really hot... hope yours is not one of the hot ones.
Click to expand...

Yeah, careful with that mounting method. Hard drives release a TON of heat through the sides of the drive, which typically bolt to a aluminum (or steel) drive cage. These drive cages in turn act like heatsinks and whisk away heat from the drive, allowing it to run cooler overall and live longer.

A free-air mount like this nifty and quiet, but make sure you've got some good airflow over that drive or you could risk shortening its lifespan.
 
pawstar said:
Yes, that is a significant concern - I have seen rubber bands that "rot", crumble, etc. The folks over at www.silentpcreview.com often recommend using "Magic Stretch" as the best DIY drive suspension material.
Click to expand...

Rubber vacuum cleaner belts work really well, and they'll outlive your computer. Wal-Mart has a large sellection.
 
OldGuy said:
Rubber vacuum cleaner belts work really well, and they'll outlive your computer. Wal-Mart has a large sellection.
Click to expand...

Hmm...I may try that, but for me I place my drives on the side drive cage of my Superlanboy and I noticed that the 320 Seagate drive is particularly noticeable when I was loading up the WH:MOC demo. So I'm thinking about lining the drive cage/tray's with layers of electircal tape. I'll let you know.
 
Wow, this thread has been dug up back to life. Yes, your rubber vacuum belts will work, the issue is how elastic they are with respect to their product life. The belt will transmit more vibration than the Magic Stretch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top