Hard Drive Silencing.

[hunter1995]

Hi guys,

I've been noticing a bit of rattling from this 2tb hdd I bought and I was wondering what would be the best option of quieting it down/ completely silencing it. I've already tried bushing screws.
I've read somewhere that you can get 5.25 bay enclosures/Silencers to fit standard 3.25 hard drives.

What would be the absolute best and or more expensive solution for this?

Much thanks, Daniel

 

[geofelt]

If your hard drive is making excessive noise, perhaps it is faulty and should be replaced.
Unfortunately a 2tb requirement does not easily lend itself to a SSD solution.

Past that, try suspension mounting.
Take some rubber bands, and use them to suspend the hard drive.
That will isolate any mechanical vibration from the case.
Look at the Antec SOLO solution for quiet hard drive mounting.
Here is a review:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1218-page1.html

 

[nukemaster]

The item you are looking at may be the Quiet Drive.

http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/hdd/005/sqd1000_detail.html

While these work well at can really silence seek noise, Some drives run rather warm.

If it is vibrations, you may be able to do a drive suspension mod.

Yes I am linking to Google because SO many users do this mod and I have no one source of info
Google Images for Hard Drive Suspension

EDIT. Ohh beat to it.

Another option, but no good for 2TB drives yet is 2.5 inch drives as they tend to be quiet, but the new ones park the heads often and while mostly quiet are sometimes loud enough to notice.

 

[hunter1995]

Unfortunately the drive is just a noisy drive and not faulty.

Referring to the suspension mod, it looks quite "Dodgy" so to speak.
All though, no offense to people who do it, I respect people modding.

I think ill have a look scythe silencer.

 

[geofelt]

Unfortunately the drive is just a noisy drive and not faulty.

Referring to the suspension mod, it looks quite "Dodgy" so to speak.
All though, no offense to people who do it, I respect people modding.

I think ill have a look scythe silencer.

I would be wary about enclosing a hard drive. A hard drive needs some amount of airflow for cooling or you can cause drive failures.
If you want, not that I recommend it, you could try surrounding your drive with foam padding and see if that helps.

What case do you have?
Perhaps you can do better with a quiet case.

 

[longhand]

Is the rattling from inside the drive? Maybe some acoustic management is in order?

I got mine from CrystalDiskInfo ver. 5.2.1. My RAID setup is much quieter now that I have tuned the disks with this program.

 

[hunter1995]

I would be wary about enclosing a hard drive. A hard drive needs some amount of airflow for cooling or you can cause drive failures.
If you want, not that I recommend it, you could try surrounding your drive with foam padding and see if that helps.

What case do you have?
Perhaps you can do better with a quiet case.

An unbranded, completely see though acrylic case.
The case doesn't rattle, vibrate or even really make much sound at all, so I don't think the case it the fault.

 

[geofelt]

An unbranded, completely see though acrylic case.
The case doesn't rattle, vibrate or even really make much sound at all, so I don't think the case it the fault.

Can you post a pic of the case, and the hard drive mount area?

Since you are interested in quiet, I suggest you do some research at www.silentpcreview.com
It is one of the best web sites for quiet computing.

Another option for you may be to find some rubber washers to insert between the hard drive and the mount. That will tend to insulate the vibrations from reaching the case.
I think the lexan or plastic will tend to transmit vibrations easily. More so if the plastic is thin.

 

[Supermuncher85]

That is why I like caviar green drives. Nice and quiet!