To those of you still using spinning disks - how do you keep them quiet?

[Goobley]

Hi all,

I've been experimenting with things trying to get my CM Elite 120 a bit quieter recently and I think one of its biggest problems is the Hard Drive rails. I'm using a Caviar Blue and it shakes the entire case. I've tried putting extra rubber washers between the hard drive and its sled but it hasn't helped. It's actually the second loudest thing in my rig after the GPU.

How do you keep yours quiet?
Are those rubber suspension mountings that fit in the 5"1/4 bays any good?
Cheers!

[Macadee]

I've done this in the past, best & very cheap solution http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18269719

[Goobley]

Looks like a good solution, I'll have to be inventive to make it work in a single bay though...

[jim]

It should be quite easy to do in a 5.25" bay, no?

[meggiedude]

I've done this in the past, best & very cheap solution http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18269719

Personally - I still think this has more to do with corset/bondage fetish than whispering hard drives.
What's next - Graphics cards in fishnet stockings ??

[wasabi]

Have used rubber bands to mount in the past, but now have only one 5400rpm laptop drive which sits wrapped inside a rubber box.

[Goobley]

Thanks for all the advice, I've looked at the elastic mountings and will go and hunt for some small bungees or similar tomorrow. In my investigation I've also found that isolating the case from the desk decreases the noise and the vibration somewhat.

[fma965]

Ofcourse you could always put the system in a place that noise doesn't matter, yeah a simple solution but some times they are the best, my server is in my cupboard for this exact reason and all other devices have no mechanical drives in them.

[Goobley]

Ofcourse you could always put the system in a place that noise doesn't matter, yeah a simple solution but some times they are the best, my server is in my cupboard for this exact reason and all other devices have no mechanical drives in them.

'Twas the solution i took in my previous rig, unfortunately my new rig is mITX and has to sit on the desk in my uni room - some idiot also happened to buy some of the noisier components on the market and is trying to sort it out now :/

[fma965]

Yeah. Are you sure the HDD's are the thing making the most noise?

[Bonebreaker777]

Hi all,

I've been experimenting with things trying to get my CM Elite 120 a bit quieter recently and I think one of its biggest problems is the Hard Drive rails. I'm using a Caviar Blue and it shakes the entire case. I've tried putting extra rubber washers between the hard drive and its sled but it hasn't helped. It's actually the second loudest thing in my rig after the GPU.

How do you keep yours quiet?
Are those rubber suspension mountings that fit in the 5"1/4 bays any good?
Cheers!

I can't really believe that a Caviar Blue is making the entire case shake (not saying it is not true, but I had few of those, true, not the quietest but they were hardly shaking the case even the cheap "paper-thin" ones).

If vibrations are your only concern (and not the seeking head noise), Scythe Himuro is apparently very good at dealing with and reducing vibrations. If the price is too steep, you could give a go to Sharkoon Vibe Fixer III for £6.59 from Scan.co.uk .

If you like to noise insulate your HDD entirely, home made bauble wrapped HDDs show the best improvement but the trade of is the higher temperature.

Or the bungee thing mentioned earlier. HDD mod 01, HDD mod 02, HDD mod 03, HDD mod 04 or HDD mod 05.

[Goobley]

Given the lack of real equipment I have at uni, a 'just add screws' solution is one heckuva lot easier for me. From the reviews I've just looked at the scythe hard disk stabiliser seems to reduce noise the most for less than £10. Thanks for the replies everyone.

[azrael-]

I've heard good things about the Vibe Fixer from Sharkoon (mostly the original). Haven't used it myself though. I've currently two HDDs and one SSD in my system. Both HDDs are from Western Digital; a WD Black 1 TB and a WD Green 2 TB, respectively. Now that my OS is on my SSD (it was on the WD Black originally), the HDDs tend to idle more. However, it's immediately noticable when the HDDs spin up, both with regard to noise and vibration. Especially the WD Black. Going to put a new WD Red 4 TB in soon and just might retire the WD Black because of the noise and vibration.

[Bonebreaker777]

I can tell spinning HDDs (and especially when seeking) as my case FANs are around 500-600 RPM, CPU is passively cooled and the PSU FAN is probably on low rotations as possible (too bad it can't turn itself off).

But ye, despite having a silenced case (not really but so be it) and 2.5" 5400RPM HDDs at 2m distance from my ear and I can always tell whenever they are doing something.
Let alone if they would be 3.5" 7200RPM...

[Macadee]

This is the stuff I used, a bargain at £2.89 for a 10m length - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yuzet-Elasti...rds=shock+cord

[Eldeblor]

I use rubber washers on the HDD screws. There are kits which you can get which basically damp the vibration but a few cheap washers works for me.