Noisy hard-disks

[RECOiL™]

I'm not sure if its me or what...

I'm beginning to feel like my 74gb raptor is getting noisier and slower. Is there any way to reduce the noise and vibrations ? The disks sit in an Akasa Eclipse 62 case.

[kalniel]

Tighten the screws/wedge material in the fastening.

Defragment your disk too.

[edp33]

couple of things to check

Is most of the 74gb being used, also has it been defragged recently?

Have you run error checking on it to make sure it doesn't have any bad sectors?

To reduce the noise you could get a drive silencer like the scythe "quiet drive" http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=533399

[merdat]

Think that you will be able to get an 'enclosure' for the raptor which will deaden the noise and also have a fan for providing some 'cooling ' for said h/d as well. Sorry don't have a 'link'.

[RECOiL™]

Cheers edp33, something like that should suffice.

[NightshadowUK]

I've got a 74GB Raptor in a Scythe Quite Drive... in an Eclipse 62.

It takes a lot of the edge off the noise, well worth it.

[funke_munke]

You could suspend the drive, or sit it on foam? Check the silentpcreview forums for more help with this, some of those guys are pro at silencing computers!

[peterb]

Check out the SMART reports - giove you some indication if the drive is failing or not.

[acrobat]

Its your case. I have the same one

Bloody hard drive cage rattles like...errr.. a rattle. Only a metal rattle, filled with metal ball bearings, and being shook by a robot baby, also made of metal.

The only way I could get a satisfactory volume from it, was to disconnect the cage completely (luckily it lets you do that), and rest it on a big thick piece of foam, and then I use cable ties to make sure it doesn't fall over. It was a faff to do, but the volume is about 400% quieter.

To be more precise, I actually also wedged an empty cardboard box above it too. It not only helps hold it down and in place (a bit), but it also seems to reduce a bit more of the remaining vibrations. And there is also a wierd little black plastic square near the cage, which contains the case's speaker I think. I disconnected that to make some extra room, and I just lay that on the bottom of the case at the back. I put that on some foam too.


P.S. The quietest I got it, was to take the disks out of the hard drive cage completely, and then just rest them directly onto some foam. But they ended up getting quite hot, because they werent touching anything that was metal, so there was nowhere for the heat to transfer and dissipate into.

[RECOiL™]

Acrobat, would be nice if you could provide a pic of the inside of your pc, so i can get a clear visual idea of what you've done.

regards

[acrobat]

I don't have a camera unfortunately I can have a go at drawing it though. And then hopefully give a better description.
First a little disclaimer kind of thing: Make sure the pc is switched off and unplugged, to avoid damage and electrocution Also, this is just my ghetto style fix so might not be the best solution in the entire world. There are alternatives like putting the disks in a proper hard drive caddy, but I don't like that idea because usually those caddies make noise too (due to the fans inside them), and they also cost extra money. And there are probably other reasons. But this worked wonders for me anyway, so its great. The only downside, is that if you shook the PC, it might cause some damage. But I wouldn't wanna shake my PC anyway... and I never take it away on LAN meets or anything, so its safe just sitting in my room.




This first picture shows a diagram of the case, as it is normally, without any modifications or anything. The power supply at the top left, rear fan the top left too. And then at the top right is the DVD drive.

The DVD drive is stored in a metal cage. And then under that, is another cage, which I think might be for floppy disk drives and stuff.

But under that cage, is the bottom cage, which is for holding your hard disks. This cage can actually be removed completely from the case. I can't remember perfectly, but I think you have to remove the front panel from the case by pressing in the little plastic bits and then removing the front panel. And then on the front, I think there is a pair of screws which hold that hard drive cage in place. Unscrew those. Then, the case is also held in place by a strange little plastic clip. You have to pull this clip (I had to pull really hard), and eventually it unclips and the entire hard drive cage comes lose. You could then just remove the entire cage from the PC if you wanted.

But what you do then, is you just cut a piece of foam to sit in the bottom of the case. And then you just sit that hard drive cage (with hard drive still screwed into it), on top of the foam. So its not actually touching anything metal. So it doesn't matter how much it rattles The rattley cage will just be rubbing against foam, so it doesn't make any noise.

Its also directly in line of the front fan, so the cool air from that is going straight at your hard disks, which helps keep them cool too. It should look like this:


You can then either just leave it like that, be careful not to knock the PC. Or you can use string, cable ties, cotton, elastic, (anything really), to hold it in place. I just put a long cable tie around the cage above it and down onto the cage on the foam. So it can still wobble, but it wouldn't be able to fall over.

Its not as easy as it looks, because there isn't a whole lot of room in there... Especially if you have a long video card like me. And also, my cage sitting on the foam, still sometimes touched something and made noise... and I could never figure out what it was touching, so I kept having to keep moving it a few centimetres until it wasn't touching anything. And even then... it would sometimes vibrate and move after a few weeks, and end up touching something again

So I just had an old empty, tiny, cardboard box that I think I got a heatsink in.... and the box was a little bit bigger than the gap between the cage I removed, and the cage above it. So I just wedged that box tightly into the gap... and now the lower cage is being held tightly against the foam on the bottom. So it doesn't rattle at all, and its also a bit more secure like that. With the carboard box in place, it looks like this:





Hope that helps Let me know if you want me to explain anything.