Hard drive passive coolers / silencers

[Frank E]

I'm about to order a couple of hard drives, a Samsung F3 1TB and an F4 2TB.

I'm trying to go as low energy, low cost and low noise as possible so think while I am ordering, I'll get one or two passive drive coolers / silencers.

Is it worth the cost?

Recommendations for effective HDD silencer/cooler which isn't too expensive?

(can't afford anything like the Grow up Japan enclosures)

[Pob255]

depends, most of the hard drive cooler/silencers are a simple aluminium heatsink/gromited screw combination http://www.scan.co.uk/products/shark...hdds-(ide-sata)
Or the more expensive versions that are basically an aluminium box with gromited screws http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scyth...ds-fits-in-525

Both do the same basic thing, use rubber pads/gromits to isolate the hard drive from the cage, thus reducing vibrations carrying into the pc case frame.
However there is a down side to that, namely space, the rubber needs to be thick enough to separate the drive and that's too big to fit in most normal 3.5" hard drive cages, these separate drive coolers/silencers work by using 5.25" optical bays instead of the 3.5" hard drive bay
So if you don't have spare 5.25" bays then you cannot use these coolers/silencers

On thing to consider is to look for a quiet case to start with, while fans are the major source of noise in most cases, hard drives are generally the 2nd source (only other moving part)
Quite a few cases out have non-standard hard drive mounting methods which normally include anti-vibration for the hard drives already.

e.g. the fractal design define, this case uses individual trays for the hard drives the drive is screwed into the tray with gromited screws http://www.fractal-design.com/img_prod/blbild_5.jpg
or the antec p182 where you screw the drive into the cage as you normally would, however the cage is extra wide to make room for the grommited screws http://img.hexus.net/v2/cases/antec/P182/17.jpg

[GheeTsar]

Its also worth checking out the relative noise from HDDs too - some are much quieter than others. I don't think the F3s are all that quiet.

[Frank E]

Thanks, I'm not buying a case, just the hard drives and possibly coolers/silencers. I have 3 13 1/3 cm bays.

[dirky]

I have F4's and they are pretty much silent, although they are mounted in an old antec sonata with rubber grommits. I have an F3 too mounted in my P183 which is also pretty silent.

[peterb]

Passive coolers won't affect the energy consumption, they might help the drive run a little cooler. There was some research (IIRC) a few years back that suggested that the optimimum temperature for drives was around 40C. Personally, I have never really thought heat sinks on a hard drive was really necessary, unless you have a lot in a very small space, when you need to get the heat away into some form of forced air/water colling system very quickly.

[b00sfuk]

I would not bother with the hard drive silencers based on my experience with them. They do cut the drive noise but not the resonance you get through the mounting in a case (if directly to the cage). Best solution is to mount drives in a case with the silicone mountings (buy a new case rather than drive silencers) or failing that some have made DIY solutions to mount by hanging by elastic (Antec have this a standard in some older cases such as the excellent SOLO). The F3 1TB is a drive I use and it will resonate/vibrate if directly screwed to a case.

[Lucio]

I've got one of these - http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...rd-disk-drives

It eliminates all HDD noise that I've been able to notice, though I wouldn't use the fan it comes with it as it's pretty whiny

[Pob255]

Passive coolers won't affect the energy consumption, they might help the drive run a little cooler. There was some research (IIRC) a few years back that suggested that the optimimum temperature for drives was around 40C.

40c is the maximum environmental operating temperature for most hard drives, which generally leads on to a safe operational temperature of 40c.
Hard drive don't generate much heat but are normally the most temperature sensitive component.

They don't need much cooling, but some is normally good.

Thanks, I'm not buying a case, just the hard drives and possibly coolers/silencers. I have 3 13 1/3 cm bays.

that's 5.25" pc cases are an odd mix of both imperial and metric
My point about the case was that some case have hard drive anti-vibration built in, but others don't, if your case doesn't then without modding your only option is to used the 5.25" bays instead. you can get grommited screws for normal 3.5" bays, but in my experience they are pretty rubbish there's not enough space to put a large enough grommit in to have any effect.

A 2.5" to 3.5" anti-vibration adaptor would be a possibility, then use a laptop 2.5" hard drive, it'll be slower and a little more money but it'll work (if you cannot sacrifice you 5.25" bays)

Sycthe make one that looks very good http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/hd...ctsHIMURO.html however I cannot find it for sale in the UK
Just the 3.5" to 5.25" version.

Actually if you want true silence you could look at an SSD, no moving parts means no noise or vibrations.
Down side is of course it costs more and has less capacity.

[Frank E]

I have them installed (scratching my head with partitioning and migration though -thread in OS forum), they are barely audible even with the case open and are running at less than 30deg Celcius with the case shut.

[phillai]

I agree, I generally don't bother as well.

Saying that though, I have used this in the past...

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/pro...utions/zm-2hc2