Any decent way to dampen HDD vibrations?

[angry hampster]

I installed a Samsung Spinpoint 500GB drive yesterday, and since powerup, it makes a low humming noise and vibration about once a second. Drives me a bit nuts since my computer sits right next to me, and I don't think I have enough cable to set it on the floor. Is there any way to dampen the vibration? I think the humming wouldn't bother me if I didn't feel it through the desk.

I've already tried putting felt feet on my case, and it didn't really do much. Any other solutions?

 

[nerp]

I recently installed the same drive and noticed the same thing. I'm thinking of investing in some rubber grommets to put between the drive and the cage, completley rubber screws or, if I feel up to the task, suspending the drives in my 5.25 bays with one of the kits on the market today.

 

[jdkick]

Google came up with these pretty quick: http://www.silenx.com/accessories.asp?sku=ixa-gm4

You could also try hitting up your local hardware store for some small rubber washers first... could be a *very* cheap solution.

 

[vanvock]

I recall seeing a tip once where they used rubber bands & just twisted them around the drive in 2 or 3 places & hung them in the bays by the ends. I've never tried it but it would be as close to isolation as you'll likley get.

 

[corkyg]

Another way, which I have used, is to mount the drives in their trays with Velcro.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: vanvock
I recall seeing a tip once where they used rubber bands & just twisted them around the drive in 2 or 3 places & hung them in the bays by the ends. I've never tried it but it would be as close to isolation as you'll likley get.

Yeah, I saw the same tip in MaxPC. Good idea, wrong material...rubber bands will dry out and break (and thus, so goes the drive). Twine or something else that won't be destroyed by the interior environment of a hot case would be better.

 

[konakona]

you should have been better advised to have some rubber grommets ready at least when you were buying that samsung hdd.

simple solution: go out and buy antec solo, cant beat the air suspension system

/thread

 

[KenAF]

Aluminum cases -- especially those with thinner aluminum -- amplify noise from hard drives and fans.

The better "quiet PC" cases like the Antec Solo ($50 AR @ Newegg) are made of thick steel with suspension mounts for multiple hard drives.

 

[RebateMonger]

Sorry...it's a pet peeve of mine.

You DAMP vibrations, not DAMPEN them. Unless you are going to cover the drive with water. That word mixup is a mistake that even some engineers make.

 

[rgallant]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
I installed a Samsung Spinpoint 500GB drive yesterday, and since powerup, it makes a low humming noise and vibration about once a second. Drives me a bit nuts since my computer sits right next to me, and I don't think I have enough cable to set it on the floor. Is there any way to dampen the vibration? I think the humming wouldn't bother me if I didn't feel it through the desk.

I've already tried putting felt feet on my case, and it didn't really do much. Any other solutions?

I RMA a new board because my hard drives were so rattlly in the same box after the up grade and there was talk that the board had caused it for other people, only to get the same board back from ASUS, pissed off, removed the hard drive tray with 3 drives in it installed it back with 2" Velcro I had laying around and nothing, only low level normal sounds , and this was after I had already had remounted it with rubber washers between the cage and the box where it was helded by the srcews, so you might want to try that.or to test it on rubber or somthing that lets it float,inside the case .

 

[Amaroque]

I had the same issue with a 10,000 RPM Raptor, and a 7,200 RPM drive mounted next to each other. The different RPM's caused a repeating vibration in waves (very annoying). The rubber washers took care of it completely.

The washer has to be between the drive itself, and the cage.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Sorry...it's a pet peeve of mine.

You DAMP vibrations, not DAMPEN them. Unless you are going to cover the drive with water. That word mixup is a mistake that even some engineers make.

Not a mistake. While you are correct that one definition is "to make wet", it also is defined in most dictionaries as "to soundproof", as well as/or "smother", "suppress" and "deaden". This link is just one of many.

 

[will889]

If you have an older thin mousepad around like an Allsop brand you can cut it up with an exacto to make your own grommets to damp HDD noise. I have used them on more than one occasion.

 

[Sheninat0r]

You can suspend the hard drives in the cage with elastic, or place them on the floor of the case on top of a piece of foam. Suspension with string doesn't work as well as elastic because elastic can absorb more vibrations and is much easier to work with. There's lots of good information in the hard drive forum in SPCR, so check there for about a zillion different ways to reduce hard drive vibration.

Ninja edit: You could also invest in a Scythe Quiet Drive, which will cool the drive and reduce hte vibrations and airborne noise.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Slugbait

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Sorry...it's a pet peeve of mine.

You DAMP vibrations, not DAMPEN them. Unless you are going to cover the drive with water. That word mixup is a mistake that even some engineers make.

Not a mistake. While you are correct that one definition is "to make wet", it also is defined in most dictionaries as "to soundproof", as well as/or "smother", "suppress" and "deaden". This link is just one of many.

This discussion pretty much summarizes the issue. My experience is that, in the professional engineering world (such as the ASTM ANSI standards), "damp" is used exclusively when you want to "damp vibration".

Here's 750 quotations from "The Shock and Vibration Digest". A search for "Dampen" shows 25 hits.

 

[0roo0roo]

cases like p180 etc have rubber mounts

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
A search for "Dampen" shows 25 hits.

Semantically and technically I support your thesis. In the musical engineering world, there are ways to damp vibration in pianos, vibraphones, etc. The "soft" pedal on a piano is often called the damping pedal. The verb is "to damp." Common usage sometimes corrupts technical language - my pet peeve is the use of synchronization when meaning equalization. (Synchronization technically must have a motion/time component.)

 

[mcv]

Cases like the Antec P182 and the Antec Solo come with elestic bands for easy suspension. If you want to do it yourself, there are lots of threads on silentpcreview.com about this. People get quite creative there.

 

[downhiller80]

I've just done something INCREDIBLY easy to dampen my drives. They're simply sat in the bottom of my case on top of HD-shaped blocks of foam. Has made the world of difference.

 

[0roo0roo]

but its better to get a well designed case from day one.
thick walls that don't resonate/vibrate. thin aluminum is ok for looks, but well it is horrible for sound. acts like a big sounding board for the drive.
antec p182 and such also have baffled air intakes. those cheap "hardcore" looking cases with fan holes everywhere just let sound right out.

 

[zorrt]

Drive suspension all the way! Google and you will find. I use stretch magic.

 

[Zap]

I'm a fan of decoupling the HDD from the case, through grommets or suspending them.

Just a reminder to everyone that once your HDD is no longer touching your case, HDD temperature shoots up. You'll want to make sure there is airflow through the HDD area.

 

[tigersty1e]

Won't a hard drive suspension compromise the reliability of the drive?

When the moving parts inside are spinning, the drive would be better off if it was stationary.

Probably not, but you never know and my data is more important than a little noise.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
Won't a hard drive suspension compromise the reliability of the drive?

When the moving parts inside are spinning, the drive would be better off if it was stationary.

Well, it's likely that A LOT of damage to hard drives is done by moving the computer while drives are spinning. In that case, suspension would likely help things.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
When the moving parts inside are spinning, the drive would be better off if it was stationary.

It isn't as if the drive starts bouncing around when it seeks or anything. It's actually still rather stable. Think of decoupling this way...

Let's say you have two speakers. On one speaker you remove the cone, so all you're left with is the middle part. Now, try playing music through the two speakers. The one with a cone puts out plenty of noise, while the one without a cone puts out... pretty much no noise.

Think of the middle part as your hard drive, and the cone as your case panels.