hard drive silencers

[bradpitt]

hi, i have a WD 36gb 10k rpm raptor and a WD 200gb IDE 7200 rpm

and.... they are REALLY LOUD!

any ways to silence them?

i've been looking at hard drive cooelrs and they also dampen the noise the hard drive makes but how well do they reduce the noise? and anybody know any cheaper / better solutions?

i've heard that some people used like shoe lace or elastic rope and weaved it through one of their 5 1/4 bays and suspended the hard drive there... anything else?

 

[Entropism]

I think your best bet is the NoVibes3 at Silicon acoustics. This takes away 90% of the noise, but it gets your drives hot in the 5.25" bay if you don't have good airflow. The Smart Drive enclosure takes care of the heat AND noise problem, but it's expensive as all hell.

If you have room in your case, you can lay down a layer of dampener on the floor of the case and lay your drives on them, the air from the front fan keeps them cool and the noise disappears completely, but they're not bolted down so don't do this if you move your case a lot. Another solution is suspending your drives with elastic or shoelaces as you mentioned, but again, you can't move your case much when it's on. Then again, not many people do that anyways.

HERE is a good thread for this mod using a Lian li V1000 case. Great pics and instructions

 

[Zepper]

You didn't mention what case you are using - makes a difference in possible solutions.

.bh.

 

[oogabooga]

rubber groumets (i think that's how it's what they are called) are a good start. They help reduce vibration between the hd/case when it's spinning. Vibration is a key contributer in the amount of noise a HD will generate.