Silencing my HDD (rubber bands, rubber blocks, other ideas?)

[thierry37]

My next project for my little Mac Midi, is to "silence" the HDD.
This is my first computer with SSD and it's so silent.
But each time the HDD is spinning when I access the movies, I can hear it clearly and there is some kind of vibration.
I don't think it's from the front fan, because it's not all the time.

So my idea was to move this HDD somewhere else. And remove the bottom cage.

I could put in the 5.25" mounting, with some kind of silentblocks.

Is it really working? Is it really stooping the vibration propagation?



I could use this kind of mounting with rubber bands.

Any feedback on this kind of installation?



I could also try to hand the drive in the middle of the case.
I'm sure it helps, but what a crazy installation.

Last idea, I could change this old HDD for a newer, more silent one.
Or even change to use a 5400rpm.
Do you think I would get less noise when spinning, and maybe less vibration? But with a slower access to my data...


Thanks a lot for your ideas and suggestions !!

 

[DBP]

Those are pretty much the classic methods of quieting a 5.25" disk. There're also the Scythe Quiet Drive enclosures, but they seem to be discontinued (some of their current drive coolers will also have a noise-reduction effect of course).

There are different types of noise that come from a spinning disk. One set is from the rotation, and is generally higher-pitched (sometimes a whine). The other is from the seek action of the drive (back and forth across the disk).

With a drive bolted firmly into a chassis all this vibration is transmitted to the case which becomes a big resonator, and inhibiting this can make a big difference. This is what those suspension systems do. Some chassis have drive trays with rubber mounts to help with this, but many of them have rubber which is too firm and transmits some of the vibrations. In the Fractal Design cases the drives are bolted to the trays through rubber grommets, and tightening the bolts too much allows more vibrations through.

But some amount of noise is transmitted through the air, and even a freely suspended drive will make some noise. The Scythe drive box tries to deal with this, while still providing heat radiation.

Cases with noise baffles can also help reduce the level of noise making it to the outside world. One extreme solution I've seen is a wooden speaker box lined with acoustic foam, located behind the desk with drives attached to the host via 2m eSATA leads, and with a fan inside the box providing some airflow to cool the drives. This combines noise baffles around the drive with simply moving the drive further away, which has a big effect also.


Another thing to consider is that newer drives are often quieter than old ones, especially the new 2.5" laptop drives. So as long as the drive is fast enough for your use one of your options can be to get a new 2.5" drive instead of the old 3.5" one.

 

[thierry37]

Thanks DBP, always good suggestions!

I am waiting some of these rubber mounts to try.
In the meantime, I decided to suspend the HDD, in the place for optical drive (which I don't have)

=>> http://www.tonymacx86.com/user-buil...5-8gb-hd-4000-temjin-tj08-e-6.html#post564356

I just used some rubber band, that we have in our clothe (thanks to my wife's kit)
And it's quite good. No more vibrations.

As you said, I still hear the spinning and the drive heads, but this is "normal".

At least, I was able to reduce the vibrations and improve the airflow (I took out the HDD cage)