Getting the last of the noisy quiet: Samsung F1 1TB HD103UJ

[Jeroen1000]

Hi Guys,

I'm Jeroen (new here ) and I have tried my best to assemble a very quiet system:

- Enermax modu82+ 525 PSU (does make a slight fan noise though)
- Scythe Shuriken cooler @ 9.5V by means of modded power cable
- A coupe of Scythe S-Flex 1200 RPM fans @ 550 RPM (motherboard handles the voltage so I do not know what it is).
- The dreaded samsung HDD

Apart from the HDD and PSU all components are inaudible from my sitting distance. The tower is about 60cm from me on the floor.

I can't be bothered by the read and write noise of the HDD (which can be countered with AAM using HD Tune Pro) but I can hear a very high pitched tone when it is simply turned on. This tone does not seem to respond to AAM settings.

It the kind of thing you hear when your head is in one position and is gone when you turn it another way. Too bad I always hear it when in normal working position.

I chose the samsung because it was touted as one of the quietest 7200RPM drives out there. I expected a little more from it. But how do I get rid of its noise now?

Any thoughs on this?

Cheers,

Jeroen

[RoGuE]

But how do I get rid of its noise now?

Short answer: RMA, or buy a new HDD

Long answer: The sound you are hearing cannot be fixed by suspending the drive. It is the sound of the internals of the drive, and it is more than likely somewhat deffective. All it takes is one component in the assembly to be a little out of spec, and VOILA! a noisy drive.

See if you can return it, or bite the bullet and replace it. That sort of noise would drive me insane.

Another thing you could maybe try first is surrounding the drive with open cell foam like "acoustipak". By the way you described it, its a very faint sound, so a little damping might go a long way.

Good luck

[Jeroen1000]

Yeah I admit it is pretty faint. When I place my ear parallel to the drive I have to move up and down and at a certain height I can lock onto it. It just stands out because the rest of the system is very silent. Damn us silence junkies

Don't think the shop will let me RMA it as technically it performs within spec. There is one thing about it that would perhaps allow RMA: the Samsung AAM (dos tool) does not remember its settings after reboot (and I did went to all the trouble making a DOS-bootable USB stick since I don't have a floppy drive). HDtune get's the trick done though.

I've been thinking of dampening the case all around after a while. It's not very cheap at all so I'd rather wait.

Thanks for the tip mate!

[RoGuE]

check this out

viewtopic.php?t=54724

I have no real need at the moment, but this looks like a great deal to me. I can't believe its so cheap for 12 square feet of this stuff. Plus..it looks freakin sweet.

[whiic]

Not being able to make non-volatile changes to AAM probably isn't grounds for RMA either.

I would try DIY damping first. The noise cannot be eliminated with decoupling but needs "enclosing" in one way or another. Padding the case itself is one way to "enclose" it. Sandwiching is another.

I have a wild idea I have not yet tried...
- take soft stuff such as clothes and pillows
- toiler/kitchen paper "pipes" made of cardboard
- tape/string/whatever to hold it together.

First cut one pipe half by it's length, making two U-shaped half pipes. Place them on PCB side of HDD. Add tape to keep them in place. This is to make a tunnel for cooling air.

Put a pillow on each side of HDD. Put an intact pipe on the front and back to prevent airflow path from collapsing. Add tape to keep the pillows attached. Of course you need to plug in the HDD connectors before doing all this so disassemble everything and start again from stratch. :p
Also, making holes to the pipes would be better as it allows the whine sourced at spindle motor or on some chip on the PCB to touch the pillows instead of bouncing repeatedly inside the pipes. Make so many and as big holes as possible without compromizing the pipe's capability to prevent itself from collapsing under weight of the pillow enclosure.

That idea may not be optimal or very quick to implement, plus it would take whole lot of space inside the computer case and some preparations are to be taken to reduce risk of electricuting any components of the computer with ESD. What it proves is that you can make a silencing solution out of stuff you throw into garbage every day: packaging material, worn-out clothes, etc.

Ghettomodding FTW!

[whiic]

Pillow Enclosure EVO:
Put the HDD inside a cardboard box, not just taping half-pipes on the PCB side. Put the HDD "upside-down" lying on it's cover. Tha cardboard box can be cut full of holes, leaving the corners and bends intact as they contribute the most to rigidity of the box. Make two big holes for intake and exhaust pipe. These pipes don't have to be straight. If you can create a few 90 degree turns, it'd reduce noise escaping the enclosure. Make the turns by cuttign the pipe instead of bending it...

Pretty insane.
But I might even try it some day. I have a P80 that has some whine. It's possibly the quietest 7200rpm drive I have (even compared to F1), but it makes some whine (unlike my 1TB F1). But there's no use silencing it now. PSU is too loud even after the fan swap.