reducing whoosh sound of 2.5 drive - recommendations?

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mastabog
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Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:00 pm

reducing whoosh sound of 2.5 drive - recommendations?

Post by mastabog » Sun Jun 01, 2014 10:07 pm

Hi all,

I got 4 x 2.5" WD slim 1TB, 7mm (WD10SPCX) and they are currently sitting on 4 vertical hard rubber rails, which are suspended form the top. No vibration transmitted to the case or in-between drives.

The whoosh sound they make is pretty high. I was expecting some since they are acoustically/vibration-wise disconnected from the case but I hear it from 1m outside my padded case (Fractal R2) ... slightly noisier than my former 3.5" Samsungs who were fitted on the R2's rubber gasket brackets.

Anyone knows of an effective way to muffle/silence the whoosh sound of 2.5" drives?

Cheers

p.s. I was willing to try the Scythe Himaro 2.5" but it's discontinued and can't find any to purchase ...

looking_for_silence
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Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:58 am

Re: reducing whoosh sound of 2.5 drive - recommendations?

Post by looking_for_silence » Mon Jun 02, 2014 4:01 am

Hello,

I got a similar whoosh noise with my WD10JFCX:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=67134

I am now hesitating between Hitachi and Seagate. So I am very interested by your next purchase !

Regards,

quest_for_silence
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Location: ITALY

Re: reducing whoosh sound of 2.5 drive - recommendations?

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:45 pm

mastabog wrote:Anyone knows of an effective way to muffle/silence the whoosh sound of 2.5" drives?


Does gently pressing against the disk top panel (when wooshing) change anything?

frenchie
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Re: reducing whoosh sound of 2.5 drive - recommendations?

Post by frenchie » Tue Jun 03, 2014 10:49 am

http://www.silentpcreview.com/scythe-quietdrive2.5

Worked wonders for me. Changed the pitch of the seek sounds though...

mastabog
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Re: reducing whoosh sound of 2.5 drive - recommendations?

Post by mastabog » Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:02 pm

quest_for_silence wrote:
mastabog wrote:Anyone knows of an effective way to muffle/silence the whoosh sound of 2.5" drives?

Does gently pressing against the disk top panel (when wooshing) change anything?
I knew of this old trick. Unfortunately, while it does slightly muffle the whoosh, it doesn't make much of a difference. I have a feeling that the slim body (7mm) does mean that it doesn't muffle the disc rotational whoosh as much as a thicker body. I'll try some standard 9.5mm drives from Amazon (they have exceptional return policy).

I also discovered that 2 of the 4 drives are slightly noisier (not uncommon, but not ideal either).
frenchie wrote:http://www.silentpcreview.com/scythe-quietdrive2.5
Worked wonders for me. Changed the pitch of the seek sounds though...
Indeed, but like I said above, I can't find this to buy in the UK as it's been discontinued ... both this and its successor (Scythe Himaro 2.5"). I can only find the Himaro 3.5" version ...

andyb
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Re: reducing whoosh sound of 2.5 drive - recommendations?

Post by andyb » Tue Jun 03, 2014 1:57 pm

Does gently pressing against the disk top panel (when wooshing) change anything?
If you are "less" than gentle you can kill a laptop drive by pressing on its top as there is such a tiny space between the top and the moving parts inside, also the Aluminium (I assume) topis super thin.

I know this first hand because I wanted to (fully) kill some faulty HDD's its very easy to do, nothing more than a finger + thumb required, the drive I tortured to death was of course on and seeking at the time (wouldn't be any fun otherwise), when I took it apart, the top platter was covered in scratches due to the massive head crash I caused, it was so bad the actual read/write block was ripped off of the actuator arm.

So basically you will just have to be very careful with whatever you do that presses the top of the drive. I would suggest trying something that is soft, flat and doesn't cook the drive and does not cover the ventilation hole, the list is going to be very short so you might have to get creative and build your own enclosure. I would suggest the starting point as a sheet of corrugated cardboard, make cuts and bends, tape it together, make holes for suspension and cables as necessary and keep a close eye on temps. Corrugated cardboard is actually quite a good sound insulator because of its multiple surfaces, and of course its very often free.

I once had an entire PC inside a DIY cardboard box, it looked like shit but it did the job for a few weeks until I bought a case that I liked.


Andy

mastabog
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Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:00 pm

Re: reducing whoosh sound of 2.5 drive - recommendations?

Post by mastabog » Tue Jun 03, 2014 4:28 pm

Pressing too hard on the top can indeed kill it. However, the idea is to transmit vibrations to a denser mass to absorb them. As such, pressing hard or gently achieves pretty much the same result (depending on how dense is the 2nd object) ... i.e. no need to press hard. However, to be effective, that operation often implies multiple contact points (I was using pieces of norprene rubber), or whole surface contact, which then results in heat problems :)

I've been there, which is why I'd like to get drives that have less whoosh and suspend them all, with a quiet fan blowing on all from the side.

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