It's a personal server that I use mostly as a NAS. I have a number of use cases for it that I won't go into here. Some of these use cases require a lot of storage.

Sadly, no (and it would be tedious to remove them now, it would probably wear up the adhesive). It makes sense to me that this is the mod that impacts airflow the most - it's a huge obstruction. If I remember correctly it also made a noticeable difference to the noise level, but honestly it's hard t...

That's a lot of hard drives! What is the total capacity That's 6x Western Digital Red 10 TB WD100EFAX hard drives. (The sixth one is hidden behind the PSU shroud.) 60 TB total raw capacity. (They're in RAID 10, so the actual usable capacity is 30 TB.) and could you also get it quieter, by using few...

Thanks for the advice. I tried everything I could and I managed to make the case significantly quieter, though I can still hear it if I pay attention. I ended up buying a Be Quiet! Silent Base 601  : https://i.imgur.com/e6B4w73h.jpg https://i.imgur.com/t897aGGh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/gjkKB1zh.jpg J...

I'm having difficulties finding reliable information about the best PC case to dampen hard drive noise. Most PC case reviews only test for reduction of fan noise, but hard drive noise is often quite different (in terms of spectrum) and is not using the same decoupling systems as the fans. I have WD ...

Sadly, I do not believe what you are looking for exists. My understanding is that none of the >4 TB hard drives on the market qualify as "quiet". I tried Seagate Seawolf 10 TB (ST10000VN0004) and WD Red 10 TB (WD100EFAX). I recorded them along with a WD RED 3 TB (WD30EFRX) for reference, see results...