Need help samsund h/d and antec slk3000b issues

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 5:21 am

Hi,

Spotted a thread about vibration problems with this combo, seen the mod to suspend the drives, do you know if it is safe to just seat the h/d on foam at the bottom of the case, if i load the h/d upside down so the circuitry is on top and can be fan cooled ?

thanks, mark.............

ChucuSCAD · Post by **ChucuSCAD** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 5:35 am

Placing HDs in the bottom of the case is a fairly common thing around here. Make sure you put it on an antistatic piece of foam, ususally your mobo will come with a piece of it. If you want furter isolation place a piece of regular foam or rubber underneath the static foam.

I do not understand why you would want to mount the drive upside down. I have seen many machines with the drive upside down in a cage and they seem to do just fine, however I have never done that myself.

chucuSCAD

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 5:39 am

thanks for the reply.

Ahh hadnt thought about anti static foam, does anyone know if u can u buy it from anywhere in the UK ?,as the mobo is oldish and box etc have been binned

Reason for mounting the drive upside down was purely to get the air from the front fan running over the electronics of the drive rather than the top, may not be worth doing tho so i'll see what happens.

mark..........

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 6:09 am

I always thought the top of the HDD needed to be cooled more than the electronics. The top is a large slab of metal for a reason: it acts as a heatsink. Not too sure about this, but you might want to try searching the forums for "hard disk cooling upside down" or something similar.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:32 am

Actually the blinking metal top of the HD is the coolest part of the HD. The black metal on the sides and bottom is the hottest. There have been reports on this forum that letting a fan blow on the bottom of the drive gives cooler drives than letting one blow on the top. So even without a fan, turning the drive upside down should give better results. As this makes convection cooling of the hottest part easier. (Of course the older barracuda's are another story, 'cause they have a SeaShield covering the bottom.)

Baker · Post by **Baker** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 10:49 am

Just for the record, I would highly recommend using the "Sorbothane" method (do a forum search with 'Ralf Hutter' as the author) to mount your drive. You can order it through McMaster-Carr.

I used it in my old Sonata, and now in my 3000B, and it works like a charm. I can put my hand on the side of my case and there is _zero_ vibration coming through. I mounted it using the standard mounts just for comparison, and the amount of noise generated by vibration transferred to the case is amazing.

I also want to try the suspension method, but I haven't gotten around to buying the elastic cord yet...

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:31 am

thx for the replies, seen about "Sorbothane" but not found anywhere in the UK that stocks it

.

Have to keep looking, anyone knows of anywhere please let me know

mark......

BigDonut · Post by **BigDonut** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 6:45 am

pitch wrote:thx for the replies, seen about "Sorbothane" but not found anywhere in the UK that stocks it .

Have to keep looking, anyone knows of anywhere please let me know

mark......

you can buy sorbothane insoles for trainers to act as cushioning. Would that be any good.
I've got a set of size9/10 here that i could bung your way if you wanted

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:04 am

Hi,

No idea if it would work but i'll have a look around for some.

Cheers BD

mark...........

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:21 am

Hi,

Possibly a bit of good luck, just chatting to a m8 for the first time in ages and he has Sorbothane feet that he uses with his hi fi equipment, their blocks of 20mmx20mm by about 10mm thick

He says there packs of 4 for about £19, sound ideal but seem a fair bit dearer than insoles, what u guys think ?

cheers, mark.............

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:21 am

pitch wrote:
He says there packs of 4 for about £19, sound ideal but seem a fair bit dearer than insoles, what u guys think ?

cheers, mark.............

If you don't think the insole thing will work for you, go for the the Hi-Fi feet. They'll work perfect.

And yes, for whatever reason, Sorbothane isn't cheap. But it sure wirks great.

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:06 pm

thx ralf, i'll see what sort of thickness the insoles are so i can get some air round the drive.

mark.............

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:42 pm

pitch wrote:thx ralf, i'll see what sort of thickness the insoles are so i can get some air round the drive.

mark.............

You can stack 'em if you want more thickness. They'll probably stick to each other quite well, but if not, a little Super Glue will do the trick.

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:27 am

ok, cheers ralf.

rtsai · Post by **rtsai** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:52 am

ChucuSCAD wrote:Placing HDs in the bottom of the case is a fairly common thing around here. Make sure you put it on an antistatic piece of foam, ususally your mobo will come with a piece of it. If you want furter isolation place a piece of regular foam or rubber underneath the static foam.

If you can poke around your workplace or something, you can find the foam pieces that "surround" computer cases or rack mounts. What I did was take some Dell foam, cut off a big U-shaped piece that was essentially pre-fit for a HD to place on the bottom of the case, with worry-free ventilation. Structurally, it's essentially the same as the more-expensive Sorbothane method; materially, it's cheaper

Here is a photo to hopefully provide a better explanation of what I've done. You can't really see in the photo, but the foam "sides" (on the long side of the hard drive) are connected at the top by a cross-wise piece, to help keep the foam "sides" at some notion of a fixed distance apart. You could probably use cardboard or something on the other end if you're paranoid about the "open" ends coming too close together, but nothing bad has happened to me (yet); the case sits on my desktop and never really gets moved (it has been slid around on the desktop with no ill effects). The construction happens to be just about as wide as the case, so there's also no worry that the side foam "bars" will open up to wide for the hard drive to fall through.

I've never done the Sorbothane thing, so I can't offer any comparison, but I've definitely noticed a positive difference with this, moving from the normal rail-mounting into the drive bay just above it. All of the hard-mounted vibration has gone away, and the seek noises have definitely been much attenuated (still slightly audible if you listen for it).

Glacia · Post by **Glacia** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 12:55 pm

Hi Ralf,

First of all, I'd like to thank you for documenting your efforts so thoroughly here. I recently bought a BQE with three SP1614C's, and the vibration is driving me absolutely nuts. It's this low-pitched *oscillating* hum that fades in and out every couple seconds, ugh! I'm definitely ordering some sorbothane right away!

Anyway, a couple questions come to mind:

1. Do you by chance still have the first picture that you posted in this thread? It says it's unavailable for some reason?

2. You mentioned that you used some thin pieces of silicone to dampen the door. I assume you mean the door with the plastic latches and not the other one? I'm thinking that I'll try that with both of them just for the heck of it.

Where did you buy the silicone, where did you place the pieces and how large, etc.?

I'm thinking you placed the pieces like this (red rectangles being the places to place them). Did you place any where the yellow arrows are pointing (top of the door, bottom of the door and inside the rear flap)?

3. Would you still recommend a Panaflo @ 5v for the rear fan? I'm looking for something to replace the stock Antec fan with less noise yet move just as much air (my case runs pretty warm as it is). I like the simplicity of just running @ 12v, but I'll do anything to tame the noise. Which Panaflo did you use? What did you use to mount it?

(Sorry about the twenty questions... you just seem to be the resident expert on this case

.

Thanks =)

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:35 am

Glacia wrote:Hi Ralf,

First of all, I'd like to thank you for documenting your efforts so thoroughly here. I recently bought a BQE with three SP1614C's, and the vibration is driving me absolutely nuts. It's this low-pitched *oscillating* hum that fades in and out every couple seconds, ugh! I'm definitely ordering some sorbothane right away!

Anyway, a couple questions come to mind:

1. Do you by chance still have the first picture that you posted in this thread? It says it's unavailable for some reason?

Fixed.

Glacia wrote:2. You mentioned that you used some thin pieces of silicone to dampen the door. I assume you mean the door with the plastic latches and not the other one? I'm thinking that I'll try that with both of them just for the heck of it. Where did you buy the silicone, where did you place the pieces and how large, etc.?

I'm thinking you placed the pieces like this (red rectangles being the places to place them). Did you place any where the yellow arrows are pointing (top of the door, bottom of the door and inside the rear flap)?

I used one of these Vantec Dampening kits and cut up the fan mount into little squares. I applied them just like in your picture by Super Gluing them to the case.

Glacia wrote:3. Would you still recommend a Panaflo @ 5v for the rear fan? I'm looking for something to replace the stock Antec fan with less noise yet move just as much air (my case runs pretty warm as it is). I like the simplicity of just running @ 12v, but I'll do anything to tame the noise. Which Panaflo did you use? What did you use to mount it?

No, I would no longer recommend the Panaflo. There's newer fans that do a better job. I'd recommend these:

1) Nexus "Real Silent".

2) One of these "Nexus Rejects" from CompGeeks. Big thread here.

3) One of the Globes from Coolcases.com or mnpctech.com.

All three of these fans have been extensively discussed recently. Use the search and you'll get plenty of hits.

Glacia · Post by **Glacia** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:41 pm

I used one of these Vantec Dampening kits and cut up the fan mount into little squares. I applied them just like in your picture by Super Gluing them to the case.

Ahh, good idea. I used a piece from one of those between my video card (Gigabyte 6800 with its massive heatsink) and DIMM. The heatsink on that card is so massive that it rests against my DIMM and was making a horrible noise from the metal-on-metal vibration.

No, I would no longer recommend the Panaflo. There's newer fans that do a better job. I'd recommend these:

1) Nexus "Real Silent".

I used a Nexus for my front fan, and I had no idea it moved as much air as the rear Antec fan.

Stock Antec Fan:

- RPM: 1200
- CFM: 38.94
- dB(A): 24.86

Nexus 120mm:

- RPM: 1000
- CFM: 36.87
- dB(A): 22.8

I find it interesting that the stock fan running 20% faster moves roughly the same amount of air according to the specs. I wonder if Nexus is exaggerating just a bit.

But anyway, that looks like a good choice. Thanks for the help.

Btw, I ordered the same sorbothane you used today. I'll report back how well it works with three SP1614N's.

Glacia · Post by **Glacia** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 9:32 pm

Oh, Ralf...

In those pictures, I noticed you mounted the drive backwards on the rail. Did you do that just for prettier cable management (and maybe airflow) or did it make a difference in the sound too?

Just curious...

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 6:20 am

Glacia wrote:Oh, Ralf...

In those pictures, I noticed you mounted the drive backwards on the rail. Did you do that just for prettier cable management (and maybe airflow)

Yes.

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 2:06 pm

Ralf :

Samsung drives still the quietest, my spinpoint just died

cheers, mark............

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 2:09 pm

pitch wrote:Samsung drives still the quietest,............

Yes and no. See Recommended Hard Drives for a detailed answer.

pitch · Post by **pitch** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 1:03 am

cheers Tibors,
looks like its pot luck depending on the motor

mark...........

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:50 am

Try one of the recommended notebook drives. They are more quiet anyways.