Blu-Tack damping "putty"
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hydraktonos
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:02 am
Blu-Tack damping "putty"
I came to SPCR with a question about adapting Panaflo 70mm fans to my oddball 60mm heatsinks. I was referred to the funnel adapters from Silicon Valley Compucycle, which are cheap and worked very well for me. My dual 1.26 GHz Tualatin-S rig, with two Panaflo's wired in series, runs core temps around 110 F deg under load. The most prominent noise component remaining came from the drives: a WD Caviar 7200 rpm ATA, and a Quantum/Maxtor Atlas 10,000 rpm Ultrawide SCSI. This SCSI is very quiet for its breed, but it does whine at a frequency that penetrates. My case is a large one with an inner frame providing mounting points for a lot of drives. It is well-built, but this frame does provide a radiator for the drive noise. Being a serious audio enthusiast, I was familar with the virtues of Blu-Tack as a damping material. I obtained two packages of same from Glubie Glue (http://www.glubie.com/) for $7.73 inluding shipping, just the right amount to treat the subframe, which it deadens very effectively. My PC is not completely silent but it is very quiet, espcially considering that it is a real horse of a PC. I will shortly post a picture of this treatment at www.h-w-h.us/Blu-Tack (observe CaSe).
Hydra, if you haven't been welcomed already, Welcome! 
I've never considered using BluBlu-Tak as a dampening material in the way you have, but in theory there's no reason why it wouldn't work.
I've used smaller strips of BT around my whole PSU (everywhere it touches the case) and under CPU fan to dampen the vibrations. This works quite well, and is significantly cheaper than a silicon fan mount.
Well done
Tim.
I've never considered using BluBlu-Tak as a dampening material in the way you have, but in theory there's no reason why it wouldn't work.
I've used smaller strips of BT around my whole PSU (everywhere it touches the case) and under CPU fan to dampen the vibrations. This works quite well, and is significantly cheaper than a silicon fan mount.
Well done
Tim.
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Michael_qrt
- Posts: 154
- Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2002 5:53 pm
- Location: Sydney
Blu-tack sounds like a quite easy and effective material for deadening resonances in a case by adding mass to resonant surfaces. However it should be noted that Blu-tack is not actually very good at decoupling a source of vibration from the rest of the case.
This is because Blu-tack actually acts as a solid at audio frequencies. Many audiophiles use blu-tack to couple their speakers to their speaker stands in place of screwing them in. The one way that blu-tack probably could help in the mounting of fans and PSUs is in evening out the contact between the device and the case. This may help reduce resonance in the case.
Still, if you've achieved good results then you can't complain about the price.
This is because Blu-tack actually acts as a solid at audio frequencies. Many audiophiles use blu-tack to couple their speakers to their speaker stands in place of screwing them in. The one way that blu-tack probably could help in the mounting of fans and PSUs is in evening out the contact between the device and the case. This may help reduce resonance in the case.
Still, if you've achieved good results then you can't complain about the price.