Dampening optical drives.

mkygod · Post by **mkygod** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:14 pm

Has anyone ever experimented with dampening directly on an optical drive?

I have an NEC nd-3500 that is really loud when its reading and burning at 8-12x. If I slap on a vinyl dampening sheet on top of the burner, and some on the bottom (but not over the vents), do you think it would make much difference?

theyangster · Post by **theyangster** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:30 pm

Unfortunately you can't suspend CD drives for some reason

I don't think vinyl would help that much, unless it's vibration is causing the racket

software based solutions might work better (nero Drive speed, though does it work with DVD?)

you would need a real sound-dampening foam

I've tried melamine, seems to work ok, but i'd say you'd need full coverage all around to make it effective (i've still got some

)

a case door helps a lot, but getting a new case may be excessive

now for a completely unrelated Q
there was a new drive coming out (LG?) that had holes in the CD-tray to reduce the air noise

what if you did that to the average-joe CD drive? (perferably a cheap old first) I may try it out one of these day

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:47 pm

I wouldn't recommend completely dampening your OD. In most burners high temperatures affect burn quality. I don't know how much temperature affects NEC drives, but I do know that plextor and benq drives perform noticably worse in high heat. Getting a case with a door will dampen the whoosh sound somewhat. If you absolutely want to dampen your OD, put some dampening material on top, but leave the bottom open since it's the hottest part of the drive.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 3:26 am

Since optical drives aren't used continuously, you could solve the temperature problem by sandwiching it between two "cold packs" and then using sound dampening around that. The cold packs would absorb heat from the drive while in use, and then slowly release that heat through the dampening while the drive is not in use.

mkygod · Post by **mkygod** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:14 am

theyangster wrote: I don't think vinyl would help that much, unless it's vibration is causing the racket

Actually for my NEC drive, much of the sound is from vibration, not just the woosh sound you hear from an optical drive at high rpm.

On my P150 case, I can barely feel vibration from my fans, but when I'm burning, the entire case gives off that cellphone vibration type buzz, which gets annoying. Most drives aren't perfectly balanced, so vibration is always a problem. That's why im wondering if vibration dampening on the drive would help, or should just go all out vinyl all over the inside of my case?

As for the foam, im ordering a few sheets of the sonexwiltec from mnptech. That will help with the acoustic noise, but im going to have to wait to vinyl dampen more of my case before putting the foam over it.

TomZ · Post by **TomZ** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:47 am

IsaacKuo wrote:Since optical drives aren't used continuously, you could solve the temperature problem by sandwiching it between two "cold packs" and then using sound dampening around that. The cold packs would absorb heat from the drive while in use, and then slowly release that heat through the dampening while the drive is not in use.

Cold packs would act as insulators, effectively causing the drive to heat up more. There is no "buffering" action there, unless of course you pre-freeze them and put them in cold!

If you suspend or isolate the drive, you should instead direct some airflow across its top and bottom surfaces.

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:40 am

TomZ wrote:Cold packs would act as insulators, effectively causing the drive to heat up more. There is no "buffering" action there, unless of course you pre-freeze them and put them in cold!

People who've used cold packs in hard drive enclosures have found that they absorb and transfer heat quite well. If they can keep an enclosed hard drive relatively cool then they should be able to do the same for an optical drive.

Trunks · Post by **Trunks** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:49 am

Foam on the case above and below the drive helps a little. If your whole case is shaking you might try making sure the drive is really tight in the drive bay.