Insulating (not dampening) material for Solo case

neovibe · Post by **neovibe** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 3:41 pm

hi

After spending countless hours reading SPCR and these forums I got an Antec Solo and I couldn't be happier with it. obviously it is not enough and my next step will probably be getting some case insulation. I mean, right now the idle noise from my hard drives (suspended samsung) and the noise from the stock antec tricool (in low speed) are my biggest problems.

with everything on, stopping the antec tricool fan in 'low' speed makes a big difference. Given that it was measured by SPCR @ 20 dba... getting a quiter fan won't help that much. I will get a scythe or noctua but this gives you an idea of how noisy/silent my system is.

So what I have is a system where my fan is almost as silent as it gets (according to SPCR measurements) and will be even more silent when I get a new one, and, my samsung HD is suspended. so the next move should be soundproofing.

when I place my hand on any part of the case there's no vibration, so I think any dampening material won't help much. what I need is soundproofing/insulating material to absorb noise.
from what I researched, most commercial materials are more about vibration dampening, something Solo users don't need as much.

I know about acoustipack but that one seems to be more about dampening. It was considered the best from the ones tested by SPCR so no point in considering the others. However I found about a few others:

- Sonex Willtec Acoustical Foam made by illbruck but I can't find a place that sells it in europe, only in the US at http://www.mnpctech.com/SonexWilltec.html . I think the basic material is melanine (spelling??), right? would any product made out of this work?

- one commercial product I found is PCSilent Insulation Material available here

- the other one is silentmaxx Silence Kit available here

- another product from noiseblocker can be found here

- and finally the last one from beQuiet! here

From all of these, the only one I know that is only about insulating is Sonex Willtec Acoustical Foam but I can't get it in Europe (does anyone know where can I get it???) Does this really help?
All the others seem to be more about dampening and that makes them more expensive plus they're not what I really need (it would be a waste of money)...

Another option is getting an 'industrial product' used in recording studios or something, but I need to know what to look for :s any help?

The conclusion I've come to is that I'm basically kind of lost

so what material should I get and where?? (in Europe!)
any other suggestions??

thanks in advance

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:04 pm

Almost any kind of mineral wool or open-cell foam will work.

roadie · Post by **roadie** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:38 am

I too am finding the Tri-cool fan on low too intrusive. I am going to get a Noctua to replace it.

I also have some Acoustipack left over, which I will use to cover the side panel nearest me.

kaange · Post by **kaange** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:18 pm

I found the Tricool in my SLK3000B too noisy, even on low so I replaced it with a Noctua 1200rpm fan. This was still a bit too noisy for my liking (flow noise) so I slow it down with a fan controller to 750rpm. It's quite likely that cutting off the fan grill at the back of the case would reduce the flow noise enough to run the Noctua closer to 1000rpm so I may do that with my next upgrade.

I would think that all this would apply to the Solo too.

I have the 250Gb SpinPoint Samsung SATA HDD and the drive vibrations (idle noise) were terrible with the drive cage mounted so I suspended the cage and now I can only hear a small amount of seek noise. I'm surprised that the Solo's suspension system still allows so much idle noise to be heard.

neovibe · Post by **neovibe** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:17 pm

I'm thinking about the noctua 1200 but with the included ultra low noise adapter to make it run at 5v or so... should put out some 30CFM, about as much as the tricool in low speed mode (SPCR numbers/measurements) while being inaudible (is that so??)

I think the case grills do make it 'wooosh' a bit more but dn't think I'm going to cut it. Antec should make it with a hole covered by a thin metal piece, sort of like a PSU. There's no reason for so much obstruction to airflow...

I can only hear my suspended samsung itself, I mean, only the noise IT generates and not the case vibrating because of it. cases can't do better than that. seek/write doesn't bother me, only the 'woosh' from the spinning.

I'm leaning towards the Sonex foam, even if I have to buy it from the US. anyone with experience with that??

ultrachrome · Post by **ultrachrome** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:34 pm

I cut the grill out of my Sonata and noted no difference in sound nor temp when using a Nexus @ 12V.

bezerk · Post by **bezerk** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 5:16 am

Neovibe, exactly what Samsung drive model do you have ?

I've just ordered a Samsung 500GB T166 in the hope it will not have an idle noise that an Antec Solo can't hide....

neovibe · Post by **neovibe** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:51 am

bezerk wrote:Neovibe, exactly what Samsung drive model do you have ?

I've just ordered a Samsung 500GB T166 in the hope it will not have an idle noise that an Antec Solo can't hide....

samsung 250gb sata2 8mb sp2504c.
When I say it's the only noise that bothers me from the HD's, I mean it's the only one I would eliminate if I could but it's not too loud/intrusive and probably it's as good as it gets. appart from for 2.5" drives of course...
It's much better than my 160gb seagate in that respect

kaange · Post by **kaange** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:20 pm

ultrachrome wrote:I cut the grill out of my Sonata and noted no difference in sound nor temp when using a Nexus @ 12V.

A Nexus @ 12V is not that quiet according to most around here so did you try it at lower voltages before and after cutting out the grill?

ultrachrome · Post by **ultrachrome** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 4:54 pm

kaange wrote:A Nexus @ 12V is not that quiet according to most around here so did you try it at lower voltages before and after cutting out the grill?

I'm not sure I follow your logic. At lower fans speeds, grill restriction also decreases. I've read that a rough rule is that drag increases by the square of velocity.

I'm not saying cutting out the grill is bad advice. I'm only suggesting that doing it to an Antec case won't reap the same benefits as with other cases that have more restrictive grills. The open area of the Antec grill is about 75%. That's pretty substantial.

Plus cutting out the grill means you need to treat the sharp edges and potentially fit a wire grill in case you have curious offspring or pets. My cat loves stopping the fan blades with her paw. I'm not sure its worth the effort.

When I removed the grill from my Sonata I noted no drop in temperature. I held the grill back up to the exhaust opening and could discern no difference in sound with it on or off.

Probably a coincidence but I notice that the SPCR Model One has its grill intact.

bezerk · Post by **bezerk** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 2:00 am

neovibe wrote:
bezerk wrote:Neovibe, exactly what Samsung drive model do you have ?

I've just ordered a Samsung 500GB T166 in the hope it will not have an idle noise that an Antec Solo can't hide....
samsung 250gb sata2 8mb sp2504c.
When I say it's the only noise that bothers me from the HD's, I mean it's the only one I would eliminate if I could but it's not too loud/intrusive and probably it's as good as it gets. appart from for 2.5" drives of course...
It's much better than my 160gb seagate in that respect

See http://forums.storagereview.net/index.p ... 8&view=old
for more people having issues with that model !

neovibe · Post by **neovibe** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 6:51 am

I don't think I have that problem, but I'll listen more carefully when I have time. thanks.

and how about insulating materials? anyone?