Noisy, vibrating Seagate 7200.9 250GB in Antec SLK3000B

yjs · Post by **yjs** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 8:21 pm

Hi, I'm a big newb here.

Now onto business, I built a new system a few weeks ago and chose components that were known to be pretty quiet. However I was rather disappointed with the level of noise the vibration of the Seagate drive was making in the Antec SLK3000B case; it seems the rubber gromets don't do a thing. I've lived with it in the past few weeks because I was rather busy with exams but now I have some spare time.

I've run SeaTools diagnostics and the drive has passed the tests. The drive is pretty loud by itself unmounted although not near the level of noise it and the case makes when it's doing some intense seeking. What do you guys suggest? Is the case at fault or is it an abnormally noisy drive?

Thanks in advance.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:43 am

Use the search feature on suspension for SLK3000Bs. There are many people here that have suspended hard drives in this case. It's VERY easy to do.

I removed the HDD cage and used a set (4) of very small bungee cords from Home Depot (with foam to cushion the hooks), some speaker wire tacks (clips with a nail in them to nail to wall trim). I drilled out the hole to accomodate the HDD screws from the SLK3000B and used them anchor the drive to the bungie cords, which were hung top to bottom.

See this thread for reference: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... highlight=

Beel · Post by **Beel** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:33 am

yjs - If your case is amplifying the seek noise your drive makes, suspending the drive can make a really big difference. I use a simple test to see if suspending the hard drive will help reduce the noise. Wad up an old rag, put it in the case, and put the hard drive on it. (an old T shirt works well) Put the cover back on the case and fire up the computer. This will give you a pretty good idea how the computer will sound with the drive suspended. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

yjs · Post by **yjs** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:13 am

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll see if I can find some elastic cord around these parts.

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:35 pm

I've been using a 3000B for the last year or so. I'm not all that impressed with it, to be honest. The air flow is good. However overall the case is flimsy and tends to have problems with vibration/ rattling. The plastic door at the front will rattle/ vibrate. The side panels are made from a very flimsy/ flexy metal. And the hard drive mounting mechanism (hard, black rubber grommets) doesn't do much to reduce hard drive vibration transmission into the case chassis. There are a few things you can do. One is switch to a 2.5 inch notebook drive for your OS drive. You don't really need a large capacity drive - 20 or 40 Gb is more than enough for the OS. Samsungs are a good choice. The OS drive is accessed more than any other drive - so it is worth the effort of going for a notebook drive. (You do need a little IDE adapter which allows a notebook drive to be used with a desktop motherboard). I also have a several 3.5 inch SATA drives in my 3000B. One of them is a Seagate drive which vibrates a fare bit - it is in a NoVibes tray in the CD area. There are two Samsung 250 Gb SATA 3.5 inch drives installed with the rubber grommets. Whether your 3.5 inch drives are going to make a racket in the hard drive tray is a matter of luck, imo. My Samsung drives sit in there, hard mounted with the grommets, and don't make much vibration noise at all. But as soon as I add the Seagate drive to the hard drive tray, the noise is appalling. I think there is some weird interaction between the way the Samsungs vibrate and the way the Seagate vibrates. But some people can't mount their Samsungs in the hard drive tray at all. I think it is a "luck of the draw" thing. If your drive is making a racket, you need to suspend it (as others have already mentioned). You can get a NoVibes tray and put it in the CD area, or use some elastic cord and suspend it yourself. The best solution would be to get a SOLO p-150 instead of the 3000B.

cpemma · Post by **cpemma** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:46 am

aidanjm2004 wrote:I've been using a 3000B for the last year or so. I'm not all that impressed with it, to be honest. The air flow is good. However overall the case is flimsy and tends to have problems with vibration/ rattling. The plastic door at the front will rattle/ vibrate. ...

My experience is very similar. It seems to be especially bad with multiple drives, there's some interaction that gives a severe 'beating' vibration in my situation. Apparently not everyone experiences trouble or I doubt the case would be so recommended here, but if you do it's a thing you've got to fix, no living with the racket.