How good are silicone casing for silencing hard drives?

[yensteel]

I found a silicone case as I was browsing through the computer center last week, and I found this:

http://m2.sourcingmap.com/smap/images/i ... 8_ux_n.jpg

From closer inspection these don't seem to be designed to be in the case, but rather outside as an external hard drive enclosure. I figure the user can just cut some holes and the leg parts and then use them in a bay.

How effective are they at silencing 3.5 inch hard drives? would they fit in the 3.5 inch bay?

If it works, then this will be a good solution for a lot of people who have 3.5 inch hard drives and cannot suspend them.

[SlaveToSilence]

very much doubt that would fit in a 3.5" bay, but would probably fit in a 5.25"
looks like it could work well, give it a go and let us know how you get on

[Blacktales]

I have never used this kind of silicone "skin" for HDs but my hunch is that it would not really help if you use them. Cutting legs and some holes for airflow would leave only some strips of silicone squeezed between the sides of the HDs and the case.

Mechanically, if it is squeezed, it will do nothing to dampen tranfer of vibrations to the case (Trust me i've tried). The open design will not absorb any idle/spin noise. And thermally, silicone is one of the best heat insulating material so you would cut thermal transfert to the case from the sides. So you would end up with a higher HD temperature with no noise reduction.

Keeping the skin intact and laying the HD on the bottom of the case of the drive bays might help to dampen vibrations (if the feets/legs are not too stiff/coupled to the HD) a bit but would need some airflow to mitigate the insulating effect of the silicone layer. Laying the HD on a piece of foam as some people here do might actually be better both acoustically and thermally.

All in all, it would still be less effective than cheaper suspension methods some people on this forum have come up with (I think)

Then again, feel free to correct me or suggest other ways to use this product.

[yensteel]

Thanks for the reply.

Honestly, I haven't tried the idea yet. I'm using the computer a lot nowdays.

I think I'l give it a try and post the results, along with some temperature comparison when I can.

[SlaveToSilence]

on second thoughts id be very careful with that, as it covers one of the two sides and your instinct would be to have the lable side open but the motor on the other side gets very hot and would only get hotter with a that wrapped around it.. maybe cut the other side so it is open also?

[MikeC]

I used to think that silicone had great damping qualities, but after the research and hands-on experience with materials during the SPCR anechoic chamber project, I've learned different. It's a useful material, but it is definitely not the best vibration damper/absorber.

One of the key properties of a truly good vibration damper is that if rolled up into a ball, it will not bounce. If it bounces when you drop it on a hard floor, that tells you the material does not absorb the mechanical impact. Silicone rubber fails this test badly. Many rubber-like materials fail.

What passes?

Certainly, Green Glue. It does not bounce. Instead, it almost sticks to the floor with a quiet splat. Almost like chewed gum in hot weather.

Also, the somewhat sticky pressure-sensitive gummy stuff that's been popular in Britain forever for things like putting posters up on walls (with little blobs in the corners). That's similar in quality.

How to use such materials to surround a hard drive? You've got me. It seems unsuitable. I still don't see any practical effective alternative to elastic suspension for eliminating HDD vibration.

[jhhoffma]

Ah the beautiful and interesting field of polymer plasticity/elasticity!! This characteristic is usually measure as a modulus (gPa) in films, but can be measured with a hardness value (in durometers) in most bulk materials.

What MikeC is describing is a dense, soft plastic (as opposed to elastic) material. Sorbothane is the best example of this type of material, if you know what it is.

While sorbothane can be used in tighter spaces than suspension, I still prefer suspension to cure HDD noise (except for idle whine).

[yensteel]

I installed the casing for my internal drive.

I said I would show some temperature results, but unfortunately, I didn't record the before temperature, so I decided it's useless to record the temperature now.

I cut a big diamond hole at the side where it's covered and also the feet, then cut the part where it would touch the bay. I to shove it in without any cutting but I couldn't. Here's a pic after all the cutting


(I know it's on the wrong side of the drive. I flipped it before I installed it in the computer)

Well, It helped only a tiny bit. The hard drive reading is around just as loud.

I don't have a thermal monitor program, but I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature went a bit higher.

I hope that other people will give some suggestions, experiments, and ideas because I still think this has promise for people who have to install their drives in an irremovable 3.5 bay. I'll try again if I'm still interested in this experiment.

[Navvie]

The looks a like like the material my old Seagate was wrapped in. I did notice a slight change in motor whine noise when I took the silicone/rubbery material of the seagate.

I also noticed the temperature of the drive dropped considerably.

Of course, the increased noise (in fact all noise) was completely drowned out by my 80mm Vantec Tornado fan. Vantec's spec is 5700rpm, 84.1CFM and 55dBA.

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Cheers,
Mike.