Tom's Hardware: "Sound Proof Your Hard Drive"

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Sun May 24, 2009 12:13 am

While casually browsing through some hardware sites I stumbled upon a review, over at Tom's Hardware, of a case with hard drive decoupling. I believe the elastic suspension in the Antec Solo is more effective than the spring mount solution used in this computer case, however, since most cases with claims of being "silent" comes with nothing more innovative than rubber washers to mount the HDD, it is always nice to see that some manufacturers try to go one step further. The hard drive cage can be seen here.
In the article they also try out the Smart Drive Neo that has been mentioned in these forums before, looks interesting but cost way to much.

summertan · Post by **summertan** » Mon May 25, 2009 10:54 am

Actually, vibration free mounting of hard drive is much easier than most manifacturers think. In some cases (ex. Dell Inspiron 530 mid tower) the biggest area side of the drive is secured vertically with screws to a SINGLE surface, the other sides of the drive don't touch anything and I noticed the case doesn't vibrate at all.

The usual suspension is where the drive is sandwitched between TWO surfaces and that's where the annoying low frequency vibrations begin.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Tue May 26, 2009 10:48 am

Hey, I like this spring thing. I am sure rubber elastic is best, but no way in hell im going to vertically mount a drive hanging from a crap piece of rubber, no matter how forum entries I read.

Horizontal, usage of standardized parts, sounds good. What case was this used in?

No vibes III looks great but costs as much as a case and uses small hd's it seems.

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Tue May 26, 2009 4:43 pm

one thing though - springs are made of metal and metal transmits sound way better than air. so, as the review said - "The difference between the 3RSystem L-1100 T.REX case and the GUP Smart Drive Neo HDD silencer is noticeable, but only important for those who insist on not hearing their hard drive at all."

that would be us, i presume

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Tue May 26, 2009 5:25 pm

~El~Jefe~ wrote:no way in hell im going to vertically mount a drive hanging from a crap piece of rubber

The Antec Solo uses bungee cords to avoid the rubber deterioration problem. I'm sure you could use the same thing vertically as well.