HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Derpington
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:29 am

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by Derpington » Wed Dec 10, 2014 6:44 pm

I use Nexus DiskTwin. You basically move your HDD from the 3.5" to 5.25" drive bay and it's placed between these combo radiator / rubber dampener thingies. It's probably not as good as elastic suspension (I never tried) but compared to standard HDD mounting, the difference is clear.

MikeC
Site Admin
Posts: 12285
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Contact:

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by MikeC » Wed Dec 10, 2014 6:50 pm

Derpington wrote:I use Nexus DiskTwin. You basically move your HDD from the 3.5" to 5.25" drive bay and it's placed between these combo radiator / rubber dampener thingies. It's probably not as good as elastic suspension (I never tried) but compared to standard HDD mounting, the difference is clear.
You should try elastic suspension. No contest between that and the Nexus Disktwin, which we tried & rejected for a review. Admittedly, that was years ago when HDDs were noisier than they are today. Really depends a lot on the drive you're trying to silence -- the more noise (and more vibrations) it emits, the bigger the advantage of true mechanical decoupling, which is elastic suspension.

EXPERIMENTONGOD
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:48 am

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by EXPERIMENTONGOD » Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:59 am

After a lot of year wanting to try this I finally went to the sewing shop and got myself 1 meter of black elastic for 0,95€.

Man this solution works beautifully, I was so tired of the case vibration from my 7200 RPM HDD. I can't hear any low frequency hum anymore and when I touch the case it doesn't vibrate at all, just as described in the article.

Thanks MikeC ;).
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

tbob22
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by tbob22 » Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:36 pm

I'm currently using the suspension method with some simple stretch cords. Cleans up the case a bit too :).
Image


Has anyone tried this?
http://www.moddiy.com/products/CoolFram ... acket.html
It looks a bit different than the other types as the rubber mounts are much taller.

xan_user
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by xan_user » Sun Feb 15, 2015 11:07 pm

tbob22 wrote:

Has anyone tried this?
http://www.moddiy.com/products/CoolFram ... acket.html
It looks a bit different than the other types as the rubber mounts are much taller.

lol. looks like they isolated the HDD, but then mounted the fan directly to the metal. :roll:

looks promising without the fan tho...

Orof
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2015 3:04 pm

Worked like a charm!

Post by Orof » Fri Feb 27, 2015 3:22 pm

iv'e used the Soft foam under HDD on floor of case method.

i have a HD103SJ samsung HDD that has an insane amount of vibration (using a Nanoxia DS2 with rubber grommets)

i coulde have lived with that fact, but the problem was, that any other HDD drive that is not of the same model, would have caused a humming noise in waves.

even 2 computers 2 meteres apart would have caused this problem, if they had different models.

i almost bought the supplies for the rubber mounting, but then i found that this methood might work, so i took some foam from my old 7870XT box

Image

Image

Image

no vibration for me :mrgreen:

Thank you very much! any questions are welcome

tbob22
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: Worked like a charm!

Post by tbob22 » Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:30 pm

Orof wrote:iv'e used the Soft foam under HDD on floor of case method.
...
That works :D. How are temps using that method?

I decided to switch from suspension to the mounts I had mentioned before but on ebay, they took a month to arrive, but the price was very good ($25 for four).

Very impressed so far, temps haven't changed at all, drives are still sitting at 32-36c depending on load, but I do have a fan on the other side of the drives that pulls air through the case. These WD Black's are not cool drives, and are not quiet, which is why I went with suspension in the first place. Zero vibration throughout the case, I had a slight vibration when using the suspension on the upper drives but that is gone.

Before and after photos:
Image Image

The DIY suspension has served me well, these drives have been suspended for three years and now have upwards of 40,000 hours on them and 20tb of writes (in use since 2009). But an off the shelf solution makes it much easier to swap drives if needed, and makes for a good solution for future builds. The no-vibes would be good as well, but they are very hard to find and cost much more.

NigelC
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2016 2:15 am

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by NigelC » Thu Dec 08, 2016 2:21 am

Hi Orof - I also have a Samsung HD103SJ which is very noisy. I like your simple solution. One question - with the drive just resting on the foam is there anything else holding the drive in place or is it just effectively loose? I assume it is but just wanted to check. Thanks Nigel

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Dec 08, 2016 6:28 am

NigelC wrote:One question... I assume it is but just wanted to check.
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=128027

Orof
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2015 3:04 pm

Re: Worked like a charm!

Post by Orof » Sat Dec 24, 2016 7:49 am

tbob22 wrote:
Orof wrote:iv'e used the Soft foam under HDD on floor of case method.
...
That works :D. How are temps using that method?
temps never exceed 36c. now i have 2 drives mounted this way
NigelC wrote:Hi Orof - I also have a Samsung HD103SJ which is very noisy. I like your simple solution. One question - with the drive just resting on the foam is there anything else holding the drive in place or is it just effectively loose? I assume it is but just wanted to check. Thanks Nigel
first, they were loose. now after installing a second toshiba drive, iv'e inserted a small object to push the Samsung drive onto the foam - to eliminate the vibration between the 2 drives completely.
quest_for_silence wrote:
NigelC wrote:One question... I assume it is but just wanted to check.
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=128027
still here :) this forum helped me alot. i also have some elastic cord, and if i ever need - i will sure try this mod aswell.

Zier08
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:06 pm

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by Zier08 » Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:10 pm

Help! I bought Seagate hd. How can I silence it?

NeilBlanchard
Moderator
Posts: 7681
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2002 7:11 pm
Location: Maynard, MA, Eaarth
Contact:

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by NeilBlanchard » Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:10 am

Welcome to SPCR,
Zier08 wrote:Help! I bought Seagate hd. How can I silence it?
You can learn a lot by reading this very thread. :wink:

Zier08
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:06 pm

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by Zier08 » Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:17 am

Ok ... The fact is that the last message dates back to 2016! :D

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:48 am

Welcome to SPCR. While there may not be recent activity on the thread, the methods still apply.

Zier08
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:06 pm

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by Zier08 » Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:48 am

Thanks to welcome!

developer1
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:38 pm

Re: Worked like a charm!

Post by developer1 » Tue Jul 02, 2019 9:01 pm

tbob22 wrote:
Orof wrote:iv'e used the Soft foam under HDD on floor of case method.
...
That works :D. How are temps using that method?

I decided to switch from suspension to the mounts I had mentioned before but on ebay, they took a month to arrive, but the price was very good ($25 for four).

Very impressed so far, temps haven't changed at all, drives are still sitting at 32-36c depending on load, but I do have a fan on the other side of the drives that pulls air through the case. These WD Black's are not cool drives, and are not quiet, which is why I went with suspension in the first place. Zero vibration throughout the case, I had a slight vibration when using the suspension on the upper drives but that is gone.

Before and after photos:
Image Image

The DIY suspension has served me well, these drives have been suspended for three years and now have upwards of 40,000 hours on them and 20tb of writes (in use since 2009). But an off the shelf solution makes it much easier to swap drives if needed, and makes for a good solution for future builds. The no-vibes would be good as well, but they are very hard to find and cost much more.
I had never heard about those. I'm willing to try them on my WD Red on my Fractal Define R5 Case.

Do you think this is woudl be the same as yours? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Quality-3-5-to ... Sw~OdVa8wC ($5.36 each sounds good)

And judging by your experience with these. Do you feel these are going to fit on Fractal R5 optical drive cage? http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1422-page2.html
The last question is because I've read reviews on similar drive cages stating the cage holes were misplaced.

Congrats on your setup!

Alex11223
Posts: 46
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2013 12:48 pm
Location: Europe

Re: HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked

Post by Alex11223 » Tue Oct 27, 2020 12:03 pm

MikeC wrote:
Thu Nov 13, 2003 1:40 pm

- My original soft elastic suspension using stretchy elastic from a sewing shop.
- Aphonos frameless elastic suspension alternative his elastic looks kind of thick but you could use a thinner stretchier one
- NoVibesIII- but without last top O-ring (which forces drive to bottom out) - heat a potential problem when mounted in CD bay though
The links are killed by the new site :twisted:

Post Reply