How to silence my hard drives?

unkel

Trying to make my rig a bit less noisy or if possible silent

Installed some Zalman hardware:

400W PSU - silent

CNPS7000A-Cu HSF running in silent mode. This fan is something else, even in silent mode the CPU temp under load has gone down from 70C to 40C
http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps7000a-cu.htm

2 * Case fans using the powercable with resistor - silent
(1 to suck in cool air through the front of the box to cool HDD's and 1 at the back to blow out warm air)

Of the residual noise, about 20% is caused by the graphics card fan - low pitch fan noise. Will replace this with a Zalman heatsink. 70% is caused by my two Western Digital SE hard drives (80GB and 160GB) - more annoying high pitch HDD noise

I love those drives. They are reliable and very fast, but unfortunately not very quiet.

Can anyone recommend a solution for making them quiet or even silent?

BigEejit

An AK-47 should shut them up.....permanently

But seriously, it is a bit of a problem ... if you put them in those boxes (like this one, just found it in google, there is bound to be a company selling them in Ireland) they may overheat in them if they produce over a certain amount of heat ...be very careful

Or if you like DIY, Yellum pointed out this site on the hardware tweaking forum recently ... you would want to fairly handy DIY wise and not afraid of losing your HD...

Or do what I am going to do ... put the old noisy drives in an old noisy networked computer ---- somehwere where you wont hear it

unkel

Thanks BigEejit

Problem is the hard disks get very hot as is. If I were to switch off the case air intake fan at the front, the hard disks would overheat in a matter of hours - let alone if I confine them any further

The sound is pure pitch, not resonance. If I lift the box into the air there is no improvement.

Vaguely recollect hearing something about case insulation - anybody any experience with this

Any tips folks?

popey21

Funny enough I have the exact same problem
I think i am going to bite the bullet and buy a

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB IDE
- ATA/100 hard disk 8MB cache 7200RPM

which i can get at www.komplett.ie for 118

and sell my two Western Digital HDDS

All the Seagate hard drives are supposed to be silent according to this website

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/60GigQuietHardDrive.html

and this one

http://www.buildsilentpc.com/silent_hard_drive.php

I was looking at ww.peats.ie Silent Hard Drive Enclosure
but they don't really work for 7200 rpm hard rives

BigEejit

Originally posted by popey21
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB IDE
- ATA/100 hard disk 8MB cache 7200RPM

I have the SATA version of this drive and it is pure class, definitely the quitest that I have heard ... but then again I havent heard some of the other quiet drives (:p joke) .. I mean to say I havent been near one to make a judgement on how noisy or quiet they are:)

joc_06

Originally posted by unkel
How to silence my hard drives

Just plug em out mate - they'll be quiet as mice then!:p

gurramok

I have 7 hard drives attached in my machine.

To beat noise i have tried umpteen solutions, problem is trying to get a balance from noise and heat.
From using soft cushion to aluminium plates, i gave up and instead power them down auto every 5-10 mins.

The 120gb disks are quieter than their subordinates strangely

Hard disks are presently outside the case lying on the desk attached to the m/b, solves the heat problem anyway