Antec P150 Case Rubber Band Suspension is Bad News!

madmatt

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As many of you know back in March I started building myself a new computer. I chose the Antec P150 case. I read over 100 reviews in the process of choosing a case and decided on the P150 because of what others had said.

Since the recommended hard drive mounting solution was the rubber band suspension system I decided to go with it (even Antec's own manual/instructions recommended this method).

Once a month I shutdown my computer and open it up to clean out whatever dust there is. Today was no different. However, upon opening up the case I see something REALLY bad. My $300.00 Raptor X hard drives are sitting on top of one another. Upon further investigation I see that all four rubber bands that hold both hard drives are snapped in half.

To make matters worse...

Since Antec doesn't include extra rubber bands and because I would never consider using such a suspension system again I have to use the mounting trays that are also included as a second option. I have four trays and four screws. That's right, Antec didn't give me enough screws to secure two hard drives; they gave me enough for one.

Luckily, for myself and for Antec I haven't noticed any difference in performance from the drives and hopefully that will continue.

Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend anyone use a rubber band suspension for mounting hard drives, especially when you make an investment like I have.

And if you have, I would open up your case to make sure everything is fine.

I will be calling Antec tomorrow.
 
You make it sound like the end of the world. Disks sitting on one another isn't a bad thing, nor is the short drop one would make to the other one.

Having said that I wonder where you left your brain when you decied to put a $150 disk into a rubber band :p

I'd suggest not using an Antec PSU either..
 
It's not the end of the world. However, things like this shouldn't happen especially when they recommend it right in their instructions.

But you're right, I wasn't using my brain.

I've read very bad things about their PSUs. Using P&C 510.
 
Wow, thats extremely unusual (to me).

I have mounting brackets for all my drives and I typically do something close to your method, but I have never had any issues with the large, black rubber grommets :(

Antec's spare parts should be able to hook you up I would think, with components.

Their psu's are not bad but I recommended the PC P&C for a reason :cool: and I'm glad you like it. My first proper PSU was an antec, it was also the one and only PSU that has ever died on me. Had to change me pants when it did :(

Reminds me that I should get my ass in gear and finish that bloody review. It's sitting with 3 pages and a few pics taken.

But let me get this straight, do you have the translucent, slightly wider rubber band thingers that you manually put on, or do you have the special HDD screws with the large grommets? I have the latter and baby those bastids. If it is the former, I am not impressed. Those things snap easily with even a little pressure.

Also, fwiw, maybe have a simple link in your sig hot-linking to a page with pics/stats of your rig and a DIY guide or something :) I think it would be very informative.
 
Saz, it is rather surprising to me because I read so many good things about this case and more specifically the HDD rubber band suspension mounting system.

The bands are black, about an 1/8 of an inch thick, and round. As for the mouting trays, they have clear gormmets and about half inch screws (which Antec only included four of, each tray requires four).

I went with PC P&C because of what you said about Antec PSU's and because of what you said about your PC P&C PSU.
 
I would be curious to hear what Antec has to say about what may have caused them to break. I would hope they have tested and approved this method since they encourage it.

Is there any advantage, according to them, of using that vs. using mounting trays?

I wonder if they will try to blame the fact your drives spin at 10k rpm and the bands aren't designed for that much spinning/vibration :rolleyes:
 
Good guess Derek. He wouldn't blame the actual speed of the drive but said that the frequency was likely the cause. He apologized (big deal) and offered to replace the bands. I politely said no and asked for more of the 1/2" screws. They will be sent out Priority today.

The suspension system is supposed to cut down on noise. Honestly, I can't hear a difference. The Raptors are rather quiet to begin with.

As LordOfLA said, I wasn't thinking when I put my drives in such a system. Nobody to blame but myself.
 
I wouldn't blame yourself, maybe the investment should have made you think but IMO the technology shouldn't have. They should but some type of * next to it regarding not recommended use for higher RPM drives.

Another question though, if the frequency was likely the cause, why would they offer to replace the bands? Wouldn't that logically not fix the problem long-term?

I would think suspension has very minimal impact on noise, dampening a case itself would have a bigger difference.

Glad you got it sorted somewhat, hope the screws get there quickly :)
 
Madmatt,

Sorry you had a bad experience, I have a Tsunami case, which has the rubber gromets, but they are between the screw and the drive mounting holes for vibration dampening.

And do they ever work.. fantastic!

I would not blame yourself either, it is new and bigger and better, and the higher freq is something the engineering dept should have thought of...

let us know how it works out...

:D
 
The missing screws arrived today and I have installed them. Everything is back on track.
 
It's not the end of the world. However, things like this shouldn't happen especially when they recommend it right in their instructions.

But you're right, I wasn't using my brain.

I've read very bad things about their PSUs. Using P&C 510.

Well, if you consider the amount of heat that is generated off the suface of the HDDs and the housings this may (most definitely really) be the reason that this rubberband suspension failed. The normal recommended working temperature of a hard disk is 35-40°?. And even if you have those HDDs cooled well you could still see temps of 20-25°?. Rubber does not like heat. Rubber can deteriorate over a short period of time if it's subjected to heat on a daily basis. Think of a rubberband sitting out in the sun. It begins to dry and crack. Now think of it holding some wieght. Oops. Damn bad design, oooh well. :s
 
That all makes sense, but according to Antec these bands were designed with that in mind. The support rep said the frequency that the drivers operate was likely the cause. The bands weren't damaged other than being snapped in half. It doesn't matter now though, I will never, ever use rubber bands again.
 
Tell you what Matt, grab one of the old bands and stretch it a bit. See if there are any suface cracks on it. Don't stretch it too much, just enough. If there are cracks on it then it was from heat. In my work on Automobiles I have to work with rubber seals O-Rings and such daily. There are different materials used to make them according to application. But heat is always their downfall. It would have to be a preventive maintenance thing of replacing the bands every so many months to keep everything as good as new. Kinda sucks when all you want is to set it and forget it.
 
Wow, you're right. Small little cracks all along the band. I just don't understand why Antec would not only make this available as an option but suggest this method. That's poor on their part.
 
That all makes sense, but according to Antec these bands were designed with that in mind. The support rep said the frequency that the drivers operate was likely the cause. The bands weren't damaged other than being snapped in half. It doesn't matter now though, I will never, ever use rubber bands again.

My name is George Schlomka, and I work for NoiseMagic, Germany, who pioneered that type of HDD suspension in 1997. I can honestly tell that since then we have sold in the upper 6-digit numbers of our NoVibes HDD suspension and had up to now exactly 11 reports of snapped o-rings, which could all be traced to mechanical damage to the rings. Furthermore, our original NoVibes incorporates a safety feature for that unlikely event, where the HDD is softly caught on cushion pads, and held securely there.

It saddens and hurts us a lot to see a cheap and shoddy implementation (sorry Antec, but it's the truth) of our design hurting our outstanding track record. Please do not extrapolate from your own bad experience to the technology itself; indeed the technology, which BTW is patented in Europe, is to my knowledge by far the most efficient method of decoupling a HDD.

We are aware of the problem Antec has with their suspension system and actually try to sell them o-rings made by us (the ones which never break), but so far they don't want to consider this.

We will be offering replacement o-rings for Antec P150 cases, made from the original NoVibes Materials, at a nominal fee, very soon.

You can have a look at our original product here:

http://www.noisemagic.de/pdf/novibes/novibes_eng_3_screen.pdf

Or you could just google it.

Your sincerely,

George Schlomka
A Conto NoiseMagic GmbH
Germany
 

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