Hard Drive Cooling?

[MJS]

Hey,

I have noticed in some computer stores that you can buy cooling caddies for your hard drive? I have also noticed that these 'supposedly' reduce noises from the hard drive alot.

Anybody seen these cooling caddies in action or have one youself? because my hard drive does produce the usual grinding noise from head-seek and it makes an annoying whistling noise from air circulating, I have tried moving it around, but it's nothing to do with the surroundings, the drive makes the noise.

If the cooling caddies are good and noise reducing, then I would buy one to cool the hard drive and reduce the annoying noises.

any advice?

thanks.

 

[Sazar]

some of the coolers have rubber washers and mounts which eliminate the vibrations adn therefore make things queiter..

how much quieter it is compared to your current setup is up in the air

they are also likely to reduce hdd temps... but if you have a front intake fan... just place your hdd's behind the intake fan and voila... all cooler

 

[MJS]

o dear!

I just made a very shocking discovery. I removed the HDD totally from the case and bracket, held it in my hand and turned on the PC. The hard drive was totally SILENT! This was a great shock to me as the drive is usually very loud. Then, I tried mounting the drive in only the bracket removed from the case and it made a little more noise, but still pretty quiet. Then, I placed the bracket with the drive back into the case and it was back to normal. So, it is the case and the bracket that is causing all the noise. O, it was so sweet to hear my HDD purring away with no sound, but then I had to put it back

I need something to eliminate the vibrations, I would very much love my hard drive to sound like it did when I removed it from the case, but now I get all these vibrations . Do you think that rubber washers would do the trick?

 

[Sazar]

yes.. you can buy rubber grommets in packs of 4 or 8 from some sites... ( I would google it)

they do work decent in eliminating noise but you have to make sure you earth your drive to prevent static buildup

 

[MJS]

ok,

I can pretty easily go and buy a packet of rubber washers, but how do I go about grounding the hard drive?

 

[Sazar]

Originally posted by MJS
ok,

I can pretty easily go and buy a packet of rubber washers, but how do I go about grounding the hard drive?

grounding == basic metal to metal contact..

probably get a small wire and make contact wth a non-critical portion of your hdd and your case..

either tape it or use screws... either works

 

[MJS]

hhmm... i might also look into getting adhesive rubber strips for the HDD to sit on when its in the bracket, they might be a bit harder to get hold of though

 

[ming]

Talking about cooling and silencing parts of the machine.
Could anyone tell me which of the following creates more noise:

Dual fan PSU (variable control on one fan)
CPU fan; or
Gfx card fan?

I want to keep my case open to cool down the inside, but it's rather noisey that way.

 

[Sazar]

for each one of those it depends entirely on what the hsf makeup is...

you get almost silent fans for each of those that you mention...

also if you leave your case open that sort of elimnates the proper air flow inside... its best to leave the case closed IMO if you have the proper setup (intake/exhaust)..

 

[LeeJend]

As a general rule noisiest to quietest in a gaming system:

CPU HSF
GFX HSF
PSU HSF
Case fans

I've been playing with different fans for a year or two and have found the best noise control approach is to use a manual speed controller on cheap fans. I throttle CPU and case fans back about 5-10% from max speed and the bearing whine goes away. The small change in RPM does not noticeably affect CPU or case temperature.

Almost the only noise now is air flow in and out of the case. Unfortunately that is still pretty loud. You just can't move that much air through a restricted passages without making noise.

Another thing to watch. Keep the fans clean of dust and dirt. It unbalances the blades and creates additional whines and bearing wear. My cpu fan was getting noisy last month so I opened the case and blew the dust off with a shot of electronics duster. When I restarted the system, viola, no more noise.

And some type of HD cooling is now considered prudent with the high density 7200 RPM HDs. I have a n upper and lower case fan in front. The upper blows across the HDs.

 

[indyjones]

If silencing your drive is the answer you have a number of various solutions; enclosures (warning silentdrive raise temperatures and can cook your drive!) or suspension. Suspension can be done by two methods the cheapest is rubber grommits as already suggested, the other is a dedicated suspension unit such as the novibes mount http://www.silentpcreview.com/modul...ns&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=39&page=1 but is more expensive. With both as again already recommended ground the drives.
I considered and tried some of these options though in the end i cheated and got barracuda seagate drives which are near silent anyway (a little seek noise no wine).

 

[freightgod]

Ummm, even if you use rubber washers I assume you'll still be using metal screws which should ground your hard drive just fine. Perhaps you're using those newfangled wooden screws?

Of course I could be wrong.

 

[ming]

I think my CPU HSF is the noisey one, but I can't be sure of that.
Then again, I've changed the PSU recently, and replaced the GFX HSF too due to fan failures- so it must be that.
My HD is kind of quiet in its caddy, but got to add a HD fan in there before it cooks.

 

[indyjones]

Originally posted by freightgod
Ummm, even if you use rubber washers I assume you'll still be using metal screws which should ground your hard drive just fine. Perhaps you're using those newfangled wooden screws?

Of course I could be wrong.

You are right in the case of rubber washers, but a more common option is to use rubber grommits where you drill out the holes and fit them. The screw then tightens to the gromit and not the metal hence no longer grounded. Rember if the screws touch the metal viabrations will increase, its far better to use grommits or suspension techniques

 

[Admiral Michael]

why not screws on both sides of the screw? One between the HDD and the bracket, and another between the screw head and the case. This may help more.

And to fix the grounding prob: