Random: Jonathan needs to install superscript and subscript bbcode mods!Anonymous wrote:Do you have any ideas on how to quiet the Harddrive? My father-in-law has been here all this weekend and he says that he thinks the loudest thing in his case right now is the harddrive.
Quick realistic solution:
Don't bother "quieting" the current hard drive. Buy a Western Digital Green Power (WDGP) hard drive (footnote1), backup, and re-install everything. This might sound painful, but I think it's the best solution overall.
Detailed Response:
First, here's an interesting link for the do-it-yourselfer:
silentpcreview: Hard Drive Silencing: Sandwiches & Suspensions
Approaches to quiet a current hard drive:
- (1) Increase insulation to absorb noise
- (2) Reduce hard drive vibration
- (1a) Using/Buying a Better Case
Better cases like the Antec P182 (spcr | newegg) have very good insulation and a multi-chamber design. This would cost more than buying a WDGP and require more physical effort transplanting all your components than replacing your old hard drive. - (1b) Adding Insulation
Sound proofing materials (AcoustiPack) can be installed in an old case, but it's expensive and can negatively affect cooling. In my humble opinion, this isn't worth the hassle, especially when custom fitting/cutting the foam.
- (2a) Rubber Grommets
These cushion the connection between the hard drive and the surrounding case. Adding rubber grommets really depends on your current hard drive enclosure, but chances are good that if your case doesn't already support them, you're out of luck. - (2b) Hard Drive Suspension
This involves literally suspending hard drives with rubber or cloth straps in hopes of absorbing all vibration. Hard drive suspension is generally a do-it-yourself affair (see the above interesting link), unless you have a rare case like the Antec Solo which provided cloth strap hard drive suspension as a standard feature. I currently use the Antec Solo case since the P182 wasn't out at the time.
footnote1: related links
- silentpcreview: WD Green Power: A New Benchmark in HDD Acoustics & Power
"It's the quietest desktop drive we've ever tested. It's the most efficient drive we've ever tested. And it comes in capacities up to 1 TB. What more do you want? As far as SPCR is concerned, this could be the perfect drive - at least until flash media takes over." - storagereview: Faceoff at One Terabyte: Seagate's Barracuda ES.2 and WD's Caviar GreenPower