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Thread: Mounting A Hdd

  1. #1
    clocker's Avatar Shovel Ready
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    Since Sprocket has moved into her new Gateway case, and especially since I have returned to watercooling, the loudest ( and most irritating) noise escaping from the case has been the whine of the harddrive.
    Had I been a smart person I would have bought a Seagate last year and this may not have been a problem, but nooooo, I was seduced by rebates and bought a WD.
    Works fine, but noisier than I would like.

    I have been pondering a method to decouple the drive from it's mounting frame, hopefully reducing this noise, and came up with several methods...all increasingly complex.

    Last night a new, far simpler method occured to me and this morning I assembled the prototype/proof of concept.


    Using four rubber isolating feet, four nylon wire clamps and two rods, the drive should be totally isolated from the main case structure.
    The drive is laying on it's back for the photos, it's installed position is 180 degrees rotated, standing on the feet, not suspended.

    I used the rather large diameter rods (5/8") simply because they were around, smaller would probably work just as well.
    To mount this, all I need is two holes in the front casewall, could hardly be simpler.

    I shall install the unit at the same time I redo my waterloop ( adding the northbridge waterblock), probably later this afternoon, and I'll post pics of the complete setup and results.

    Just thought I'd offer this as proof that the proverbial cat can be skinned several ways....
    "I am the one who knocks."- Heisenberg

  2. Software & Hardware   -   #2
    Spicker's Avatar AKA jaigandhi5 BT Rep: +7BT Rep +7
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    oh dammm nice clocker

    my maxtor is really loud as well
    tell us if it works..
    keep it up
    cant wait B)

    My Blog
    I'm still here.

  3. Software & Hardware   -   #3
    clocker's Avatar Shovel Ready
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    OK.
    It works!

    The installed configuration is different than the original pics, but I used the same parts and concept.
    There were some things in the way on the front case wall (activity lights, mainly) that would have pushed the top of the drive right up to the bottom of the upper bays.
    Not good for airflow.
    But it all worked out for the best after all.
    I simply moved the rubber feet to the holes in the side of the HDD...now the support rails are cradling the drive rather than holding it up.
    The drive whine has completely disappeared.
    I can still detect the seek noises, but they seem diminished...that might be just wishful thinking, I hope not.

    Looking at the final installation it occurs to me that this would also be an excellent method of mounting the optical drives.
    If I were building a case from scratch ( a project that I consider often), I would certainly try this method first.
    It's extremely easy, cheap, effective in silencing vibration and the drives would be infinitely adjustable fore and aft.

    I took some pics of the project before I buttoned Sprocket up, I just need to load them to my PC and post them.
    As soon as I'm sure that all is well I'll do that.
    "I am the one who knocks."- Heisenberg

  4. Software & Hardware   -   #4
    Storm's Avatar Poster BT Rep: +3
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    u coulda tried suspending it with tye-rips....... works fine for keepin da noise down
    great FTP site for awesome quality video clips
    yeah, you have to sign up, but its worth it

  5. Software & Hardware   -   #5
    clocker's Avatar Shovel Ready
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    Originally posted by Storm@26 June 2004 - 15:09
    u coulda tried suspending it with tye-rips....... works fine for keepin da noise down
    Indeed, I'm sure it does.

    A bit too ah...temporary looking for my taste though.
    The goal with this conversion ( and in fact, all my mods) is that it not appear homemade.
    They must be at least as good, if not better, than factory work.

    Ideally, a stranger would look at the case and think Gateway made it all.
    "I am the one who knocks."- Heisenberg

  6. Software & Hardware   -   #6
    S!X's Avatar L33T Member BT Rep: +5
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    clocker thats a pretty nice idea. i have a WD and it only makes noise when i defrag and stuff like that its quiet most of the time. i had a maxtor before this 1 and jesus christ that thing made so much noise i wanted to destroy my comp . and also where did you get the matierials to do that?

  7. Software & Hardware   -   #7
    clocker's Avatar Shovel Ready
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    The rubber isolation feet came with my Zalman heatpipe HDD cooler ( but I've seen then available separately other places).

    The plastic wire clamps came from Ace Hardware.
    The aluminum was just some bar stocK I had laying around...a few minutes in the lathe and they were drilled/tapped and cut to length.
    That might be the only tough part for most folks, but I can think of several alternatives that would be doable from standard hardware store stuff.
    "I am the one who knocks."- Heisenberg

  8. Software & Hardware   -   #8
    tesco's Avatar woowoo
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    Originally posted by mofos@26 June 2004 - 17:22
    i had a maxtor before this 1 and jesus christ that thing made so much noise i wanted to destroy my comp
    Then you don't wanna meet my old computer's Quantum Bigfoot, 3200rpm, 8gb hard drive...loudest POS ever. the seek noises can be heard from houses away, and the spinning of that cheap little 3200rpm motor are louder than a harley

    It is loud.

  9. Software & Hardware   -   #9
    clocker's Avatar Shovel Ready
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    My local shop has a HDD from some Stone Age computer that I really want bad.

    It's about 15"x8"x8" and prolly weighs in at over 15lbs.
    Has a clear plexi top, secured with springclips and an external belt drive motor.
    I swear, it looks like a sewing machine motor with the rubber drive belt from a vacuum cleaner.

    The disks are the size of Buick hubcaps.

    They have no idea what it's from, and almost certainly it doesn't work ( the platters spin fine though).

    If nothing else, it could slice a loaf of bread in milliseconds....
    "I am the one who knocks."- Heisenberg

  10. Software & Hardware   -   #10
    tesco's Avatar woowoo
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    Originally posted by clocker@26 June 2004 - 22:21
    My local shop has a HDD from some Stone Age computer that I really want bad.

    It's about 15"x8"x8" and prolly weighs in at over 15lbs.
    Has a clear plexi top, secured with springclips and an external belt drive motor.
    I swear, it looks like a sewing machine motor with the rubber drive belt from a vacuum cleaner.

    The disks are the size of Buick hubcaps.

    They have no idea what it's from, and almost certainly it doesn't work ( the platters spin fine though).

    If nothing else, it could slice a loaf of bread in milliseconds....


    forgot to mention, that quantum bigfoot is named bigfoot because teh drive is 5.25" (width of a cdrom drive) hence making it a very very slow drive...

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