SPCR

What kind of tricks and materials have people used to successfully dampen the vibrational noises of modern CDRW and DVDRW drives?

I already know of the software solutions to slow down the rotational speed of drives, but what I'm seeking is additional dampening of the vibrations of cdrw/dvdrw drives. These vibrations usually pass on to the case, due to very right fitting in the normal 5,25" slots.

Naturally I already have quite sturdy case with three layers of additional damping, but I would also like to dampen the vibrational pathway from my cdrw/dvdrw drives to the ATX case.

regards,
Halcyon

Well normally I'd recommend using elastomer grommets to soft-mount the drives but you're right, tolerances are pretty tight in some bays. If you don't like the idea of the metal brackets bending under the strain, you could try using a thin rubber sheet (like an old bicycle tire, or 'dental dam') to isolate the drive from the case.
I'd still recommend using the grommets and using some silicone spray to "lube the way".

Metal may bend, but then it'll bend back.

Yes, the utility is Drivespeed from Ahead (part of Nero toolkit).

However, it works much better if you already have a drive that is the least noisiest at its maximum speed setting. To put it in other words, a "not so noisy" 16x drive at 1x is much less noisy than a "super noisy LiteOn" 16x drive at 1x.

At least, this has been my experience.

regards,
Halcyon