HDD Suspension in Akasa Eclipse

djphatic · Post by **djphatic** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:00 am

Hi

I recently started upgrading my PC and upgraded the case to a Akasa Eclipse 62 in the hope of making things more silent. Heres my current setup

AMD X2 4200+
Scythe Ninja Rev.B using supplied fan at full speed
1GB Mushkin Ram
MSI K8N Neo4 PCB 1.0 (chipset fan disconnected, made too much noise)
ATI X800 XT with Zalman vf700cu running at slow
3x Samsung 500GB HD501J all mounted in drive cage with screws
Tagan 420w (TG420-U01)
2x Noctua NF-S12 800 RPM mounted with rubber mount supplied and running at full speed.

I recently just replaced my 5 hard drives for the 3x 500gb ones and since then the noise from the PC seems to be greater overall than previous.

Im currently using Vista and within the power settings it turns off hard disks after so long; when I had the 5 hdd's in use it was very quiet when most of them where off but that doesnt seem to be the case with the samsungs for some reason.

I did a quick check inside the system stopping the graphics and heatsink fan which made little difference; though i did note that the main noise was coming from the power supply and perhaps vibration/resonance from the hard drives.

Im considering soft mounting the hard drives but I would like to suspend them where the hard drive cage is, so it they would be cooled from the front fan but Ive never done any mods like this so im looking for some help and advice on this, I can take some pictures of the case to show what is available to work with.

Also, anyone who might have this case, what methods have you done to reduce vibration/resonance on the side panels?

I may also consider replacing the power supply for a Corsair HX520W unless there is anyway to improve the Tagan power supply, perhaps soft mounting the fans with rubber mounts?

Any help is much appreciated in the aid of reducing the noise from my machine.

Mark

djphatic · Post by **djphatic** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:51 am

I was thinking something along these lines, very similar to Aphonos drive suspension on the spcr pages. Though will it work as the hdd's would be suspended using the middle and front mounting holes, is it going to cause any problems with the weight being distributed properly?

Or would it be much easier to mount them in the 5.25 bays using elastic; problem is I have 2 dvd-writers, leaving 2 spaces for 3 hard disks

Any ideas and suggestions are much appreciated, I figure that I give the hdd suspension ago and see if it makes a difference before replacing the PSU.

PopCorn · Post by **PopCorn** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:16 am

nope wont work when suspending like you have,you have to use the front and back screw points of the hdd or els if u use the front and middle screw your hard drive ill be at the angle of a slash /. and in tour case seeing how u have 3 hdds that means the bottom hdds back will be sitting on the bottom of the case and most likely rattling on the floor

djphatic · Post by **djphatic** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 9:20 am

thanks for the reply

I guess I will have to use the broken floppy drive method in the Aphonos drive suspension in order to get them suspended.

Ive been in contact with someone who has done this mod in the same case so will hopefully get it sorted within the next couple of days and post some pictures up.

djphatic · Post by **djphatic** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:50 am

hi everyone

here is my attempt of bungee modding my hard drives, still needs some work as im using card to space the drives.

ak · Post by ak » Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:17 am

How effective was your bungee cord mod? I have a similar issue but with 4 drives in the bottom and a single OS drive in the floppy area.