Drive Drawers and enclosures

legion · Post by **legion** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:22 am

Hi All I was considering getting some drive drawers for my hard drives and was wondering if I would get any tangible difference in noise levels?
They seem to act as an enclosure so was wondering if I would get any noise reduction this way ?

There are a few examples out there - the one im looking at is a StarTech.com Black SATA Drive Drawer with Shock Absorbers

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Qu ... edId=11161

or

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Qu ... lectedId=1

icy dock also do one but its twice as expensive

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=941

Gojira-X · Post by **Gojira-X** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:29 pm

HDD drawers may make the noise from a hdd worse as it is akin to hard mounting them and adding a 40mm fan that duns at full speed.

If you are concerned about silence, steer clear of them. However, if you swap hdds a bit or have stuff on hdds that does not need to be accessed all the time, these are perfect.

legion · Post by **legion** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:55 am

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=450M

this one comes without a fan though that probably means it'll heat up more, what with it being enclosed and all...but i thought the 'shock absorbers' may actually reduce hdd vibration

I have a old maxtor 80gb ide (the above is sata) and i dont really want to put it in the p180 that im getting as the old maxtor isnt reknowned for being silent, so i guess an external enclosure if the above does nothing for silence?

if so does anyone have recommendations for external enclosures? like a Macally PHR-100AF FireWire External Enclosure ?

legion · Post by **legion** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:51 am

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/ ... ories.html

OcUK Silentmaxx Aluminium Hard Drive Enclosure (HS-000-OK)
The whole enclosure is manufactured from 100% aliminium, which offers the very best in heat dissipation. So much so that this enclosure is compatible with all hard drive that run at 10,000 RPM or lower. Because the hard drive is completely encased in the enclosure air born noise is exceptionally low. The Silentmaxx Aliminium Hard Drive Enclosure also includes rubber mounts. This stops any vibrational noise generated by the hard drive being transferred onto the PC chassis. This significantly cuts down on the "rumbling" and "clicking" noises which are very common in hard drives.

- Reduces hard drive noise by over 95%
- Compatible with 1" high 3.5" hard drives (10,000 rpm or less)
- Compatible with IDE and S-ATA hard drives
- Does not affect drive performance
- Fits into a standard 5.25" (CDROM-sized) drive bay
- Sits behind the bay blanking plate, so does not affect aesthetics
- Lasts virtually forever! Easily transferrable to your next PC
- Manufactured from 100% aliminium for maximum heat dissipation
- Rubber mounted enclosure for damping

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:11 pm

legion wrote:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/ ... ories.html

OcUK Silentmaxx Aluminium Hard Drive Enclosure (HS-000-OK)
...
- Reduces hard drive noise by over 95%

Uh, huh. I bet it does.

alfred · Post by **alfred** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 4:19 am

legion, I'm afraid the Silentmaxx enclosure you're linking to, isn't a drive drawer, it can be fixed as a 5"1/4 device or (better) you remove the external screws and put it on some deep foam somewhere in your PC. See this topic for more informations about this enclosure.

I've had a few experiences with HDD drawers; in aluminium, steel, plastic, with ou without fan... Never found one that didn't transfer most of the vibrations to the tower or lowered idle noise enough. Also, keep in mind that a HDD drawer always will be at the front of your PC, so you'll probably hear any noise coming from it easier (..higher) than from a hard disk somewhere else inside the PC.