Page 1 of 1

Silenthardware Bitumen-Box and MR-HDD-Boxes

Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 11:48 am
by FRIDAY
Hi,

at first off all, I have to say, that I really like your Site, and I like to explore your sometimes really unusual silencing projects.

I'm sorry for my bad, clumsy english, but I'm from germany.
As I could see you already noticed our silent-HP Silenthardware.de.

May be your're interested in some HDD-Damping projecs / models we mentioned in our Forum.

Ok, those links are in german, but I think some of you guys are able to read this. I hope so. But you can also ask me questions about those Boxes.

Bitumen-Box:

http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... topic=1287

I'm sorry, but I don't know the right translation for "bitumen" (bablefish don't know the translation, either), but it is usually used for Road (here liquid)-/Housebuilding or as damping material for car-speakers (car hifi). It's based on tar (Polycycli aromatic hydrocarbons) but not a real hazard to your Health because there are no fumes coming out of those sheets at low temperatures up to 60°C.

The bitumen should be the damping material.
The decuppling is done by Gum-Metall decupplers. Sorry, I dont't know the english expression for that.
Article-Nr.: 223926 - 14 with 40 Shore at www.conrad.de

The sheets could be found here:

http://www.profi-hifi.de/shop_endverbra ... tegoryId=6

The (imho) surprising clue off this box is the relativly good heat transportation away from the Hdd.
Although the box looks like a insulated Box, the reached temperatures are pretty low.
The damping-effect is pretty good, either.
May be with sorbothane (haven't found this stuff in germany yet, only as Shoe inlays) even better.

The next Box is sold by a very well known Silent-PC shop in germany.
MR-Computertechnik : www.ichbinleise.de

The Box is not as effektive as the Bitumen-Box, but afaik the best available solution on the german market.
A big advantage of this Box is its low price and the fact, that it's the only Box made for two Hdds.

http://www.ichbinleise.de/product_info. ... cts_id=510

http://www.ichbinleise.de/product_info. ... cts_id=643

But this box is unfortunately not very effectiv in combination with very silent Samsung-Hdds, because those Hdds are already so quiet, that a dampening effect is not very easy to reach.
But it works very fine with my two Barracuda 7200.7.

Tell me, what you thing about those solutions, and/or if you already have some experience with those.

Posted: Wed May 19, 2004 11:55 am
by MikeC
Hi FRIDAY, welcome to SPCR. :)

Bitumen is the same word in English too:

Any of various flammable mixtures of hydrocarbons and other substances, occurring naturally or obtained by distillation from coal or petroleum, that are a component of asphalt and tar and are used for surfacing roads and for waterproofing.

Bitumen-soaked felt sheets were used in high end British speakers systems from 1950~1990 to damp the resonance of wood panels. Interesting use -- in a HDD case. But I would suspect the smell & fumes could still be an issue, because in speaker cabinets, you had to air them out for a couple of days after application before sealing it. Otherwise, the fumes could break down the plastic cone (bextrene, polypropylene) of the speaker cones. And the temps in speaker boxes are no higher than ambient while around HDDs. it's sometimes as high as 50C (higher if you live dangerously).

The BOX you refer to does not really look like it would be effective. It looks like the drives would be far too solidly clamped to the case.

Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 4:01 am
by sven
Hi FRIDAY,
auch mal in Amiland unterwegs :wink:
Gruss, NoNoise
MikeC wrote:The BOX you refer to does not really look like it would be effective. It looks like the drives would be far too solidly clamped to the case.
That is why the decoupling of the bitumen-box with the above mentioned soft rubber-metal decouplers is very important. The box itself was designed to reduce mainly the whine of my harddisks, barracudaV and samsung SV1203N.

There are also much nicer pictures of the box on page 8.

Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 3:15 am
by FRIDAY
Hehe,

und gleich mal Werbung für dich gemacht :wink: .

Oder hattest du das schon mal gepostet?

@ MikeC
That is why the decoupling of the bitumen-box with the above mentioned soft rubber-metal decouplers is very important. The box itself was designed to reduce mainly the whine of my harddisks, barracudaV and samsung SV1203N.
The BOX you refer to does not really look like it would be effective. It looks like the drives would be far too solidly clamped to the case.
Which Box do you mean? MR or Bitumen :?:

Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 8:44 am
by MikeC
Which Box do you mean? MR or Bitumen
This thing:
http://www.ichbinleise.de/product_info. ... cts_id=643

Posted: Mon May 31, 2004 11:45 am
by FRIDAY
The MR-Box is decoupled due to a soft dopplesided Tape.

You can see it more detailed here:

http://www.silenthardware.de/content/view/67/3/

However, this solution was not flexible enough for me,
so I made a little quick & dirty decoupling myself:

You can see it on Pic 8:

http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... topic=2920

I just passed 4 M4 (or M3, I actually don't remember exactly) screws through the holes in the bottomblade. These are secured through nuts on the other side and sealed by glue, so that the HDD-electronic could not be harmed.
On this screws I packed cutted pieces of the MR-Tape.
This whole thing is screwed (the screws have no direct contact to the Case) on the bottom of the case.

I hope I could help you.

Posted: Mon May 31, 2004 1:00 pm
by yermolovd
I wonder how well that thing would work with WD80gb drive?

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 7:58 am
by FRIDAY
Depends on the Drive.

The 7200er WDs that I know are the absolut horror for my ears.

Both of the Boxes should reduce the noise of the Hdd clearly.
But if it's a very loud disc, don't expect a Samsung afterwards...

The Boxes work very well but can't achieve miracles

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 11:56 am
by yermolovd
Yes, mine is a crazy, whiny 7200.
Thanks, I already figured out that it wont help me alot, i tried putting my WD80gb drive into a box with pillows around it for a minute, still could hear the damn thing. :cry:

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 10:34 am
by Webfire
I also build one of those Bitumenboxes and it's working great. My Samsung SP1614 is almost inaudible.
Well I thought I can build another one for my Seagate Barracuda V drive but I was a little bit scared concerning my temperatures. Because the seagte drive was almost 50° hot without any cooling in the normal mounting position. So I thought about a bitumenbox with better cooling, I came up with this:

Image

Tutorial is here:
http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... entry40713
here are a few more pictures:
http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... topic=4122
I'm sorry that it is in german. When you have any question, just ask me.
I'm very satisfied with this solution, it's quiet and cool.


By the way this is my pc where the normal bitumenbox is used:
http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... topic=3741
I will present it in the general gallery section when I find the time to do it, but not at the moment. Too much stuff to learn for university.

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:36 pm
by Wedge
Bluefront you're insane.





Will you make me one? :D j/k of course

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:22 pm
by Webfire
Bluefront? You answered the wrong thread, i think. You probably meant this one: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=14190
or?

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 3:38 pm
by Wedge
Webfire wrote:Bluefront? You answered the wrong thread, i think. You probably meant this one: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=14190
or?

errrr....apparently I'm the one who is insane.


Yes Webfire! You got it right lol. I wondered where that post ran off to.

Image