HDD Elastic Suspension... Show your pics!

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

ilh
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Acton, MA, USA -- Folding for SPCR

Post by ilh » Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:30 pm

I might as well post my HDD suspension here as well:

Image

Believe me, those SP1614Cs are absolutely silent! They are pretty quiet when hooked up too. :wink:

The frame is made out of 1/2-inch MDF, the supports are 1/8-inch bungee cord (nylon covered elastic) as loose as I could make it and still hold securely.

The next time I open up my machine, I will flip the bottom drive upside down so its hot side gets better airflow. As it stands, the bottom drive is running about 5C hotter than the top, even though it is only really used for nightly backups and is otherwise idle. The front grill has been removed since this picture was taken.

The suspension does a nice job with these drives that otherwise vibrate a fair bit. I cannot hear the drives seek at all outside of the case.

york
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:16 pm
Location: Florida, US

Post by york » Sat Apr 30, 2005 6:21 pm

Image
Image
Image
Compusa hard drive heatsinks with rubber pads relocated to the bottom of drives sitting on child's play mat. Bluefront is right those heatsinks smell horrid.
Last edited by york on Mon May 02, 2005 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Badger
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Location: West Michigan, USA

Post by Badger » Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:25 pm

your pic is broken

edit... got 'er, thanks
Last edited by Badger on Sun May 01, 2005 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

StarfishChris
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Post by StarfishChris » Sun May 01, 2005 2:39 am

It doesn't allow direct linking, so open up the image directly (FF, right click and select 'view image'... IE, copy shortcut and paste into address bar). Would be nice to get an overhead view of those HDDs but looks interesting all the same :)

Stefan
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Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 2:20 am
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Post by Stefan » Wed May 04, 2005 12:03 pm

Image
Image
Image
It's my suspension, since a few hours. Hard work, I don't think it get so much time to buid this. Based on EndoSteel's project and some elastic suspension. Now I know that success depend on good project and even better tools :)
Last edited by Stefan on Sun May 08, 2005 11:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.

IceWindius
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Post by IceWindius » Wed May 04, 2005 1:09 pm

Ewwwww...... its an IBM Deathstar

Stefan
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Location: Warsaw, Poland

Post by Stefan » Wed May 04, 2005 1:14 pm

Yes :) I use it for test only. My suspension should be checked first before I put there my primary disk.

Coolin
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Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:26 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Coolin » Thu May 05, 2005 11:20 pm

Woah, that's awesome.

I want one! :lol:

G7MJV
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Joined: Wed May 18, 2005 10:49 pm
Location: Southampton, UK

Post by G7MJV » Mon May 30, 2005 2:54 am

l can't remember whether l've posted my pics before so appologies if you've seen them before. The first picture was my attempt at HD suspension (yes l know they're rubber bands :) ) but l've now changed to the 2nd method where the HD is resting on sponge.

l'm still using the same heatsink but, as you can see, l've added some holes in an effort to help air circulation. l don't know whether it's made much difference but it looks pretty.

The 80mm intake fan has since been replaced with an Akasa 120mm item that's running at around 750rpm.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/s ... CF0004.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/s ... CF0001.jpg

tabbal
Posts: 39
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Post by tabbal » Mon May 30, 2005 4:12 am

Stefan wrote:Image

It's my suspension, since a few hours. Hard work, I don't think it get so much time to buid this. Based on EndoSteel's project and some elastic suspension. Now I know that success depend on good project and even better tools :)
Very ingenious!
I like the way you did it: very clean and doesn't block airflow at all.

Aleksi
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Post by Aleksi » Mon May 30, 2005 5:55 am

Hi,

I managed to get hold of some GelMec silicone sheet. I cut some small pieces out of it and placed four of them between the HDD and the Sonata HDD cage/bay. I then secured it with some elastic band, that pushes the HDD to the silicone pieces.

ImageImage

It seems to be working similarly to suspension with my Western Digital (AAM enabled), the HDD vibrates, but I cannot feel any vibration transmitting to the Sonata's HDD bay. :)

wim
Posts: 777
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Location: canberra, australia

Post by wim » Mon May 30, 2005 6:05 am

i've done so many wildly different suspension jobs but i didn't take pictures of most of them.. here's a big one from a while ago, 6 spots. when you have multiple drives the noise builds up, this machine is workhorse not allowed in the same room as me. it's a mishmash of old pieces, i bolted a huge AT drive bay into the bones of an ATX case

Image Image Image

BenW
Posts: 290
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 3:51 am
Location: UK

Post by BenW » Mon May 30, 2005 7:31 am

Thats crazy!

Still got to get some elastic to suspend mine in my new case.

I'll try the normal tie it to floppy cage and hang it off but if that doesn't work the wooden/metal home made cages look nice

Techno Pride
Posts: 347
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 12:57 am

Post by Techno Pride » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:03 am

EDIT:Working picture now...

Image
Last edited by Techno Pride on Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:27 am, edited 2 times in total.

madd02
Posts: 114
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 12:15 am
Location: New Zealand

Post by madd02 » Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:36 am

josephclemente wrote:
That is actually my system. :)

I have since created a Stretch Magic suspension using a one-piece 3.5" to 5 1/4" drive adapter. Now I can remove the drive without messing with the suspension.
hey josephclemente, i am going to rig up a Stretch Magic much like yours. Its one of the best looking ive found for my LianLi (with a window). Looks and quiet...very hard !!!

I was wondering if you could post pics of your new system for us all to copy... =)

StarfishChris
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Post by StarfishChris » Fri Jun 10, 2005 4:05 am

I replaced the original rubber grommets with Sorbothane:

Image Image Image

Requires sorbothane, scissors / round pipe i.d. 12mm (depending on if you want octagonal or round grommets ;)), round pipe o.d. 5-6mm, longer M3 screws depending on thickness of sorbothane. The screws are tight enough that it squishes slightly.

Touching the screws I can feel the vibration, but none is transmitted to the tray. And I don't have to worry about tension or turning the case up on end :)

fluxu8
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Post by fluxu8 » Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:15 pm

Image

Image

Image

perplex
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Post by perplex » Sun Jul 24, 2005 3:13 am

anymore people with suspension? :)

sensei
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Location: Denmark

Post by sensei » Sun Jul 24, 2005 5:23 am

will try to borrow a digicam and take some pics...

jmkhenka
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Location: Sweden

Post by jmkhenka » Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:40 am

you guys, i hope you realise that by turning a HDD upside down, you prolly will break it in 6 months.

They are disigned to be standing (kabels down), on the side (kabels on the lft or right) or normal (circuits down), but upside down and other strange angels put the Drive suspension (motor etc) in serious train as they are not designed that way.

I have a couple drives breaking cuz some bright head on DELL placed the drives upside down in the chassy, just so it looked better.

JanW
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Location: France, Europe Folding for SPCR

Post by JanW » Tue Jul 26, 2005 1:31 am

jmkhenka wrote:you guys, i hope you realise that by turning a HDD upside down, you prolly will break it in 6 months.

They are disigned to be standing (kabels down), on the side (kabels on the lft or right) or normal (circuits down), but upside down and other strange angels put the Drive suspension (motor etc) in serious train as they are not designed that way.

I have a couple drives breaking cuz some bright head on DELL placed the drives upside down in the chassy, just so it looked better.
Welcome to SPCR, jmkhenka!

This issue has been discussed at length, and resolved, I believe. Hard drive manufacturers actually do specify upside-down mounting as one correct way to install a harddrive, as well as vertical mounting in any orientation. There was some confusion as to whether mounting at an angle could be harmful, but I think the final consensus was that that could not possibly be harmful, either. See the full (lengthy, and at points quite technical) discussion here.

agus_c_o
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Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:00 am
Location: Toluca, Mexico

Post by agus_c_o » Mon Aug 15, 2005 12:27 pm

Drive suspension:
I really wanted to suspend my hard disk but it is enclosed in a cooledrive 3 so it took me a lot of effort to find
the best way to do it. So I figured out that a PSU is a little bit wider than a 5 ¼ so y used the case of an old one.

Image

I had to mod the case to make room for the drive and a 120 mm fan, I cut the hard drive mounting and leaved
just enough of it to let me install a 3 ½ card reader unit, then I put some foam in the case to let rest the PSU case.

Here is the drive on its place.

Image
Last edited by agus_c_o on Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:26 am, edited 5 times in total.

Reterminator
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:01 am
Location: Wroclaw, Poland

Post by Reterminator » Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:41 pm

Hi guys,

how do you remove that piece of metal at the bottom of the SLK3000B that the drive cage is clung onto? (The one near the front)

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
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Post by Ralf Hutter » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:14 am

Reterminator wrote:Hi guys,

how do you remove that piece of metal at the bottom of the SLK3000B that the drive cage is clung onto? (The one near the front)
Drill out the rivets that hold it in place.

nina
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Post by nina » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:19 pm

I'm going to mod my sonata and 3700BQE, and a suspension mod for my 4 HDs
is one of the things I'm going to do.
But what to choose.
I found on this forum 3 ideas..
1) Ralphs polyurethane ultrasoft adhesive mod (sorbothane)

2) Techno Pride's cheap elastic suspension

3) Fluxu8 elastic suspension

First I have no idea where to get the sorbothane over here (belgium).
I searched with google.be but I don't really know what to search
for, I tried 'polyurethaan zelfklevend' but only got a factory without shop..
I guess my googling ain't that great. :D

So the elastic suspensions are a solution, but I noticed (on the pics above)
that some suspended HDs are blocking the holes in the drive tray, and so blocking the airflow completely. Am I right or wrong in this conclusion?
Maybe adding extra holes in the cage can be an option?

Some help would be great.

swaction
Posts: 47
Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 4:06 pm

Post by swaction » Thu Aug 25, 2005 5:49 am

They look pretty bodgy - but the bungee cord works well... Some of those little gold goloured clips with the nails removed and replaced with screws does the trick =)

http://img393.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hdd4zl.jpg

iSix
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:39 am

Post by iSix » Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:42 am

Case top (with optical drives removed):
Image
Image

Case bottom:
Image
Image

:)

The box is pretty much inaudiable, just a <14db fan at the back running at 15% and a <14db psu fan running at around 40%, ca't be heard from 12" away (apart from when the hdd's are busy, then you hear a very light clicking)

They've been running like this for well over a year now with no problems

luggage
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Post by luggage » Sun Oct 02, 2005 3:57 pm

Image

Put a tv-card and a raptor and a samsung 250 in - starting to get cramped now

theyangster
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Location: Somewhere over the rainbow....

Post by theyangster » Sun Oct 02, 2005 8:50 pm

Image
sry for the quality, my old LEGO cam :)
similar to stretch magic, but it's....(drumroll) glow in the dark string :lol:
was lying around and slighty stretchy so what the heck

still can hear seeks, but not as bad as before *shudder*
yes i'm new, but not a total noob 8)

EDIT-sometime i put my old P4 heatsink on it to cool, since currently i have no exhaust fan, (if u look closely on the left, my good ol' legos :D holding a stock 120mm fan at 5v cooling my once noisy ati9800. I can switch back to 12v for gaming curtousy of mike's DDPT switch)

iSix
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:39 am

Post by iSix » Mon Oct 03, 2005 3:27 am

It seems like I'm the only one who has a ground connection running from the drives to the chassis. Don't any of you guys bother about the static buildup on the drive from the constant high speed spinning?

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