Just put my Samsung on foam

[Wraith]

And it's amazing how quiet the drive is now. Case vibration is close to zilch. The door doesn't vibrate anymore. Seeks are much, much fainter.

The way I differentiated what noise was caused by the hard drive was by putting the system in Standby, and seeing what noises go away. Now I can barely tell the difference between idle and standby. Just a very slight whirring sound, drowned out by my fans (which will be the next thing to fix).

Drive temps (in MBM5) are about equal, sometimes a few degrees lower than before. ~31-33C now. Except after boot or exiting standby, it hits 37-38C, then slowly drops. The drive is higher up. Before, it was screwed in the bottom slot of the drive cage, with the included (fairly hard) rubber grommets.

There are two chunks of foam, about 1.5" high x .75" wide x 8" long, under the right and left sides of the drive. The foam rests on the metal platform where the drive cage sat. The foam is fairly dense, but easily flexible. Was from a box used to ship a DVD drive from Dell.

Questions:

- Is there anything problematic about mounting on foam? Why other solutions are better? I know I'd have to remove the drive before moving the system around, but it rests firmly enough. Seems level. Can't really beat the price.

- Does it matter if some of the PCB is covered by the foam? I seem to recall it being mentioned in another thread or article, about keeping the bottom of the drive / PCB clear. But it doesn't seem to hurt temps.

[PhilgB]

The only problem with foam in some cases is temps, and yours seem to be fine. I had an old Fuji running between two huge pieces of foam with heatsinks attached to the side, then wrapped together with double sided velcro. This not only killed the seeks entirely, but cut out 90% of the screaming that was coming from the drive.

I also find it much easier than elastic suspension.

[rtsai]

I had my Spinpoint suspended in a 5.25" bay, then moved it to rest on foam. The advantage (for me) is that with the drive at the bottom on foam I can point an undervolted fan at it for a drop in temps (31C in 5.25" bay, 27C on foam, 16-18C on foam with a 7V fan directed at it). The only disadvantage has been the requisite care taken when moving the computer (which has been very very infrequent).

[MikeC]

Actually the only reason it is not ranked as high as elastic suspension is becuase it's not as secure. Also, there are many different types of foam, and some definitely don't absorb the vibration as well as others. (However, elastic string also varies in stretchiness.)

One type of foam that has always worked well for me is the very loose open foam, a 1/4" sheet of which is usually found in motherboard packaging as protection for the underside of the board. Not only does it decouple perfectly, but the foam is open enough that some of the HDD's heat seems to be conducted (through the air in the foam) and dissipated via the case bottom panel.

Regarding the heating issue, if you have qualms about components on the underside circuit board overheating, just flip the drive over.

[PhilgB]

The foam I used was the 1" thick foam that usually comes with a new HD. I also drilled 4 holes in the bottom of the case, then used elastic string to tied it down. With the heatsinks, and a shroud to pull the air across the entire drive, temps were <35ºC.

[alleycat]

I removed the drive cage including HD, and put that on foam and tied it down. The drive cage does not resonate.

Also don't forget the coolpack idea which has been mentioned a few times in the forums - it works extremely well if you set it up right.

[liquid_celica]

I did the same!!! I like it better than suspension cause it doesn't block airflow. Although, my HDD's were cooler but the cpu wasn't getting the airflow needed. I don't worry about HDD dropping cause the case is so freagin heavy. It works!! I tried putting it back into the drive sled the other night and couldn't stand it for 2 min. Yup