WD Black on bottom of case?

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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sagetone
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:08 pm

WD Black on bottom of case?

Post by sagetone » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:20 pm

Hello,

I have just built a new DAW, and am grateful for all of the reviews in SPCR on cases, cooling, and PSUs. I am using the CM Sileo 500, and I have three HDDs. The two Seagates are in the HDD cage, and the third WD Black is on the padded floor. On the last page of the Sileo review (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article946-page7.html), it states:

"...The hard drive mounting system, while not bad, isn't enough to dampen high vibration drives like the WD Black. Placing our WD Black drive on the foam floor of the case rather than the drive cage resulted in a 2~3 dBA reduction in our test system's overall noise level. In fact, if you tend to keep your system stationary, it's not a bad option..."

I have placed my WD Black PCB side down. Is that OK? Or should I place it label side down? Or does this even matter? I'm just not sure about the HDD ventilation when it is sitting on the bottom, with foam padding underneath, restricting any airflow.

Thank you,

Todd

dchrsf
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:04 am
Location: Palm Harbor, FL

Re: WD Black on bottom of case?

Post by dchrsf » Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:59 pm

I would do PCB up personally, but I don't have any science to back it up.
1 The reason I would do this is because insulating a PCB is a bad idea
2 Heat rises and you don't want to insulate the electronics, and from what I am aware of, flipping a HDD upside down has no ill consequences since everything in screwed together inside, and not loose.

Now wouldn't it be better if you secured it incase an anomely happens and it moves? you dont want that hdd suffering a tumble under any condition, I'd be 100% sure it wouldnt move because I know for sure my data is 100% important to me, not 90%

sagetone
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:08 pm

Re: WD Black on bottom of case?

Post by sagetone » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:48 pm

Thanks dchrsf,

That's kind of what I was thinking, too, PCB side up. I just wanted to make sure it was OK to place the HDD "upside down" (ie, label side down). As far as fastening down, my case is on the floor, in the corner of the room, and very sturdy, so I'm not concerned about anything moving around on the inside.

Todd

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