Field Report: SilenX Luxurae HDD Silencer w/Seagate Cuda V

[Kozure]

OK, I'll admit right away that I probably paid too much for it ($50 CDN) but I wanted to see if I could get the best possible effect.

I purchased a SilenX Luxurae Hard Drive Silencing Solution from Bigfoot Computers.

It's a pretty simple affair. Basically two enclosure halves made of steel, a bunch of screws, two heatsinks, two foam pads and two strips of thermal tape.

Installation was so dead simple, I immediately realized I could have probably done all of this myself with some off-the-rack parts, but the time and effort to track them down almost (almost...) justified the cost.

You secure the self-adhesive foam pads to the top and bottom of the enclosure. Then apply the thermal tape to the heat sinks. Screw the heat sinks to the sides of the HDD. Rest the HDD with attached heat sinks inside the enclosure, making sure you have decent clearances for air flow. Put the top on the enclosure and screw on the sides with the countersunk bolts. The entire enclosure then slides effortlessly into a 5.25" bay. Plug everything in, and presto!

With a Seagate Barracuda IV (edit: it's actually a V, not a IV - my error) SATA 200G HDD inside the enclosure and inside the Fong Kai FK-333 case, it was silent for all but the most intensive read/write cycles, and even then, it was tiny, tiny whispers of noise. Most of the time, I had to look to see if the light was flashing to see if the drive was running.

Without the enclosure, the Seagate was fairly quiet, but grinded a bit on seeks and writes.

If I had to do it over, I'd probably go with a Sunbeam elastic suspension system because it's probably just as quiet and a lot cheaper ($16 vs $50) but I'm very happy with the HDD noise (or lack thereof) right now.

[EdT]

Hello, a fellow BigFoot buyer !

SilenX = Evil$$$

[Kozure]

In retrospect, I suppose if I had a HDD that was noisier to begin with, the Luxurae would be a good "fix". As it was, I probably could have gone with a simple suspension system.

I do agree that SilenX is not what they're cracked up to be when it comes to their iXtrema fans and this product. Overpriced in all cases, I think.

I don't really regret buying it, though. It really is amazing to have an inaudible HDD (except when you put your head 15 cm away and it's going nuts on seeks).

[Kozure]

A short update two days in...

A few times in the past few days I'd pop off the side cover and bezel (easy with the FK-333 case) and touch the heat sink. They were almost always hot to the touch.

I decided that the problem was that there wasn't enough air flow getting to the side heat sinks, so I removed the front 5.25" drive cover and let it run for a while with a lot of applications running.

The 120mm fan at the back sucks enough air that you feel a definite negative pressure flow around the heat sinks into the case, and after a while the side heat sinks went from hot to the touch to a very bearable medium warm - from touch, probably just above body temp.

Now, with the front drive bay off, there's a bit more noise, and a way for unfiltered air into the case, but I think I can mod one of the drive bay covers that came with the case with a filter, a grille of some sort and the same sort of air filter that I've put on the front bezel of the case.

I'm going to try that over the weekend... in the meantime, are there any manufacturers who make simple, filtered drive bay covers that let air in without adding fans?

As I said, I'll probably just cut out a hole in the existing bay cover and then cover the hole with a grille and a filter, but I wanted to know if anything like that already existed anywhere.

[Ralf Hutter]

A short update two days in...

A few times in the past few days I'd pop off the side cover and bezel (easy with the FK-333 case) and touch the heat sink. They were almost always hot to the touch.

During this time, have you ever checked your HDD temperature using an app like Dtemp? It might be a wise idea.

[Sizzle]

I had a pair of 74 gig Raptors in Silentmaxx SilentDrives and they barely every got warm to the touch shoved in between my optical drives in my old Lian Li case.

[Kozure]

A short update two days in...

A few times in the past few days I'd pop off the side cover and bezel (easy with the FK-333 case) and touch the heat sink. They were almost always hot to the touch.

During this time, have you ever checked your HDD temperature using an app like Dtemp? It might be a wise idea.

Oh, I had no idea that there was a way to check a HDD temp with an application. I assumed that you had to buy a temperature sensor. I'll check that application out tonight.

I tinkered with the airflow paths (split loomed some cords and reseated some fans) and the airflow is much better around the drive. With the drive bay cover off the heat sinks feel cooler than body temperature. I'll d/l that app and see if my sense of touch is right. Thanks for the tip.

[Tibors]

Seagate Barracuda IV SATA 200G HDD

Does this type of disk really exist?

AFAIK Barracuda IV's are more than two years old (when the biggest HDDs where 80Gb and SATA just invented). There are Barracuda 7200.7's from that type and size though.

[Ralf Hutter]

Seagate Barracuda IV SATA 200G HDD

Does this type of disk really exist?

AFAIK Barracuda IV's are more than two years old (when the biggest HDDs where 80Gb and SATA just invented). There are Barracuda 7200.7's from that type and size though.

Right-on bro.

[Kozure]

My error. I looked at the wrong portion of the online store that I had bought the drive from.

The drive is, in fact, a Seagate Barracuda V SATA 200G ST3200822AS.

My apologies for the mis-read.

I monitored drive temps with the aforementioned Dtemp application. With the drive bay cover on, the temperature rose up to around 49C before I stopped the experiment and removed the drive bay cover.

With the drive bay cover off, the temperature peaks at 42C. Ambient temperature outside the case is around 18C, temperature inside the case is reading currently at 36C

I played HL2 for an hour or so and the temperature did not rise. I will look into various applications to drive up the HDD usage to see if extreme loads increase the temp above the currently stable 42C. Earlier portions of the post and the title edited to avoid confusion.

[Tiamat]

I also removed the front 5.25" bezel for my HDD being cooled by the Zalman HDD Heatpipe cooler. The temps went down phenominally. But since it looks ghetto kinda, I found some spare aluminum and with the help of a machinist at my workplace, he milled it out so it is just a frame, I found some Stainless Steel mesh and we will probably epoxy the SS mesh to the aluminum frame.

Still trying to design a really small toggle lock so that the frame can be secured to the case without falling out. Also, I still have to spray paint it black, and cut AC dust filter to size for it.

[jcoffin1981]

."I just ordered this product from Tiger Direct. The cost is now $9.99 plus 2 bucks shipping. (not $50) And I found a discount code for 5% off- "DEAL84." I haven't used it yet but I will post my experience as soon as it is in use.