Is your P150 HDD suspension rubber band OK?

Hellspawn · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:13 am

Trekari wrote:

Actually the user manual for the P150 instructs you to use a single full twist.

word. It's in the manual to do it that way.

If a twist is used, sliding it out from a location to open up isn't going to make it move much, surely not enough to make it snap.

What I suspect is happening, is the semi-sharp edges and sometimes components on the bottom part of the hard drive are perhaps 'sawing' into the rubber as the drive is slid in or out. I was very careful with that aspect on mine. I could see that happening rather easily.

I suspect that moreso.

jimmyzaas · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:44 pm

Hellspawn wrote:

What I suspect is happening, is the semi-sharp edges and sometimes components on the bottom part of the hard drive are perhaps 'sawing' into the rubber as the drive is slid in or out. I was very careful with that aspect on mine. I could see that happening rather easily.

I suspect that moreso.

I actually had the same thought!.. however in my theory, I was thinking that the bottom side edges of the hard drive was sawing through the rubber. I had suspected the sawing action from minute vibrations of the hard drives.. which is why some snapped after being suspended for a month or two.

This would have a greater effect if the rubber was twisted creating more stress on the rubber.

JazzJackRabbit · **Joined:** Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:53 pm **Posts:** 1360

Hellspawn wrote:

What I suspect is happening, is the semi-sharp edges and sometimes components on the bottom part of the hard drive are perhaps 'sawing' into the rubber as the drive is slid in or out. I was very careful with that aspect on mine. I could see that happening rather easily.

I suspect that moreso.

Doubt it. What was the last time you cut your fingers handling a hard drive? Probably never. Hard drive edges are rounded with no sharp edges. It's possible the bands snap from vibrations as jimmyzaas said, but I seriously doubt the edges are actually sawing them. Besides several people have indicated that their bands snapped when installing the drive, there was no vibration involved. Let's just face it, the o-rings provided by Antec are poor quality. If you want easy fix, but elastic strings, they are better than any o-ring Antec will provide.

JVM · **Posted:** Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:36 am

What troubles me are all the people who buy the P150 and never see this thread, and could be in for a rude awakening

zhenya · **Posted:** Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:57 am

JVM wrote:

What troubles me are all the people who buy the P150 and never see this thread, and could be in for a rude awakening

Maybe, but I'm personally from the school of thought that hard disks are much more resilient than people generally believe. I've dropped my laptop, while it was turned on, about 4 feet onto a wood floor, and to my surprise that survived. Recently I tripped over a cord to an external disk I was moving a huge file to at work, and it fell about 2 1/2' onto concrete while writing! That survived too. So I wouldn't worry too much about my drive falling few inches onto rubber bands or another suspended drive.

JazzJackRabbit · **Joined:** Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:53 pm **Posts:** 1360

zhenya wrote:

Maybe, but I'm personally from the school of thought that hard disks are much more resilient than people generally believe. I've dropped my laptop, while it was turned on, about 4 feet onto a wood floor, and to my surprise that survived. Recently I tripped over a cord to an external disk I was moving a huge file to at work, and it fell about 2 1/2' onto concrete while writing! That survived too. So I wouldn't worry too much about my drive falling few inches onto rubber bands or another suspended drive.

You're lucky. A guy in my class dropped his laptop while working on the project - dead hard drive. And of course he had to rewrite project from the beginning.

~El~Jefe~ · **Posted:** Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:37 pm

tubular elastic from a sewing shop wont snap if you suspend a toaster with it.

I suggest screwing the replacement bands and going with this.

Thanks for the tip about the bands, apparently they are made from a low latex content. I can see bands aging and such, but just snapping is a sign of cheese.

latex bands you just apply that silicon stuff from an auto store, the stuff that keeps rubber on window trim fresh.

tiz my secret thing for keeping zalman hd latex rubber stand-offs resilient.

sonuvbob · **Joined:** Mon May 30, 2005 12:17 pm **Posts:** 78

zhenya wrote:

One consideration of note-- the o-rings that broke in my P150 seem slightly different than those in my co-workers new case. Mine had a white powdery residue on them, his do not (and are shiny black.) We are not using the suspension in his case, so I can't do anything other than speculate that Antec may (knowingly or not) have already run through a bad-batch of these. Those of you who have had broken bands -- did they match my description, or is that merely coincidence?

Hm.. I thought I had seen a followup to this in this thread before, but skimming it just now I didn't see one.

Anyone have more info on the different P150 o-rings? Anyone have the shiny black ones break?

JVM · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:36 pm

I just received the P150 and the bands are very thin, and I just don't trust them. I purchased some o-rings from McMaster-Carr Supply and they are thicker than the Antec bands.

MikeC · **Posted:** Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:02 pm

Hey guys, I can't keep track of how many times I've said this....

CLOthing ELastic is far superior to O-rings for durability, elasticity (and thus vibration/noise damping), and it's a fraction of the cost.

Just try it. really. Go to your friendly neighborhood sewing shop, ask one of the nice ladies (girls?) to help you. Get a couple meters for... maybe a couple bucks. It'll be enough to use it on all your HDDs, fans, etc... in several computers.

Trekari · **Posted:** Thu May 18, 2006 4:03 am

Well, I waited four months before replying to this thread and I'm glad that I did.

My bands were fine for a while, but despite using the recommended 'one twist' method, I opened up my case recently to change out a defective motherboard and found that my Raptor 74GB drive was resting at a nice 45 degree angle.

Grr.

I'm thankful the poor band quality didn't cost me a hard drive. Rather, I'm thankful it didn't cost Antec a hard drive, because I would've gone straight to them with the problem.

Goldmember · **Posted:** Thu May 18, 2006 7:08 am

Hellspawn wrote:

Trekari wrote:

Actually the user manual for the P150 instructs you to use a single full twist.

word. It's in the manual to do it that way...

Hi all,

On page 5 of the Solo (black P150) owner's manual, I noticed that Antec no longer says to twist the suspension.

Take care.

Charles · **Posted:** Fri Jul 28, 2006 12:34 pm

My elastic bands are snapped!

I just realized now, when I had to open the case that the suspension under my Samsung HDD is not in one piece...

I do not know, if the warranty goes on this also, but really do hope, because I paid for the good mount system also.

The things lasted for around 4 months only!!!
Now I am using the plate with the silicon grommets and it is very good - but still my case is ruined in a certain way.

BR!

JVM · **Posted:** Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:59 pm

Charles wrote:

My elastic bands are snapped!

I just realized now, when I had to open the case that the suspension under my Samsung HDD is not in one piece...

I do not know, if the warranty goes on this also, but really do hope, because I paid for the good mount system also.

The things lasted for around 4 months only!!!
Now I am using the plate with the silicon grommets and it is very good - but still my case is ruined in a certain way.

BR!

Are these the "new" elastic bands that replaced the rubber bands originally used?

Charles · **Posted:** Sun Jul 30, 2006 3:13 am

No, it is the original rubber-bands...

BR!

JVM · **Posted:** Sun Jul 30, 2006 5:21 am

Charles wrote:

No, it is the original rubber-bands...

BR!

I suggest you call Antec and tell them what happened and I'm pretty sure they'll replace your rubber bands with the new and better elastic bands shipped with the new P150's.

P.S. Oops, just realized you are in Hungary and calling Antec is likely not something you want to do. In that case, send them an e-mail and perhaps there is another way to get you those new elastic bands.

Charles · **Posted:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:10 pm

Hi JVM,

Thanks for the help! I contacted the local distributor, and they told me to send the snapped rubber band back, and they will send me an other. He did not mention if it was the new or the same one though...

I will find out.

BR!

vitaminc · **Posted:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:19 pm

My Antec Solo's suspansion elastic band has not yet snapped but losen quite a bit so my harddrive is kinda sagging. Doing 5-6 twists atm.

Charles · **Posted:** Sun Aug 06, 2006 6:13 am

Hi!

A quiestion to other members, whose rubbers snapped, and the store changed the bands.

Did they swap the whole case, a gave a new one, or just the bands?
Are the new bends like the ones, what they are shipping currently with the Antec Solo?

BR!

JVM · **Posted:** Sun Aug 06, 2006 6:40 am

Charles wrote:

Hi!

A quiestion to other members, whose rubbers snapped, and the store changed the bands.

Did they swap the whole case, a gave a new one, or just the bands?
Are the new bends like the ones, what they are shipping currently with the Antec Solo?

BR!

Charles,

You are not going to get a new case because the bands broke. The fault lies with the bands, not the entire case :wink:

I am fairly certain Antec would replace with the elastic bands being shipped with the new P150's. I have had great support from Antec over the years, and I am very pleased with how they handle problems.

I don't know what kind of replacement you would get living in Hungary, but if you do get another set of the original bands, I suggest you reverse the hdd tray as means of protection, might even be a good idea with the new elastic type since vitaminc said his elastic band has loosened and is sagging.

Charles · **Posted:** Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:27 am

Hi

Oh, so the new ones are not that good, also? :evil:

I was told to mail them the snapped band in an envelope, and they will send me a replacement... This is fine for me, and hope they wont snap at all (or so quickly).

Anyway, I will leave the tray under the HDD, hoping that in won't touch it, and cause any vibration... Altough it is really quiet, it is not the same compared to using the rubber bands...

BR!

MikeC · **Posted:** Thu Aug 10, 2006 7:51 am

If you want a quick & simple solution, do this -- I quote myself from a post earlier in this thread. The new bands from Antec are made from the same material, but it's a closed loop, with ends joined.... by heat, it appears. Not sure whether ist's more secure than a knot, which is impossible to loosen by itself.

MikeC wrote:

Why bother with ordering from MacMasters &w/ all that hassle and cost?? If you're going to swap out the o-rings in the P150 for something else, then a loop of clothing elastic (with the ends tied into a knot) is unbeatable for strength, price, & effectiveness. Really. This stuff is unbreakable in the HDD suspension application. The photo below shows why.

The elastic I used for the very first homebrew suspension I made is half the thickness of the above & has been in constant use in my main PC (which runs 24/7/365) & is still working w/o problems FIVE YEARS LATER!

JazzJackRabbit already touched on the reasons why this stuff is so hardy, but in case people have missed it...

1) It has multiple rubber strands; it's just not possible to break all the strands accidentally.
2) The woven poly-fabric sheathing is really tough & even if all the rubber strands could be broken, the sheath itself would hold together.

I would pit this against any stretchy rubber loop / string / band for this application.

---------

Also, for those who are seeing red about P150 flaws, yes, I agree this is not good, but it's also very easy to protect against. The simplest thing to do is to take the drive tray directly below the suspended drive and insert it upside down. When I did it, the gap between the bottom of the suspended drive and the top of the upsidedown tray was less than a quarter inch. If the rubber ring breaks, and the drive falls, the distance it falls is insignificant.

Charles · **Posted:** Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:02 am

The bands were replaced by the distributor...

But I have no more faith in the band... The HDD is still on the pad with silicon grommets... Will swap later back to the rubber bands, maybe.

But on these, the HDD is not that louder, altought is is a bit audible.

BR!

Tzupy · **Posted:** Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:47 am

Would it be possible to use Nexus Disktwin instead of the Antec drive sleds?
I mean, would a HDD with Disktwin fit in the HDD cage, and not in the 5.25" slots?

Chris Chan · **Posted:** Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:35 pm

Tzupy: afaik no. The Disktwin is designed to mount in a 5.25" bay, the P150s drive cages are not that wide.

GHz · **Joined:** Fri Jun 24, 2005 12:54 pm **Posts:** 190

I've used the elastic suspension method MikeC recommended in many of my builds. It's very secure, tough, and best of all--cheap! Thankfully my new Antec Solo uses the new fabric/elastic O-rings, so I doubt they will ever break.

shadowfire1 · **Joined:** Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:53 pm **Posts:** 15

Mikec: I'm going to use you're idea about the clothing bands, but Iâ€™m wondering should you place the band so the knot is on top of the hdd or on the side , or does it not matter?

genericname · **Posted:** Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:12 am

I got my P150 very recently, and it still has the old rubber bands. :roll:

The HDD I was planning to install hasn't arrived yet, though.

Bungee · **Posted:** Sat Oct 28, 2006 5:18 am

genericname wrote:

I got my P150 very recently, and it still has the old rubber bands. :roll:

The HDD I was planning to install hasn't arrived yet, though.

Better try to get them replaced, as you can be almost sure they will snap before new year.

notareal · **Posted:** Fri Nov 24, 2006 1:47 am

I have to change my vote from "Ok" to "No, it snapped!".

Good news is that HDD did survive the shock and Antec is sending replacement parts. I had a plan to change those rubber bands, but some how I did forgot. So if you still are using those old rubber bands do change them to something that wont broke. :oops:

Edit. Maybe a bit higher system temperature than before (8800GTS space heater) got them to snap.

Is your P150 HDD suspension rubber band OK?

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