Testing suspension: Need opinions

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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Elcs
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:21 pm
Location: England

Testing suspension: Need opinions

Post by Elcs » Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:47 pm

I have myself a Corsair Carbide 500R case and it has two removable HDD/SSD bays which can take up to three HDD's each.

HDD's fit into trays which have rubber grommets then they slide into the HDD bays. Whilst this is okay, it's not great and my old Western Digital GP 500Gb drives are giving me a bit of vibration/resonance hassle and since I only have three drives, I removed one cage to allow better airflow in my case for now.

In my old and venerable Coolermaster Centurion 590 I used flat trouser elastic to suspend my drives and it worked, to a degree but eventually failed.

Today i had a brainstorm. I have a dead drive, a spare HDD cage which usually fits 3 HDD/SSD's and some suspension material suitable for just testing if I have enough room (I used wool) and here is what I ended up with:

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So, obviously I won't be suspension mounting a dead HDD in my system with wool but I thought this would give me a guideline as to how it might work and if it could work.

Now for my questions: Is my suspension idea viable inside this HDD cage? Could I fit 2 HDD's suspended and my SSD in one of the sliding racks (at the top in the first picture)? What would be the best kind of elastic for the operation? And before I go and look, is there a decent guide which would suggest the best way of threading the elastic for stabilities sake?

Many thanks SPCR. I hope that this adventure will help not only me but fellow Carbide 500R owners.

frenchie
Friend of SPCR
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Location: CT

Re: Testing suspension: Need opinions

Post by frenchie » Thu Dec 01, 2011 3:35 am

Hi,
there is a thread on the forum somewhere about suspensions, check it out for ideas. Stretchmagic is the material of choice (very strong, very flexible, hold well over time).
Hope that helps.

Elcs
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:21 pm
Location: England

Re: Testing suspension: Need opinions

Post by Elcs » Sun Dec 04, 2011 1:17 am

Some more pictures with a second drive added more securely.

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ntavlas
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Re: Testing suspension: Need opinions

Post by ntavlas » Sun Dec 04, 2011 7:44 am

If you can fit the drives without them touching the cage I think you`re good to go. Not sure whether it will make a difference in practice or not, but I think that with the drive hanging from the top of the cage you`re increasing the tension in the cord so perhaps the first method is better.

Elcs
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:21 pm
Location: England

Re: Testing suspension: Need opinions

Post by Elcs » Sun Dec 04, 2011 10:56 am

ntavlas wrote:If you can fit the drives without them touching the cage I think you`re good to go. Not sure whether it will make a difference in practice or not, but I think that with the drive hanging from the top of the cage you`re increasing the tension in the cord so perhaps the first method is better.
I tried to show it but there's *just* a little bit of daylight between the cage and the drives. Maybe just a millimetre or two either side.

For security the top hard drive is mounted much more solidly so I prefer that method but I see where you're coming from. I might do them both in one cage and see what happens.

What thickness of Stretch Magic is typically used?

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