Market interest in 2.5" internal enclosure kit?

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:24 am

Me and some friends were thinking of making and e-Baying internal silent hard drive enclosures for 2.5" drives (along with integral 44pin -> 40pin PATA + 4pin Molex adapter).

Externally, this would look like and mount like either a 3.5" hard drive or a 5.25" drive (no bezel). Internally, there are blocks of sound/vibration dampening materal with a rectangular space for a 2.5" notebook hard drive.

The basic idea is to provide a simple "off-the-shelf" silent hard drive solution requiring no user customization. Because a 2.5" drive is used, the enclosure can concentrate entirely upon sound reduction and not worry so much about excessive heat buildup.

However, I wonder if there is sufficient demand for such a kit. Also, I wonder if there's more demand for 5.25" or 3.5". The basic tradeoff between the two is:

1. A 5.25" enclosure will have superior sound/vibration dampening, but will have fewer mounting options and may have inferior cooling.

2. A 3.5" enclosure will have inferior sound/vibration dampening, but will have better mounting options and may have superior cooling.

I expect that the people reading this post here will be biased toward "do-it-yourself-er's", so I wouldn't be too discouraged by "No" votes. I'm mainly interested in the number of "Yes" votes, from people looking for an off-the-shelf solution. I appreciate the input either way!

Thanks!

sgtpokey · Post by **sgtpokey** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:28 am

Hey Isaac,
I wouldn't mind buying a ready-made 3.5" solution... I think 3.5" will give you a wider market, as many of the newer and slimmer HTPC cases have only one 5.25" mount and a few 3.5" internal mounts.

BTW, NoVibes makes a 2.5 -> 3.5" suspended kit (I saw it at Silicon Acoustics), so you'd want to ensure your sound dampening enclosure bests that model...

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:38 am

I notice there are a number of drive suspension kits out there, but so far I haven't noticed any actual enclosures. My personal interest in an enclosure instead of suspension is that it takes a full enclosure to kill high pitched drive whine.

I agree that a 3.5" form factor would be more appealing to many; my main concern is that it might not be enough physical space for adequate dampening. We might find in our own R&D that we can't solve the problem within that form factor (my experiements so far have not yet been promising).

sgtpokey · Post by **sgtpokey** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:40 am

Good Info Issac,

I was worried about that myself, but was hoping that the lower noise floor of the 2.5" drive would be enough to offset things. This one issue really makes deciding on a future HTPC case difficult, since the new ones that look uber-cool have one 5.25" mount which makes using a 5.25 enclosure impossible unless you use an external DVD drive [which ruins the aesthetics] .

Regarding 5.25" enclosures for a 2.5" drive though, what's to stop me from just putting a 2.5" into a normal-size SmartDrive2002? I can't visualize the IDE adapter since I haven't yet used a 2.5" drive in a desktop yet.

yeha · Post by **yeha** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 9:07 am

there's definitely demand, the trick will be keeping your up-front costs low enough so that it won't matter if you get bored with it or can't market it to large numbers of people. also, start your pricing high and lower it for sales - it's much harder to start low and ramp prices up later.

just don't get yourself stuck with inventory you paid for and can't sell, it's a pain in the *** believe me

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:43 am

I guess I'll keep on experimenting with the 3.5" form factor...it's certainly a challenge!

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:00 pm

This would depend on price for me. Would I pay $30USD? Probably yes. How about $50? Tougher to say. $80USD? No.

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:19 pm

I'd bet that there'd be enough interest to make at least a limited production run viable. I know I'd certainly be interested.

I've currently got my 2.5" drive enclosed inside a 3.5" enclosure (an awful AC Ryan thing that I would never put a 3.5 drive into). It makes a big impact on noise, but the 5.25" width is limiting.

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:19 pm

Gee, some people must have unbelievably sensitive ears, to need to enclose or suspend their 2.5 inch drives... are you guys working with these drives a foot away from your ears?!?

Post by **Rusty075** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:21 pm

It's the slippery slope...as everything else gets quieter, the quiet things get louder.

yeha · Post by **yeha** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:26 pm

well here's an odd thought.. what about setting up white (or pink.. what's the most non-intrusive? brown?) noise generators around a computer or all around the computer's room to raise the ambient noise floor.

i wonder if it's possible to fool the ears in that fashion - if you raise your room's ambient noise level from 18 to 22 or so dba, you'll be able to cover a lot of inconvenient computer noise (those last few dba are hard!) without your brain consciously hearing anything louder than before, as the noise is being ignored.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 10:58 am

For me the goal in quiet computing is not only removing the noise we consciously hear, but also removing general noise polution from my environment. While adding "unnoticable" noise might add with the first part, it certainly doesn't help with the second one.

I remember that when I was 18, I spend a 10 day holiday in Paris. Then travelled home by train and bus. The last half mile walking home on an early sunday morning in a rural area, I really noticed how much "unnoticable" sound generated by modern society had been bugging me in the ten days before. When the bus had driven beyond hearing distance my brains registered absolute and blisfull silence. While walking home my brains adapted to the new ambient level and I started hearing the songbirds in my parents garden from 500 meters away. But I'll always remember that fealing of relief when the "unnoticed" sound bombardment ended.

Market interest in 2.5" internal enclosure kit?

Would you be interested in a 2.5" internal enclosure kit?

Market interest in 2.5" internal enclosure kit?