P180 vs. SLK3000B resonance/harmonics

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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Joudbren
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P180 vs. SLK3000B resonance/harmonics

Post by Joudbren » Fri Nov 11, 2005 7:58 am

Hoping you guys can help me out! I keep a small file server at home using 4 x seagate 160 gig PATA HD's connected to a Promise SX4000 raid 5 controller. I also have a fifth PATA hard drive used as a boot drive and workspace area.

This was all working great in a 3700BQE but it only had trays to mount 4 of the hard drives so the boot drive literally sat on some foam strips in the bottom of the case. When I saw the new SLK3000B with grommet mounts for all 5 of the drives I decided to grab one and remount the server. BIG mistake!

I am getting some unbelievably annoying resonance/hum from the hard drives that is cyclical in nature and is not being damped very well at all by the SLK3000's drive grommets. Please note that my goal is not silence, just quiet and I've been fairly successful at this with most of my systems. The hum is quite loud and oscillates in volume (even more annoying!). I'm assuming that somehow all the drives are working together to create this cyclical hum.

I guess my question is, will a P180 solve this for me? I don't want to drop $160 cdn on another case if it's just going to be more of the same. I'd certainly appreciate any feedback from you P180 owners that have several hard drives installed and especially if you have any experience comparing it to the SLK3000B. Hard drive suspension is not really an option for me and I'm looking for an easier solution if possible so my fingers are crossed that the P180 might be some sort of miracle worker for me in this instance. From the review and details I've seen on SPCR it certainly looks like it might do the trick but for $160 I guess I'll do a little due diligence first! Thanks everyone!

James 8-)
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NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:06 am

Greetings,

The P180 is going to be the better case for you. It is thicker steel than the 3000B, and it has the "sandwich" construction, as well as the better (softer, larger) damping grommets for the HD's. The separate chambers is also likely to be helpful.
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Joudbren
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Bought the P180

Post by Joudbren » Fri Nov 11, 2005 3:09 pm

Thanks for the feedback! Just picked up the P180 and was even allowed to return the SLK3000B so not as painful on the wallet as I thought it was going to be. The store where I shop has faith in the P180 and says it is returnable as well if I'm not happy with it.

I'll keep the forum posted on how it works out but looks like I have an hour or more of work ahead of me yet.....

Cheers!

James 8-)
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nick705
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Re: Bought the P180

Post by nick705 » Fri Nov 11, 2005 4:08 pm

Joudbren wrote:
I'll keep the forum posted on how it works out but looks like I have an hour or more of work ahead of me yet.....

Cheers!

James 8-)
Good luck with all those IDE ribbon cables in a P180... :lol:
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vine-au
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Post by vine-au » Fri Nov 11, 2005 4:44 pm

who even uses ribbon cables anymore?? i thought round cables were the staple these days.

oh yeah - and the P180 is a superb case. i have four hdd's mounted in the lower cage and when they are all spinning there is zero vibration transfered to the chassis. couple that with the noise damnpening and its a silent enthusiasts dream. good choice :D
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theyangster
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Post by theyangster » Fri Nov 11, 2005 4:54 pm

vine-au wrote:who even uses ribbon cables anymore?? i thought round cables were the staple these days.
Are you saying cable-gami is BAD? :)

pics of it when your done
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vine-au
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Post by vine-au » Fri Nov 11, 2005 5:05 pm

wtf is "cable-gami" :?:


:shock:
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theyangster
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Post by theyangster » Fri Nov 11, 2005 5:32 pm

take note
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=2439
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=6127

:)
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Joudbren
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Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

P180 results (so far)

Post by Joudbren » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:47 am

Whooot!!! NIGHT and DAY difference from the SLK3000B! I still have an extremely faint hum from somewhere but the difference now is that I have to get down and listen for it. I don't even have the sides back on it yet and still have some tweaking to do on fan and cable management but I'm a much happier camper now. The hum is literally faint enough now that I probably won't even bother trying to track it down.

Sorry, no pics of the cable-gami..... it's not pretty. It's not horrible considering where you have to route stuff in this case but certainly not picture worthy yet. As you can imagine, 4 PATA hard drives in the lower chamber connected back up to my Promise raid card.... yuck. Oh well, I spent a lot of money on the drives and the card about 18 months ago and still works great so it's a keeper for a while yet. I can see where a SATA raid setup would be a much better choice in this system though.

Overall I really like the P180 a lot. For the hard drives I was having a little trouble tightening the screws with too much grommet compression, etc. until I figured it out. I put all the drive screws in loose and then for each side of the drive I simply compressed the hard drives up against the grommets and then tightened the screws till they were just touching the surface of the compressed grommet. Let the drive go and voila, perfect mount.

Couple of minor quirks so far, what is with the warp in the front door? Albeit it's a slight warp and not a deal breaker for me in this case (pun intended) but seems quite out of place in a premium enclosure. Also floppy mount rails are a touch off and the floppy sticks out about an eighth of an inch from the front and cannot be adjusted. It's yer standard panasonic floppy so not sure why that is. Again a minor thing.

Anyhoo, thanks again for the feedback everyone! If the P180 can kill the hum on this bunch of drives then it's obviously a winner in my mind and I can recommend it without reservation. Cheers!

James 8-)
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theyangster
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Post by theyangster » Sat Nov 12, 2005 10:24 am

aww no pics?
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vine-au
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Post by vine-au » Sat Nov 12, 2005 6:41 pm

ahh lol now i get it :roll:
I was mentally adding another "m" in there - as in "cable-gammi"
the origami thing makes much more sense (duh) :D
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