Xilencer HDD Silencer-Cooler or Smart Drive 2002C Enclosure

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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slimeballzz
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Xilencer HDD Silencer-Cooler or Smart Drive 2002C Enclosure

Post by slimeballzz » Sun Sep 19, 2004 9:56 am

I'm looking to buy one of these enclosures for my Raptor 74GB but not sure which one is better. Anyone have any experience with the Xilencer from AC Ryan? They seem quite similar cept from what I have read, the the back of the Xilencer is not pre-cut and you use a pen knife to custom cut it to fit your hard drive which to me has an advantage of the Smart Drive 2002C. But the 2002C however is a hybrid of aluminum/copper which should give a better thermal conduction because of the added copper.

Any suggestions?

Trip
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Post by Trip » Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 am

Anti-vibration
not only does the Xilence produce zero noise and silences, the Xilencer ALSO ensures that the hdd does not pass on its vibration to the casing. The vibration between the hdd and casing often causes noise and also turns the casing into a "noise production instrument" - such is the design details that Xilencer takes care of. Xilencer IS serious no-noise.
I have trouble believing this. Even No Vibes III transmits vibrations, and there is no way this decouples as well as a No Vibes.

Err, back to the question... I can't say which is better but watch your HDD temps with either, and set it on some foam. Even the 2002C is only made to cool 7200RPM HDDs.

My absolutely wortheless and unfounded opinion is to go with the 2002C.

ascii
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Post by ascii » Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:00 pm

Are there any stores near you that caries them? In that case I would go look at them and buy the heaviest of the two. High mass is a great way to silence something.

Other than that, I was thinking about buying a Xilencer earlier, so I looked around the net for reviews. Couldn't find any. In the end I never bought one since I decided I should go with watercooling my computer.

Oh, and Trip: I actually think that if the Xilencer is heavy enogh, it could lower the resonence frequencys so that the noise would be inaaudible. Haven't seen it though.

slimeballzz
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Post by slimeballzz » Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:33 pm

ascii wrote:Are there any stores near you that caries them? In that case I would go look at them and buy the heaviest of the two. High mass is a great way to silence something.

Other than that, I was thinking about buying a Xilencer earlier, so I looked around the net for reviews. Couldn't find any. In the end I never bought one since I decided I should go with watercooling my computer.

Oh, and Trip: I actually think that if the Xilencer is heavy enogh, it could lower the resonence frequencys so that the noise would be inaaudible. Haven't seen it though.
No I don't think there's any stores around me that carry them. I can't really weigh either of the two because I don't know of any stores around me that carry them. The best I can do is probably wait around for a review on it before I can compare it to the Smart Drive 2002C.

So you plan on watercooling your hard drives?

Trip
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Post by Trip » Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:19 pm

Oh, and Trip: I actually think that if the Xilencer is heavy enogh, it could lower the resonence frequencys so that the noise would be inaaudible. Haven't seen it though.
Good point. No time to look up the weight of each one right now, but I'll check on that in a bit.

sorenbro
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Post by sorenbro » Thu Sep 23, 2004 10:06 pm

How about this enclosure which supports 10,000rpm drives:

http://www.silentmaxx.de/sm-hd.php

They have an english site too, but I don't have time to find it right now.

ascii
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Post by ascii » Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:36 pm

So you plan on watercooling your hard drives?
Yep, that's the plan. There are HDD-cages for silencing and watercooling your drives, but they're expensive, I can't find any reviews of them, two of them woudln't fit in my case and they don't look they'd completely silence a disk. If my homebuilt cage doesn't work out I guess I'll have to buy one, we'll see.

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Post by Spod » Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:41 am

Checkout the Silentstor/Silentstar HD-Dual; this may be smaller than two individual watercooled HDD silencers.

Edward Ng
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Post by Edward Ng » Fri Sep 24, 2004 9:35 am

I have one of the AC Ryan Xilencers on me; they sent me a sample for review, even though I've never communicated with them, ever. I didn't really plan on doing a serious review of it, but you guys request it, I can send it over to Mike for him to check it out; I don't think it would make too much sense for me to review it, at this point, when Mike can provide concrete numbers using his SLM.

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Post by Trip » Fri Sep 24, 2004 9:55 am

If Mike has time, I'd love to see a review of it. Maybe Silicon Acoustics would be willing to send a 2002C for a head to head comparison. I doubt Silentmaxx would send one of theirs but who knows?

ascii
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Post by ascii » Sat Sep 25, 2004 1:49 am

Yes! A comparative review would be great. I would also want to see a comparison with how well elastic bands quiet the disc, and I would like to see the tests performed with a a HDD with a noticable whine.

While whe're on this topic, it seems that the huge variations in sound levels between HDDs of the same type mean that for any test to be useful, moere than just one disc would be needed.

slimeballzz
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Post by slimeballzz » Sun Sep 26, 2004 10:48 pm

What would really be nice is a hard drive silencing enclosure round up. Find the most popular enclosures (such as the ones mentioned above) made to silence hard drives and use a reference drive to test just how well the enclosures can "silence" the drive as well as keeping it at a stable operating temperature.

peerke
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Post by peerke » Mon Sep 27, 2004 9:18 am

Might I suggest using the Raptor as the reference drive. All other drives are comparable in performance so its no use chosing a noisy one over the quiet ones. With the Raptor you get a lot more performance for the increase in noise and silencing one would make it best of both worlds.

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Post by Spod » Tue Sep 28, 2004 7:55 am

I agree with peerke, silencing a quiet drive is relatively easy, and wouldn't provide much differentiation between drive silencers. A Raptor, with it's 10,000 RPM spin speed, quicker, louder seeks and greater heat production would provide a much tougher challenge for a drive silencer. Even if we don't want to buy a Raptor, it still provides a more useful tool for evaluating the silencers.

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Post by Trip » Wed Sep 29, 2004 3:07 am

I think a lot depends on what's available to review.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 6a6#110566

MikeACRyan
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Post by MikeACRyan » Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:23 am

Hey there,

We sent you two Xilencers for you to review, one to you, Mike, and one to Edward in NY. I still hope you are able to review it though. If you need help or more info of this product, contact me... you know my email :)

Greetings,

Mike
for AC Ryan - modding & gaming your way to performance PC
www.acryan.com

ascii
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Post by ascii » Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:10 am

Well done MikeACRyan! I look forward to reading the review.

slimeballzz
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Post by slimeballzz » Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:28 pm

I hope either one of them do a review quick! I plan on purchasing a pair of the Smart Drive 2002C's if I don't see a review on the Xilencer anytime soon.

Edward Ng
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Post by Edward Ng » Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:31 pm

Mike's working on it, and he is doing a super-duper bang-up job of it, with several interesting new features in the review that will surprise you. Please try to wait patiently for it, as I promise you it will be worth the wait!

Too bad I didn't ask for permission to let you guys in on the precise details of new developments from Mike's lab, but they are really awesome!!!

slimeballzz
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Post by slimeballzz » Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:51 pm

Hmm any update? I've been waiting quite patiently and maybe if Mike already has a final verdict to which is better, maybe he could just post a little note or a PM to me to which one I should buy :wink:

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Post by Edward Ng » Mon Oct 18, 2004 8:57 pm

No idea on my end; all the editors have been quite busy lately and our communication has been on the quiet side the last couple days. I'm sure all the lab help Mike is getting is of benefit, though. Mr. Noring is also proving to be a very capable writer, so that helps as well.

slimeballzz
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Post by slimeballzz » Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:57 pm

So does anyone own one of these Xilencer HDD Silencer?
If you do please let us know your experience with it!

I'm still waiting for that review! :wink:

The Instigator
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Post by The Instigator » Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:45 pm

Any info on the xilencer yet? Cant find a good review of it anywhere.

Pjotor
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Post by Pjotor » Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:00 pm

Found one here (auto-translated from Spanish).

Those who know Spanish, click here.

The Instigator
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Post by The Instigator » Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:51 pm

Like I said, I cant find a GOOD review. :)

Pjotor
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Post by Pjotor » Tue Nov 23, 2004 7:28 am

It's the only review I've found so far -- and I've been looking a while... MikeC is supposed to have a unit for review; let's hope it's out soon.

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Post by Pjotor » Tue Nov 23, 2004 7:29 am

Maybe it's better if you know Spanish... I don't, so I have to put up with the Robot English.

It's the only review I've found so far -- and I've been looking a while... MikeC is supposed to have a unit for review; let's hope it's out soon.

slimeballzz
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Post by slimeballzz » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:41 am

Here is another review here


Yes lets hope the review is out soon as I have been waiting quite patient. :D

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Post by Pjotor » Tue Nov 30, 2004 8:31 am

slimeballzz wrote:Here is another review here


Yes lets hope the review is out soon as I have been waiting quite patient. :D
Tee hee -- the translation begins well:

Original:
Autor: Joaquin Arias Hurtado

Translation
Author: Stolen Joaquin Aryan

I just love machine translations :lol:

MikeACRyan
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Post by MikeACRyan » Fri Dec 31, 2004 1:57 am

Hmm... still nothing huh?... I would like to see a review of the XTOR Xilencer now. We hoped we could get things done nice and smooth when sending out two XTOR's. I hope you can give me a review soon.

Thanks

Mike
www.acryan.com

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