Is my idea for a drive cage suspension practical?

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:54 pm

I was going to suspend my 3 disc drives by attaching them to bungee cord using custom designed clips. But, it’s just dawned on me that it would be easier to knock up a basic drive cage, screw the drives into that and suspend the cage with bungee cord. The cage will simply be two thin sheets of ply or plastic with holes drilled for the screws. The drives will provide the connection between the two vertical sheets.
It seems a simple and obvious idea but I’m wondering if I’m missing something. Will I need to be careful on my choice of material in case it transmits drive resonance? I’m going to use rubber washers between the drives and the cage anyway. Thoughts!

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 2:34 pm

There is nothing wrong with your idea. Just look at the people who have suspended the whole drivecage of the Antec 3000B. That worked fine too.

zhenya · Post by **zhenya** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 2:59 pm

Depending on the material you use, you may create some additional noise from the resonance of the drive to the material. Unless you de-couple the drive from the material, you'll probably have a quieter drive if you leave it bare.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 4:16 pm

Tibors wrote:There is nothing wrong with your idea. Just look at the people who have suspended the whole drivecage of the Antec 3000B. That worked fine too.

I’m using an SLK3000B, but for some reason the idea of suspending its cage didn’t appeal. I’ll give it a go and see how I get on.

zhenya wrote:Depending on the material you use, you may create some additional noise from the resonance of the drive to the material. Unless you de-couple the drive from the material, you'll probably have a quieter drive if you leave it bare.

That’s what I figured, although I’m struggling to come up with a material for the task in hand that is suitable. Maybe some thin strips of urethane (or similar) would work and then I suspend the topmost drive with the bungee cord and the lower two are just hanging off it connected by the urethane. Not sure where I can find urethane strips though, although rubber strips should work just as well.

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 4:09 am

Aluminium sheet about about 1 or 2mm thick would be ideal, as it would also improve thermal dissipation. Suspending the whole cage would work just as well, however.

inti · Post by **inti** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:52 am

With multiple drives you can get a nasty "beat" effect where the drives' vibrations affect each other (because the drives are spinning at almost, but not exactly, the same speed) - if you suffer from this, is sounds like a buzzing which rises and falls in volume about once per second. This problem can become much worse if the (lightweight) drive cage is not hard-fastened to the PC case. One of the main reasons for suspending drives individually is to avoid this problem. Otherwise you need to look for ways of reducing coupling between the drives, e.g. fix the drives into the cage with rubber grommets or other soft solutions.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:43 am

inti wrote:With multiple drives you can get a nasty "beat" effect where the drives' vibrations affect each other (because the drives are spinning at almost, but not exactly, the same speed) - if you suffer from this, is sounds like a buzzing which rises and falls in volume about once per second.

That sounds awful. I’m going to have to experiment and see what works. I’m trying to deduce what will most likely be the best solution and implement that first.

Box · Post by **Box** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:49 am

Yup, I've got that effect going on in my 3700AMB at the moment. It isn't always so, but when is starts it drives me mad. Because it isn't a constant sound/noise it's terribly disturbing and it really gets on your nerves. A must avoid!
As soon as I'm done with my exams I'll be looking into an effective suspension-systeem for 2 drives that optimizes airflow over my graphics card too...