Best hard drive enclosure option

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:45 pm

OK. So I got my new Western Digital 640GB Caviar Blue in the mail today, and it isn't as quiet as I was hoping. When I had my system on without any hard drive plugged in, I plugged in a harddrive and heard it spin up. I thought "Whoah, I didn't know my PC was on!" Turns out it was, that is how quiet it is without a hard drive. (And I was sitting right next to it at the time.) The ONLY thing that makes noise is the hard drive. I was looking just on newegg (probably not the best place to look for silent stuff) and found these 2 enclosures...but I doubt their the best.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835154004

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835129051

What enclosure method/product/option is the best? I am so close to having a virtually 0dB system I can almost taste it!

PartEleven · Post by **PartEleven** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:21 pm

It sounds like you are only using one hard drive in your system. In the quest for ultimate silence, I highly suggest you look at notebook hard drives. Despite the large improvements in desktop hard drive acoustics, I find notebook hard drives are still in another league of quietness. However, you will be sacrificing some performance. So you'll have to decide whether performance or noise is nore important to you.

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 9:57 am

Darn, I just bought this hard drive and got it yesterday, I don't want to have to buy another drive and have to screw around with selling this one or something...you're telling me there are no other options?

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:26 am

What does a Scythe Quiet Drive cost over there?

Also, have you enabled AAM on your drive, that can make a big difference IME.

PartEleven · Post by **PartEleven** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:29 am

Yes, definitely enable AAM if you haven't already. It makes a big difference. I'm not really a fan of drive enclosures, since they come with a lot of baggage, such as having to worry about proper heat dissipation and figuring out how/where to mount it if you don't want to hard-mount it in a 5.25" bay. And all of this is for marginal improvement in noise. It'll help with idle whine a bit, but the difference won't be very significant. Especially since your caviar blue is already a quiet drive.

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:33 am

I can only find it on 3 websites. 1 website is sold out, the other one is offering it at 40 dollars and 14 dollar shipping and that is the cheapest shipping available! As for scythe-usa.com I click on the buy now button (it's 40 dollars, I would like to see what shipping is like) and the site does nothing...so it looks like the Scythe Quiet Drive is expensive...

As for AAM, I don't think I need it. The seek noise I can't hear on the drive. It's just the whine of the drive spinning the disk, that's all I need to eliminate, I have no problems with seek noise or vibration (mounted in the bottom mount on my P180 with the silicone grommets)

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:39 am

Found 2 more products that look decent.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/5935/ ... 113s210b87

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ ... s_id=20377

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:12 pm

So of the 4 options I have presented which one is best in your opinion or should I go with some type of DIY approach?

amjedm · Post by **amjedm** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:19 pm

Not sure which is the best option out of the ones you've listed but

1. whichever one you choose, you will have to rest the enclosure inside the case on foam for it to be quiet (I have a Scythe Quiet Drive) IMO

2. have you looked at the Smart Drive?

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 1:06 pm

Ya I have looked at the smart drive, but it is so expensive...I mean 60 bucks? That's like what I paid for the hard drive itself. I'm ruling out the Logisys, it doesn't have as much foam as the other silencers.

http://techgage.com/article/logisys_alu ... silencer/1

And if you look at some pics of the aerocooler and of the tuniq (you have to go to tuniqs website) they look EXACTLY the same. The Aerocooler has fins on the bottom of the enclosure while the Tuniq doesn't...but other than that...I don't see any difference except maybe the type of foam but I can't judge that from a picture.

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:54 pm

I want to count out the SilenX as well. It looks crappy and doesn't even fully enclose the drive.

http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=246&p=704

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:44 am

You have two options: new hard drive or this.. But it's a lot of work to really get it right.

You can always sell the old drive to help offset the price of buying a new quiet one. Get a WD Green (GP) drive if you really want quiet from a WD drive.

PartEleven · Post by **PartEleven** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:08 pm

I agree with jhhoffma. There's a good chance with the enclosure that you're going to spend a bit of cash and still be disappointed in the end.

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:16 pm

Really? The DIY enclosure with ice packs works better than a retail product? Hard to believe...guess I'll have to take your word for it...better look into aluminum enclosures and ice packs...

thepwner · Post by **thepwner** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:33 pm

This look decent?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bud-CU-3008-A-Alumi ... 240%3A1318

Kind of thin though...