Silicone Implants & rubber! (HDD isolation, 56k bad)

[HiProfile]

Despite my drives being quiet & smooth Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 series, I still wanted to remove all vibrations, as well as get good ventilation for them. 1st was rubber, then silicone.

First is what I did to my Lian-Li's removable HDD cage. Easy to remove the cage, as well as being easy to remove the HDD's from the cage. Very good ventilation, as well as the 1/4" plates giving good heat disipation. The thin rubber water hose from Home Depot serves as an excellent dampening solution, as well as being adjustable if it ever sags - and being really hard to install initially. This was done before I decided to finally dive into watercooling. (My LR G4 Storm arives in about a week :bday: :bday:, only a Spir@l in hand)

They always sag before silicone... ;)
http://home.wi.rr.com/hiprofile/images/lianli/04-01-cage.jpg

All 'sutured' up...
http://home.wi.rr.com/hiprofile/images/lianli/04-02-cage.jpg

http://home.wi.rr.com/hiprofile/images/lianli/04-03-cage.jpg



Now for the silicone 'implants' I got your worked up about... Since the PC-60 is rather small, I decided that the best place for the rad was in the bottom [to keep side/top cuts to a minimum]. I had thought about just making some holes in the two free 5.25" bays and adjusting the rubber, but it would be even harder this time. I decided to go with silicone-filled aluminum stand-offs. I originally got some cheap bath&tub silicone, only to later find out that this two-part curing silicone eats away at the aluminum, coroding it enough were it won't stick well after a while. I went back and got a 10oz tube of special GE one-part silicone (moisture-cure, dries like Elmer's glue :P) made specifically for aluminum, hence the silver color below (didn't come clear). If you happen to do this, make sure you rough up & clean off the aluminum very well, and remove any anodization, otherwise it won't stick at all.

I used L-shapes to cradle the HDD's, keep them suspended even if the silicone seal breaks, and give some added surface area below the HDD's. In the 1st pic you can see the extra aluminum bars I eventually put where the silicone will fill in. This gives more surface for the silicone to bond too, as well as create 'arms' to catch the sides if the seal breaks (I'm very precautious). I bolted it all together with an old drive, set it on spare plexi, taped up the ends with clear packing tape (doesn't stick to the sticky side when cured), and then filled it with silicone. After it was all cured (almost a week and still semi-liquid inside!) I dug out the holes for mounting to the HDD with an aluminum tube I had, swapped drives, then shoved them in the bays. To be honest, it was almost perfectly wide - I've had drives that've been easier and some harder to push in than these. I rigged up an 80mm L1A@7v in front of them (0.9" extra space) behind the bay covers to help cool them a bit. I can't say its running cooler or quieter, but so far it was cheaper than buying a similar dampening kit from Frozencpu.com - they're out of stock anyways. I can also fit my 2-342 core in the bottom now. There also happens to be juuust enough room on the side of the case to mount a 2nd rad the upper 3.5" cage was removed too...but that'll happen only when this setup can't handle the cpu core(s) and gpu heat in the future.


1st set nearing final surgery...
http://home.wi.rr.com/hiprofile/images/lianli/04-11-standoff.jpg

Position of the 'arms'
http://home.wi.rr.com/hiprofile/images/lianli/04-12-standoff.jpg

All dried up
http://home.wi.rr.com/hiprofile/images/lianli/04-13-standoff.jpg

Installed!
http://home.wi.rr.com/hiprofile/images/lianli/04-14-standoff.jpg


In the last pic is the 3.5" bay cover I've cut and installed 4 mini-rocker switches in...I'll finish the accomanying motorized fan controller in a bit and post some pics...

[Celeron_Phreak]

I love it. I wish I had the room in my case to do it too, my drives are kinda noisy =\.

[Cerberus2k7]

nice :D I really like the look of the first one though.

[Sean Lindstrom]

That looks effective. Nice work too.

I won't copy your solution, but appretiate the thread if only for these nuggests:
cheap bath&tub silicone... eats away at the aluminum
clear packing tape (doesn't stick to the sticky side when cured)

[HiProfile]

Thanks. The cage does look cooler, but I just can't use it. After putting my finger on either drive and then to the mount point on the case, there's a lot of dampening going on. The drives vibrate like they should be humming loudly (dead silent though), but I can't feel any vibration on the 5.25" cage. Besides the two 26cfm sunons on the cpu/gpu, all the other fans are on the silica rubber pad things.

The silver in the silicone doesn't take good pictures. The blocks are almost 100% solid silicone, almost no bubbles formed due to how I injected it under the 'arms'.

Altogether, I paid $20 for it all, which is including the aluminum and the 1st tube of silicone I couldn't use. It took lots of time to get it all just right, but in the end I got exactly what I wanted.


edit: Just wanted to add that my quick&dirty test of 2 aluminum pieces bonded with 2-part silicone is still holding together (aparently it takes a while, less with constant vibration), but I don't suggest it. One-part silicone has much better properties, and also adheres better to aluminum and other metals. The other option I considered was black polyurethane (poly is paintable), but I couldn't find it.

[Sean Lindstrom]

black polyurethane (poly is paintable), but I couldn't find it.

I think polyurethane suffered some patent bottlenecks and only in recent years went mainstream. You can now find it at Home Depot, sold by intended use. Thus, a tube of black GE poly is called "roof repair polyurethane" while the white poly beside it, also made by GE, is "door, window and siding polyurethane sealant", and higher priced. I've checked GE's data sheets and all colours are essentially the same product. When first introduced, the white was labelled "yacht sealant" and cost a fortune.

Poly's stickier but I think for deadening vibration the elasticity of silicone perfect.

[HiProfile]

Well IIRC, the pages I saw said that poly is just as elastic when cured, the main differences were paintability, price, and cure time. When I said I couldn't find it, I meant at the local HD. I know more than most that their website doesn't really match the products they carry in each individual store (since I work there) :-/ Before doing this I'd have prefered black poly, but now I like the silver look sorta matching my case.

[Alice]

Nothing could even compare to the extreme amount of noise produced by my old barracuda. It would also get so hot that I could not only fry, but completely incinerate an egg on it. It's no wonder it died. It was kinda cool though; It would make this noise somewhat akin to the sound of a spaceship or ray gun in a science fiction flick.

Nice job with the mod, BTW.