Quieting down ye'ol harddrive

My computer is in my bed room, it only has a fan in the psu, so it's not to loud, but most of the noise comes from the hdd, when its reading data or writing it... it also has kind of a high pitched noise since its an older one...anyhow its a 6Gb i know... it isnt much.

So I had an idea, I was thinking of putting a sandwich baggie around my hdd and the molex connect and the ide cable, taping it tightly, then place that into a bigger baggie, then fille the sourounding area with mono foam, how much do you think that would dampen the high pitched noise ? if i have say a... 1 inch layer of foam all around the hdd, thanks for the replys in advance, i will be posting back soon.

p.s. I know the hdd will get warmer with that coat of foam around it so dont advise about that

You could always mount it on rubber feet to help with vibrations. Yes putting sound-dampening material around it would help, don't see much of a point to use baggies. But you would probly want some sort of exhaust fan towards the front of the case, which sorta eliminates the whole reason for the mod.

Baggies keep the foam from messing up the drive.

yeah, cause once its first sprayed on its a bit wet untill it drys fully, so thats why i thought of them thanks for the posts.

Hmmm.... I've seen some w/c setups with foam around a hard drive.... But I would personally not do it. I think in the long run, a better solution would be to get a seagate drive. super quiet (most of them). I know theres a 160 gig on sale at compusa (uh oh.... Has the USA in it, dunno how Canadians can get a hold of it...) for like $60. Unbelievably cheap. I would get one, but I just got a 120 one a month ago (of course on sale... for like $70 -_-).

The seagate barracuda's 30-60GB would probably be getting sold for around 40-30 now...

Anyway, high pitch is nothing but the spindle spinning around, with the drive platters attached to it. Basicly, its "engine sound". Unless this foam really stops sound from getting through, I don't reckon you gain too much.
One pro-point is that you could still mount the foam in a 5.25" bay so no worrying about any mods apart from cutting the foam to size, putting another bag around it and mounting it all using rubber bands or zip ties or anything.

I do think it'll dampen the vibration but much of the spindle sound probably wouldn't be stopped, unless its a special insulation foam.

And if the results turn out to be good anyway, and theres enough room to regain some sound without reaching an annoying level, try to make some vent holes in the foam so the top of the HD isn't entirely insulated...

Like the other's have suggested, get a Seagate drive. A new 40gb at newegg is around $50 and is much larger than your drive. You can ONLY hear it with your ear <6 inches from the drive when its doing a heavy read/write load.

Otherwise, I'd suggest wrapping it in a small anti-static bag just in case, then make a metal case that'll fit in a 5.25" bay and spray the foam between the bag & metal. The metal can be screwed into a 5.25" bay (make the holes before 'foaming' ), and the additional metal will help block some of the high-pitched noises too. I don't think heat will be an issue, although the whine means its spinning fast enough to create some sort of heat. Unless you don't need that 6gb of data (or do regular backups), plan on upgrading from the foam insulated drive soon just in case.

First thing Id try is just resting it on foam, unmounted. I'm temporarily out-of-case now, and my HDDs just resting on a table seem a lot quieter now than in my Lian-Li, which I'm guessing is due to a lack of case to transfer vibrations to. That might work, might not, but if its good enough well then thats all you need to do.

If it doesn't, try wrapping it with foam and then putting it in some type of box. Foam by itself might not do much, and I know hasn't done much for me in other sound-dampening attempts. However, put it in conjunction with a solid surface to further stop sound and it does a very fine job. Upgrading to a Seagate is undoubtedly the best solution, but you can do more if you feel like a little extra work and a thicker wallet.

neonblingbling said:

Hmmm.... I've seen some w/c setups with foam around a hard drive.... But I would personally not do it. I think in the long run, a better solution would be to get a seagate drive. super quiet (most of them). I know theres a 160 gig on sale at compusa (uh oh.... Has the USA in it, dunno how Canadians can get a hold of it...) for like $60. Unbelievably cheap. I would get one, but I just got a 120 one a month ago (of course on sale... for like $70 -_-).

Click to expand...

I've read that:

1. Some PSU's (including my own) make a weird annoying sound when attached to Seagate drives.
2. Samsung Spinpoint drives are quieter than Seagate drives.

If you can't get a Seagate drive on sale at CompUSA (as I did), get a Samsung Spinpoint.

Stupid Boy said:

I've read that:
1. Some PSU's (including my own) make a weird annoying sound when attached to Seagate drives.
2. Samsung Spinpoint drives are quieter than Seagate drives.

If you can't get a Seagate drive on sale at CompUSA (as I did), get a Samsung Spinpoint.

Click to expand...

PSU making a weird sound because of the hard drive..... I find that weird..... As for the Samsung Spinpoint drives, sweet. I personally have a Seagate and seen how it works, so I'm gonna stand behind it.