Hi chaps, I am currently running a 2.5" HDD in an external USB 3.0 enclosure, and it's been perfectly satisfactory - until now. I've recently gone on a bit of a silencing kick when it comes to my PC, and it's now basically silent at idle. Unfortunately, the drawback of said silencing kick is that as you tackle one source of noise, your ear is drawn to the next noisiest component, and down the rabbit hole we go! The point I've reached now is that the single greatest source of noise is the external HDD. The enclosure lives on the top of my desk, which has a solid wood top. The vibration from the HDD travels through the desk and causes a general humming sound which occasionally becomes an annoying buzzing depending on what else is on the desk. I don't think there's anything wrong with the drive itself, it's just that the constant vibration is really noticeable in the absence of any other real source of noise. I'm trying to think of ways that I can silence this pesky drive (replacement with a non-moving part is not an option!) I know you get anti-vibration feet for cases or hifis, but the enclosure is so small that this doesn't seem like an option. I guess that leaves some sort of anti-vibration mat or pad? Any suggestions from the wise heads of Bit-tech?
Yeah I guess the only silent options would be an SSD external drive, or headphones. But it is what it is, have you tried popping it on a mouse mat to see if that makes any difference? Even a slight difference it'd give an idea that that approach may help. Now I have visions of you placing it on a presentation cushion...
SSD would be the obvious choice... but other than that, you’ll still hear the motor as it’s one of the noise generators.
Silence is one of those dangerously expensive and unsatisfying obsessions we all develop once in a while. As the posters above have already said, if something moves (at all), it will generate some degree of noise. Other than relocating the drive much further away (perhaps into the back of your router), you're going to have trouble with some noise from it.
Thanks for the replies, all. As I said in the OP, an SSD would be the ideal solution but there's no way on earth I'm going to be able to justify buying a multiple-TB SSD just to stick in an external enclosure for backup purposes As far as always hearing the motor goes, I don't entirely agree - if I hold the enclosure in my hand then I can't hear it unless my ear is within a couple of inches, so doesn't seem to be the noise of the motor per se, it's the vibration being carried through the desk surface. I might see if there's a sacrificial mousemat lurking in a cupboard somewhere - unfortunately, my current mat is one of those hard plastic-y ones and not a nice foam effort. I'm convinced that I should be able to buy some sort of foam mat type thingy (technical terms ahoy) to sit the enclosure on, but I'm jiggered if I can find anything. Doesn't help that I obviously don't know what this mythical item is actually called! And @Shirty is absolutely right that this is a dangerous obsession to develop. Having bought a new GPU recently that has semi-passive fan operation, and tweaked my CPU an case fan profiles, and a couple of other things too, I'm now sitting here thinking that my PSU makes a bit of an annoying noise when it's semi-passive fan cycles on and off, and maybe a new PSU might be a good idea, or even that an entirely passive unit might be an option... Must...Resist...
