Will this be any good for quieting a wd caviar 120gb se....? Drive is quite noisy atm, and a 90% (claimed) reduction in noise would be great... Will the cooling provided by the drive be sufficient enough to cool the drive without problems... If there are any other silencing products better than this one, I'm open to suggestions... thanks
thanks m8 was kinda hoping for a ready built solution, as previous "bodges" have ended in disaster....
I have a couple of silentdrives for my WD100gb and IBM 120 gb. Both drives are a lot quieter (the spindle motor on the WD is just audible) and they run in the low 40s centigrade, well below the recommended max of 55, in normal use. Been using them for a year with no problems. I have added a 60mm ducted fan, running at 6 volts, and the temp stays below 40. Cheers
Thanks m8, just what I was after... What does the western run like without a fan...? Just audible spin sounds good (or not as the case is) darn noisy at the mo...
Hi, Thought it may help if ya have some figures for your drive from storage review to help compare. Net Drive Temp Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB (120 GB ATA-100) WD1200JB 17.1'c Net Drive Temperature The difference between the drive's highest operating temperature and the room's ambient temperature. Idle Noise Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB (120 GB ATA-100) WD1200JB 47.3 db/a @ 18mm I think thats the "SE" version - boy it is noisey, in fact it is THE nosiest IDE hard drive available! This may interest you http://www.bit-tech.net/review/233/ or this http://www.bit-tech.net/review/182/ Welcome to Bitech Hiland3r Mat
In normal use it runs about 43C, and 38C at idle. If it is continually seeking (50Gb disk to disk copy) it will reach around 48C. I have the fan set to cut in at 39C. The fan is actually very quiet, running at 6V. The reason I need a fan is because my case (Chieftek) uses plastic drive rails for the 5.25" bays. If the silentdrive was screwed in metal to metal it would transfer heat to the case, and run cooler. As far as noise goes, it is much quieter than a normal CPU or GPU fan. I can hear mine because I use Zalman heatsinks with 6V fans, and all my case fans are 6V too. Cheers
Thanks guys Yeah the hdd is noisy, couldn't believe it slightly worse than my old werstern protege its become really noticable cos' all fans are on a rheobus, the drive is whining away when no case fans are on, and CPU is @ 7v. Tho' the noise isn't overly load, its on the border of being a little too noisy for DVD's, and as im using it as a tv/radio/dvd player etc... at uni... well go figure Clockworks, can you set the fan not to cut in, and do a data copy for me please.... just wanna see the max temps expected. Tho', the silent drive does seem to do a good job, temps wise, even with minimal cooling... Also, do you use smart to measure the temps, if so which read program do you use, as this function doesn't seem to work with my hdd.. (on single channel raid btw)
I'll try a copy later tonight while I have my dinner. SMART does not work for me either. Works OK with my IBM HDD. I use a digitaldoc 5 to monitor the temps and control the fans. EDIT: Just did a 15gb copy (all my mp3s) with the fan turned off. HDD temp went up to 42.3C. Seems like the fan isn't actually doing much when it is on. Cheers
Cheers m8 Looks like a good investment based on those temps. Do you recon a fan is essential... also got a chieftec (ally dragon) so gonna have the same plastic runners as you do....
When I had 2 HDDs in silentdrives fitted next to each other the fan did keep the temps down. This was in my HTPC, which I used as a digital video recorder (prolonged periods of continual disk activity). Now I have one silentdrive in each of my PCs. I rarely do video capture (bought a Sky+ box for that) and both boxes are well ventilated (4 case fans in the Chieftec), so the fan is probably not necessary. I guess it depends on how much airflow you have around the 5.25 bays, and what the ambient temperature is. Use the supplied stick-on thermometer for a few days and see how high the temps go. The fan I fitted was a 60mm CPU fan,6 volted with a series resistor, held behind the silentdrive in some ducting made from 1.5mm polystyrene sheet. I drilled some 6mm holes in the bay blanking plate to let the air in. Cheers
ok cheers 27°C is average case temp, tho' ventillation up round the bays isn't great. Will try it and see, thanks for your help
They lie I have two in my case and I can't hear them at all over my 5 7-volted case fans When I turn them all off, the only thing I can hear is the CPU and PSU fans going...I was quite surprised the other day when I was aware of the sound of them reading - that clicky noise that I was so used to on older hard drives. I like them
Lucky you...! m8's 80gb caviar is pretty quiet, tho' there is some noise. Think the case affects things as well... my old hdd was louder in the dragon compared to my old case... Work in Penzance store...
Not far away then... actually live in nancledra, sorta in between pz and st ives. where did you get your silentdrives from btw, quietpc or somewhere else, cos 35 quid is a little too expensive....
The most important thing when killing sound is a well designed case, most offer completely shoddy, unthought hd mounting, which hold them so static that all writing noises can be heard. Check out the sonata at antec webby, hd mounting is great, i can never hear my raptors, seagates, maxtors old noisy maxtors aswell, all silent when normal access. UNder writing i can sometimes just about hear some clicking, but barely. I've pimped this case everywhere, everyone who listened and got one agreed with me, it rules. Its the single biggest cause of noise reduction in my room. Also very good value.
