TiVo Community Forums Archives - Reducing Hard Disk Noise

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Reducing Hard Disk Noise - Might Want This
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Posted by: Jim Sanchez

A lot of us (myself included) are not too happy with the noise generated by the 60 GB Western Digital (and others I suppose) drives. I found a web site www.quietpc.com which has a pretty sophisticated enclosure for disks that reduce the noise without increasing the drive temperature. I haven't tried one in my TiVo yet but probably will after vacation. They cost about $30 US.
Jim

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Jim Sanchez - jim@jimsanchez.com

Posted by: Pan Chun

When I put two 30G Quantum LCT-15s in my TiVo last February, the HD chatter nearly drove me to my wits' end. I mostly tolerated it, though. Then, when the TiVoMad utility came out and allowed me to access the OTHER 16+Gigs on my A-drive, I re-performed the entire procedure...however, this time (for no real reason) I swapped the A-drive for B-drive.

Interestingly, ever since then, my TiVo has been pretty darned quiet (relative to before, anyway). Don't know what happened, but it's an agreeable circumstance, to be sure.

Don't know anything about the quietpc.com enclosures or anything...just wanted to share a related experience.

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The I-R Blaster--
Works better than I thought but
I miss DSS

Posted by: dd9

That product is no good for the 60gb drives.

Quote from that site:

"Had we owned a 60 or 75 Gb model, the figure would have
been 8.1 watts which would have meant the drive would have
run much hotter, too hot to be enclosed. Obviously if you
have not yet purchased a hard drive, it would be a good idea
to check compatibility in this way in order to aid your
buying decision before purchase."

Posted by: robertwallace

quote:
Originally posted by dd9:
That product is no good for the 60gb drives.

Quote from that site:

"Had we owned a 60 or 75 Gb model, the figure would have been 8.1 watts which would have meant the drive would have run much hotter, too hot to be enclosed. Obviously if you have not yet purchased a hard drive, it would be a good idea to check compatibility in this way in order to aid your buying decision before purchase."

They were speaking specifically about the IBM Deskstar and quoted the specifications for the various sized Deskstars. The other drive manufacturers may have wattage specs within the allowable range for 60 or 80 gig drives; I haven't checked.

Robert

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"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." -- Arthur Carlson
Sony DirecTiVo ~ 106 hrs.

[This message has been edited by robertwallace (edited 06-15-2001).]

Posted by: bsnelson

Yes, but how (if at all) are you going to mount two of these things in your TiVo?

Brad

Posted by: Jim Sanchez

Yes, I believe that is the real problem. When I get back from vacation, I may spring for the $30 and see how it looks.

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Jim Sanchez - jim@jimsanchez.com

Posted by: barclay

quote:
Originally posted by Jim Sanchez:
I found a web site www.quietpc.com which has a pretty sophisticated enclosure for disks that reduce the noise without increasing the drive temperature.

I can't speak for using one of these inside a Tivo, but I have them in both of my computers (along with the other QuietPC parts).

They work rather well. My two hard drive screamer quieted down to a whisper. Turning on the TV or the fan in the same room completly masks the noise now. Now if they only made quiet parts for my refrigerator.

Posted by: RickStrobel

quote:
Originally posted by barclay:
I can't speak for using one of these inside a Tivo, but I have them in both of my computers (along with the other QuietPC parts)...

What other QuietPC parts do you have, etc???

Posted by: barclay

quote:
Originally posted by RickStrobel:
What other QuietPC parts do you have, etc???

Check out their website, I have one of everything http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

I have their quiet power supply. It's got a noticeably quieter fan, and I remember reading that the fan speed is linked to the temp in the power supply. Not sure if I'm making that up or not.

I also have the replacement case and CPU fans. They're high quality fans designed in such a way as to not need to rotate as fast as a normal fan to cool things effeciently.

My computer hasn't blown up since I installed everything, so I'm happy with the parts. My only word of warning would be about the hard drive enclosures. Buy some power-extender cables, and longer IDE cables, for them, and install wire them up outside of the computer. They're pretty tough to do, and nearly impossible inside of a case. Also, if you think you can fit these in a Tivo, make sure you've got everything up and running before enclosing the drives .. undoing things just to change a jumper setting is a major PITA.

Posted by: knownzero

I had quite a bit of problems after I did a TivoMad upgrade to 120 gig via 2 @ 60 gig Maxtor's. Turned out that the one that I mounted with the rubber feet and tie downs was making a ton of noise. I got a bracket from 9th tee and it's as quiet as can be expected from a dual drive Tivo now. Also, the cable tie turned brown and was extremely brittle, the heat just about killed it so beware the cable tie!!!

Posted by: Randy Given

knownzero, have you seen the movie "Zero Effect"? Your handle made me think of it.

Posted by: RickStrobel

quote:
Originally posted by barclay:
They work rather well. My two hard drive screamer quieted down to a whisper. Turning on the TV or the fan in the same room completly masks the noise now. Now if they only made quiet parts for my refrigerator.

I was hoping you'd say "the only way I can tell if my PC is on is to look at the LED's or turn on the monitor, it's just so quiet!". I don't know how loud your TV or fan is. So, just how quiet is it, really?

Also, did you order all those parts from quietpc.com? It seems they're in the UK -- was it all shipped to you from the UK to the States?

Posted by: barclay

quote:
Originally posted by RickStrobel:
So, just how quiet is it, really?

I wish I could give a real hard number to that. The hard drives are almost completely inaudible, I can only really hear them seeking around, and even that's muted. The fans are still audible, but they're really quiet. Almost anywhere not at the computer, and I can't really pinpoint the sound. I have had moments where I thought something was wrong because my monitor switched itself off, and I thought the computer had too. It hadn't, I just couldn't hear it. So, sometimes, I can indeed not hear it, but it doesn't happen all the time, generally just in the morning when I'm still waking up http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

The best I can say is that the hard drives are about 10% as noisy as they once were, and the fans are about 10-15% as noisy as they used to be. Sorry, but I can't directly compare it to anything else, since if I say it's as loud as the inside of my car, that means nothing since you don't know how loud the inside of my car is, and I'm by no means an audio guru capable of describing sounds eloquently.

quote:
It seems they're in the UK -- was it all shipped to you from the UK to the States?

Yep, ordered all of the stuff from the UK. They had no problems with my American Visa, or my address on the west coast. And I had no problems getting the package on time.

My only gripe with the whole process is the hard drive enclosure. I swear there has to be a better way (cabling them up isn't the easiest thing in the world), but given the end result, I'm perfectly happy with the way they picked.

Posted by: stripes

PC Power and Cooling has similar products, and is in the USA.

I don't know if their drive cool product is a quiet as quietpc's, the silencer supply is definitely quieter then quietpc's supply though.

I've built about 5 PCs with the PC Power and Cooling stuff, and a friend has built one with the quietpc stuff. The quietpc stuff did look better on paper, so maybe he just got a bum unit. Both are remarkably nicer then normal power supplies.

Posted by: gazumping

The best way that I found to quiet down my office was to move the PC into my closet. I used a Linksys KVM (Keyboard Video Monitor Switch) and a 6ft KVM cable. Combined with my monitor cable I get my PC over 10ft away, USB hub did the rest. I hear my ceiling fan more than I do my PC. Especially since I have a dual OC system.

Posted by: jdm5

Been watching this thread with interest; I got my second TiVo for the bedroom last week [my wife is ready to commit me], and upgraded to two 80 GB Maxtors. The problem is, it's too loud!

I tried moving it into our TV cabinet, cutting some holes for wires and cooling; still too loud (I think the daily call housekeeping does some major crunching and kept waking me up).

I finally ended up moving the TiVo into my bedroom closet; cut some holes in the wall and added a wall plate with a nice hole cutout. I had to order some 6 meter audio/video cables to make it work. I'm using a coax cable temporarily...I'm not happy with the quality -- I hope the better quality cables I ordered work out well. Also using an RF - IR remote conversion pyramid I had.

I slept well last night for the first time in a week!

Posted by: Tivowner

I just turn off the tivo by the surge protector when I am ready to go to sleep. I know this means I might miss some "suggestions" that tivo thinks I might want but I'd rather get a good nights sleep. Other than that the only thing I can think of is to not have TIVO in an area where you sleep. It is quite maddening.

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I now have 2.0. Life is good.

Posted by: id

I used car audio Dynamat-style deadening material on my drives and tivo case itself. The unit is much more quiet now (dual 7200rpm quantums). Check out the full post here:
http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/Forum6/HTML/003020.html

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id