Is it possible...

[sniip]

Hi again, I was wondering if it is possible to make my magnetic HDDs more quiet? I just noticed that they produce most of sound now in my system... I have an old seagate 1TB 5400rpm HDD (3,5 inch) and a Samsung 1TB also 5400rpm (2,5inch) HDD. I'm pretty sure the 3,5inch one is producing most of the sound... Also I don't have enough money to go full SSD route. Is there a way to decrease their sound without majorly modding the case? Or maybe there is some sort of silent series for HDDs? (Note that I turned the setting for HDDs to turn off after a while when they are not being used). Thank you for help.

[Crunchy Dragon]

You could get rubber grommets or mounts that'll help reduce vibrations.

[strat guy]

Check their health on CrystalDiskInfo in case they're louder than usual. SSDs are expensive right now, maybe consider moving to a faster 7200rpm HDD, the newer ones aren't very loud at all. Mechanical drives are definitely not completely dead yet.

[W-L]

13 minutes ago, sniip said:

Hi again, I was wondering if it is possible to make my magnetic HDDs more quiet? I just noticed that they produce most of sound now in my system... I have an old seagate 1TB 5400rpm HDD (3,5 inch) and a Samsung 1TB also 5400rpm (2,5inch) HDD. I'm pretty sure the 3,5inch one is producing most of the sound... Also I don't have enough money to go full SSD route. Is there a way to decrease their sound without majorly modding the case? Or maybe there is some sort of silent series for HDDs? (Note that I turned the setting for HDDs to turn off after a while when they are not being used). Thank you for help.

Having it mounted on rubber isolator or completely shock mounting them is an option that can help prevent noise or mainly vibration transfer.

 

https://lifehacker.com/378786/silence-your-hard-drive-with-elastic-suspenders/amp

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

to eliminate any type of hdd sound i usually use velcro, both on the hdd and the case ofc , velcro absorbs shocks basicly extremely well and for me it works better then shock absorbers

 

if the velcro is very stiff just make it loose by going rough on it

[sniip]

1 hour ago, strat guy said:

Check their health on CrystalDiskInfo in case they're louder than usual. SSDs are expensive right now, maybe consider moving to a faster 7200rpm HDD, the newer ones aren't very loud at all. Mechanical drives are definitely not completely dead yet.

Which of the drives should I look into then? I would need 2TB drive that is good for gaming...

[strat guy]

4 minutes ago, sniip said:

Which of the drives should I look into then? I would need 2TB drive that is good for gaming...

Something like a Seagate Barracuda or a Western Digital Velociraptor @ 7200rpm will do nicely for mass storage and big games etc, not too sure if the 10k rpm ones will make too much of a difference gaming wise but you might want to look into that depending on your use case.

[strat guy]

Did you check in CrystalDisk and are they in good shape ? If they're old, its probably a good idea to migrate/clone your data to new drives, fairly easy process there.

[sniip]

2 hours ago, strat guy said:

Did you check in CrystalDisk and are they in good shape ? If they're old, its probably a good idea to migrate/clone your data to new drives, fairly easy process there.

It's a bit late in my country, I'll do it tomorrow and see.

[sniip]

21 hours ago, strat guy said:

Did you check in CrystalDisk and are they in good shape ? If they're old, its probably a good idea to migrate/clone your data to new drives, fairly easy process there.

I checked my disks with CrystalDiskInfo, they are all in good shape...

[strat guy]

5 minutes ago, sniip said:

I checked my disks with CrystalDiskInfo, they are all in good shape...

Good to hear, your data is safe then. New 7200rpm ones will still help with the noise if that is really bothering you, up to you if it's worth the upgrade. Less load times and waiting screens in games too but no FPS gains.

[strat guy]

Also, letting your HDDs sleep (and wake up) will have them wear faster. That's what they say anyway.

[seagate_surfer]

 

6 hours ago, strat guy said:

Also, letting your HDDs sleep (and wake up) will have them wear faster. That's what they say anyway.

^ Depends on the drive and the purpose it was engineered for. A lot of people don't realize, but different hard drives have different use cases they are designed to excel in. For example, your standard desktop-grade hard drive like the BarraCuda, is usually rated for up to 55TB of data per year, and to be used 8 hours a day x 5 days a week. These type of drives are not intended to be up and running 24x7. A NAS-rated drive on the other hand, like the Seagate IronWolf, is rated for 24x7 use, up to 180TB of data per year. These type of drives actually function well when run 24x7 as they're designed for environments when multiple users could be accessing the NAS at any hour of day. 

Here's a video that explains these concepts in further detail if anyone would like to look it over.