Question How to avoid resonant vibrations of harddisks in a case?

[colettina]

I have an old LianLi case, built with pure aluminum and I like it. When my old computer died from a flash, I built my new computer in this case.

The case has a kind of cage for three harddiscs which is mounted with 4 screws to the front of the case. The HDDs are fastened by screws with rubber rings, which will isolate the disks from the cage a bit in order to reduce noise transfer to the cage.

When I placed one 1TB HDD in the cage, everything was OK. Then I added a second HDD, a 8 TB WD HDD. After that, the entire cage with the disks started to resonate at about 120 Hz. The vibrations are not only very audible and not acceptable. The vibrations are even so strong, that they can clearly be felt when touching the closed case and they are very strong, when I touch the cage for the disks.

I fear, that such strong vibrations will shorten the life of the HDDs. So I tried to set the HDDs at different places within the cage. But at any placement, the vibrations are going on and the are at 120 Hz at any placement. Further I tried to fasten the cage at the case with rubber dampers. But the vibrations were still there and again at 120 Hz.

It is not a problem of the HDDs themself because when I insert them in an external USB-case, there is no noise and nearly no vibration.

I have taken some photos of the situation, but I don't see, how I can make them available here and I have no account at the repos, for making the images accessible via URL. The three images are here:
Case side view and hdd mounting in the cage and hdd mounting screws detail

Constructive ideas welcome, how to get rid of this!

 

[Lutfij]

When I placed one 1TB HDD in the cage, everything was OK. Then I added a second HDD, a 8 TB WD HDD. After that, the entire cage with the disks started to resonate at about 120 Hz.
Might want to include the make, models and age of the drives you're working with.

I have an old LianLi case
Is there any sticker or barcode to help identify the case? If not, please pass on images of the exterior of your case.

On that note,
The vibrations are not only very audible and not acceptable.
the case you have was probably in an era when drives weren't as large of a capacity and weren't accessed as frequently as they are now. Coupled with the fact that the case's construction likely being full aluminum is contributing to your noise. To add, the construction of the drive cage/caddy is also causing resonance.

It is not a problem of the HDDs themself because when I insert them in an external USB-case, there is no noise and nearly no vibration.
Take all of the drive out of the case and run them on the bench top, you're likely not going to hear anything. I would advise on getting a case with sound dampened panels, like those on Fractal's Define series.

 

[colettina]

Thank you for your reply!
If I could be more precise about the LianLi case, I would have posted it here. I only can post some more pictures via links to my web space.

The HDDs are a WD 6 TB which has been sold as part of a NAS. Perhaps that is the reason, why there is no label on it. I assume, that it is a WD black.
The second HDD is a 1 TB Seagate Seahawk

I have bought this case at Caseking in 2016. But it isn't in production anymore / not available any more.