[zeroibis]

Had spent a lot of time looking for drive changes that offered good cooling and accessibility. In the end the only thing I could find that met my need was the ICY DOCK Black Vortex. It has the following features that I like but a few that I do not:

Pros:
-Front mounted fan with thus front mounted dust filter so it is easy to clean and easy to replace the fan
-Drives remove from the front so they are easy to remove in any case
-No backplane to block airflow and thus keeps the drives cooler, the minor inconvenience of needing to open a side panel to unplug 2 wires is worth it

Cons:
- Drives do not have any sort of anti vibration damping.

Photo: https://images.tweaktown.com/conten...k_black_vortex_3_5_drive_cage_review_full.jpg

Solution: add some sort of vibration damper to the bottom of the drive or to the cage ledges.

The drives slide onto plastic ledges along the side of the cage and lock into place via an attachment mounted to the front of the drive. There is a few mm of z access space which could allow for some vibration damping to be placed under the hard drive between it and the ledge.

I was thinking of using something like this for the material options seem to be between 45A or 60A but not sure what that means: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubber-...bber-Sheet-Black-20-109-0062-36-072/303366679

Ideally I would like to find a smaller sheet for less money.

Any comments on this idea or other suggestions as to solutions? Also yes I am obviously replacing the fan that comes with it.

Suggestions on how to attach the rubber to the ledges or the drive?

 

[zeroibis]

Another possibility that might work great is to simply cover the ledges with electrical tape. That would be easy to apply, absorb some vibration and I can layer it to make it as thick as possible. I could possibly also add a strip to the bottom edges of each hard drive.

Any thoughts on using electrical tape as a vibration damper?

 

[billbartuska]

stretch rubberbands (or anything "stretchy") across the enclosure and put the drives on that.

 

[zeroibis]

interesting, good point that the rubber in a rubberband would be better at absorbing the vibrations than most other materials I could easily use. I also would not need to worry about the "durability" of the rubberband because the drive is effectively sitting on it rather that being suspended by it.

Now I just need to find a good way to get the rubberband to be applied to the ledge or to the bottom edges of the drive. Perhaps I could just tape them on with electrical tape lol. Heck if the rubberbands are big enough maybe I could wrap just the right and left sides of the drives with 1 or 2 and then the rubberbands would act as a cushion between the bottom of the drive and the ledge.

The only issue I can think of is if the drive becomes too thick as a result of having rubberbans strapped around it vs just below it.

 

[zeroibis]

Could not use the rubberband, it was to tight to fit.

 

[billbartuska]

You're doing it wrong.

 

[JackCY]

stretch rubberbands (or anything "stretchy") across the enclosure and put the drives on that.

That's what I do except that I use about 3mm thick rubber filled paracord. Then wrap it around big screws that are otherwise used with my Fractal case to mount drives into rubber "dampers" so they have a large flat head. Pics in Fractal thread for sure.
I would have a hard time getting rubber bands big enough to fit 3.5" HDDs. Plus stiffness is also important. And that drives doesn't slip anywhere especially when moving the case.
Photo you've posted is up side down.