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Sound deadening foam

bigdogchris

bigdogchris

Fully [H]
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
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Ok. I switched back to wd6400aaks raid 0 and it's kinda whiny, where 1 drive I couldn't hear, 2 is audible. I was thinking of putting some 1/4 foam on my side panels, at the bottom/top and maybe some at the front of the case.

Question is,

Has anyone noticed a temperature increase from doing this, even if it's not blocking airflow?
 
you will most likely experience a temperature increase in the case, due to heat not being dissipated as easily through the case walls.

The foam will act as an insulator. However, I wouldn't discount its use. You might find that the reduction in noise is worth the small temperature increase.

Only one way to find out! Do it!
 
Before you do that, see if the sound is reduced if you isolate the drive from the case - just take it out and hold it in your hand while it runs (ground yourself and handle the side opposite the circuit board just to be safe). If it is significantly quieter, then you need some kind of vibration isolation mounts for the drive. That can be just some silicone rubber washers (I think that's what they're made of) between the drive and its support. It might be easier to do this if the drive is in a 5 1/4" bay rather than a tight 3.5" bay.

If it really is the drive itself, then insulating the case may be tricky. I wouldn't worry about heat - the case is cooled by air flow, not conduction through the walls. However, you'll need some sound deadening material, not just an arbitrary foam. The problem is that the sound will find its way out, so you have to make sure you block the sound around the drive and not just on the sides of the case. ISTR that if there's a 10% opening, the sound energy is little reduced. You'd have to create some baffles and force cooling air through. If the sound is significantly directed away from the drive, you might be able to avoid this by just preventing its reflection.
 
I'm actually looking into doing this too... Where are you going to get your foam from?
 
You could try just putting the foam around the sides of the drive. That would keep airflow on the top.
 
You could buy a drive silencer such as the Scythe Quiet Drive, or you can decouple the drive from resonating with the case.

To decouple, use a device (or make your own) similar the NoVibes Noise Magic III. Basically, you want to suspend the drive.

Adding sounds dampening material is a very involved process. I speak from experience as I just added such material to my P182 this weekend, and it took about 7 hours to get the entire inside of the case perfectly fitted. I will post some pictures later on.

I would recommend checking out silent pc review's website for a lot of great information on such topics.
 
Oh, and two great places to get the acoustic dampening material:

acousticpc.com
frozencpu.com

look for the AcoustiPak product ($50 for enough material to do your entire case) or the offbrand ones which sell for closer to $20.
 
You could buy the undercoat for trucks/cars which is a spray on.

for cars I know we used to buy the "generic" dynamat (aka ice block or something like that) from home depot but unless you need a LOT then the other options are acceptable.
 
Michael Daly said:
Conduction is negligible compared to air flow.
Click to expand...

Like I said, the rise in temperature due to retained heat from the insulation will be small. But, it will be there.

Looking at empirical data, foam definitely makes a difference. (although, the difference is small, which I said in my first post)

The foam definitely acts as an insulator.

If you can show me some good sound insulating foam (for high frequencies- not just adding mass to the panels to prevent resonance) that doesn't act as thermal insulation, by all means, show it to me.

edit:

also, some posts above give good advice. However, it should be noted that PCs suffer from two types of noise (typically):

- High frequency (fans, hard drive crunching, etc)
- Vibration (fans/disks off balance, vibrating, etc)

To reduce the amount of high frequency noise you hear, some kind of foam-type product is undoubtedly the best.

To reduce vibration/resonance, you must either:

A: Provide an elastic damper* between the two vibrating components, thus deadening the resultant noise.

B: Change the natural frequency of the vibrating component by adding mass.

Dynamat, an overpriced "sound deadening" material used in the car audio industry, for example, exists in several variants. It adds mass (addressing vibration and resonance) but some of the newer product lines also have some kind of foam lining, that will isolate high frequency wave forms. (road noise is high frequency)

Be sure to address both high frequency noise and vibration. High frequency noise isolation will probably increase your case temperature, albeit not by much (which is what I said in my first post).

*by damper, I mean a physical isolator with elastic properties. However, you could introduce damping into the system to change its dynamic properties- and it might not vibrate that much at all. That's way beyond the scope of this post though. For simplicity, adding mass to change the natural frequency and effecting the damping in the overall system is probably as far as you'll go.

The subject of the damping of structural components is highly complex, and still not well understood in several fields- although there are generally acceptable industry practices that seem to fit the empirical data rather well.
 
Tool seems to know what he/she's talking about. High and Low frequency sources of noise are both serious problems when it comes to PC silencing. Most silencing mats will attenuate high frequency noises, and by their bulk, deaden vibration and low frequency transmission. There's only 1 major problem... Wherever air flows, noise flows.

Fan openings will almost always negate the benefits from most sound absorbing foams if:
- There are no obvious vibrations
- You're not using an extensive amount of material to form a "muffler" for fans (A very good form of sonic insulation, where a chamber is made on the outside of a fan, lined with low density "eggcarton" foam).


However, I've found time and time again, the cheapest way to achieve a good sound barrier costs only 3$ a square foot. Dynamat works fine, but why pay 16$ for 1.5sqft of the stuff? Get a 12x12" stick on vinyl tile from Home Depot, then an 89c 12x12" section of cheap utility carpet. Glue them where required (carpet goes over the tile).

This adds both high and low density protection with a large surface area (from the carpet pile) to reduce vibrations.

However, Tool, I disagree that using foam hurts case temperatures. Much data has been collected evaluating the efficiency of various case materials, from wood to aluminum. Very little difference is noted provided adequate airflow is maintained.
 
yes, perhaps I was arguing the wrong point.

I apologize to all.

If you have proper airflow, the difference in heat retained by the sound insulation will be very, very small.

However, if you don't have proper airflow to begin with, the sound insulation will magnify that existing problem greatly.

sorry for the confusion
 
Arcygenical said:
Tool seems to know what he/she's talking about.
Click to expand...

thanks. (I'm a guy, btw)

I actually design buildings/structures to resist dynamic loading, for a living. (I'm a structural blast engineer, and deal with various loadings- high intensity, low duration like TNT or other high explosives would produce and low intensity, long duration, like a vapor cloud explosion would produce. and, everything in between)

Structural dynamics and vibrations are pretty much my forte- although the knowledge of acoustics and related dynamics sort of comes with the territory (especially when you listen to music as much as I do)
 
I have these 8x10 foam sheets I found that are 1/4"thick. I think it's just a generic foam to make your own air filters with. I'm going to the nearest hardware store tomorrow to see if they have more.
 
yeah, I would give that a shot- it depends a lot on the foam density, but you could try various configurations and stuff.

(especially if that stuff is cheap, which it is, if what you're talking about is what I think it is)

you might have a problem with it being not dense enough... you could always compact it somehow too though....

who knows- play with it. cheap mods are the best mods if you ask me (if they work lol)

edit: Like others recommended, make sure to check out http://www.silentpcreview.com/ there's a lot of good information on that site, and a lot of knowledgeable people in this "quiet computer" type niche
 
I figured i'd cover the bottom of the case, and the top. Then glue pieces to the side panels wherever there are no vent holes. Finally I would put a solid piece in the front of the drive bays from the dvd-rom down to the first drive bay.

Its gotta be better than nothing.

On a side note, I know the updated nvidia sata drivers activate the Audible settings for HDD. I installed it and set the number on it to default (255) and rebooted and blue screened, so I had to go into safe mode and do system restore. I guess this is my only option.
 
If it is for filtering air, it's not likely to be very good at sound dampening. Basically, you need something that will absorb the energy in the air. You want something relatively heavy and not very elastic. Home Depot used to sell some carpet underlay that would be a candidate - black and heavy - but they don't seem to carry that any more.

Whatever you do, don't glue anything in until you know it works. Use some bits of two-sided tape or dabs of an easily removed glue (like rubber glue - editor's cement). When you have what you what, then you can glue it with something more or less permanent.
 
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