HDD bay Bungee mod

G-Dubs · 29 Apr 2011 at 21:51

Nice simple mod this one.

I'm not claiming originality here, just thought i'd share.

I used it as part of my "car boot" build to mount a Laptop HDD into a conventional HDD bay, but it would also work well with a SDD

Aside from the HDD rack and the HDD you're intending to mount the only other things you're going to need are some black cord elastic and a pair of scissors

Simply tie one end of the elastic to the back end of the HDD rack and then thread it back and forth across your rack being careful to keep it all on the same level. Don't cross the elastic over itself like you would if lacing shoes. keep the elastic pulled tight but not too tight as you're still going to need a bit of slack in there. When you reach the other tie it off nice and neat.

Having done this insert one end of the HDD or SDD between the first parallels of elastic crossing the elastic over the HDD to in order to give support to the drive. Had to explain but the pictures show what I mean

Job Done

EniGmA1981 · 30 Apr 2011 at 07:11

Shame you don't have room to mount to full size hdd like that too

I got my two hdd's mounted like that but using regular elastic bands rather than bungee cord - I bought bungee cord but it was too thick lol so I replaced it with a couple of elastic bands as I couldn't be bothered to wait for postage!!
(works too - no vibration noise! Just gotta make sure they don't decide to snap lol)

freddie64 · 30 Apr 2011 at 08:39

Nice guide G-Dubs.

Just to add, for regular HDD you can use the same method in the 5.25" drive bays, it really does work well.

Jokester · 30 Apr 2011 at 08:50

Stickied.

G-Dubs · 30 Apr 2011 at 09:04

Cheers Jokester

Beerbaron · 30 Apr 2011 at 09:07

do you notice any difference using the bungee cords on the ssd as it has no moving parts?

EniGmA1981 · 30 Apr 2011 at 10:09

What thickness cord would you suggest I use for mechanical HDD's dubs? Same thickness you used there should work ok shouldn't it? What is it, 2mm?

Tealc · 30 Apr 2011 at 10:31

Not to steal G-Dubs' thunder or anything but just to show there are different ways to soft mount a hard drive or two.

Here's mine. This is an Antec P183 drive bay which would normally fit 4 Hard drives mounted vertically and it just gives enough room for 3 drives mounted horizontally.

I used slightly thicker bungee cord at 4mm (actually 4.6mm) and also used some appropriate sized P-clips.

I threaded the bungee cord through the available holes (used to hold the silicone grommets) in the drive bay chassis and secured at one end with a knot and a cable tie to stop it backing out through the hole.

I secured some of the p-clips with cable ties to aid in holding the hard drive up but needn't have bothered as they are extremely tight and more than a match for a hard drive.

This took a Samsumg F3 1TB's vibration noise from thrumming through my living room to a silent whirr of a 7200rpm drive.

For a previous case's elastic mount I had to drill holes in my case as I had it suspended where a drive bay used to be.

Not pretty but it worked.

Dokinator · 30 Apr 2011 at 11:45

That is just the best idea I have seen for a while

Good Job

PhillyDee · 30 Apr 2011 at 12:26

I personally used Cable ties to secure the ends of the bungee cord. Tying knots in it can be a bit iffy!

No need to now I have an SSD!

G-Dubs · 30 Apr 2011 at 15:27

Damn you tealc, that's the last time I spend ages teaching you how to solder LEDs

Seriously though no worries, if I can get a bit of thing going where others share there ideas and methods then all the better

I really like the top one, looks very minimalist

Bottom one though....Dodgy....That's all i'm saying....Dodgy

Tealc · 30 Apr 2011 at 16:52

I know. You should have seen the one in the 5 1/4" drive bay though, it was epically bad and messy. Originally I had both WD500AAKS drives up there but they got too hot.

That's one thing you have to consider is that Hard drives do dissipate some heat and if they aren't in airflow you may get problems. I knocked a good 15 degrees of that bottom drive having it stuck next to an incoming grille, even though it had no fan in it.

They have a similar thread on SPCR where people have posted their individual solutions.

Thanks for the kind words regarding the top one. I did ask the seller if they had the bungee cord in orange but they said the closest they had was red. Shame. Will have to check again though as I will have a 2TB Green drive to suspend soon.

Somnambulist · 3 May 2011 at 14:46

Got a link to that SPCR thread? I'd like to see a bungee solution to a server case or something where there's a lot of drives, as if I ever did something like an unRaid build, I'd be looking to try and keep it as quiet as possible.

Marvin · 3 May 2011 at 16:51

Beerbaron said:
do you notice any difference using the bungee cords on the ssd as it has no moving parts?

An SSD makes no more noise than RAM (IE: none), so there's no need to do it from a silence point of view, but if you need somewhere to mount it and you don't have an adaptor, then it's a nice, easy, cheap method. Though for an SSD you could use string for the same effect if you really want it to be that cheap...

Great thread though. Maybe it'd be nice to get a general guides thread where only guides can be posted, not comments. Obviously it'd require a bit of moderation, but it could be a great success. Filled with things like spraying cases, classic mods like the drive bay stealthing and silence/performance mods/how-tos.

G-Dubs · 3 May 2011 at 21:09

Marvin said:
An SSD makes no more noise than RAM (IE: none), so there's no need to do it from a silence point of view, but if you need somewhere to mount it and you don't have an adaptor, then it's a nice, easy, cheap method. Though for an SSD you could use string for the same effect if you really want it to be that cheap...

Its Actually an old HDD from a Lappy, which I do mention so does benefit from the bungee mod. I agree no real point with SSD

Marvin said:
Great thread though. Maybe it'd be nice to get a general guides thread where only guides can be posted, not comments. Obviously it'd require a bit of moderation, but it could be a great success. Filled with things like spraying cases, classic mods like the drive bay stealthing and silence/performance mods/how-tos.

We asked for this a while back, and I think it was looked at. Tealc has done some excellent tutorials on LED mods which could really do with their own section. I've also put up a real simple fan painting guide. I think good though to have comments sections as it's handy for people to be able to say " yeah that's good but have you tried this?" sort of thing. It all adds to the sauce as thay say.

Marvin · 3 May 2011 at 23:20

G-Dubs said:
Its Actually an old HDD from a Lappy, which I do mention so does benefit from the bungee mod. I agree no real point with SSD

That was only really directed at Beerbaron as he asked about SSD improvements.

G-Dubs said:
We asked for this a while back, and I think it was looked at. Tealc has done some excellent tutorials on LED mods which could really do with their own section. I've also put up a real simple fan painting guide. I think good though to have comments sections as it's handy for people to be able to say " yeah that's good but have you tried this?" sort of thing. It all adds to the sauce as thay say.

Hence the moderation. Basically cutting down on the 'that's nice' kind of comments, limiting it to constructive criticism/improvements/new ideas only.

It would be good to see all those things in a thread though. The 'How to...' thread perhaps. Be good to see the fan hole cutting guide someone else posted too go in there.

Not going to happen though; it isn't an area where OCUK can make money. /cynic mode

chrisarm · 4 May 2011 at 00:46

Great work MacGyver, looks great

G-Dubs · 4 May 2011 at 22:17

@Marvin

yeah but for every fan hole there's a fan!!

Tealc · 4 May 2011 at 23:11

...and for every hard drive bungee mod there's a hard drive.

Amraam · 10 May 2011 at 15:33

EniGmA1981 said:
Shame you don't have room to mount to full size hdd like that too

I got my two hdd's mounted like that but using regular elastic bands rather than bungee cord - I bought bungee cord but it was too thick lol so I replaced it with a couple of elastic bands as I couldn't be bothered to wait for postage!!
(works too - no vibration noise! Just gotta make sure they don't decide to snap lol)

Be carefull as the rubber bands tend to dry up and become very brittle with heat and age.