N3051M
i actually had a look at that site
Have you noticed that despite all the mods that folks seem to do, relatively few try to isolate vibrating or noisey parts. Instead they still use the same drive mounts etc. Well it occurred to me that by cutting out some disks of neoprene rubber from the floppy cake trays that we could overcome the vibration problems, rather like making engine mounts. The trick is to have a neoprene disk on either side of the drive mount cage, with a smaller disk in the hole and in that a small collar so that the screw/bolt passes first through a washer (smaller than the neoprene disk), then through the collar, then through the last neoprene disk between the cage and the drive. The idea being that neither the screw not the drive touches anything buy neoprene.
The same thing could be achieved by using grommets but getting grommets small enough and inserting them would be very fiddly and i reckon it is of more use to have a largish area of neoprene between the drive and the cage; this will give a better dampening effect over a greater surface area, plus less chance of wearing out as neoprene seems a lot tougher than grommet material.
As for cutting the disks and the holes. One of the cheap leather punches works well - the sort that you can use on paper and cardboard which has a rotating wheel with different sized tips. The tool is used like a pair of pliers. They are often found in the cheap tool bin. As for the larger disks between 1 cm and 1.5 cm's i thought of using a wad cutter - it's a type of punch.
Oh, the little collars you can buy at electronics shops as spacers, they only need to be 2 or 3 mm high though it depends on the thickness of the neoprene you can find and the cage wall thickness. In my case, pun intended, i am still tossing up between using an existing cage extracted from another case or using wood. If wood, then it ought to be hardwood rather than pine, for obvious reasons in terms of wear and tear and drilling clean firm holes.
If wood, then the cage would need to be slightly different in that additional neoprene could be used along the runners. Not sure about this yet.
Oh, something i came across the other day was in relation to venting the case and that was the use of baffles to quiten the airflow without lessening the volume output. Rather like what you find in a car's exhaust system. Most of you would have heard the difference between a car with a muffler on and one without a muffler or fitted with a straight through muffler. Well, it would appear that the same thing applies to a computer case, which was something i hadn't thought of but it makes sense.
Another point relating to the parallels bewteen exhausting a computer system and a cars engine is what happens when the exhaust system gets leaks. Have you ever heard a leaky exhaust system? It occurs to me that the same thing appliies to all those holes in a computer case where all the bits and pieces fit together, we are just used to all the noise and i am wondering if we actually need to put up with it?
Hey, let me know if you think i am just burbling. Also, please let me know if i am talking a load of garbage because sonetimes i get what i think are good ideas that turn out to be a load of rubbish
Also, please let me know if this is of any interest to you as i think and fiddle my way through things.
Once i get really underway i must plug in the camera though i am not sure what quality the pictures will be.
