drive beat frequency in RAID setup, anything to worry about?

[gavin]

Hi all,

I have recently installed 2 new drives to create a RAID 0 setup. Since
doing so I hear this "throbbing" sound and am pretty sure its caused by
the two drives spinning at slightly different speeds creating a beat
frequency... (correct me if I am wrong)

I have moved the disks about the case a little but all that does is
change the sound a little, it does not go away...

I can live with the noise (I think) since I have music on anyway most
of the time! However, can this throbbing sound cause any problems for
my disks? I *think* drives can take a fair bit of vibration but I
wanted some other opinions

cheers :-D

 

[Peter]

I have recently installed 2 new drives to create a RAID 0 setup. Since

doing so I hear this "throbbing" sound and am pretty sure its caused by
the two drives spinning at slightly different speeds creating a beat
frequency... (correct me if I am wrong)

Are you sure that disks are causing it? Try to disconnect one of them at a
time and listen again.

I have moved the disks about the case a little but all that does is
change the sound a little, it does not go away...

I can live with the noise (I think) since I have music on anyway most
of the time! However, can this throbbing sound cause any problems for
my disks?

Only if you wack them hard to stop that annoying noise.

I *think* drives can take a fair bit of vibration but I
wanted some other opinions

What computer case do you use?
Try to utilise HD mounting rails with small rubber shock absorbers.

 

[gavin]

yeah pretty sure its the drives, seems fine when only one is
connected...

my case is just a standard tower case... I have seen some rubber
attachments for mounting disks in 5inch bays that are supposed to stop
vibration but it would mean cramming both drives up top and I want to
keep decent airflow...

are there any shock absorbing solutions that would work with the
standard 3.5inch mounting region in the case?

 

[Peter]

yeah pretty sure its the drives, seems fine when only one is

connected...

my case is just a standard tower case... I have seen some rubber
attachments for mounting disks in 5inch bays that are supposed to stop
vibration but it would mean cramming both drives up top and I want to
keep decent airflow...

are there any shock absorbing solutions that would work with the
standard 3.5inch mounting region in the case?

That depends on how much space you have there. If drives are fit tight and
screw directly to the metal chassis, there is not much you can do. In that
case I would still explore to put one of the drives in 5.25" bay, using
shock absorber rails.

 

[Rod Speed]

my case is just a standard tower case... I have
seen some rubber attachments for mounting disks
in 5inch bays that are supposed to stop vibration
but it would mean cramming both drives up top

Not necessarily, you may well only need to move
one of them to the lowest 5" bay to stop the problem.

and I want to keep decent airflow...

Are you sure you are getting that in the 3.5" drive stack ?

You should still get decent airflow in the 5" bay stack unless
you have a fan that blows over the drives in the 3.5" bay stack.

are there any shock absorbing solutions that would work
with the standard 3.5inch mounting region in the case?

Havent noticed any and its hard see that its possible
given there is no space between the drive and the bay wall.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi all,

I have recently installed 2 new drives to create a RAID 0 setup. Since
doing so I hear this "throbbing" sound and am pretty sure its caused by
the two drives spinning at slightly different speeds creating a beat
frequency... (correct me if I am wrong)

You get to hear die difference in the frequencies. Same effect used
to tune a sting instrument using a tuning fork, e.g..

I have moved the disks about the case a little but all that does is
change the sound a little, it does not go away...

It will not, unless you do good mechanical decoupling.

The thing that would have been nice is if these drives had a
''sync'' pin, that you can connect together for all drives
and then they run syncronously. That would eliminate the effect.
Unfortunately nobody seems to care enough.

I can live with the noise (I think) since I have music on anyway most
of the time! However, can this throbbing sound cause any problems for
my disks? I *think* drives can take a fair bit of vibration but I
wanted some other opinions

The effect is not strong enough to cause problems if the drives
are healthy. They are designed to be used in ''packs''. Some
cases give you one or two ''cages'' to mount three disks in.
There is no indication of this coausing problems with vibration.

Arno

 

[zjustice]

i had this a while ago - samsung 250 & 160 sata

changed it to 2 * sata 250 so the frequency matches and job sorted