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Review on πŸ’ͺ Enhance Performance with Akust HDD Hard Drive Anti Vibration Screw Kit - 8 PCS Blue by Lamar Marshall

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Server? mugged? NAS? WD red? Continue reading.

First of all, don't expect it to be perfect for your business. Also, don't expect a screw to fit your product perfectly. Just accept it. Every case I had had a slightly different implementation. So if you're afraid to drill a hole or go to your local hardware store to buy some screws, just use what you have or buy something direct from your case manufacturer. . I can't take any stars off for that because I think it's ok. There are two main reasons you should be concerned with them: Noise issues Vibration, the most important vibration when spinning a hard drive in a server If you are using multiple drives in the same cage or hot-swap as part of a RAID array and you want vibration most of all minimize, then you have surely read all the contradicting information on the Internet. However, it is clear that rotational vibration effects affect seek time, hard drive lifespan, etc., and the problem increases as more drives move at once. For this reason, WD Reds, for example, does not recommend using more than 8 drives in an array at the same time. They want you to be able to afford the more expensive corporate options with better clearances. However, this is a somewhat vague subject and there is little direct technical information or generally accepted practice here. I had to do a lot of digging and research myself to find the right solution. Noise reduction doesn't necessarily mean the vibration issue is mitigated or properly managed, so I can't use that as the sole indicator. Finally, if you want to protect enterprise or NAS drives. On a home server or raid array I would settle for these Akust items, either these or 16 PCs available here: Akust HDD Anti-Vibration Screw Kit, 16-Pack, Blue. These are the jacks I decided to use in my own system after trying half a dozen different Amazon sellers. They have been renamed the EAR Grommets (visit their website for a range of specs, information and graphics explaining their functions). An important advantage is the shape of the screw and the distinctive blue color. The Silent PC website also published a review about it a while ago. When you hold these and other common fakes in your hands, the differences in quality and materials become clear. Additionally, black and other color options have distinctive manufacturing process markings that are not visible on EAR jacks. I've attached an image so you can better distinguish the EAR from the Lamptron, Silenx, Lian Li and other cheap rubber counterparts. Will it save my hard drives? I'm not sure. But I can quantify the difference in latency and performance under load in a raid array on a ZFS server (small but definitely obvious - your mileage may vary depending on many factors). That's enough for me to justify a $10-$15 investment. I feel slightly better with Hitachi SATA drives than higher end NRE SAS drives. Hope this helps those who want to minimize server case hard drive vibrations! Read some EAR info here: [.] There are many other published articles you can find with a quick Google search.

Pros
  • Regular Price
Cons
  • Security