Xbox 360 quieting mod

While there's no shortage of useful and not-so-useful solutions to keep your Xbox 360 from overheating, there's far fewer options at your disposal to keep the console's loudness down. And for good reason, while the 360's fan isn't the quietest one around, the biggest decibel culprit is the system's irreplaceable DVD-ROM drive, especially when it gets up to full speed in the heat of gameplay. Well, it seems that the folks at Extreme Tech apparently couldn't put up with the racket any longer and cracked open their system in search of a solution. While swapping the drive out for a quieter model wasn't an option, they did find some degree of success by squeezing some rubber washers in between the drive and the motherboard, and padding the whole works in Dynamat sound-dampening material. Obviously, with the same drive in there it's still not going to be whisper quiet, but Extreme Tech did achieve a small but noticeable drop in decibels (about 4 to 5dB). You'll have to decide for yourself if that relative peace and quiet is worth the risk of voiding your warranty.

[GJP303 @ Dec 6th 2006 7:07PM]

You guys don't care about the post, its just advertisement for you website. Quit it and go home!

[Paul @ Dec 6th 2006 4:05PM]

When I first saw the picture I thought all they did was wrap it in duct tape, but I see now that it is sound dampening material.

Overall I would say this is just to much work and risk to just lower the noise by one decibel.

[Wayne D. @ Dec 6th 2006 4:12PM]

www.secondskinaudio.com has lots of products for this kind of thing. Dynamat is actually a poor sound dampener compared to others. A closed cell foam would be a better choice for absorbing whines like motors and fans. The Dynamat is a mass loader and helps with the lower frequency vibrations.

[s0crates82 @ Dec 6th 2006 4:22PM]

5db is a big deal.

Remember, decibels are measured logarithmically, and that the difference between 35 and 38db is -=double=- the volume.

[Michael @ Dec 6th 2006 5:42PM]

Yeah, but human ears _perceive_ a 10 dB difference as a doubling (even though 3 dB is double). So 4-5 dB is a lot when you look at it as a graph, but your ears won't perceive much of a difference.

[Mike @ Dec 6th 2006 4:24PM]

It made it quieter, though I'd be concerend that the dampening material would act as an insulator and damage the drive.

[EnhanceYourCalm @ Dec 7th 2006 12:36PM]

Mike,

Exactly. Given the razor's edge of overheating that even the late-build 360's live on, this sounds like solving one problem and creating another.

[Adam @ Dec 6th 2006 5:37PM]

What are the thermal properties of Dynamat? Would the Dynamat hamper heat dissipation in the console? I would be hesitant to add this to my Xbox without knowing how much heat is expected to dissipate through the sidewalls.

[Tnegg @ Dec 6th 2006 6:02PM]

I guess swapping the HD-DVD drive and the drive with the one in the console is not possible?

[george @ Dec 6th 2006 6:09PM]

Why is it that people think this is a problem? God people love to complain about anything, the only time i ever hear anything is when the game is silent and loading and who cares then. really i never heard any normal person say it bothers them.

[Giltronic @ Dec 6th 2006 6:31PM]

not that i would do this, but 5 db is actually more then twice the sound level.
idiot

[Jon @ Dec 6th 2006 6:53PM]

I am interested in this but I would like to know if this will make the heating issue worse. The 360 really is LOUD.

[farhan @ Dec 6th 2006 7:14PM]

I didn't know that 306's came with a warranty.

[Cooldude @ Dec 6th 2006 7:53PM]

I don't know about you guys, but when I have a disk spinning in my 360 I'm usually playing a game or listening to music. Both of those involve noise, and it doesn't take very much noise to drown out my 360.

[Andrew Lazetera @ Dec 6th 2006 8:16PM]

sound levels double with every 3dB. thats why a car stereo that pushes 130dB (mine) sounds twice as loud as a car stereo that pushes 127dB (my roommates) and this is done with a SPL decibel meter.

so "wow 5dB" is a retarded comment.

[rp @ Dec 6th 2006 8:44PM]

5 dB is generally regarded as highly perceptible and users with loud Xbox's may want to consider performing this mod. That being said, it may nor may not be worth the risk if you can just mask the noise by turning up the tv a little bit. I'd like to see spectral content myself and know more about the testing procedure.
3 dB is generally regarded as only slightly perceptible, and that may be where these arguments are coming from. Anyway, it all depends on spectral content, but that's another issue that I won't get into.
To the guy with the 130 dB car stereo: I guess another way to remove the Xbox noise would be to lose your hearing, right? That must be somewhat painful. If not, I question your testing procedure. Enjoy the music while you can!

[robu @ Dec 7th 2006 10:06AM]

Acousticians of the world now cringe...First off it's DAMPING not Dampening. Dampening is making something wet and not suppression of sound/vibrations.

The operative equation is:
dB(SPL) = 20*log10(Pmeas/Pref), Pref = 20e-6 Pa (Pascals)
So a change from 127 dB to 130 dB means the sound pressure goes from 44.8 Pa to 63.2 Pa.

To add confusion, if the POWER doubles that means 3 dB since that equations is:
dB = 10*log10(Powermeas/Powerref), Powerref = 10^-12 W

With regards to perceived loudness, the rule of thumb is that a 10 dB change in sound pressure level is approximately a doubling in loudness (but this is frequency and amplitude dependent).

For more info see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_pressure_level
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_power_level
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sone

[James @ Dec 7th 2006 11:58AM]

Plastic is an insulator, so adding the dynamat would add little to the heat of the device, the only cooling the device gets its from moving air. Even in total aluminum PC cases, the actual benefit of aluminum dissapating heat was found to be nothing (silentpcreview.com), which is why almost all silent pc cases these days are steel.

[Eric @ May 1st 2007 10:47AM]

"Plastic is an insulator, so adding the dynamat would add little to the heat of the device, the only cooling the device gets its from moving air."

James, Dynamat is not plastic. It's an asphalt-based material that dampens sound by adding mass. In theory, it could insulate the drive by locking in some of the heat generated by the drive.

[Rekrems @ Dec 7th 2006 5:50PM]

We still need a better solution placing sound mat over a jet engine doesn't help that much.

[mase @ Dec 18th 2006 10:31PM]

I just finished this mod and I must say it has reduced the noise a lot! It is much quieter in idle mode and the drive noise is reduced to a whisper-like noise now. I actually sliced the grommets in half and used half a grommet on the top and bottom of the optical drive posts, to reduce noise at both ends. Also I put half-grommets on the 2 plastic alignment spikes on top of the drive. Great mod - I can enjoy movies with much less distracting noise now.

[TMK @ Jun 14th 2007 7:30PM]

Can u use the Second Skin Damplifier instead of Dynamat?
Have heard that this is the best noise and heat insulation product for cars. But can u use it in the Xbox?

[StarkRavenMad @ Jul 6th 2007 1:05PM]

TMK,
Going purely by the spec data posted by both products manufacturers,

Second Skin Damplifier™ (SSD) is 1.5mm thick, has a mass per area of 2.05 kg/m², & Heat Tolerance of 500°F. http://www.secondskinaudio.com/viewproduct.php?id_product=294&category=54

Dynamat Extreme (DE) is 1.7mm thick, has a mass per area of 2.20 kg/m², & is Heat Resistant to 300°F.
http://www.dynamat.com/technical_specs_dynamat_xtreme.html

So, DE is thicker, has higher mass/area, and resists/retains heat less than SSD, according to their own websites.

Most of the noise came from drive spin. It's not too noticeable during loud movies or games, or if the 360 owner is partially deaf (as might be the case with some of these posters). However, if you watch a normal DVD on it with a lot of dialogue and silence, the noise is very noticeable. It's also noticeable on the Dashboard in a quiet media room doing slideshows from your PC. This mod is a lot of work, and you definitely can't send your 360 back in for warranty repairs afterwards, but the noise reduction makes a BIG difference.