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Acousti Products Anti Vibration Kit

Vibration Killas

AcoustiCase™ Anti Vibration Silicone Case Feet

You might think that there wasn’t a lot that could be said about case feet, but if you where to look more carefully, you would find that there is a lot to be talked about.

I used to have a case that made a lot of vibration, so much so that if it were booting from a CD, the vibrations were audible from the story below. It was about 5 years old and so the case feet were just hard plastic, mainly useless for vibration dampening. The machine in question was an old Pentium 3 with a brand new 7200Rpm HDD and 52x CD-ROM drive. The subsequent vibrations were appalling and could be felt 5 meters away in another room! Like many others, I decided to “shut my pc up!”

Looking around the current market, there don’t seem to be many companies out there who target their products specifically at Quietening your PC. In steps Acousti Products Limited. To quote from their website: “Acousti Products began because we set out to reduce the noise emanating from our own computers!” Since then, they have expanded their product range dramatically and they now produce sound blocking foam, case fans, many kinds of vibration dampeners, and even have cases pre-fitted with acoustic foam, fans and HDD dampeners. Although Acousti Products don’t actually distribute their products themselves, they do supply them to many shops throughout the world. In the UK, you can buy them from Quietpc.com, Kustom PCs, OcUk and Dabs.com, to name a few.

Normal case feet supplied with many OEM computers are made from “hardened silicone”. This saves money for the manufacturer but it also diminishes their vibration dampening ability. AcoustiCase™ Anti-vibration case feet are, however made from “softened silicone” thus they have a better dampening ability. This also, unfortunately makes them much more expensive than normal case feet. At £3.75 for a pack of 4, it can be hard to justify the purchase.

When installed on the very noisy Pentium 3 system, they seemed to work a treat. The system sits on carpet flooring and the vibrations were greatly diminished. The sound of vibrations could no longer be heard on the lower story and you could only actually feel the vibrations if you were within 2-4cm of the case feet. Testing the case on a wooden desktop, there could only be felt some very tiny vibrations, definitely something you wouldn’t notice on a day-to-day basis.

The feet seen here are fitted to the offending case

The actual feet themselves are soft to the touch and I have been informed by Acousti Products’ website that they are of Shore A 25° softness and can support up to 22kg (5.5Kg per foot). To aid installation, they have been made self-adhesive so all you need to do is peel away the feet and stick ‘em on. The feet are standard size (1cm tall, 3cm diameter) and will fit on almost any tower case you “throw” at them. They are also available in 2 colours, white and black.

Available in both black and white

Although these case feet are of top quality, they are not aimed at everyone, and they are only designed for the more “extreme” customer. Many people are not bothered by the vibration caused by their case, but for some, vibration and noise can be very off putting. For those to whom a vibration-less environment is key, they fit the job perfectly.

If you can justify the purchase, these feet are great at dampening vibrations. They are very soft, easily installed and can even be carefully peeled off and re-applied to different areas. The drawback is mainly the price. Many people could find a better way to spend £3.75 but for those who really need it, they are a worthwhile purchase.

Overall: 80%
Don't leave us just yet, on the next page we take a look at another of Acousti Product's offerings!

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