Placing a computer on a sub? yay or nay...

[ThA tRiXtA]

Hey guys, just a quick simple question.

I recently bought a new computer desk, but it is a lot smaller than my old one. I used to have my computer tower sitting in an enclosure built into the desk meant for it.

My new desk doesn't have that, but I do have my klipsch promedia sub sitting beside the desk and I am pretty sure that the tower could sit on top of it.

MY two concerns are obviously vibration affecting the hard drives, and secondly the magnetic field from the 2 8" woofers also may wreak havoc on the hard drives... any thoughts on this?

This sub really doesn't kick hard and doesn't move around, it's more the magnetic field interacting with the hard drives that worries me... hard drives write data using magnets if I am understanding correctly?

Thanks all.

 

[mike c]

nay

im more worried about the vibrations no matter how small will surely affect something on the pc

 

[KozyEmilio]

i didnt realize about the magnets on the speakers :S i have my front speaker of my Onkyo s5100 speaker on my computer tower do you think this is bad???

 

[Cpt.America]

probably wouldnt worry about the magnets... but i would worry about the vibration.

 

[j_garcia]

ARE YOU PEOPLE NUTS? Your hard disc is a MAGNETIC STORAGE device...it should never be put anywhere near a magnetic field. I wouldn't worry too much about most other items in the PC, but your hard disc could potentially be erased if it is too close to the magnetic field. Having said that, with a small magnet, it would need to be fairly close and unshielded for it to be an instant problem; in other words: you would have found out the hard way already.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hey guys, just a quick simple question.

I recently bought a new computer desk, but it is a lot smaller than my old one. I used to have my computer tower sitting in an enclosure built into the desk meant for it.

My new desk doesn't have that, but I do have my klipsch promedia sub sitting beside the desk and I am pretty sure that the tower could sit on top of it.

MY two concerns are obviously vibration affecting the hard drives, and secondly the magnetic field from the 2 8" woofers also may wreak havoc on the hard drives... any thoughts on this?

This sub really doesn't kick hard and doesn't move around, it's more the magnetic field interacting with the hard drives that worries me... hard drives write data using magnets if I am understanding correctly?

Thanks all.

I think that is asking for trouble. Vibration would not be good for the computer. Speakers vary in their stray magnetic fields. A hard drive is a magneto optical device, a strong magnetic field in the area of a hard drive, certainly could cause problems.

 

[ThA tRiXtA]

Ok, I guess I am back to the drawing board as I am not interested in sitting it on the carpeted floor... I'll build a stand or something.

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[OttoMatic]

A hard drive is a magneto optical device

FWIW, it's not an optical device... It's just magnetic.

There is some concern to be had about the magnetic fields and the hard drive. However, hard drives are very susceptible to vibe, and vibe can cause a number of different failures. That would be my primary concern with putting a PC on a sub.

 

[GlocksRock]

I have my media PC sitting right next to a Def Tech BP7001SC tower and it's fine, the vibrations and magnetic field(s) haven't had any type of ill effect on the pc whatsoever, and the computer has 2 hard drives in it, both are fine.

 

[OttoMatic]

I have my media PC sitting right next to a Def Tech BP7001SC tower and it's fine, the vibrations and magnetic field(s) haven't had any type of ill effect on the pc whatsoever, and the computer has 2 hard drives in it, both are fine.

Surely the case is that most of the time it will be fine. However, exposing drives to vibe is always a bad idea. It only takes one off track write to ruin and adjacent sector, which hopefully does not contain critical information for your OS.

Same with heat. Drives will work for a long time in all types of conditions, but minimizing heat will also prolong their lives.

 

[GlocksRock]

The passive radiator is facing the pc, not the actual sub, so I'm sure that helps, but I wouldn't be too worried about it... look at how some people treat their laptops and many never have a problem with their hard drives, even though they seem to get jarred around quite a bit. Just do regular backups of your important files, prefferably to an external drive and you should be ok in the event something does fail.

 

[phlakvest]

Magnetic fields not an issue.
Harddrives have their own "protective" magnetic field created by two neodium magnets.

I would be slightly worried about the vibration. Most the internal connectors inside the computer use friction to hold them inplace. They can work themselves loose eventually.

Not to mention the sub will probably rattle things in the case and make less than desirable noise.


If you decide to try it though. I would recomend opening it up and checking the cables every month or so untill your convinced they wont rattle loose.

 

[OttoMatic]

many never have a problem with their hard drives

True, but remember that "many" is the operative word here. Some do have problems with vibe induced issues, and if that "some" includes "you", I bet you'd be singing a different tune.

Just do regular backups of your important files

Yeah, backups will definitely fix data loss problems in the event of hard drive failure. Note that these vibe conditions won't necessarily cause your entire drive to fail, but they can cause intermittent data loss -- even a single sector written incorrectly could cause your system to fail (perhaps obviously/catastrophically or perhaps in a more subtle, infuriating fashion; the drive doesn't have to be completely "dead" to have incurred a failure of one sort or another).

Hey, I still carry my laptop around by the corner when it's on, mostly because I don't care about the data on that drive. I know it's a risk. Of course, anyone can do whatever they want, but if it's desired to NOT lose data, then I recommend minimizing the conditions that are known, factual causes of hard drive failure (again, failure does not have to be utterly catastrophic). Hard drive are incredible, electro-mechanical devices, but they are rather fragile.

That's just my opinion as someone who's been engineering hard drives for almost a decade now.

 

[GlocksRock]

True, but remember that "many" is the operative word here. Some do have problems with vibe induced issues, and if that "some" includes "you", I bet you'd be singing a different tune.

Possibly, but how would I know my drive failed from vibration... I wouldn't. So I would just RMA it and get a diff. drive.

I've had hard drives fail after only a few months, and they were just sitting in a desktop seeing normal to light use... so I'll take my chances. The stuff that's on my media PC I don't really care that much about, since I have all the same music on my regular pc upstairs, and the rest of the stuff is just software that can be reinstalled... I know this isn't the case for everyone, but if your sub doesn't vibrate that much, I wouldn't worry too much about it, or if you really are worried, put something between the sub and pc to dampen the vibrations.

 

[Cruise Missile]

Solid state hard drives. Not only will your computer run faster, you can shake 'em till the cows come home with no worries. Your pc would probally fall apart first.

 

[jonnythan]

ARE YOU PEOPLE NUTS? Your hard disc is a MAGNETIC STORAGE device...it should never be put anywhere near a magnetic field. I wouldn't worry too much about most other items in the PC, but your hard disc could potentially be erased if it is too close to the magnetic field. Having said that, with a small magnet, it would need to be fairly close and unshielded for it to be an instant problem; in other words: you would have found out the hard way already.

You are greatly, greatly overstating the issue here. It takes a really strong magnetic field to affect your hard drive - orders of magnitude stronger than anything a speaker driver will output from a foot or more away.

Besides, most speakers these days are shielded anyway.

I'd be wary of putting one on a sub because the consistent vibrations may loosen screws and so forth. But the vibrations won't really hurt anything, including the hard drive.

 

[ddawg1130]

You are greatly, greatly overstating the issue here. It takes a really strong magnetic field to affect your hard drive - orders of magnitude stronger than anything a speaker driver will output from a foot or more away.

Besides, most speakers these days are shielded anyway.

I'd be wary of putting one on a sub because the consistent vibrations may loosen screws and so forth. But the vibrations won't really hurt anything, including the hard drive.

My logitech z5500s came with a warning attached saying to not put the sub within 2 feet of a computer as the magnetic field might effect it. Now is 2ft probably a generous amount? yes. But still I'm not planning on testing that.

However, I would be worried about the vibration. Simply because a hard drive functions by having a "needle" that is suspended very close to the surface of the disc and can detect a change in magnetic field. Any vibration can cause that needle to collide with the disc which is spinning (for most desktops) at 7200rpm or 120 times a second, so pretty damn fast. These collisions will constantly damage the hard drive and can shorten its lifespan.

However, despite having said all that, if your willing to risk the magnetic field then i'd say go for it. My bet though would be that you would get annoyed pretty quick cause chances are something on/in the pc would vibrate/rattle as a result of sitting on the sub.

 

[Alex2507]

This is arguably not a real sub but it has been sitting right on top of my case for about a year:

http://reviews.cnet.com/pc-speakers/harman-kardon-soundsticks-ii/4505-3179_7-30706630.html

I don't use it much but the magnet part is always a magnet.
Before I put it there I asked a guy who went to some sort of computer classes if it was okay.

 

[Shivers]

Do not do it, only bad come from doing so...

 

[scott911]

I wouldn't have participated to this conversation, but it just occured to me that I had a laptop sitting on top of a medium sized full range speaker for a year or two... It was passing through audio to my reciever - files were on another computer in basement.

If I had thought this through, I'm sure I would have decided against the risk - but this thread reserected the memory... computer's still fine.

That said though, it's a tower... just put in on the floor somewhere.