Optical drives are one of the primary noise generators in computer systems, along with the fans and the hard disk drives. The European voluntary eco label requires systems to be at most 5.5 BA in the operating mode. Tests have shown optical drives by themselves in the operating mode to have acoustic levels ranging from 4.1 to 5.5. Even though the majority of the drives by themselves comply with the European eco label, the sound power levels are alarmingly high because it is not taking other noise sources in a PC system into account. Drive manufacturers are not required to publish acoustic data. Speeds are continually increasing. Hard disk drives acoustic emissions increase with speed. The present paper provides a baseline and establishes trends for optical drives. An anechoic chamber was used in this investigation to measure the sound power levels of a variety of drives. CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives were used for the experiments, following current market trends as well as representing existing consumer drives. In total, 48 drives were tested. Three of each type (16) were tested, ranging in speed from 8x to 40x; 36 drives were CD-RW drives and 12 drives were DVD-ROM drives. Each drive was tested in both idle and operating mode when tested alone as well as inside a micro tower PC system. Additional investigative tests were conducted with narrowband spectra on the loudest and quietest drives to explore drive rotational speed (RPM). The testing demonstrated that CD-RW and DVD-ROM drive acoustic emissions are a concern. A database was established with acoustic data characterizing a wide variety of CD-RW and DVD drives. The acoustic baseline was completed and trends were extracted.
