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AUDIO RECORDINGS
These recordings were made with a high resolution, lab quality, digital recording
system inside SPCR's own 11
dBA ambient anechoic chamber, then converted to LAME 128kbps encoded MP3s.
We've listened long and hard to ensure there is no audible degradation from
the original WAV files to these MP3s. They represent a quick snapshot of what
we heard during the review.
These recordings are intended to give you an idea of how the product sounds
in actual use — one meter is a reasonable typical distance between a computer
or computer component and your ear. The recording contains stretches of ambient
noise that you can use to judge the relative loudness of the subject. Be aware
that very quiet subjects may not be audible — if we couldn't hear it from
one meter, chances are we couldn't record it either!
The recording starts with 5 to 10 seconds of ambient noise, then 10 second
segments of the drive in the following states: idle, seek with AAM enabled (if
applicable), and seek with AAM disabled (if applicable).
- Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB WD15EADS — Idle: 13 /
Seek (AAM/Normal): 14 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB ST3500418AS — Idle: 18 /
Seek: 19~20 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB ST3500418AS (muffled) — Idle:
16 / Seek: 18 dBA@1m— One
Meter
Comparatives:
- Samsung F2 EcoGreen 500GB HD502HI — Idle: 12 / Seek (AAM):
15 / Seek (Normal): 16 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate Pipeline HD .2 1TB ST31000424CS — Idle: 12 / Seek:
16 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate Pipeline HD .2 500GB ST3500414CS — Idle: 13 / Seek:
13~14 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB WD20EADS — Idle: 13 / Seek
(AAM): 13 / Seek (Normal): 13~14 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate Pipeline HD 500GB ST3500321CS— Idle: 14 / Seek: 15
dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate Pipeline HD Pro 1TB ST31000533CS — Idle: 15 / Seek:
16 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB ST32000542AS — Idle: 15 / Seek:
17 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB WD6400AAKS — Idle: 16 /
Seek (AAM): 16~17 / Seek (Normal): 18~19 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Samsung F1 750GB HD753LJ — Idle: 16 / Seek (AAM): 18~19
/ Seek (Normal): 20~21 dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB ST31500341AS — Idle: 17 / Seek: 19
dBA@1m— One
Meter
- Seagate 7200.11 1TB ST31000340AS — Idle: 18 / Seek: 19 dBA@1m—
One
Meter
- Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB WD1001FALS — Idle: 21 /
Seek (AAM): 21 / Seek (Normal): 25 dBA@1m— One
Meter
CONCLUSIONS
The 1.5TB Western Digital Caviar Green is one of the most impressive
drives to pass through our labs in a long time. Not only is one of the quietest
hard drives we've tested, amongst 3.5" drives, its power consumption and
vibration levels are unmatched. The entire Green series is excellent in all
three of these areas, but with its current market price of only $110, the 1.5TB
variant has the best capacity to dollar ratio. If you need a quiet, efficient,
big, but not terribly fast drive, for say an enclosure, NAS device, or server,
the WD15EADS fits the bill perfectly and will stretch your hard earned dollar
the farthest.
The 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 was slightly louder than our
1TB and 1.5TB 7200.11
samples due to its hollow-sound acoustics of its casing. This problem counterbalances
any noise advantage of a single spinning disc. We were able to suppress most
of this annoyance by pressing a small weight against the top cover, and the
end result was a fairly decent sounding if not exceptionally quiet drive. However,
it had surprisingly low level of vibration, which has real world value. Hard
drives are most commonly hard-mounted and unlike other 7200rpm models, the 500GB
7200.12 will transfer very little vibration to the surrounding structure and
as a result, the overall system will sound much better. In addition, its performance
was quite strong — not as high as a Velociraptor
or a quality solid state drive, but pretty good for $55. It would be a decent
choice if you wanted to eke out as much performance as possible from a budget
system.
Many thanks to Western
Digital and Seagate
for the review samples.
* * *
SPCR Articles of Related Interest:
SPCR's Hard Drive Testing
Methodology
SPCR's Recommended Hard Drives
More
500GB notebook drives: Seagate 7200.4 & Hitachi 5K500.B
Scythe
Quiet Drive 2.5
5900rpm
Seagate Hard Drives: Barracuda LP, Pipeline HD .2
Samsung
F2 EcoGreen HD502HI: Silent 500GB 3.5" HDD
WD
Caviar Green 2TB & Seagate Pipeline HD 500GB
Momentus
5400.6 & Scorpio Blue: Seagate & WD 2.5" HDDs at 500GB
* * *
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