How will the vendor react if you start shaking hard drives

Well a bit off-topic, but I promised to give my findings concerning the Silentmaxx rev 2.0 HD enclosures. First off all I must say i'm a bit disappointed..they didn't reduce the whining noise (at close range) much..but luckily the HD seek noises have almost vanished. After three weeks of use i do can feel the effect of using the Silentmaxx enclosures. There appers to be far less strain on my ears than before (the pc-case is sitting right next to me). Apparently some indaudible noises are reduced. So it does help. But i don't think it would be an excellent buy..the price/performance is mediocre. Although with other drives, especially the noisy ones, the noise reduction will be greater. So it depends one what drive to silence..personally I think a self made HD dampener (with foam) will be a better choice for the samsung SP1614 drives.

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): No Whine
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): Whine
Model Number: SP1614C
Supplier: local store, Montreal, Canada
Month of purchase: 2004.10
Motor: JVC (stamp)
Revision: A
Date of Manufacturing: 2004.07

I got two identical drives (wrt motor model and noise), both in the same case (which is damped). Listening to the whine from close I doubt I would hear it even in an undamped case - but (luckily?) my hearing is not exceedingly sensitive.

EDIT: Changed dates to the format everybody else uses here

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): No whine
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): Whine, directional
Model Number: SP1614C
Supplier: CompuSmart
Month of purchase: 2004.12
Motor: NIDEC stamp FDB
Revision: Rev A
Date of Manufacturing: 2004.11
Any other relevant/interesting info: Drive mounted on a Zalman 2HC2 cage, which seems (as pointed out by SPCR) to have little effect on the seek noises and the vibrations. (When the faubackup cron job runs, the whole case would vibrate )

If I put my ear next to the hard drive, I can hear idle noise — a little bit of whine if I put my ears behind the drive (from the sides I can hear just low-frequency hum). This is a very quiet whine compared to the noisy whine produced by the Western Digital drive that I disconnected last month.

It's weird that the "date of manufacturing" seems to say "year, month, day of manufacturing" but there's only year and month

Edit: Following the prescribed format more closely

I have a 80gig spinpoint (SP0802N) that i bought last week from newegg. The stamp on it says "NIDEC" but the drive makes this increadibly annoying high frequency buzzing. I'm not sure if this is the "whining" that people are referring to with the JVC motors. I was wondering if someone could describe the sound. My drive makes a constant buzzing sound. It sounds almost like the buzz from some electronic device though, not something mechanical like a motor. I'm probably going to RMA this to newegg because i can't stand it. I just have the drive directly mounted to my sonata in the drive cage thing. thanks.

Okey.... Im considering the get the Samsung drives... and desperatly trying to find the Nidec motor versions. Although from the looks of this thread maybe I should just make sure it says FDB ??

Are the JVC motors stamped with FDB like the Nidec motors (noisewise)?

I'd really appreciate if someone could clear this up for me. ;)

Ohh and it would be the SP1614C Im considering if it matters.

i am very angry and disappointed right now with samsung and my one year old 1614c drive.

it has developed bad sectors lately and they are increasing by the minute.

very very disappointed and no matter how quiet they are, data integrity is always more important (to me at least).

-_- .... Think I'll stick to the Seagate 7200.7 then ;)

Although I've managed to find a store here in Sweden that would be able to supply me with the 1614C Nidec motors (datorbutiken.com for those intressted)... So is this a common problem ? I once called another store looking for the Nidec motors and he mentioned that the majority of the Samsung drives that were returned were with Nidec motors (although that this could be a coincidence and that they simply have sold more Nidec then JVC), and instead adviced me to pick the Seagate drives since they are as well really quiet while they almost never had people returning them for repair (komplett.se).

Not sure if there really is a link between all of this but it seems kinda risky to be getting the Samsung drives.... Also noticed a lot of other people mentioning on the forum that they've had to replace their Samsung drives due to that very same reason.
Also (from what I remember) they mentioned that these were Nidec motors (although this was mostly to complain that they got JVC motors in return), and I couldn't help thinking that this is more then just a coincidence....

Prehaps Nidec are quieter while JVC are more "stable" ? Or are all Samsung drives likely to develop problems.

Either way unless someone could set my worries about the Samsung drives at ease it seems to be leaning towards Seagate now. :/ ;)

There are several things to consider. For one, you only hear back from people who have problems, those who are happy (like me) are unlikely to post about it. Second, people on these forums are much more likely to run Samsung Nidec motor harddrives than a more "representative" population. If we say for argument's sake that everyone was running Samsung HDs here, then Samsung would be the only brand people would ever report failing . This doesn't mean other drives are more reliable. My impression was that the Spinpoints had a rather good reputation in terms of reliability here.
This is what StorageReview has to say about the Samsung (they don't distinguish between the different motors):

I just received my Spinpoint from Newegg today. Just opened the box and here's my report.

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): No Whine
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): No Whine
Model Number: SP1614C
Supplier: Newegg
Month of purchase: 2005.03
Motor: JVC, Stamped "50111BN P/V80 2D R2 JVC"
Revision: A
Date of Manufacturing: 2005.01
Any other relevant/interesting info: Serial# S01XJ20Y132388. Made in Korea. Has similar vibration to my Maxtor 120G PATA.

Edit: It's installed now. No discernable noise over my other components. I will disconnect my other drives and test further.

I just ordered a 1614C from newegg.
Should come this week.

Pleaseeeeee be NIDEC, pleaseeeee!

hehehhehe....

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 metre away): whine
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): loud whine
Model Number: SP1604N
Supplier: PC World, UK
Month of purchase: 2005.06
Motor: JVC, no fdb stamp, 503188BD P/V80 2D R2
Revision: Rev. A
Date of Manufacturing: darn, forgot to check before taking drive back

Any other relevant/interesting info:

This drive was far more intrusive than my Barracuda 7200.7 200gb. I expected it to be much quieter, but it wasn't. The signs were not promising on start up with a really loud whine (that did get a bit better after initial spin up) that almost reminded me of an old Seagate scsi I had (it was much quieter than that but the spinning up sound had the same "texture"). The whine was clearly audible from 1m away when the Samsung was located in the case, on the included rubber mounts with the Antec 3700bqe, and also when inside an external ide box from around 1m away as well.

It was the most intrusive (if not loudest) thing in the case (standard BQE power supply, arctic cooling cpu fan, seagate drive, standard BQE 12 inch rear fan at rear).

I tried it with AAM, but that didn't make a difference to the whine (as AAM only affects seek noise right?). The Samsung's seeks, even without aam, were quieter than the 7200.7, the one area where it was better, but because the whine was so intolerable it didn't make any difference to me.

The comparison of the noisier Samsungs SPs with the 7200.7 range is important I think for potential buyers. There is alot of info about the difference between the jvc and nidec motors, and other variation between samsungs, but what needs calrifying is exactly how the noisier Samsungs do size up compared to other makes. I initially thought even if I got a JVC motor the drive would still be quieter than my 7200.7 - I was wrong.

Of course, to change the subject a little, when they were both on together I had the "churning effect" - I mention it just in case some drives interact with each other in different ways - but I think it is meant to be about the spin speeds and if you get one 7200 and one 5400 it shoudl be better?

Anyway, the whine proved too much so I took it back to PC World (under 7 days, I think they give you 14) and they refunded me no problem, even though I had opened the pack and told them the drive was working to all intents and purposes (I notice that Comet, a similar kind of retailer, will not refund you if you return a non-faulty product with the pack opened - not sure if they are within UK law to do that but that is what they say - I have found that lots of computer warehouses like Scan and MicroDirect give you a really hard time returning non-faulty (and sometimes faulty) stuff too). I did first ask the man at the returns/repair counter if he could help me find a replacemetn with the right motor but he said he couldn't. Mind you, I stupidly didn't explain to him how easy it is to tell which motor they have, but even if I had I'm not sure PC World are likely to do that kind of thing.

BTW, PCWorld don't have a bad online price for this drive at the moment Mail order companies are cheaper but if you don't live too far away from a PC World branch it might be better for if you have to take it back. To get the online pirce you order online and check the pick up in store option if you want to (don't meant to sound like I'm promoting PC World, have heard lots of horror stories about them, and their prices are usually ridiculous). But of course it is a lottery with the sound, which is why I think I would stick to Seagate or other drives with not as much variation in future (although again I am assuming the other makes don't have as much variation - I don't know, would be interested to hear about it).

If the Samsungs are alot more variable than others, and you can't find a retailer who will "pick" them for you, then how do you justify the risk?

Hello
Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): No
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): No
Model Number: SP0812C
Month of purchase: 2005.06 (almost 2005.07)
Motor: JVC stamp FDB
Revision: Rev. A
Date of Manufacturing: 2005.05

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): no
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): no
Model Number: SP2004c
Supplier: c1computers.co.nz
Month of purchase: July 05
Motor: NIDEC
Revision: A
Date of Manufacturing:
Any other relevant/interesting info:

The only noise i get from it is a whoosing noise...very quiet though...that is with the drive running on the seashell case after i purchased it...wanted to determine if i had a whiny one.

Its like day and night in comparison to my WD800jb (which is now in a portable HDD case for backups. I had them both running sideby side outside the case. Even with the WD suspended in my drive cage...and the Samsung on the seashell...huge difference.

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): Loud Whine
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): Loud Whine
Model Number: SP1614N
Supplier: www.tec-hill.hk.com
Month of purchase: July 2005
Motor: Nidec
Revision: A
Date of Manufacturing: December 2004
Any other relevant/interesting info: Whine apparent with Seasonic 430 rev 3 Tornado. Noisiest component in the whole system. This one is from Hong Kong and smuggled from Korea...

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): No
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): No
Model Number: SP2514N 250GB
Supplier: http://www.quietpc.com/uk/
Month of purchase: August 2005
Motor: NIDEC
Revision: A
Date of Manufacturing: 2005.06
Any other relevant/interesting info:

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): none
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): none
Model Number: SP2004C
Supplier: thinktank.be
Month of purchase: august 2005
Motor: Nidec
Revision: F04 486 11F FDB firmware VM100-32
Date of Manufacturing: may 2005
Any other relevant/interesting info: it's really very silent, plus
very cool, idle in a un-modified sonata, bad airflow, 32°C

With this you even don't have to make an elastic suspension
anymore.. sadly enough I have other drives who does make noise.
Future plan..changing the other drives for samsungs.
But first I'm gonna try to mod this sonata.

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): No
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): No
Model Number: HD080HJ 80GB SATA II NCQ
Supplier: Local Retailer (Malaysia)
Month of purchase: August 2005
Motor: NIDEC stamp FDB
Revision: A
Date of Manufacturing: 2005.08
Any other relevant/interesting info: Very very silent, previously was using a seagate barracuda 7200.7 80GB Sata and suffered from the read/write noise.

Noticeable whine (with case closed, about 1 meter away): No
Noticeable whine (with ear next to harddrive): No
Model Number: SP2004C SATA II
Supplier: Newegg
Month of purchase: September 2005
Motor: NIDEC stamp (no indication of FDB)
Revision: A
Date of Manufacturing: 2005.05
Any other relevant/interesting info: Samsung information claims Fluid Dynamic Bearing, despite lack of any stamp.

This one is soft-mounted to an Antec HDD sled with high density foam using m0002a's method. Temperature is running below 30C in Sonata I/II hybrid. Very silent compared to previous Seagate 7200.7 80GB SATA with its seek noise.

Has it ever been determined if there's a way to identify which motor you have without a stamp or sticker? I just got a new SP1213N from Samsung as a replacement for a failed drive. It has no sticker or stamp on the back and doesn't even have a manufacture date on the label.