Western Digital SATA drives? Quiet?

dentaku · Post by **dentaku** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:33 am

I've been thinking about getting a second harddrive because I've been running out of space lately.
I currently have a 120GB Seagate Barracuda of some sort and it's quiet enough (it doesn't bother me).
Recently I've been setting up new machines for other people with large Western Digital SATA drives and have been surprised at how quiet they are so I'm thinking of getting one of these.

Western Digital SATA 160GB 8MB Cache 7200RPM WD1600JD (3year) -$108.59 Can
http://www.greenlyph.com/product_info.p ... cts_id=241
OR
Western Digital SATAII 160GB 8MB Cache 7200RPM WD1600JS (3year) - $103.12 Can
http://www.greenlyph.com/product_info.p ... ts_id=1155

I'm guessing the only difference between the 2 is that one is SATAII and the other is regular SATA which makes no difference to me because I only have an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe motherboard that I doubt can make use of SATAII so I'm gonna have to jumper the drive to work at regular SATA speed anyway.

Like I said, I've listened to them in other people's computers and I could barely hear them, even in a system that had 2 80GB WD drives in Raid0.
The best store around only sells Western Digital drives so that's another reason I'm looking into buying one.

Any opinions on Western Digital SATA drives?[/url]

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:45 am

most people here get pretty fanaticle about noise, and if its not the absolute quietest product in the catagory then its not good enough.

one thing to think about, while it may not sound loud to you now, it may end up driving you nuts later on when you start getting used to a lower ambient noise volume and the hard drive becomes the loudest thing in your system.

in the end, noise is a perception, and everyone percives it differently. so if its acceptable to you then it doesnt matter what anyone else thinks because your the one that is going to be using it.

dentaku · Post by **dentaku** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:15 pm

Yup.
To me an annoying drive is one that makes a high pitched whine but just being able to hear it when it's "working" isn't a problem. To some people any sound is bad.

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 12:54 pm

I currently have 3 WD SATA 320 GB drives and a Seagate 120 GB SATA drive.

I prefer the 3 WD's to the 1 Seagate as the Seagate is over 5C hotter, and much, much louder in seeks and idle even.

Be careful though, on the newer SATAII's from WD... I don't think they've yet perfected their transfer rates, as I have seen a few reports that actually showed my generation I drives to be MUCH faster than the newer SATAII's.

dentaku · Post by **dentaku** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:05 pm

thetoad30 wrote: Be careful though, on the newer SATAII's from WD... I don't think they've yet perfected their transfer rates, as I have seen a few reports that actually showed my generation I drives to be MUCH faster than the newer SATAII's.

That's good to know because I can't use SATAII on my older P4C800E-Deluxe motherboard anyway.

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:57 pm

I know of one such review over at tomshardware.com for their Hard Drive charts. Granted, their site is now on the bottom of the barrel in terms of consistency and reliability, but how hard is it to mess up transfer tests? I'm sure someone will answer that for me, though...

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:18 pm

I am very happy with my twin WD 160 SATA drives, but I do have very good mounting technique for them:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=10450
I never tired them with standard mounting, but as mounted above I cannot hear them at all.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:43 pm

The SATA version, JD, has higher decibel ratings for acoustics:

JD 160 GB:

Acoustics
Idle Mode 33 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 0 35 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 3 34 dBA (average)

PATA version JB 160 GB:

Acoustics
Idle Mode 26 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 0 31 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 3 27 dBA (average)

You can verify the above on WD's site.

dentaku · Post by **dentaku** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:31 pm

JVM wrote:The SATA version, JD, has higher decibel ratings for acoustics

If those numbers are accurate it IS quite a large difference.
I wonder why SATA would be louder?

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:52 pm

JVM wrote:The SATA version, JD, has higher decibel ratings for acoustics:

JD 160 GB:

Acoustics
Idle Mode 33 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 0 35 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 3 34 dBA (average)

PATA version JB 160 GB:

Acoustics
Idle Mode 26 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 0 31 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 3 27 dBA (average)

You can verify the above on WD's site.

When I purchased my WD's directly from WD about 8 months ago, I asked their technical support about the specs on their website. They said that some of the specs have not been updated to reflect the new Fluid Dynamic Bearings and are they are not all accurate on their website.

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:58 pm

I must add my word of caution too:

If you are going to be using these drives, make absolutely sure that you are using some kind of dampaning material when mounting them. Something like grommets. Otherwise these things will resonate.

I know most people on here would read that and go "duh", but I believe that these new FDB's are more prone to vibration than other more conventional bearings. While my WD "screamers" were extremely loud in terms of whining, I must admit that they didn't vibrate nearly as much as my newer hard drives. However, I will trade vibration for whining any day, as it is really easy to reduce vibration, but bearing noise is, obviously, not.

quikkie · Post by **quikkie** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 3:40 am

my suspended 2500KS is only audible in my system when the disk is thrashing (like when it's defragging) but when it's loading a program it barely hear it. when it was hardmounted I heard it most of the time.

-Quikkie

raziell · Post by **raziell** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:16 am

i havw 2 WD 200GB in raid 0 and i don't hear them at all....

jb_ · Post by **jb_** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:43 am

How do the (recent) WD drives (with FDB) compare with Samsung? Here in Aus, WD is much easier to find than Samsung. Maxtor and Seagate I consider too noisy, and I have not had much experience with the latest WD drives. And Hitachi is virtually unheard of.

dentaku · Post by **dentaku** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:45 am

m0002a wrote:When I purchased my WD's directly from WD about 8 months ago, I asked their technical support about the specs on their website. They said that some of the specs have not been updated to reflect the new Fluid Dynamic Bearings and are they are not all accurate on their website.

I think I'm gonna get the JS SATA version. It's cheaper and the stats on the WD website say it quieter than the JD.

dentaku · Post by **dentaku** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 12:37 pm

By the way, I'm gonna suspend this drive anyway so high pitched noise is the only thing I'm looking to avoid.

Western Digital SATA drives? Quiet?

Western Digital SATA drives? Quiet?

as long as it's not whiney