Maxtor "FDB" 160/200GB 7200rpm 2/8MB cache: how qu

JohnMK · Post by **JohnMK** » Wed Dec 04, 2002 7:13 am

Basically a cut & paste of my post @ SR:

Hopefully the SR review is coming out soon and can answer my question more scientifically, but in the meantime I'm perfectly willing to accept subjective assessments of both idle and seek noise. I think I'll end up buying either the IBM 180GXP or the Maxtor 200GB FDB 7200rpm drive. Probably two of each, and I'd like to get whatever's quietest. I'm willing to run the drives in their 'quietest' mode, as I'm not at all a performance freak. I'll also be suspending each one in a NoVibes rubber band isolator.

Will owners please stand up and report their experiences?

Thank you so much.

Jolt · Post by **Jolt** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 12:27 pm

I am also very interested in the noise level of these drives.

Thinking about buying one of them, matrox claims a 2.5bel idle noise and that sounds quite good. But i have actually seen some conflicting measurements. An Extremetech review placed it ~2dB higher than the IBM 180GXP and about equal with the Cuda V. But it scored quite a bit higher than that in the SR database, ~3dB higher than the Cuda IV and ~4.5dB higher than the GXP180 and a whopping ~6.5dB higher than the Cuda V (SRs noise measurement of the Cuda V starts to seem a bit strange imho, based on the stuff I have read at various places on the net)

The best would of course be if a SPCR forum member could share a subjective (objective?

) opinion of the noisiness of this drive.

JohnMK · Post by **JohnMK** » Wed Dec 11, 2002 3:57 am

My experience would seem to indicate that there are loud and quiet hard drives even of the same model. I guess it just depends on your allotment of bearings or something else. Maybe SR got a particularly and singularly quiet review model, but the drives out in the wild are on average a bit louder.

Jolt · Post by **Jolt** » Tue Dec 24, 2002 11:04 am

I now own one of these drives, a 120G 8meg cache model.
Haven't yet had the possibility to thoroughly check the noise level of the drive yet, but the first subjective impression i that it is fairly quiet. No whining idle noise.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 2:18 am

FYI - no new noise measurements, but SR has posted test results on the 3 flavours of Maxtor DM+9 on their database. I could care less of course (because of the noise issue uncertainty), but the 3 different platter densities perform about the same - sorta like the similarities between all the WD hdd's.

xilles · Post by **xilles** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 9:46 am

i bet these things are loud

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 7:34 pm

I have a 60GB Maxtor DiamondMax9 FDB drive which I believe is in the same family and is probably quieter due to the single platter. But when I compared the noise to the Barracuda IV it does not touch it. Although quieter than IBM and WD drives it does not compare to the Seagate drives.

attnet · Post by **attnet** » Sun Jan 26, 2003 5:23 pm

I have a 80GB 8MB cache DiamondMax +9 to replace a 120GXP that went bad. The FDB is very quiet, and even with only one fan running in my whole system, you can only hear a VERY tiny whine if you hold your ear up to the side of the drive. The idle is otherwise silent, although it doesn't seem quite as quiet as the Cuda IV I have in my iMac, but the fans overpower the noise in my PC anyway. The seeks are the loudest I've heard in an IDE drive yet, however, but this is no problem for me as I actually find the seek noise soothing and reassuring - it is sort of a like a crunching of ice in this drive.

Comparatively, the idle noise of my 120GXP was easily audible outside of the case as a nice, muted, yet consistent whine, but with almost inaudible seeks. I also had a WD 800JB before that which a very grating and annoying idle whine, with "thudding" seeks.

So far I'm very satisfied with this drive, and I'm sure that the 8MB cache is a help, if you can get your hands on a drive with one.

Stryder57 · Post by **Stryder57** » Mon Jan 27, 2003 6:13 pm

I have a 80GB Maxtor DiamondMax9 in a NoiseMagic NoVibes III. Idle is very quiet thanks to the FDB. When the drive is being accessed you can hear some noise but you have to be really close to you case to hear it.
It is much quieter than my old Western Digital I use to have.
This drive doesn't beat out Seagate Barracuda IV in silence ring. The Matxtor Diamond Max 9 does have much better speed preformance than the Seagate drive.
It is neck in neck with Western Digital top preformance drive.
This drive is a good balance.
The Maxtor Diamond Max 9 has great preformance with out making alot of noise.

Scott