SPCR

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I'd like to know this too - any takers?

And I may just have found the answer over at StorageReview.com from where I quote:

As hard as it is to believe, the Barracuda ATA V improves upon the objectively-measured idle noise floor exhibited by its predecessor by a significant margin... the 'Cuda ATA V's mature FDB motor implementation yields a 3 dB/A reduction when contrasted with the IV. This is the difference between extremely quiet and extremely, extremely quiet. But hey, many enthusiasts relentlessly chew up single digit performance gains, so the 'Cuda ATA V may well present nirvana for quiet-system fanatics.

Even with Automatic Acoustic Management disabled, the V emits among the quietest seeks one can find in today's drives.

Can anyone corroborate or deny these findings?

Cams

Can anyone corroborate or deny these findings?

Seagate specs the V as being a bit louder that the IV. Whether that's due to a more conservative approach to specs or a real increase in noise is hard to say, because there seems little change except for storage density. Note that the SR piece compares 2-platter disks. The single platter versions are a bit quieter. SR had only one sample of each to compare -- I would not consider it a good enough sampling to ignore Seagate's specs.

In other words, the dfference is probably too small to worry about and may vary enough from sample to sample to say one series is clearly quieter than the other. But, I repeat, Seagate's own specs favor the IV.

IV's are quieter. But if you suspend them and smart drive them it doesn't matter.

I recently added a Barracuda V to my system and to my personal ear it sounds like V makes more noise then IV. I will have to try and change the acoustic control settings though, see what that will do...

I didn't think about it, but does anyone know if the V sata has performance/acoustic settings? and if it's default set to performance? can you use the seagate enterprise sea tools on it?

i have two V's in a mirror array inside an iStyle case on the carpet floor. i cannot hear them. i hear the chipset fan more than i hear the hard drives.

Well, I mean, V sounds louder (a little bit) than IV but, to continue on the point of general loudness, I can hear neither of them with the case closed. It may be a bit louder but falls within the same range of almost silent drives.

I have a Maxtor 4 GB and 2 barracudas. So I tried putting drives into standby one by one. The result is (with the case closed) that I can easily hear the whine of Maxtor and can easily hear when it stops. When I put either of the barracudas in standby, I hear no change in the noise. However, when I put the Barracudas into standby, the case stops vibrating while putting Maxtor to standby does nothing for the vibration.