What silent 7200 rpm 1 TB drive - all seems to be noisy?

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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ionfresko
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What silent 7200 rpm 1 TB drive - all seems to be noisy?

Post by ionfresko » Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:31 pm

Hi,

I have some voes on what cheap 7200 rpm 1TB to buy: none of the usual suspects seem to be that quiet, if judging from reports here and elsewhere (even though they are very mixed). Samsung F3 seems to be whiny, and thus hard to silence, and WDs new FAEX seems to be noisy, especially at seeks. Seagate 7200.12 does not seems to be that silent either.

I would prefer WD (warranty, performance etc). Does anyone have the FAEX up and running? Is it really that bad, if decoupled, relatively speaking (i.e., if not comparing to 5400/5900 rpm drives)? Most important is idle noise.

Regards, ionfresko

mkk
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Re: What silent 7200 rpm 1 TB drive - all seems to be noisy?

Post by mkk » Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:56 pm

Do you really need 7200 RPM drives? The latest 5400 RPM drives are surprisingly fast and for a system drive it's not so prohibitively expensive to use an SSD anymore. For non-gaming/enthusiast systems I'd even consider a 5400RPM system drive today, honest.

But if you do, my three Samsung F3 1TB drives hasn't been particularly whiny compared to other recent or older 7200RPM drives. We're all a bit different when it comes to "tasting" high frequencies though.

Lawrence Lee
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Re: What silent 7200 rpm 1 TB drive - all seems to be noisy?

Post by Lawrence Lee » Tue Nov 02, 2010 3:22 pm

I would guess Caviar Blue, but I can't be certain since we haven't gotten any recent samples. If noise is the main criteria, ditch the 7200rpm requirement. It's difficult to feel the difference during regular use.

ionfresko
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Re: What silent 7200 rpm 1 TB drive - all seems to be noisy?

Post by ionfresko » Wed Nov 03, 2010 3:46 am

Thanx for good advices. Well, I may actually go for Seagate LP, then, which seems to be the fastests among the sub-7200 drives. It seems to have a problem with reliability, though, if judging from Newegg and other places. But that seems to be an increasing problem overall?

And as for the Blue, that seems to be another option. Would like to see some reviews first, though, and it is neither in stock over here (in Sweden).

ionfresko

SebRad
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Re: What silent 7200 rpm 1 TB drive - all seems to be noisy?

Post by SebRad » Wed Nov 03, 2010 12:08 pm

Hi, I have a 1TB 7200rpm drive on my PC as the main/only drive.
I use a Scythe Quiet Drive, which I think is very good. I also have it sitting on foam so it's decoupled from the system so no vibration is transmitted or amplified. When SPCR tested the 2.5" version they found it to take 3-4dB(A) off the drive's noise level, I can easily believe the 3.5" version does the same.

I've used a WD Black, Samsung F1 and Samsung F3 all 1TB at various times. The WD is significantly louder than the Samsungs which are very similar. The F3 has a touch of high pitched noise about it that the F1 doesn't have but the SQD removes this.
I did a side-by-side comparison of WD black in the SQD vs the Samsung F1 bare. The idle noise was very similar in level, I don't recall about seek noise. According to SPCR's measurements this means the 3.5" SQD is good for 4-5dB(A) reduction in noise. If this is the case then the ~16dB(A) Samsung drive is reduced to 10~12dB(A), which is similar level to SPCR anechoic chamber. I.E. very quiet.
I live in rural location and even at night when I can't really hear anything I don't find the hard drive to be intrusive in anyway. Maybe it's masked by the rest of the PC but idle the 80/92/120 mm fans spin 700/620/530 rpm so no exactly loud.

The problem is the SQD is quite a lot of money and 1TB 7200rpm drive + SQD isn't much cheaper then 1TB 5400rpm drive + 40~60GB SSD that will be equally quiet and much faster solution.

Regards, Seb

ionfresko
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Re: What silent 7200 rpm 1 TB drive - all seems to be noisy?

Post by ionfresko » Thu Nov 04, 2010 2:34 am

Hmmm...its getting difficult. I simply cant accept a noisy drive; now I have an old Seagate 7200.10 320 GB, and its dead-silent on foam in damped case on the floor. Cant hear it at the desk even if no fans etc. So I may need to drop the FAEX.

At the same time I would like to keep costs down/like to do it myself, so I think I wont buy a SQD (but if a cant get whatever drive I get silent enough, I may have to).

The only concern with Seagate LP is reliability, which seems to be bad, relatively speaking, even that is hard to know for sure.

Regards, ionfresko

ionfresko
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Re: What silent 7200 rpm 1 TB drive - all seems to be noisy?

Post by ionfresko » Tue Nov 23, 2010 3:03 pm

Hi, thought I should report back. I finally settled on an Seagate LP 1tb 5900, and it is fantastic! Reasonably fast - about 100mb/s in HD tach sequential read, 240 burst - and completely silent.

Really, in an FD R3 case on the floor, with only one FD 120 fan at 800rpm and the Scythe 120 on Mugen 2 at around 500 rpm, and an Antec TP New Series 750W (which is just as silent as advertised here), I cannot hear it at all sitting at the desk, nada, not even when seeking. It is decoupled on foam, but I do not think it is necessary.

So I am really satisfied,

ionfresko

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