I just got this hdd today and I was so excited to test it out at home. When I plugged this sucker in, I couldn't believe how darn whiny it is. I can't stand it. I will either sell it or send it back. I've always used Maxtor and Seagate and thought maybe I will just give Western Digital a chance. Well I did, and I hate the whiny noise. Get the heck out WD! Nice knowing ya.

What is the date of manufacture. BY the start of 2005, WD made the switchover to fluid dynamic bearings on all their drives, which are much quieter than before. I have 2 WD 160 SATA drives and very happy with them (I don't hear any idle or seek with my system under my desk about 3 feet away). Of course, I have very good mounting system.

It was made in April 05. I plugged it in again and gave it another shot. There is just this one whiny sound that I can't get over. I needed extra hdd space too. I'll order a seagate soon.

It is possible that you got a bad sample, but most people on this forum use some kind of special HDD drive mounting system to quiet their drives. At the very least, you need soft gromments. Check out this Silent Storage section for ideas on how to mount your drive. It is hard to give drive mounting advice without knowing what case you have.

I have one of those big cases that many people have.

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage ... 268-01.JPG

I have my Maxtor sitting on two metal rails. The rails are sitting on a nice piece of cushion foam on the bottom of my case. So there is breathing room between the hdd and the cushion. Anyway, this method works wonders with my Maxtor. I tried the same with the WD and it didn't work. The WD isn't causing too much vibration. I put my ear real close to it and it's an annoying whiny sound straight from the center of the drive.

It could have been a bad sample.

Sounds like a sample anomaly to me.

I just got mine few days ago and it's totally silent. I had it out of the case and my ear next to it and I barely heard anything. So far it's been great.

Boooooo.....I hate you...just kidding. I guess my luck wasn't so good.

Maybe your should return or exchange that Hard Drive. It sounds (no phun intended) like your drive is defective or something.

yeah just return it. It's always possible to get a defect, it might've been bumped around in the shipment also.

You think Monarchcomputers would accept an exchange if i told them that it was too whiny for me? Is there another more legit reason I can tell the CSR?

Well I fired them a call and got the rma to setup an exchange. I should get a replacement in about 2 weeks. I'll post the new findings. Hopefully it will be silent this next time around.

good luck, I hope you'll be happy once the rma comes back.

Any update? I also got 3200JD from monarch and it also whines. The sound is absolutely identical to the description and the actual mp3 recording from 2500jd review spcr did a while back. This blows because the sound is too annoying and it's the first thing I notice when entering the room. My fluid bearing 2500JB is silent compared to that.

I sent it last Monday and it was delivered this morning. So I should be getting something by late next week.

I ordered one from Newegg that I will receive Wednesday, so I'll check if it has a whiny noise and be able to tell if Monarch is just banging up their drives for fun.

Received mine from Monarch a few days ago. No whine here. Can't even hear it when I stop my fans and put my ear next to it. Makes a slight "click" at startup but I can deal with that. Runs cooler than my Barracuda IV too.

It's not really a whine, at least not in the traditional sense like the one you hear from old ball-bearing drives. The sound is much lower in frequency and much more uneven. Check out 2500JD review for mp3 sample, the noise I'm talking about starts at about 10 seconds into the recording. It's not nearly as bad old ball bearing drives, but being accustomed to much quieter seagates and normal fluid bearing WDs, this sound is extremely annoying. I'm extremely hesitant to exchange for the same drive since I don't want another one like that, I'd rather get a 400Gb seagate for 240 after coupon.

The 320GB Drives are all supposed to have WhisperDrive technology as it debuted with the WhisperDrive announcement.

It is possible that it is a bad sample. It is also possible that he doesn't have AAM enabled and is complaining about the seek noises.

I'm hoping that it was a bad sample. I'm suppose to get the replacement this Thursday. And...you think "he" doesn't know the difference between idle and seek noise? Oh Please! Give me more credit than that. GEE buddy.

Could it have been damaged during shipping. There was a thread over on [H] where a few people received the drives bare and wrapped in a small amount of bubble wrap.

Yea, this could be another possible explanation.

I'll see what's up when my new drive comes in.

I don't think my drive could have been damaged due to shipping. While the box monarch shipped it in wasn't overly large, the drive was wrapped in two layers of bublewrap and was secure in the box. It's possible that it's just a bad sample, but then how come SPCR also had the same issue with their 2500JD? And if you look several pages back in the silent storage forum there are several other threads describing exactly the same problem. It seems to me that the new whisper-quiet WD drives aren't so quiet.

In fact, I'm more inclined to believe that people who claim their new WDs are absolutely silent simply don't know better or have lots of ambient noise which stops them from hearing the whine.


ivan
You should have received the drive today, did you get to test it already?

dragontales
Please report tomorrow if your replacement drive is better or not. I emailed monarch support and they say they can exchange the drive or take it back. But if the latter they'll have to charge a 15% restocking fee. I asked them if they can give me a store credit towards future purchases at Monarch at the amount of restocking fee instead but they refused that too... So I'll have to either take my chances and exchange the drive hoping the next one will be better or bite the $25 in restocking fee and shipping charges...

JazzJack Rabbit,

It looks like Fedex has my drive delayed until Friday now. The tracking saids "delayed beyond their control." Oh wells. I'll be sure to post my new findings after Friday.

I thought about just returning it but that restocking fee made it not worth the lost of cash and no drive. On top of that, you would have to pay to ship it back. Even if it comes back with the same whiny noise (hopefully not) I think I can still find a home for that large drive in my other PC, which is not sitting in my room.

It could have been damaged on the way to Monarch or in Monarch's storage facility. Anyway, I've heard whines before (Western Digital non-FDB 200GB Caviar, Western Digital's non-FDB 36.7GB Raptor and IBM's 10GB Lapstar) and the WD3200JB sounds nothing like them.

I live in the suburbs where there isn't much noise (just the wind if you're outside) and listen to my PC with everything else that makes noise off. When I do so, I can hear some noise. Most of it is from my Western Digital Caviar (which is the quietest hard drive I've ever heard) and some of it is from my 80mm Nexus Real Silent Case Fan. Subjectively from approximately a meter away, I'd say the noise is about 20% from the fan and 80% from the hard drive but most people who listen from a few inches away (when my monitor is off) can't tell my PC is running. The components that make noise in my PC are: my Western Digital Caviar, my Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer Revision 3 (set to low), my 92mm Panaflo CPU fan (running at 5 volts), my 80mm Nexus Real Silent Case Fan and my Antec Phantom PSU (the electric noise is audible from about 3-6 inches away). I couldn't tell that my PC was running when I started using the drive (at that point in time I had a 80mm Panaflo CPU fan running at 5 vollts instead of the Nexus) but since then my ears adjusted to the silence and things became loud again (and heat problems caused by my Phantom PSU's lack of a fan required me to ditch a undervolted Panaflo in favor of a Nexus) but I have say, if my ceiling fan is running (or just about anything else), the noise isn't easy to discern. This is with the drive mounted on EAR Grommets with AAM enabled. I'm planning to get an enclosure to hopefully solve most of my noise problem at some point in the future. Then I'll figure out what to do about the Nexus (also mounted on EAR Grommets).

...that's because we are talking about the WD3200JD.

Actually I think JD and JB are supposed to have the same whisperdrive.


Shining Arcanine
Yes, like I told in one of my posts before, JD sounds nothing like old ball bearing WDs, however it still whines, although in a slightly different manner (I ought to get some sort of mic and record the sound if you don't believe me). I also ought to make a new thread about these new WDs, because this is NOT a quiet drive, it's extremely annoying and WD should NOT advertise it as the quietest drive out there. Also like I said in one of my posts before, SPCR already reviewed 2500JD that had absolutely similar whine to my 3200JD.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/sou ... -26dba.mp3

Here, I linked it directly for your pleasure. Download and notice the change at 10 second mark, that's what my drive sounds all the time.

That is the exact noise that I am getting from my drive. It is freakin annoying.

That doesn't matter, the only difference is the interface and the presence of a bridge chip.



I'm at work so I shouldn't be playing weird noises on my computer. When I get home I'll listen to it.

Anyway, if your drive sounds like a non-FDB Caviar, there is a problem. The drive is either defective or Western Digital used the old bearings at the factory. I'd RMA it if I was you.