New Samsungs no longer quiet

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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ch33
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New Samsungs no longer quiet

Post by ch33 » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:16 am

Hi

Just got 2 Samsung SP2514N 250GB drives. When being accessed you can clearly hear the read/write action. The P80 160GB drives you can't hear at all. A backwards step?

thef1podcast
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Post by thef1podcast » Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:26 am

I just got hold of a 200 GB unit & the seek noise is noticeable, but not the read-write.

slau
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Post by slau » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:03 am

My new 250GB SATA Samsung with a Nidec motor isn't particularly quiet - at least compared to my old 160 PATA samsungs.

I've mounted the drive in a NoVibes, which is placed in the bottom of a P180 on the supplied grommets. No different to normal P180 mounting.

I've got a spare SmartDrive so I'm going to try that next.

Ackelind
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Post by Ackelind » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:37 am

I would like to hear how that worked out, I have two new spinpoints in my P180 and my next step will be some sort of enclosures since they aren't as quiet as I want.

slau
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Post by slau » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:56 pm

The Smartdrive actually works quite nicely.

I'm running the system in a P180 with a Seasonic S12 600 and a Nexus 120 @ 6v on the heatsink. With a search of my HD for all files containing the work "Slack", I can't hear the HD (Case is on the floor, under table. I'm sitting at the table). Distance from top of case to my ear is 2 foot.

However, I can hear the fans, just about. :evil: must - get - rid - of - sound!! :)

Edit: Well I tell a lie, I can just about hear the drive. However, it requires the utmost concentration. Still, I am happy enough with today's progress, but I think it's time to get a Laptop drive.

jermaink
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Post by jermaink » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:24 pm

Are you talking about seek noise or idle noise when you say that new Samsungs are no longer quiet?

slau
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Post by slau » Tue Sep 27, 2005 12:25 am

In my case, seek noise.

mattek
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Post by mattek » Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:02 am

I got the 200GB version. Seeks are the loudest thing in my system. Thinking of getting a Nexus Drive-A-Way.

Ackelind
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Post by Ackelind » Tue Sep 27, 2005 6:25 am

My seeks has gotten really loud lately. Most of the seeks are just a low tapping sound, but every once in a while, it really rumbles around like a concrete mixer of some sort!

Idle noise also gives my P180 some kind of whining noise. Not really whining, but a resonant wooshing.

Chaendler
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Post by Chaendler » Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:52 pm

My 250gb samsung was not quiet at all. No spining noise, but seek were noticiable for sure. Anyway, it died two weeks ago.

I think Drive-A-Way is not a solution, because it does not reduce the seek noises very much, because de disk is in contact with the aluminium.

smilingcrow
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Post by smilingcrow » Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:52 am

Have you tried playing with the various settings of the Acoustic Management for the drive? My SP2504C by default was set on the fastest/noisiest settings I seem to remember.

spolitta
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Post by spolitta » Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:13 pm

This is getting a seriuos issue, with all the fans being inaudible with case clsoed the HD will be the only thing audible . Everybody looking for large HDs has the same problem. I heard 7200.9 500gb are the worst.

bexx
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Post by bexx » Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:46 pm

heh i got 4 250GBs in the mail.... not all that concerned... not like any computer iwth 6 harddrives is going to be quiet :/


everyone says the seek noise is loud, have you changed teh AAM? I doubt it comes set to the quietest setting...

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

the feature tool should be able to changed the aam setting on pretty much any drive

Marc
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Post by Marc » Mon Dec 12, 2005 3:48 pm

I have to say I'm confused here. On one hand, the P120 review I studied on storagereview.com describes an idle noise of 38.9 dB/A, by far and away the lowest noise level of the six drives tested (including the P80 - 40.1 dB/A idle noise). Yet, your actual experiences with shipping drives you've listened to indicates otherwise.

Could the P120 drive tested by Storage Review be different than the P120 that is currently being shipped? I'm a little concerned here, as I've just ordered two 250 GB Samsung Spinpoint P120 (SP2504C) drives for my new system - willingly sacrificing performance for silence. However, if the test results are flawed, I might as well go for a faster drive.

Hmmm....

Marc

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Mon Dec 12, 2005 5:16 pm

the P120 review I studied on storagereview.com describes an idle noise of 38.9 dB/A, by far and away the lowest noise level of the six drives tested (including the P80 - 40.1 dB/A idle noise).
No way are the Samsung P80 Spinpoints anywhere near 40dBA even during non-AAM seeks. SPCR Recommended Hard Drives page quotes 21dBA idle/24dBA AAM seek/26dBA non-AAM seek, manufacturers web page quotes about the same:

SPCR Recommended HDDs

Samsung Official Spec Page

To get a sound measurement of 40.1dBA from the P80 they must have been measuring from like 1cm. :roll:

frostedflakes
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Post by frostedflakes » Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:42 pm

Actually I don't think that's too far off. If my memory serves me right, StorageReview tests noise from 1.8cm away. Not sure what angle they test from, though -- you'd have to read up on their full testing methodology.

But absolute measurements are useless, as there are too many variables between reviewers (ambient noise, distance/angle from which the noise was measured, variations in measuring equipment, etc.). Marc was simply pointing out that StorageReview's measurements agreed with SPCR's (that the P120 was quieter than the P80), but disagreed with the experiences of those posting in this topic (that the P120 is louder than the P80).

I think smilingcrow brings up an interesting point as well. To those with a loud P120, have you tried playing with the AAM settings? I remember in SPCR's review, the P120 saw little (no?) benefit from a low-performance/quiet AAM setting, so I'd assume it was shipped with the most quiet settings selected. However, maybe the newer drives are being shipped out with more agressive/higher performance settings as smilingcrow's drive was. If this is the case, tinkering with the AAM should hopefully be able to fix the problem. :)

I'd be really interested to hear other people's results, as the P120 is on my upgrade list. If they're no longer quiet (or at least have the potential to be quiet), though, I'll have to reconsider.

rei
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Post by rei » Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:19 pm

first thing i do is turn on aam to quiet.

rei
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Post by rei » Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:39 pm

my 4200rpm hd in the mac mini (i think it's a seagate) is quiet but does do a 'diagnostic' seek periodically (or it could be that it's going to sleep since i toggle between it and my pc through the usb kvm) i think the compromise for this generation is the ...

hitachi

it's quiet, cool, fast, but has the patrol seek noise. no advance rma either.

Tephras
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Post by Tephras » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:31 am

frostedflakes wrote:Actually I don't think that's too far off. If my memory serves me right, StorageReview tests noise from 1.8cm away. Not sure what angle they test from, though -- you'd have to read up on their full testing methodology.
They used to test from a distance of 18mm but recently they changed their testbed and now they are doing the noise measurements from a distance of 3mm.

MoJo-chan
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Post by MoJo-chan » Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:06 pm

I just bought 5x 200GB Samsung SATA drives. With AAM enabled they are very quiet, especially compared to my other two Seagates. Perhaps not quite on the level of the Barracuda IV when it comes to seeks, but close.

frostedflakes
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Post by frostedflakes » Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:40 pm

Thanks for the info. :)

Did setting AAM to quiet reduce noise a lot? What was the default AAM setting?

MoJo-chan
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Post by MoJo-chan » Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:03 am

The default setting was "performance", value 255. I changed it to "quiet", value 128.

It did certainly make a noticable difference. All mine are NIDEC motors (thanks to QuietPC for that, they picked them for me) so motor noise is virtually non-existant anyway. Seeks are now dull and muted. Once I get the drives properly installed I shouldn't be able to hear them.

I have two SmartDrive 2002 enclosures, I'm going to try using them so I'll report back on how the drives sound in there. I'll also report back on temperatures.

one80
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Post by one80 » Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:44 pm

I've just recevied my new Samsung SP120 and all I can say is I'm really disappointed, especially seeing the wrap that Samsung HD's usually get.

It has a Nidec motor so the idle noise is good, but other than that I've found it to be very average. The seek/read-write noise is terrible, and I've played around with the AAM settings through both the Hitachi tools and Samsungs disk utilities but neither seem to make much, if any, difference at all. So I've decided to go back to my Maxtor DM10 which has far, far quiter seeks and is only marginally louder at idle.

jermaink
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Post by jermaink » Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:54 am

one80 wrote:So I've decided to go back to my Maxtor DM10 which has far, far quiter seeks and is only marginally louder at idle.
To that I can only say WOW. I used a 250GB Maxtor Diamondmax 10, and it was bloody loud when seeking. I've also got a Raptor, and it's seek noises are less loud and sharp than the DM10. I've also got a 200GB Nidec P120, and it's seek noises are very quiet, though are audible (currently running it outside.

I'd have to say that my expereiences corrolate exactly with the measurements taken by SPCR reviews in regards to seek and idle noise.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:19 am

I've just recevied my new Samsung SP120 and all I can say is I'm really disappointed, especially seeing the rap that Samsung HD's usually get.
To be fair, the problems you mention are already highlighted on the Recommended HDD's page:

Recommended HDD's

Successor to the P80 line with more capacity, but all models have two platters. Idle is about as quiet as our favorite P80 line, with very little motor hum. However, AAM is ineffective and some users have complained that the seeks seem sharper and louder, although no difference in SPL was measured. Vibration is slightly lower than the P80, but only average compared to other drives on the market. A very good choice if you need the capacity or performance improvement, but those interested only in noise will want to stick with the P80 series or find a notebook drive. Added Oct/05

one80
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Post by one80 » Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:03 am

I did read their review and saw the drive on their recommended page, which is what lead me to buy it. I figured the drives listed there would be the most silent drives you could buy. I didn't imagine that I'd find the Samsung drive to be noticeably louder than my current DM10 which doesn't even make it onto the recommended list. I just thought I'd share my findings with others here as I thought it to be unusual.

MoJo-chan
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Post by MoJo-chan » Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:45 am

We use a lot of Maxtors at work, and they all seem to be quite loud. We even had one customer complain when we used one in a repair, because it wasn't as quiet as the drive Dell originally used.

Out workshop is quite loud (with 10+ normal PCs on) so the Maxtors must be pretty bad for us to notice them. Perhaps some are better than others?

One other thing I'd mention is that an alarming number of the large (160GB+) SATA models seem to fail within a month, so I'd avoid them.

rei
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Post by rei » Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:36 pm

just bought a 250gb samsung sata2 against my better judgment. i'm hoping somehow it's quiet. it'll be sold again for a loss rather quickly if it turns out to be another heavy seeker :/

Marc
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Post by Marc » Sun Dec 18, 2005 2:05 pm

I've got two sitting right here on my desk - waiting for my case, PS, MB, etc. to show up. You've really got me worried... please respond with your P120 250GB experiences.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Sun Dec 18, 2005 3:14 pm

I didn't imagine that I'd find the Samsung drive to be noticeably louder than my current DM10
Can I ask what is the model number (ie 6B160PO, 6B200M0, 6L250R0, etc) and capacity of your DM10 ? If yours is a true reflection of the DM10 range and not just an aberrant quiet sample we should contact MikeC and suggest it be reviewed post haste.

EDIT: Whoops, didn't notice that Mike has already reviewed the DM10:

DM10 and Hitachi 7K250 Review

The review seems to suggest that the 300GB DM10 has a similar noise profile to the 200GB P120, with the P120 having a slightly quieter idle. Your experience seems to indicate that in fact it is the other way round, with the DM10 having the quieter idle.

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