Hi all,

Here are some impressions of a Samsung T133 HD300LD drive I bought last weekend.
My references are a Samsung SP1614N (SATA, Nidec motor) and a Maxtor DiamondMax10 300GB (PATA). Drives are mounted in a P180, see bottom of post for system specs.
Remember that my assesments of the T133 are based on experience with just a single sample.

The drive in case looks regular, nothing special to notice. Motor is a Nidec. Interface is PATA.

Vibration is very high, noticeably more than the P80 and much more than the Diamondmax. My DM10 vibrates very little, contrary to the result of Devon and Mikes review, guess I got a lucky sample. Anyway, my assesment is based on just putting a hand on the drive while idle/seeking, not a resonator box like used in the reviews, so not exactly very scientific.
The way the T133 creates interference with my P80 is louder and more anoying than the DM10.

Idle noise of the T133 is mainly whoosh, with only a very faint whine which actually seems more muted than that of the P80. The character of the whoosh is similar to the P80, but more broadband, with a lot off hum to it. It's of course louder than the P80 but not terribly so and I was positively suprised.
The Diamondmax is noticeably louder at idle and the noise is a more evenly distributed broadband whoosh/hiss with a harsher "metalic" character to it, compared to the T133 (my DM10 sounds very similar to the one reviewed here at SPCR).

Seeks are not particularly impressive. Character of the sound is similar to the P80 and relatively "pleasant", but the seeks are considerably louder and sharper. AAM has limited effect but does take the sharpest edges off and makes the noise more of a constant "chatter". Diamondmax (with AAM on!) has comparatively very muted seeks that almost drown completely in the idle noise, although if not fully suspended the case will naturaly amplify.

All in all, I imagine people using full suspension and looking for a large capacity storage drive should consider it. The silicone mounts in the P180 do a good job, but all in all I think I prefer the Diamondmax 10 due to seeks and vibration, although idlenoise is higher. In use, mounted in the P180, both the T133 and DM10 come across as quiet drives, and I would not have any problem using either. However, my plan was to put one of the two in an external USB box for backup, and at the moment it looks like the looser is going to be the T133.

If anyone else has bought this drive, please share your experience.

My system specs:
Antec P180 with one Yate Loon D12SL-12 @ ~6V (rear, rubber bolts)
Thermalright SP948U + Papst 92mm (Speedfan controlled, ~5V@idle)
Nexus NX3000 PSU (fan mounted with rubber bolts)
Passive northbridge and ditto graphics

I returned my Samsung 250gb drive last year because its seek noise was far too loud - certainly not at all in line with SPCR's review. Despite this experience I just bought a HD300LD drive and installed it in my PC alongside a P80.

I am glad to say that the seek noise is low - certainly within a dB or 2 of my P80. I would hazard a guess that the new drive's seek noise displays the same sample to sample variation as reported with the 250gb model.

Idle noise is as you say acceptable, a little higher than the P80 as you would expect.

Vibration is incredibly high. At first the drive was hard mounted in a drive bay and there was an unpleasant and very audible low freqency rumble. Suspended the rumble has gone.

Temperature is very high. Suspended underneath a P80 it is running at 45deg C - 8 degrees higher than the P80.

Overall I'm pleased - I'll be keeping this disk and swapping out my P80

The idle power of the PATA version is 8.0W, only ~10% higher than current P80s. Are you sure there isn't an offset upon startup? My latest P80, an SP0842N, has a 7C positive offset - that is, the temperature always reads 7C high. This isn't a problem if you know about it.

Yeah... such a large temperature difference wouldn't make sense for such a small difference in energy consumption.

See whether the P80 and T133 have similar temperature readings just after booting from a cold start (after the drives have been powered off for a while and are at room temperature).

Yep the two discs display the same temperature at startup. The 300Gb disk is very noticably the hotter of the two after the disks warm up.

I've learnt to treat disk manufacturers specs with a pinch of salt over the years.

Ah! A couple of posts earlier you state that the 300G is suspended beneath the cooler disk. You'll find that if you reverse the positions of the two disks, the temperatures will reverse too. The cause of your higher temperature is suspension. As I personally discovered recently, suspension dramatically increases HDD temperatures unless you do some spot cooling with a low-RPM small fan. I use an 80mm GW NCB fan at 5V for that.

Why? The metal contact from hardmounted drive rails can't remove that much heat, can it?

Yes, it can and it does. This is the sort of thing that any DIY person can prove for him or herself very easily (surely Mike would approve of the use of shoestrings for this temporary use ). I'm not reporting something I read about; I'm reporting something I measured and measured repeatedly to confirm.

Swapping the two round makes a difference of less than 1 degree.

This baby (or at least my paticular model) runs hot whether it is suspended or attached to drive rails or wherever.

I am really surprised that people put so much credence in manufacturers specs. Samsungs specs would tell me the 250gb drive I had was fairly quiet, my ears told me a different tale.

Gazebo, I have 4 Samsung SP08x2N HDDs. The most recent purchase was an SP0842N, and it ran 7C hotter than the other 3. But when I checked the HDD temp immediately after an overnight cold start, I discovered the startup temperature was 7C higher than the room ambient.

In other words, the reported temperature had a 7C positive offset.

Have you tested your 2504 for a positive temp offset upon cold start?

LOL, you've already responded to a post of mine, where I've said there is NO offset on startup.

Of course it could be that the temperature measurement device in the disk is faulty - but the T133 is noticably warmer to the touch.

I'm sorry I even posted now, when there is so much scepticism from someone who doesn't even own one of these disks. Oddly enough I'm not totally incompetent and did check my facts before I posted

Gazebo,

For what it's worth, I appreciate your information. I may like Samsung drives, but I wouldn't doubt that yours may be running hot, no matter how you mount it or how you check the temperature.

Hello,

I have two of the 300GB Samsungs (they were just $100 at CompUSA a coupla' weekends ago...) and they are both relatively quiet and low vibration. They are just a tick louder than older Samsungs, but barely... One is idling at 32C. I'd buy more of them.

Seeks are not loud -- I'm running a defrag on one in an open case right next to me, and I can hear them, but they are hardly objectionable. The temp on that drive has risen to 34C after moving 15% of the data...and it seems to be peaking at 37C at just over a third of the way through the data defrag.