Seagate Barracuda's, anyone replaced 4's with 5's...........

[BladeRunner]

......... in a very quiet system?

If so opinions please

I have 2x 4's atm but will get 2x 5's and move these on to my back-up box.

I will however be disappointed if the 5's make any more noise, even if they are better performers. They are the only noise producing item in my system so I would notice.

The specs on Seagate's site show a single platter 5 being rated louder than a single platter 4. Storage review say otherwise but I'd rather believe the manufacture of the product, especially as storage review a while backl were saying an SCSI Seagate drive was quieter than a IDE one. Seagate rates them the same, but storage review were not comparing apples with apples, as the IDE comparison disk was a duel platter the SCSI being single.

[rally]

Bladerunner, been meaning to ask you this for a while, have you looked into the smartdive, especially the copper version?
I was thinking of your expertise with copper, maybe you can make one of your excellent copper waterblocks for the lid of the smartdrive, something similar to what koolance have for harddrives, maybe that way you can run a seagate 15k.3 in it?

[MikeC]

The noise dif between the V and IV really can't be that big. It still has to spin, doesn't it? I am personally waiting for SATA versions of the V. The main advantage to me is the thin long cablling: up to a meter (or 1.2?). This will allow the construction of a small box dedicated to just one thing: cooling & silencing the drive(s). I would place it ouside the PC case. If that is all the box has to do, I am sure most of us here can come up with workable solutions.

In fact, I'd even go so far as to suggest a competition for this sort of thing - with prizes. (These HDD projects could go into the new rigs forum that NO ONE has gone near, after all the clamor for it! ) Will post a new thread if there are enough positive responses to this.

[pingu666]

yeah im waitin for teh sata one too
hope to be able to use a adapter to parrel for a while tho, im poor
btw blade its me from bigforums >D
*stalks*

ive got a extreme hd silencin setup in ma case, ill do pics/article for moddin.net soon
fvckin noisey maxtor
oh and from the reviews ive read the new drives are around the same noise or lower than the 4

[Deephouse]

Well first I replaced my IV 40 Gb for two IV 80 Gb's. There was definitely more noise coming from the 80 Gb models (probably because these are 2-platter models), but it also introduced a lithe high pitched whine that was completely absent with the IV 40 Gb model.

Last week I bought three V 120 Gb's as a replacement. I couldn't be more disappointed. Each individual drive makes considerally more noise than a IV 80 Gb, let alone compared to the IV 40 Gb model. Also with every drive there is a very noticable high pitched whine audible that makes you wonder why everybody considers the Barracude V line of drives even more silent then its predecessor.

Right now I have one of the V 120's placed in a silentdrive enclosure. Temperture is 47 degrees celcius, after moderate use. The silentdrive makes the V 120 Gb silent indeed, but what will it do to the durability of the drive? Only time can tell, but in the mean time I will buy two more silentdrive enclosures.

My P4 system is watercooled with two Blackice Xtreme radiators without any fan's, so the only present noise comes from the HDD's.

[bdelima]

I wouldn't use the SilentDrive enclosures. They simply don't allow enough cooling, not too mention it's not very well built. The SmartDrive however, is very good. I've tried both, the SmartDrive wins hands down. It's more expensive, but worth it. Folks have also had good luck with the NoVibes and the Cudas, but suspending the drives without additional heatsinking does also raise the temps. I have 2 drives - a 80GB WD JB drive in a SmartDrive (which I can't hear it at all), and a 80GB Cuda IV that I side-sinked and placed on a block of foam on the bottom of the case (also pretty much silent). Drive temps seem to hover around 35-38 C. Over my vacation, I plan on building some special rubber isolated mounting brackets to securely mount and further isolate the drives.

[Deephouse]

bdelima, it seems you are right about the Silentdrive. After 3 days of 8 hour operation in the Silentdrive, the V 120 Gb gave up on me. Though it does spin up, that's all the drive manages to do. It is not recognized anymore. I will have to have it replaced.

I saw the Smart Drive 2002 version on the silicon acoustics website. It costs $20 more and has even better cooling than the original one, at least that is what's beeing claimed by the manufacterer. Is it worth the extra bucks?

[BladeRunner]

Umm......... not good news in either the nosie level, and the fact it died, probably was getting far to hot. My 40GB IV's would get to 48C with no airflow before the waterblock, (using the internal temp monitoring feature).

Think I read the 80gb V's are single platter? so maybe they will be similar in quietness to a 40bg single platter IV?

I have a noisy whiny old Maxtor here so when I make my isolating box that will be double glazed, (perspex) sealed box, (other than tiny air hole) that the waterblock with a drive on top and underneath will be mounted softly inside, I can then see if it will silence the Maxtor. I doubt it, but I'm pretty convinced it will totally silence the two 40gb IV's

[MikeC]

I've always opted for single-platter cudas only so have no comment about the multi-platter ones. the single platters are so easy to quiet with decoupling.

And the report about yet another SilentDrive-induced casualty motivated me to finally add the HDD Noise Reduction devices section in the Recommended Hard Drives page -- the Silent Drive is on that list, only so that people can be warned against it.

[BladeRunner]

I know what you are saying and the single platter cuda IV's are virtually silent when decoupled, (on foam), but virtually silent isn't completly silent.

As they are the only nosie producing items in my PC, I can hear them although only faintly......... my goal after all is total silence with performance, the only reason I haven't got the hdd's isolated yet is becuase they are really so very quiet.

I'm more concerend with this reported "whine" of the V's and larger IV's, as that type of noise can be far more annoying, and harder to fully isolate than any documented higher or lower db rating would indicate. Another thing I wonder is why people need so much hdd space these days?, 40GB X 2 is bad enough when it comes to reformatting

[Deephouse]

The cuda V 120 that died on me produced a lesser annoying whine than the other two I bought. But still too loud to be exited about the cuda V, especially since my system is fanless.

I had HDD Temperature by Sigardian running all the time after installing the V in my Silentdrive. Temperature never seemed to exceed 47 degrees celsius. That's way within specs (Seagate states a 60 degrees celsius maximum).

I will return the dead drive and will try to replace the other two V 120's. It will be interesting on how Seagate handles my complaint about the whining noise.

[NeilBlanchard]

One thing that I learned by reading some of the articles on Storage Review is that while somewhat elevated temps don't kill a HD right away -- they greatly shorten their life! So, even if you don't hit 60d (where ever you were measuring it) higher than "normal" temps will do in hard drives, sooner or later.

[pingu666]

high pitched noise is more noticable isnt it?
and maybe the db meter wasnt in range to messure it properly

[Red Dawn]

Think I read the 80gb V's are single platter? so maybe they will be similar in quietness to a 40bg single platter IV?

The single platter model of the barracuda V line is the 60GB model.
The IV reached a maximum of 80 GB using two platters (40+40), and the V's (using 60GB platter technology) reaches a maximum of 120GB, with two platters.

Unfortunately I don't have time to do a little 'research' to back up my claims, but I'm sure someone will do it for me, if for nothing else than to prove me wrong.

[Frisbee]

Hi;

I just wanted to inform you about this:
There's a lot of hype about the Barracuda HDDs, because they are A LITTLE less moisy than other 7200rpm drives.

But I just read a review about HDDs in a Dutch computer magazine.
Only 1 drive was a 5400rpm model: the Maxtor Barracuda3.
All others were 7200rpm drives. Among them were the Cuda 4 and a Samsung drive.

In the test, it turned out that the 5400rpm Fireball3 was FASTER in both read- and write performance than the Barracuda 4 and the Samsung.
I mean average read-write performance, but isn't that more important than peak-performance which just occurs every now and then?
Mind you: the only drive in the test supporting ATA-133 was that 5400rpm drive, but over ATA-100 this only increases cache access, not really read-write-performance.

What's the use then of 7200rpm Cudas or Samasungs, if they usually perform worse than one of the newest 5400rpm drives on the market?

I don't know about the Cuda5 performance though, but anyway, according to that test, the Cuda4 is slower than the new 5400rpm Maxtor Fireball3.

I can tell you that my 5400rpm Maxtor D540X (an older model) is totally silent. Even if I put my head inside the case, I can barely hear if it's spinning or not.

And to put an end to another farytale: you don't need 7200rpm to record video in DVD-quality.
See: DVD quality means roughly 4-6Gb/hour. That comes down to roughly 1-4Mbyte/second to record. Even the slowest 4200rpm notebook drive can do that. Heck, even my SCSI-ZIP drive can do that!
So it's only for video-EDITING that faster drives are better.
But if your video editing is limited to cutting away the ads during a TV show, even a 5400rpm drive can do that in less than 5 seconds.

Hope this helps.
Greetings;
Carl

[Nesto]

I believe www.storagereview.com tested a Cuda V recently

[bart]

I want to buy a 80GB Version of the Barracuda IV or V.

Which would you suggest me to buy. The important thing is the loudness, not the money.


Thank you, bart

[MikeC]

Seagate's noise specs for the 2 are the same: 2.5 bels (25 dBA sound power). They are both 2-platter models. On some IV spec sheets, 2.4 bels is specified. Doesn't look like there's much to choose between them.

The IV series are single platter for 40 and 20G -- the latter long unavailable. These are rated at 2.0 or 2.1 bels. (depending on version of datasheet) The V series is single platter to 60G. They are rated as simple <2.5 bels.

Judging from all this, It is possible that the V series is a hair louder than the IV, except for the 60G model, which is single platter in the V & thus 4~5 dBA quieter than the IV 2-platter version. But it could be that Seagate simply decided to get more conservative about their noise specs. Maybe there were too many in the production line that did not quite meet the 2 or 2.1 bel spec.

My guess is that platter for platter, the IV and V series are close enough that you would not be able to tell the difference between them. At least for the 1-platter models, their vibration causes more noise than the direct acoustic noise.

[bart]

so that means, you guess I should take the cheaper one because there is nearly no difference.

What does anyone else think about it


Thanx

[Ralf Hutter]

I'd go take a look at the Storage Review Forums. There's a couple of guys over there bitching about the cuda V's being quite noticeably louder than the cuda IV's. Someone's also having trouble with poor performance fromthe cuda V.

I've been patiently waitiing to put an 80GB Barracuda V in my new system but after reading all the so-so experiences with them I went and got me another 80GB cuda IV. I've used dozens of these and they work just fine.