I just got a f4 2TB to replace its predecessor a f2 1TB HD105SI. The latter is the most vibration free samsung ive ever owned, and so i knew it would be hard to maintain that standard.

Im interested in others experiences to see what the variance is. If there IS variance i will order a couple more and sell the worst two. I cant live with vibration, in the old days when my cases were large there was room for anti-vibration technology, now that all my stuff is mini-itx, things are tight space wise.

To give you an idea, the vibration in my sample is not as bad as the old P80s by any stretch, and its got a mellow clean sort of resonance, but if you lay it on the plastic transit container it picks the vibration up and turns it into noise. Hand held its a distinctive low freq vibration. The 1T by comparision you can barely feel its on, its more like a feint tingle in your palm. Im sure Mike has some vibration scoring info some place, can anyone lay there hand on it?

New build in progress BTW, i can feel another kiwi cooling article coming on.

All of our HDD reviews examine and report vibration, but there's always variance between samples, usually not more than one step, by our self-defined spec.

It's not clear whether one batch (made in the 2nd week of Sept 2010, for example) would have more variances within itself vs another batch (made in the 4th wee of Sept, for example). We've never been able to obtain enough samples of the same model at any one time.

Your idea of cherry-picking from several works.

The F3 HD105SI is a two platter design after all so I wouldn't be surprised if the three platter F4 HD204UI had a bit more force to its vibrations. I have only had 7200rpm drives in recent years but my two HD204UI share the same to me subjectively unproblematic amount of vibration with no discernable difference. Then they are also from the same batch. Any vibration dampening for the HDD mounts in your current case?

Unfortunately the drive is mounted on its side (inwin bm639). I quite like the format of the case in general (coming from various smaller morex/procases), however the clearance between the drive side and the case side is maybe only 5mm. The F2 has no (and requires no) anti-vibration mounting, and from past experience (while i havent mounted it yet) no amount of soft grommets will kill this particular vibration. It will need suspension for sure. Ive never tried sorbathane, it /might/ work.

Mike, the difference between these two drives is way more than one point on your scale. Id rate the F2 as a 9, and the F4 as a 6 or 7. FWIW it looks the same batch as your test sample, aug 2010.

If the best im likely to get from another F4 is 7, then thats not good, OTOH i seem to have a knack for picking up outliers.

No one else seems to be having vibration problems with the F4s so it sounds like i have a bad one.

Eg:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showth ... st17373063

they are saying they vibrate less than WDs and F3s.

Edit: got some more coming.

I think F3's weren't the best to begin with, those were 4 platter designs.

Ok i recieved a second one. The first was labeled hd204ui/z4 sep 10, the second is hd204ui/uz4 sep 10. Some people have said that the slash suffix relates to reduced warranty, others to 'grey imports' etc. But the samsung waranty checker says its code 100, good til 2013/12.

Anyway back to the subject. The vibration in this one is less, in my hand id say one or possibly even two points better than the first one. However when sitting on resonant surfaces theres little if any sound produced, so id says its a cleaner vibration somehow.

I have both the f2 and the better of the f4s running on my bench. Its clear the f4 is all round more noisy by a good way, theres more squeal, more oom and more whoosh.

On the upside the f4 is noticeably cooler, and the seeks are a good deal quieter than the f2.

Now the post i linked to above, where the guy with 6 f4s said there was no vibration etc, i think people with 6 of anything in a system have lots of fans, and arent as tuned to noise as your average silentpcreview forum member. The only other noise from my latest build is one 14cm fan running about 8 volts. With the hdd unplugged I can hear my laptop, the mains hum from (a supposedly decent) set of m-audio speakers), even the buzz from the lcd backlight invertor before i can hear the pc. Turn on the hdd and it all becomes a soup of sound.

The backlight invertor issue is quite common from what ive read, and you can get rid of it by turning the brightness to full, but then its really bright. As for the hdd, i guess ill try to find some way to get it to power off when not in use. That will be tricky because the ssd optimisations rely on the hdd at times, which keeps it powered up. Theres a script here Or maybe keep the wretched thing in an enclosure under the desk. Roll on 2TB ssds?

This thread is a few months old but I would it was worthy of an addition.

I've just bought a new HD204UI from Amazon.co.uk (UK stock). I already had two I bought from eBuyer (both grey imports), one a month or so ago, the other from the back end of last year. I would say the new drive (dated 2011.02) has close to double the vibration and a touch more whine. Now because they are so comparitively different I'm going to send it back. Mildly annoying because I was pleased it had a proper UK warranty.

I was wondering whether it was worth waiting for them to get a new batch of stock or going for a replacement with fingers crossed. I decided on the latter.

I bought 4 of these a couple of months ago. They do vibrate. I thought a 5400 rpm drive would be more quiet but the vibration makes it noisier than past Samsung Hard Drives I've owned (more than 20 over the years). I started buying Samsungs years ago because of how quiet they were. These don't live up to that standard. I'm sure I'll give them another try in the future.

Is it possible that platters that didn't make the cut at 7200 RPM were used in 5400 RPM drives and stamped "green"?