After many hours of building my first PC mainly due to my OCD with cable management (even before my computer hobbies) and testing its sound properties, I have truly identified my source of annoyance with it: WD30EFRX . Outside of Fractal Define C's PSU chamber and drive cage, of course it's louder, but the noise is slightly less irritating and more air-related. Inside, it's annoying af even from afar and all angles that it first made me suspect the problem was caused by one of my case fans or the Scythe Kotetsu. I even later thought it was my mobo because it sounds just like coil whine. A (mis)fortune as a result of careful analysis and testing is my hearing is now more focused to the point that I can detect quiet high frequency noises, but I eliminated one of them from my surge protector plugs .

Anyway, I selected the 3TB WD Red because of bang for buck, sufficient capacity for my need, and supposed quietness. I wasn't expecting this. My 1TB WD Elements external portable is also noticeable with the air noise it makes, but not annoying. Does anyone have recommendations over the Reds outside of expensive high capacity SSDs? I'm probably fine with going down to 2TB if need be.

Is the hard drive just used for storage rather than active files? If so, have you messed around with Windows Power Options to have the drive spin down at idle?

It's for data, including media and games. The noise is constant coil-whine like even with no data written to or even the data cable connected to the mobo. I've given it multiple tries, but couldn't tolerate it anymore. I'm in the process or starting a return & refund . I have a feeling this is now typical for this model, not a manufacturing defect.

Now I'm leaning towards the WD 2TB Blue (WD20EZRZ) due to slightly better reviews than the 3TB. The 4TB seems to have higher failures and worse reviews on average from Newegg.

I wish Amazon didn't lump their nearly 9000 customer reviews of the WD blue products in one review bucket...it would have been helpful to have another source with a larger sample set...Newegg's 30 to 60 customers isn't a great sample size.

I know, but there aren't a lot stats available going by user reviews otherwise and it seems the 2TB is the most popular on both sites. Going by past SPCR reviews on WD drives, the trend has been the lower the capacity, the lower the dBA levels. Of course that's not a guarantee for modern models, but I took the plunge on the 2TB Blue and will report back my experience.

less platters = less noise. How can you tell if the 2TB is more popular on Amazon if they don't separate reviews between capacities?

Good luck with the new one.

Thanks.

I started counting the number of 5-star reviews on Amazon between the capacities, but after some pages I think it's enough. Newegg is of course much simpler. That and superstition sometimes takes over. If an odd numbered capacity didn't work out, perhaps an even one will. And the difference in colours. I should have a higher chance of success as one of the changes must do something

Heh.

Why not a 2.5" drive?

2.5" are slower and scarce in capacity, which means less bang for buck as well. I don't like these trade offs.

I just installed the WD20EZRZ and the result is better. It's quieter and less annoying than the Red. Unfortunately, it's still noticeable even behind my hissing speakers. I love my speakers, so I definitely won't be replacing them despite the constant white noise in a quiet environment. The WD Blue sounds like running water from a faucet when it's almost off, but not quiet, so it still has a bit of whiny noise that resembles the Red. And this is with absolutely no data written to it or even formatted yet. I guess I've been spoiled by the single SSD I've been using on the other PC and even the 2.5" Seagate on my laptop for years. So this is what standard 3.5" drives (with the Blues supposedly being the once-popularly quiet WD Greens in disguise) sounds like . Not good....not sure how long I can tolerate this or if I can even...

I have a Scythe Quiet Drive on the shelf just in case I would need a 3.5" HDD in one of the systems that are near to my ears. I hope I will never have to use it.

But that's what I would to anyway; encapsulate it and maybe also isolate it from the case.

Hello,
Have you suspended your drive ?? You are talking about your drive cage but if you fix any drive in a drive cage, even quiet ones, you won't get the best results.

That's true, but I still don't like the air borne noise they make when holding them on hand outside the case. My small bedroom and position doesn't allow other options to separate it from the case. I can't stand it anymore. There's no point testing it further let alone once it starts seeking and writing data Even with my external 2.5" drive placed on top of my case running loudly, I could still hear the WD blue in the background. If it made similar noises like other smooth sounding fans then I wouldn't mind. We silent purists are picky .

I decided to replace it with a 1TB SSD. Sigh. Expensive for a piece of sanity, but so is RAM pricing the last few years. I should've taken my first chance with the Crucial MX500 1TB when it was released in Canada at its lowest $300 CAD. Samsung's new 960 EVO 500GB is currently the same price on NewEgg. I'll have to continue to be patient using my external HDD as my data drive while waiting for lower prices. My priorities: (1) quietness (2) pricing (3) capacity. As time progresses, prices will decrease. By the time I need more space I'll add another SSD.

Now I feel like a thief . After left wondering why the WD Blue is not eligible for a refund, I called Amazon and they processed it, but couldn't accept the return "for security reasons". I was told that I can either keep it or destroy it. The other oddity is why I was able to return the WD Red initially from Amazon. Probably something to do with the Blue being shipped together with another item in my order that was mysteriously shipped from the US instead of Canada. It's not in my nature to buy an item, try to return it, but end up keeping it without paying . I'm so conflicted. It's a waste to not keep it, but then there's the noise...

I don't think it's vibration-induced if the sound signature is the same outside vs inside the case either, so suspension is probably unnecessary. The airborne noise must be a combination of the motor and spinning, which I guess can only be reduced by encapsulating it with something like a Scythe Quiet Drive that's now discontinued. I may be able to handle the higher temps if I can find a similar solution, but whether it'll fit inside the compact Fractal Define C is another matter. Any suggestions?

Sure You send it to me, then you exchange noise for good karma

:P Thanks for the karma offer, though.

I think my next plan is going to buy one of SPCR's recommendations: The Grow Up Japan Smart Drive enclosure. I think this is the successor. I'll have to measure the dimensions to see if it'll fit inside my case. Plus if I buy from Amazon, it'll be a way to recover some of my karma. Obviously I'll have to remove the drive cage first. The SSD is flexible in the sense that I can mount elsewhere, but I prefer not behind the motherboard tray as heat would blow out around it (maybe on the PSU shroud? Although then there's the GPU and the bulk of the case heat around there...would have to do long term testing).

Seriously ? This is middle age, you won't get a 100$ enclosure for a drive ?!

I would try to suspend it with elastics where would be the 5.25 drive. That gives the best result for me. Then if you still hear it even with the nice damping of your define c case I don't know what to do. You could try to add DIY dampening material around or built a wooden box... Another option would be to try to get a used caviar green...

How far away are you from the PC ?

$100 - Amazon refund =~ $20 . My 16GB RAM cost more than a lot of motherboards nowadays.

The Define C doesn't contain any 5.25" bays and I don't know much about DIY elastic suspension. It's amazing I was able to build my first PC recently . I sit about 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) away from where the drive would be.

Ok, just to be sure you have not the PC 30cm away from you.

Here is my rig

That's a nice, yet simple mod for your drive.

I still think suspending it won't solve my drive's high pitch whine as it's the motor and mechanical moving parts that's bothersome. I don't hear any vibrations.

Unfortunately, the GUP Smart Drive Classic's length would barely leave any space for the cables connected to the drive. The Fractal Define C's side panel wouldn't close. I can tell based on my measuring tape. Maybe the SATA data cable can bend inwards, but not so much for the power cable to the PSU.

I wonder if adding thick foam around the cage or something would help muffle high frequencies.

I made tons of interesting discoveries since last night I was wrong. It does pay to continue testing. Now I feel like a mad scientist because my messy room is filled with scattered PC parts and their packaging. This will be a long post.

TLDR: Don't put a drive tray or other objects above a 3.5" drive's labeled side because there will be whiny noises.

Let's get over with first the Bad News:
I broke 2 of my Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM fan's rubber push pins in a semi-frustrated state after further hours of diagnosing and testing the WD Blue noises . The remaining 2 pins are intact, but it's now pointless to leave the fan hanging. It's unsettling. I'll try the metal screws later . It was hell trying to pry them out from the mounting spots on the front of the case, contrary to how simple it was to push them in initially. That coupled with my fatigue and cold I've been experiencing didn't help.

Good news:
I can eliminate the drive's whiny noise! All that's left is the air noise it makes that's the most challenging to kill without a specialized enclosure or DIY solution. The rest of my PC is silent in the dead of the night if I really focus my attention (when idling of course), with occasional fan noise that's super faint that I couldn't identify; it's likely a normal result of all fans combined to the point that sometimes I second guess whether the PC is powered on .

Discoveries:
The WD Blue's labeled side is where the whiny and air noises emanate. When I place my ear next to all its edges and the other side, from various angles, a huge portion of the noise is blocked off/missing. So why did I first mentioned the noise signature is the same outside the case with my hand holding it vs inside the case, same for the WD Red? For some reason when I cover the noisy side with my hand, or without touching my palm but still close, the drive instantly creates a higher frequency noise. I then tried placing the case's drive tray over it (still outside the case with the other hand holding the underside of the drive) and it made the same noise. If only part of the bottom or top half is covered, it doesn't make the noise. It seems most dominant near the centre area of the drive. Then I tried covering it with a thin dish washing foam over it, but the noise isn't there. Maybe any object of considerable density or weight covering it is causing this annoyance? The Fractal Define C drive cage only holds 2 drive trays; my HDD was on the lower tray and SSD on the upper tray. Switching the HDD to the top tray and without the SSD connected didn't improve the result, but leaving the HDD on the lower tray with SSD on the upper tray both removed from the cage and case did! When the HDD is in the tray and pushed part way into the cage inside the case, the whine isn't there, but when fully inserted it's there. This bolstered my hypothesis that when something of substantial mass (in this case the SSD, drive tray, or both together on top of the HDD) is in proximity of the HDD noisy side, a whine is created. My next step was removing the drive cage: "Curiosity killed the cat", but in my case it killed my fan push pins (see Bad News above). It was getting late and I was exhausted, so my observation wasn't sharp and it could have been placebo, but the HDD sounded slightly quieter without the cage and just simply placed on top of the case floor without any proper mounting. Perhaps it likes even more breathing space above it with no cage or SSD above it, but what to do about that broad sounding air noise it generates if the best position is supposedly with the noisy side facing up? While I've achieved a little victory, the result is about half the sound of my external WD drive. Still not completely satisfied, I wanted it to be more quiet, and that I did achieve if only in my sleep...

This morning, I conducted further experiments. With the HDD's noisy side placed on my carpeted floor, the whine wasn't audible. Why not My floor is certainly more heavy, massive, and dense than my hand. I've begun to think it's more accurate that this occurs when a nearby object of considerable mass with an uneven surface is covering it. It's probably because my palm and various objects like the upper tray and case structure have gaps and holes that the air noise seems to resonate negatively and changes its noise characteristics, akin to whistle blowing. Curious, I re-placed the HDD on my carpet and applied pressure by pushing it down -- in addition to the lack of whine, the air and overall noise is greatly muted! This is the quietest state of the running HDD I've heard so far and I would love to transfer this noise level with it placed inside my case! While carpet is apparently an uneven surface, this may not be surprising because the air noise is probably more evenly distributed/bounced/spread across the floor. Then I re-mounted it into the lower tray and cage, but this time upside down with the noisy side on top of the case floor above the ventilated holes. Surprisingly, there was no whine. Maybe because the case floor is so thin and it's a non-massive object?

On to my current status: the HDD is placed on top of my anti-static foam that came with my PSU . I will report back and hopefully arrive at the best conclusion.

Fun with reflections. Bummer about the fan mounts.

This DIY built use 'fabric' to reduce noise:
DIY Perks - DIY Computer Case - The Ultimate Silent PC (CLOUD UNIT)

"It's a laptop drive, so designed to work where there is no airflow (temps are about 35c which is ideal)." (within fabric)


Now with the reflection explanations I understand it better.

More progress, more tiresome and disappointment. I ended up having to sandwich the drive between both the top and bottom PSU foams and cutting out a small section for the connector cables. The bottom foam kills the whine, while the top foam muffles the air noise. It was difficult to squeeze both foams into the tight confines of where the cage used to be, while trying to line them up as the PSU cables were in the way. At best the noise is reduced to ~30-40% of my external HDD. No more whine = no more immediate annoyance, but I was hoping for it to be quieter. It's now hums / growls into the background that I can hear even > 2 meters away or lying down on my bed. Turning my speakers back on with their white noise hiss somewhat justifies that noise because they sort of blend together. Still, I tested the PC in sleep mode vs idle and the difference is noticeable. I'm about out of ideas . Maybe I'll wrap the drive with fabric, but there are ports on it that have a warning about not obstructing them that concerns me about raising temperatures.

Pics in case you're wondering:

Success

After more countless time spent I found the cure . I didn't expect to obtain a miracle, but here I am. I gave up many times, but also persisted to the end. The WD Blue noise is down to ~ 3% or less as loud my external drive. (At least my external is just broadband air noise that I've lived with for years, something that's bearable)

Solution: Only one PSU foam covering the noisy label side (with it facing down), filled with excess foam that I cut out from the other foam. The top foam was unnecessary and blocked the drive's ports and circuit board side from breathing.

I think what caused the growling noise (which through many other tests sounded like a quieter truck engine that's running) was the extra space on the sides inside the foam as seen in the above pic. The side spacing probably allowed the spinning platters and air chatter to fly around, which changed the sound to another annoying type.

Here's one of my many earlier failed experiments where I covered it with top foam as well. I also tried sneaking both foams underneath the drive and flipping them upside down and every single other combination possible:


Shots of the drive in the lower foam with sides filled in:


The foam makes cable management harder and uglier because there's less room for the ATX and PCI-e cables, but I'd take silence over insanity. But that blasted ATX cable....I can't count how many times it was in the way

I reached a satisfying conclusion. Now it's very faint, although it's still day time and living somewhat near an military base with frequent planes makes it difficult to discern how loud it is compared to night time. At least when I turn my speakers on, which is pretty much all the time, the white noise becomes dominant on idle .

Update: it really is quiet even at night time. From my listening position I can't hear it. Only audible with ear next to case's side panel at the front, and even then it's mere quiet fan noise that could be from my BeQuiet Silent Wings 3 140mm PWM fans. I guess this is what a traditional WD Green should sound like or how the earliest Red batches did.

Congratulations for your perseverance and your success

Thank you for sharing this here. I keep the idea in mind and I may try it later on to see how it improves my drives.

I was surprised when I got my R5 that while being marketed toward silence they don't provide elastic mounts, nor foam mount and the rubber grommets where not working properly for me (seems an exception according to other posts here). It's good we can share thoose trick here.

Thanks!

You're welcome. I was hoping it would help other users as inquiry minds think alike. I've noticed this topic has been raised repeatedly over the years ever since the later WD Red revisions that turned for the worse. SPCR has helped me on recommended parts and I've learned lots from the forums too, like how it was a bad idea to install the newer plastic washers for LGA1151 on the Scythe Kotetsu because it will raise temperatures.

Same here. My drive cages and trays on the R5 lack the rubber grommets that my Define C have (8 in total), but in truth, they are unnecessary. I ended taking all of them out from both cases. These days, it seems vibration isn't as problematic with WD drives. The only time I heard vibration was when I placed it on top of the case's thin floor at weird angles and spots by accident. On the other hand, users who sit nearby their cases may hear vibrations easier.

Epic! Thanks you so much for your report. I'm in the same situation. Having a 4tb WD that makes a annoying high pitched whining noise and I'm almost ready to buy a super expensiv 2tb sdd to get rid of it. I also have a Fractal case.

Two question.

- Have you tried to mount the hdd like normal and just but a lot of foam on top of it.
- Does anybody have real knowledge if using the hdd with the top label side down (so upside down like normal) is a problem for the reliability?

Sorry if I missed it in case you already wrote about it.

Hmmm...I don't remember if this was one of the combinations I've tried. I must have missed this setup inside the case for some reason. When I tested with the 2 foams on the drive, they were underneath it, which wasn't practical to begin with because my Define C wasn't designed with that much stuff cramped inside the PSU shroud in terms of height and also would've suffocated the drive under heavy activity over time. I do recall placing the 2 foams by themselves on top of the drive while it was outside of the case, and there was very little impact on noise reduction because there was nothing heavy to press against the drive. When I pressed down on the foams on top the drive, it was a bit quieter, but it couldn't match the result with label facing down and my floor absorbing the majority of the noise. You also have to consider that my case is on carpeted floor, whereas your layout may be different if placed on a desk where the noise might be slightly more audible with the drive closer to ear level (although this should be marginal because there's hardly difference in the limited height spacing available). Which Fractal case do you have? If it's something like the R5 then you have more spots available.

I don't know the answer to your second question about whether it's safe which side the drive sits on, but I was curious too. There are lots of setups where drives are mounted sideways without trouble. I have a feeling my orientation is okay in terms of heat because at least the ports can breathe Edit: the dust filtered vents on the case floor won't benefit it much because I forgot about the foam , but there hopefully will be some amount of cooling from natural convection with cooler air staying low. Depending on ambient temps, mine ranged from 31 on idle to 37 degrees with average activity. BTW, I used WDIDLE3 to delay the default head parking from 8 to 300 seconds (5 minutes) to increase its longevity .

Update: Good old Google reveals the answer: https://www.howtogeek.com/128397/does-h ... -lifespan/. , and that includes being upside down . Also straight from WD's FAQ - https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/a ... D=981#phys: