The WD has released a firmware update that allows you to set the parking interval, or (IIRC) to turn it off completely, hence I think it's safe to consider these drives. If you're looking for reliability, drive packaging matters more than some vendors realize. Rough handling may cause failures well ...

If you don't want to use a fan, try suspending the drive with the the sides that ordinarily bolt to the rails parallel to the ground, and the circuit board perpendicular. This improves convective cooling. Forced convection, even from a very quiet fan, is hard to beat, though. Edit: I originally wrot...

Do you have the same problem with the new/refurbished drive? If so, have you tried pointing a fan at it?

I don't think WD is trying to con anyone by selling different drives under the same model number. They just don't understand, and likely don't care about, the enthusiast market. The slight differences in performance and acoustics that matter so much to us mean very little to a typical OEM or retaile...

I read that the access speeds were quite slow. http://www.planet3dnow.de/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=332031 Do you notice significant speed difference (for better or worse) compared to your old WD7500AAKS? -Ed The current WD drives never win win the seek or access time trophy, but they do very well ...

:) Okay, the actual equation is dB2 = dB1 + 50 log10 (RPM2 / RPM1) http://www.comairrotron.com/acoustic_noise.shtml This is not the same as saying that the SPL is proportionate to 50 log10(RPM). I knew that couldn't be right so I tried some possible typo corrections, and using SPL proportionate to 6...

dBA is proportional to 60*LOG10[RPM]. For a more detailed explanation, check with Jaganath; he's good at this stuff. :wink: Now that's a very useful formula if it works in the real world. I think you mean 60^LOG10[RPM], though. Of course, the problem with comparing noise specs from different manufa...

Has anyone tried the new 18W version of Laing's DDC pump? Someone on another forum was told by Swiftech that the new pump is "much nosier" than the original 10W DDC (aka the Swiftech MCP350). OTOH, I've seen a few reports that the new pump is silent. None of these were from fellow silence freaks, th...

Do you know the thermal conductivity of the aluminum you have? Trace amounts of other elements can dramatically reduce the thermal conductivity of both aluminum and copper. Hence, even aluminum and copper that's sold as "pure" can have relatively low thermal conductivity. Fortuantely, there are stan...

It looks great, but wouldn't you get more convection if the fins were oriented vertically? It looks like a baseboard heater standing on one end. The only problem with that is that baseboard heaters are designed to be mounted the other way.

Of course, the real question is if they have this properly implemented in the NV4 RAID controller. It would only seem logical to me. I mean, why would you intentionally sideline all read traffic to only the primary pair of disks? Well, they might if it's cheaper. When I investigated the Raid5 suppo...

Whether or not it's worth it depends on whether the higher perforrmance outweights the higher cost and noise and lower reliability. Only you can determine that. They're not the quietest drives, but I might recommend the Seagate's diver is using. They've got good performance, and they're probably mor...

I was originally thinking of 2" thick walls filled with sand, which would be so heavy I'd build a sort of crane into the case to swing the cover off (5 sides come off together, leaving one on hte case supporting the HD suspension frame). But then I ran across this stuff. http://www.soundprooffoam.co...

qviri wrote:3 TB here I come?

LOL. Nah, not for a while yet, anyway. But raid 10 takes a minimum of four drives, and if I keep the old array when I upgrade as I usually have with single hard drives, that's at least 8.

Hmmm. Do they actually use a meter on the drives? If so, i missed that. :goes to check:

Edit: Ah, okay, I hadn't read the testing methodology lately, but they are using an ammeter. Thanks.

I'm thinking of watercooling an array of 3.5" hard drives so that I can put them in an airtight box, and I'm trying to figure out how much heat I'd actually be dealing with. I'll have eight of them in the box eventually, and if each drive uses 7-10 watts at idle, that's a significant load on the rad...

DFI recommends a PSU with at least 480w. No, you don't necessarily need that much power for that board, and I'm sure that their recomendation is colored by the fact that many PSU's can sustain their rated current only in a freezer with a fan blowing into the intake at the first new moon after the su...

Evil Gnomes wrote:I've heard many people say that the DangerDen D5/Swiftech MCP655 is quieter than the 350, but i cannot confirm it. (I think cathar said it)

From what I've read, it's the other way around. The D5 is makes less noise than the D4, but the DDC beats them both.

If you tend to build power-hungry systems and you're looking for a PSU that will power your next build too, you might as well go for the s-12 600. It has the same fan as the 500W model and the same noise profile up to 500W. The only difference is that with the 600W version, you can keep going for an...

James, if the DDC/MCP-350 doesn't have enough flow for the system you're planning, you can modify it for much better flow. http://www.systemcooling.com/mcp350_mod-01.html

I haven't tried this myself, but people say the modified pump is just as quiet as the stock version.

DG, the kits usually don't provide the kind of performance hardcore overclockers and silence freaks are looking for. Also, they tend to be a bit overpriced, especially compared to what you can do if you're not afraid to modify or fabricate some of your own components. If you can order waterblocks, a...

Any sort of extension or adapter can cause a significant voltage drop when the current is high enough. A single drive will probably be okay. A large, daisy-chained RAID array running on a single extension cable is probably not a good idea. Even 20 to 24pin adapters can cause problems for some mother...

Perhaps I need to do a little more research, but the review just posted up on the front page has me interested. How do I tell if the PSU is of the new revision or not? Is it the F3 on the sticker? Good question. I recall complaints on this forum about the noise of the high-speed, ball-bearing Yate ...