Well I don't know how TecChannel procedes to measure hdd's noises but their results table shows many strange figures : http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/132/tecdatavn6.th.png Just a few examples : - Maxtor 6H500F0, idle noise 25.5dB : I've been assembling a computer for a friend with this drive and...

boe, does your case look like this ?

According to this page it has a 12cm fan in front of the five 3"1/2 HDD bays. Did you remove it ? Or has your A619 no fan in front ?

The Zalman ZM-2HC2 fits in a 5"1/4 bay.

Mats : http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx This old free tool still is very useful. http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/472/tweakuioptimizehddip9.png specular -- Yes I know this issue, I have it too on two WD drives. I had a similar thing on some old IBM/Hitachi dr...

SimpleSimon -- these pure 2700Hz tones are a nightmare Even more than your neighbour training drums lol. Double-check your Samsung drive (in another computer if possible), then if nothing improves, backup any data and go RMA.

spolitta, I ran a few benchmarks I described in the topic I linked in my previous post; you'll find results here. These can easily be compared to benchmarks of the WD SE16 that has been widely reviewed online. The HD400/401LJ Samsungs perform well and are on a par with most other current 7200rpm dri...

Yes Mats I'm starting to believe the current WD3200KS really has noisier seeks than the WD5000KS. Back to the Samsung T133 topic -- I guess Samsung is planning to stop manufacturing P120 series as I don't see any other good reason to include 250, 300 & 320 GB in the T133 series. Nevertheless the 300...

Sure, these ideas would be interesting to try. However I wouldn't use aluminium, even in huge quantities, in a quiet setup; steel rules. By the way, I'm currently assembling a new rig inside a Chieftec BA-02B-B-SL steel tower case that weighs in at 18 kg without PSU (yes we can buy it without this c...

Many thanks for this great review, Devon! As I described in _this_ topic (several posts), my WD3200KS, manufactured June, 2006, has higher-than-expected seek noises, even after two months of daily use. It sits in a Scythe enclosure, lying on soft foam without any direct contact to the case, and this...

Woodytak, I don't think the gel sheets have any significant acoutiscal absorption effect in the Scythe enclosure; these sheets are very thin and I'd say their only purpose is to transmit heat from metal to metal avoiding direct contact. The Scythe enclosure uses reasonably deep, dark grey foam to re...

10 times faster... maybe due to the fact that DVD Shrink 3.5 -- if it ever comes out someday... -- will be 6 times faster than the current, two-year old 3.2 version :roll: My overclocked E6600 is roughly 40% faster than my overclocked X2-3800+ on most video recoding tasks. System power consumption i...

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=186937#186937 My 6600 doesn't report temps, so I will just test for temperature at the heatsink. (Yeah, I know this is old and slightly off-topic, but I didn't know where to post since I don't think the information below deserves a new topic) I always...

I'm happy to read this, andyb :) I felt somewhat alone in praising this Samsung 400 GB for the last 6 weeks lol I hope we'll get some proper and detailed SPCR review someday -- I can't stop thinking HDD recommended list' 1st place shouldn't be given to WD5000KS. I don't know if these T133s are easil...

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=279044#279044 As an off-topic side-note, another one of my Nexus enclosures started to have increased vibrations; investigation showed that the enclosures' panels weren't screwed in such a way that everything fits solidly together anymore and it seems...

I never tried any 10,000rpm drive but I guess your idea is worth a try.
However I recently got hands on several Scythe enclosures (after one of my 5-months old Nexus enclosures "died") and I join Nici into thinking they're a better choice.

As innovative as the heatsink design may be, I can't figure how Apack engineers managed to conduct so much fan vibrations to the metal structure, resulting in countless frequency pikes in the 1000-4000 Hz range; this also gives us are a perfect example of how misleading dBA measurements can be when ...

Don't know for sure about performance gap between WD3200KS and WD2500KS; also make sure the KS you buy has been manufactured lately, as these model numbers have been used for more than a year, while drive designs changed (bigger platters, etc). Using both WD3200KS and Samsung HD401LJ drives (each on...

According to SPCR's review http://www.silentpcreview.com/article622-page1.html the Raptor 150GB 10,000rpm has a very low idle noise but sharp and heavy seek noises. This means you should focus on decoupling rather than fighting idle noise; so I guess an enclosure may not be the best option, be it ha...

I've been using Nexus Drive-a-Way enclosures for several months; it's very good at attenuating idle (whine) noise and it softens the seek noise a fair amount; but if you hard-mount the enclosure in a 5.25" bay it will transmit a significant part of the HDD vribrations to your case. Also I had a prob...

Small update on my findings. I've been using the Samsung HD401LJ on a daily basis for three weeks now. It sits in a Nexus Drive-a-Way enclosure. As these enclosures transmit some vibration to the case, I've been able to compare the vibration levels between HD401LJ and SP2504C (I'm always using only ...

Have a look here
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=26738

I've posted pictures, benchmarks and audio recordings.

Pascal, Earlier in this topic you will find some benchmarks and noise recordings I made with my HD401LJ. The Vantec external enclosure you're planning to buy allows you to connect the hard disk drive through eSATA; this way you'll use your disk as fast as if it was connected internally. This gives y...

My recording of the HD401LJ is available on http://idlenoise.ifrance.com/recordings/ When you first compare both Samsung drives recordings, you may think there's more mid-high freqs presence in the HD401LJ recording compared to the SP2504C; however there is not. What's different is that the low freq...

chdude3 > thanks.. nevertheless you managed to discover that my native language is french and not dutch (like about half of belgian people) :| By the way, your french is excellent. I'll try to make a recording asap, this should give a first look until we hopefully get the drive properly reviewed by ...

Well I'm no benchmarks specialist but I think Samsung drives usually get additional 1ms or 2ms in access time tests. Figures shown on c't w2benchw for example seem about in-line with online reviews. Enabling AAM on Samsung drives usually doesn't improve the results a lot. I'm not gonna try to better...

I've uploaded some benchmark results on http://idlenoise.ifrance.com/benchmarks/ Test platform is an Asus A8N-SLi motherboard, X2 2.0 GHz (3800+) cpu overclocked at 2.6 GHz (~5000+); using nVidia nForce4 for IDE and SATA2 connections. As you can see, the HD401LJ performs very well; slightly above SP...

Had my Samsung HD401LJ delivered this morning. Pics here http://idlenoise.ifrance.com/recordings/pictures/
I'm going to do a few noise recording tests and compare it with a SP2504C. Short performance tests too

Unlike most competitors, current Samsung drives (P120 & T133) generate more low-frequency rotational noise, while there is very little of the usual high-frequency noise, both rotational and in seek mode. To my ears it's the best compromise in currently available 250-400 GB 3.5" drives. High freqs ca...

Great move guys ! Thanks a lot once again. Could it be possible to offer an unreduced quality 16-bit (flac) version of the new reference recordings ? I easily understand you have to use mp3 encoding in order to limit internet bandwidth usage (as well as providing a format most people already know of...

shimq1 -- my WD3200KS is nice yes, I've put it in a Nexus Drive-a-Way now and it quietens somehow the slightly harsh idle noise. It does heat more than a SP2504C however, I'd say about 2°C or 3°C. And I still prefer the smooth low idle noise of the Samsungs.

Just finished testing SP2504C, all details on the aforementioned link. It really does sound less harsh on mid-high frequencies, compared to my WD3200KS. Listen for yourself :) I guess selecting one drive over the other is a question of taste, maybe not everyone is most sensitive in the same frequenc...