Looking for quiet S-ATA HDDs

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 9:21 am

I'm going to a P4 865/875 setup and am going to use S-ATA in one of these removeable hotswap racks.

Are the Barracuda V's with AAM enabled the way to go as far as quiet is concerned? I value low noise over high performance so I am leaning this way. Anyone know anything about this stuff?

Is there much difference in the noise level between the various sizes of the drives? 80GB would be my first choice but apperently there is (or was) a 60GB version of this drive that has only one platter but I can't find it for sale anymore.

DanOnKeys · Post by **DanOnKeys** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 4:23 pm

I've got the 80GB cudaV SATA with AAM enabled, and I think it's every bit as quiet as my IBM/Hitachi 40GB 120GXP and 80GB 180GXP drives also with AAM enabled. They're not silent, but I think they're very quiet. One negative about the cudaV, though -- it runs pretty hot. I don't have temps on it, but when I put my hands on the drives in my machine when everything's running, the cudaV is always very hot to the touch. My GXPs get warm, but somehow that SATA drive always seems hot to me. It almost makes me wish I didn't get it as it just seems to add gratuitous heat to my system.

Good luck finding a low-performance SATA drive... Oh, and I recently haven't been able to find any cudaV's under 80GB either.

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 10:39 pm

Does anybody know if the new Samsun SP1604N/SP1614N models are available in SATA as well?

How about a SATA-ATA converter?

The single platter versions (SP082N/SP0812N) should be slightly faster drives than cuda, run with less heat and have more muted seeks, but a higher idle whine (according to SilentPC review and other user comments).

regards,
halcyon

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 8:22 am

Well, I got me a retail box 80GB Barracuda V to try. I won't be getting the rest of my hardware until Thursday but I'll build it + play with it over the holiday weekend.

MichaelS · Post by **MichaelS** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 12:29 pm

The Samsung SP1604C is indeed a SATA150 drive with 8MB cache. Still waiting for mine to arrive!

tragus · Post by **tragus** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 12:50 pm

MichaelS wrote:The Samsung SP1604C is indeed a SATA150 drive with 8MB cache. Still waiting for mine to arrive!

Ummm, according to Samsung's own specs the SP1604 is 2 MB cache. The SP1614 is 8 MB.

[[ Edited: Ooops, I referenced the SP..N series. It seems that the SP1604C is SATA and 8 MB, but I can only find reference to that model at Samsung's Ukrainian, Russian, and Latvian sites. Apologies to MichaelS and a request to him for where he ordered his. ]]

lurker · Post by **lurker** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 1:08 pm

MichaelS wrote:The Samsung SP1604C is indeed a SATA150 drive with 8MB cache. Still waiting for mine to arrive!

From which vendor did you purchase yours? Someone who ships to the US, I hope

MichaelS · Post by **MichaelS** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 8:52 am

Well, I am getting them directly from Samsung as samples due to the nature of my business. I believe they will be available in stores in about one month.

Cheers,
Michael

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:32 am

How do they perform against maxtor dm9+ sata? Faster, slower? Mostly likely quieter but performance is also important.

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 12:00 am

Test data for the 2 MB ATA version:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sam ... index.html

Surprisingly good, imho.

regards,
Halcyon

grnarrow · Post by **grnarrow** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 6:25 am

MichaelS wrote:Well, I am getting them directly from Samsung as samples due to the nature of my business. I believe they will be available in stores in about one month.

Do you have information from samsung that the new drives will be available to retail in a month, or is this rumor? If I knew for certain they were coming out a certain date I'd wait to build my system until they were available, but I don't want to wait on false hope.

maarten · Post by **maarten** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 7:19 am

The Maxtors should be quiet; according to AnandTech they are quieter than the Cuda V's and perform up to 40% better... I'll see this weekend if they really are that quiet

and to be honest... my feeling is that some people at the forum automatically associate maxtor with noise without ever having tested or used the new drives. So I'll go with what the reviewers say, especially if it's on AnandTech

MichaelS · Post by **MichaelS** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 10:24 am

Honestly... I have no firm official information on exactly when they will be retailing. There isn't a lot of information coming from Samsung regarding new hard drive products as you all know.

sgtpokey · Post by **sgtpokey** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 4:24 pm

I'm going to a P4 865/875 setup and am going to use S-ATA in one of these removeable hotswap racks.

Hi Ralf,

If/when you do get that rack, do you mind posting if it *really* is hot-swap capable? I've been trying to find a review or on-line manual for that hot swap rack but have come up with zip. If it's hot-swappable, there would have to be a mechanical safety mechanism that powers down the hard drive before you are able to undock it --> it should be OS independent so shouldn't need to rely on any Windows software (i.e. it should work in Linux).

anyway, I'm considering it for a server but it won't fit the bill if I can't hot-swap while keeping a Linux OS environment up...

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 7:52 am

sgtpokey wrote:

I'm going to a P4 865/875 setup and am going to use S-ATA in one of these removeable hotswap racks.

Hi Ralf,

If/when you do get that rack, do you mind posting if it *really* is hot-swap capable? I've been trying to find a review or on-line manual for that hot swap rack but have come up with zip. If it's hot-swappable, there would have to be a mechanical safety mechanism that powers down the hard drive before you are able to undock it --> it should be OS independent so shouldn't need to rely on any Windows software (i.e. it should work in Linux).

anyway, I'm considering it for a server but it won't fit the bill if I can't hot-swap while keeping a Linux OS environment up...

I'll let you know how it works. It shouldn't be a problem because SATA is designed as hot-swappable vs. IDE which is not hot-swappable without going through a controller card. .

maarten · Post by **maarten** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 12:24 pm

Ok I just received my Maxtor's SATA 80gb today... I tell you:
definitely buy these drives!! my case is still open and still I can barely hear them!!!

superb drives that flat out beat seagates both in noise reduction & performance.

cliche · Post by **cliche** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 1:18 pm

maarten wrote:Ok I just received my Maxtor's SATA 80gb today... I tell you:
definitely buy these drives!! my case is still open and still I can barely hear them!!!

superb drives that flat out beat seagates both in noise reduction & performance.

Would love to see a comparison between the IDE samsung and this baby

grnarrow · Post by **grnarrow** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 2:50 pm

maarten wrote:Ok I just received my Maxtor's SATA 80gb today... I tell you:
definitely buy these drives!! my case is still open and still I can barely hear them!!!

superb drives that flat out beat seagates both in noise reduction & performance.

What is the model number and who did you get it from?

maarten · Post by **maarten** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 11:34 pm

It is the 6Y080M0

you can find a review of it here, I'll post the link directly to the audio-testing section (not really a scientific test but effective nonetheless)

http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/Dri ... a(4).shtml

rizla · Post by **rizla** » Mon Jul 07, 2003 8:25 pm

marteen:

Are you comparing your maxtor to a Barrcuda V SATA ? or a 7200.7 drive? Also - was the AAM feature turned on if you were using the Cuda V Sata?

Any chance of some more info? I'm strongly considering alternatives to the Cuda V SATA.

Thanks!

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 4:07 am

rizla wrote: I'm strongly considering alternatives to the Cuda V SATA.

Thanks!

Why? For performance or noise?

If it's noise, don't bother. The cuda V with AAM set at it's quietest setting is damn near as quiet as a cuda IV. I don't see how the Maxtor could touch it.

Performance is another matter......

Jan Kivar · Post by **Jan Kivar** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 4:26 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:
rizla wrote: I'm strongly considering alternatives to the Cuda V SATA.

Thanks!
Why? For performance or noise?

If it's noise, don't bother. The cuda V with AAM set at it's quietest setting is damn near as quiet as a cuda IV. I don't see how the Maxtor could touch it.

Performance is another matter......

Samsung is going to release SATA drives soon.

Jan

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 4:35 am

Jan Kivar wrote:
Ralf Hutter wrote:
rizla wrote: I'm strongly considering alternatives to the Cuda V SATA.

Thanks!
Why? For performance or noise?

If it's noise, don't bother. The cuda V with AAM set at it's quietest setting is damn near as quiet as a cuda IV. I don't see how the Maxtor could touch it.

Performance is another matter......
Samsung is going to release SATA drives soon.

Jan

Well don't just tease us man, more info please!!

Jan Kivar · Post by **Jan Kivar** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 4:53 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:
Jan Kivar wrote:Samsung is going to release SATA drives soon.

Jan
Well don't just tease us man, more info please!!

Well, everything I know is what MichaelS shared earlier in this thread...

Jan

rizla · Post by **rizla** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 3:58 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:
rizla wrote: I'm strongly considering alternatives to the Cuda V SATA.

Thanks!
Why? For performance or noise?

If it's noise, don't bother. The cuda V with AAM set at it's quietest setting is damn near as quiet as a cuda IV. I don't see how the Maxtor could touch it.

Performance is another matter......

It's the noise more than the performance - but its difficult to get hold of the Cuda V's now here in Australia. I'd have to hunt down a couple of the SATA cuda's and pay quite a bit, as opposed to waiting for another quiet SATA drive to surface and drop in price as more SATA drives come to market.

I'm not holding my breath for a samsung SATA either, the only hard drives I have ever had fail on me were both samsungs. I'd like to see (hear?) a solid comparison between the maxtor and the Cuda V so I can decide whether to hunt down a couple of Cuda V's before they completely dissappear.

adoyle · Post by **adoyle** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 1:45 pm

how does the idle noise of the V SATA compare with the IV? any whine?

Roger Beckett · Post by **Roger Beckett** » Wed Jul 09, 2003 2:04 pm

could just go with 5400 rpm some are very quiet, and you certainly would be getting the lower performance you crave

ccmcornell · Post by **ccmcornell** » Sun Jul 20, 2003 2:46 pm

Ralf,

What case are you putting that hot-swappable rack in? I was considering a mid-tower like the Sonata and using Granite Digital Firewire hot-swap solutions, but the cost is much higher than the rack you showed. Can you also buy extra drive trays?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 3:59 am

ccmcornell wrote:Ralf,

What case are you putting that hot-swappable rack in? I was considering a mid-tower like the Sonata and using Granite Digital Firewire hot-swap solutions, but the cost is much higher than the rack you showed. Can you also buy extra drive trays?

The Supermicro rack was going in my SLK3700AMB (in the lower three 5.25" bays) but that plan went up in flames when I found out that Seagate HDDs don't fit into the Supermicro drive trays. They're an odd-ball size/shape on the bottom (due to the SeaShield I suppose). Of course there's no caveat about this on the Supermiro site or on the Newegg page so I had to find out first hand. You can buy extra trays for that rack, they're $18 ea.

Another issue with the Supermicro rack has to do with the temperature of the SATA drives and fan noise. The Supermicro rack comes with a standard 92mm fan on the back. Initially I figured "cool, I'll swap it out for an L1A Panaflo and undervolt it". After I got all the hard ware and built my system reality intruded on my project.

The SATA Barracuda V runs pretty hot anyway (6+°C hotter than my Barracuda IVs) and after I fit it into the Supermicro tray (using a set of special .050" shims so it would fit) I booted up and kept my eye on the temps. The idle temp with the SATA drive mounted in the regular SLK3700 drive cage (with a 5V 92mm L1A blowing on it) was 40-41°C. With the drive in the Supermicro rack, using the stock (NMB) 92mm fan the idle temp went up to 44-45°C. The stock NMB fan was very noisey too, there's no way I could run my system with that fan.

At this point, between the fact that I had to shim up drives to fit into the trays, the high drive temps and the noisey fan, my heart was starting to sink. The nail that sealed this coffin was when I swapped out the noisey, stock NMB for a 92mm L1A running at 12V (which is none too quiet anyway). The drive temps shot up to 50-51°C! I said "eff this" and RMA'd the Supermicro rack back to Newegg, telling them that it would not fit Seagate drives without having to shim them up.

I've temporarily ditched the hot-swap rack idea and mounted my drive in the usual position and will wait until something else pops up. I'm sure more SATA racks will show up in the near future. Actually there is another SATA rack available but it has a blower type of fan on the back of it and I'm afraid that it will be way too loud for me.

In the mean time I've gone back to my old method off HDD backup for this system: my GraniteDigital external Firewire case + 80GB Barracuda IV. I may just end up sticking with this, it's as easy to use as a hot-swap SATA rack, just not as elegant.

chinnei · Post by **chinnei** » Mon Jul 21, 2003 7:05 am

Well, this is a thread about quiet sata drive so I think I am at the right place.

I just wanna comment on my first impression of maxtor diamondmax 9, model #6y120mo.
I just installed this about a week ago in my new system and at first I was very impressed with the speed. I previously installed barracuda IV and WD100 ata drives and I could definitely tell the speed improvement in file transfer, boot, video editing etc.
I am not really familiar with performing benchmark test so I can't really comment on actual numbers, but however, I did try it on Sandra just for fun and it just blew away my old seagate and WD drives in comparison.

Now the negatives, this drive is very loud while it's in seeking mode. It's very quite while in idle but everytime there is an activity, it makes these continuous clicking noise that gets very annoying after awhile.
I've never had this problem with seagate and wd so I went to tech support over at maxtor's website hoping that I received the defect so I can send it back for another. But from what they told me, the clicking noise is very normal in these drives as long as it happens when there is an activity in disk!
I also have to add in fact that my overall system is very quiet so clicking noise probably stood out more louder than it would in normal systems.
Needless to say, overall, I am very disappointed with this drive because of the noise. Even though it provided the performance that I was looking for, I will probably send it back and get seagate sata and put them in raid to compensate for speed.

P.S. Does anybody have any experience with WD sata drives. I am not talking about the raptors, but it's their 7500rpm drives and one of the model number is WD1200JD. It must be new because I can't find the reviews anywhere and even on their website they just showed up few days ago. Even on Newegg, they had it on stock for only couple days and now they don't.

Looking for quiet S-ATA HDDs

Looking for quiet S-ATA HDDs

Noise v performance