SPCR

Very happy with my new 400GB T133. The seek noise is very soft in character, better even than the 2-platter 320GB Seagate 7200.10, and motor noise is also soft and alluring.

I think the PCB and general build quality is very nice - the PCB seems a much simpler design, with fewer components mounted on the exposed underside (maybe components are hidden elsewhere) - so generally the bare drive is very nice to handle, it feels more robust and less vulnerable to mishandling than other drives I have used.

And by the way the 400GB drive is faster than average for sustained data throughput (i.e. large file reads or writes), due to the high data density.

Hi, ( sorry if my english isn't good )

Can you help me ? I want to buy a hard drive + a box for this drive.
I'll buy this box : Vantec Nexstar 3 http://www.3dgameman.com/vr/vantec/nexs ... ew_03.html
But I don't know which hhd model i must buy ?
I seek a hard drive 400 go sata , very quiet, not slow, and lasts a long time.
Samsung is well-know for its silence, but is it the same with the 400 go ? Western Digital ? Hitachi ?

Thanks,

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 you far better performance than USB or FireWire drives.

Feel free to PM contact me in french if I can help further

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 one drive per computer at a time, except for FileServer); the P120 vibrates much more, I guess the difference would be either 1 or 2 points on SPCR's scale. 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 there is no way to repair it... Pretty bad for a 5-months old enclosure; I've ordered Scythe Quiet Drives (thanks Nici for your excellent roundup !).

Idle and seek noises on the HD401LJ both are amazingly low; it's the quietest 3.5" HDD in my 25+ drive collection, clearly better than P120 which was my previous favorite, and way better than the WD3200KS (used in another computer, in a Drive-a-Way too) I bought a few days before the HD401LJ. I'ts difficult to say if the HD401LJ's idle noise lowered on these first three weeks because the enclosure and case do such a good job at reducing noises further; also it's been quite hot summer days this July so I needed to use two Nexus 120mm case fans at 10~12V most of the time to keep the CPU cool enough, covering the Samsung's noise most of the time (this case is using fanless PSU, VGA, motherboard and Ninja).

Performance is very good too; using the same ghost boot partition on HD401LJ and SP2504C (one at a time), the former seems a little faster. Maybe due to the reduced seek noise, however. This SP2504C is now retired as a backup drive in an external enclosure.

Temp-wise it runs about 2°C hotter than a SP2504C in the exact same environment. I'm not sure we can use SMART-reported temps to conclude anything at this precision level; sensors may be placed somewhere else in the drive, etc. All I can say is that at startup, both drives reported the same temp, so calibration seems ok on a comparative point of view. My WD3200KS wasn't tested in the same environment, but it's reporting 4~6°C hotter than the HD401LJ.

Overall I'm delighted with this drive. I'd like to see it in online reviews; maybe it's not widely available enough to get reviewers' attention ? Older Samsung drives often were forgotten by many websites but at least the P120 was reviewed here and there... I'm confident the HD401LJ would win any serious 300~500GB comparison test against WD / Seagate / Maxtor / Hitachi : on-par performance level and significantly quieter.

When were the 16MB models released? It seems they only have the 8MB models here in Australia.

Any more reviews on the HD401LJ? Was thinking about picking one up after Alfred's opinions. I originally was looking at the 300GB T series, but someone mentioned the 250GB P series (SP2504C) was faster an quieter. But if the HD401LJ performs faster and is quieter than the SP2504C, I'll grab one of these instead.

I got my 400GB SATA drive, the HD400LJ, it turned up yesterday, I imaged my elderly 200GB 7200.7 PATA to it, and all of its 188GB's of data.

I was initially very impressed with the heat it produced, the 7200.7 200GB was never a hot drve, and has a very very small amount of vibration, and was extremely quiet. I would say the PATA 7200.7 was on par with the 200GB P120, but the Seagate won on vibration.

The HD400LJ wins hands down in my P180, its the quetest drive I have ever owned, and is quieter than some 5400RPM laptop drives I have heard.

My system is the quietest it has ever been, but there is still a little more to do.

I left my Boot drive defragmenting last night, and could not hear the seeks at all from my bed 3-4M away even when trying, I could only hear fans.

I can not praise this drive highly enough, its cheap, cool, quiet, and still boasts 400GB of space, and a decent performance.


Andy

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 easily available everywhere yet, however.

As a very quick answer to people questions, compared to my other drives. AAM is set to the lowest on both Samsungs.

1 is good, 10 is bad.

All of the drives are listed in my Signature.

Its not scientific, but it will help any owners of these drives.

Idle:

T133 SATA 400GB 1
P120 SATA 200GB 2
7200.7 PATA 3
7200.7 SATA 3
7200.8 SATA 6

Seek Best Case:

T133 SATA 400GB 1
P120 SATA 200GB 2
7200.7 PATA 1
7200.7 SATA 3
7200.8 SATA 5

Seek Worst Case:

T133 SATA 400GB 1
P120 SATA 200GB 2
7200.7 PATA 3
7200.7 SATA 7
7200.8 SATA 7

Vibration:

T133 SATA 400GB 2
P120 SATA 200GB 3
7200.7 PATA 1
7200.7 SATA 3
7200.8 SATA 3

Heat:

T133 SATA 400GB 2
P120 SATA 200GB 2
7200.7 PATA 1
7200.7 SATA 2
7200.8 SATA 4

The T133 wins on Idle, Quietest Seek, Loudest Seek, and comes in a close 2nd with vibration and heat, I would say its only 2 degrees warmer, and the vibration is irrelevant with soft mounting.


Andy

I just bought mine yesterday and installed it. It's definitely very quiet. I moved my louder system drive further into the case and put the HD401LJ closer to the outside of the case. It's great, I don't hear it over my loud fans, but I'm hoping I won't hear it over my watercooling loop I plan on putting in.

Anybody know what the difference is between the HD400LJ and the HD401LJ?

Howard wrote:Anybody know what the difference is between the HD400LJ and the HD401LJ?

I got the HD401J actually. The HD401J has 16MB cache the HD400J has 8MB cache.

Checked newegg and apparently it carries 400GB T133 for only $140. Quite cheap if you ask me. Just a heads-up.

i have the 401LJ in a scythe quiet drive, the qd is mounted on foam, in the 5 1/4" bay of my case with no front bezel (i want a straight air stream over it). I have only a 120mm fan in the back of the case which turns at 500-600 rpm.
Idle noise is inaudible as far as i can tell, seeks are muted alot.
I am very satisfied.
Performance: 75MB/sec. (hdparm -tT).
Temperature: 37degC (hddtemp)
thanks for all the reports on SPCR

I just ordered the 400GB 16MB cache drive myself, since my anime box ran out of storage on me

Wanted the 300GB, but we cant get those in 16MB here in aus yet.

I hope it works out for you. Let us know what you think of the drives...

It has been 9 days since I have had my new 400GB Spinpoint, and its nothing but bad news, I cant hear it..........

On its first day of usage I defragmented it and went to sleep, 15% file fragmentation, 34% total fragmentation and an extra 200GB of breathing space, my bed is 4m away, I could hear the seeks if I really really concentrated................. or could I.!!!!

It is the quietest 3.5" HDD I have EVER encountered, I have found superb examples of V80's, P80's, P120's, Cuda IV's, Cuda V's, 7200.7's, 7200.9's and nothing compares except laptop drives.

I can hear my 80GB 5400rpm Samsung 2.5" drive in an aluminium caddy spin up, over the noise of my system (the caddy was placed on egg-carton foam on top of my P180, but below my 1.5" thick pine desk).

What more can I say, except............ when is the next range of Samsung HDD's coming out.??? Does anyone know.???


Andy

Tell me... Should a brand new hard drive sound like this --> http://members.shaw.ca/mystuff/samsung.mp3 (44kb) when idle?

I JUST installed this drive into my PC and it sounds like a freaking canary!! The noise is happening less frequently as I sit here though.

Now, do I trust this drive, or end up spending $20 (hopefully that's all) and waiting weeks for a replacement?

Man I'm cheezed off!!!

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.

SimpleSimon wrote:I JUST installed this drive into my PC and it sounds like a freaking canary!! The noise is happening less frequently as I sit here though.

Hmm, maybe wait a day and see if it improves? Samsung drives do tend to have a bit of a burn-in period.

*disclaimer, I didn't listen to the mp3

No, doesn't sound normal to me. I would RMA if I were you.

I just replaced a Samsung SP2504C with a HD400LJ. I must say that I'm impressed. It is quieter in idle, vibrates less, and has MUCH softer seeks, even without AAM. It's about the same as the 2504C temperature wise. It's idling at 32C right now. I have it in a Scythe quiet drive. I thought I'd hit paydirt before with the 2504C in the quiet drive, but the tandem of the HD400LJ and the quiet drive is the perfect solution for silent storage (silence, speed, capacity).

I just got my PATA HD400LD for my set-top-box.

I have minimal space for HD suspension inside the STB, hence I can only rubber grommet the HD (first betwee the hd & the hd cage and second when coupling the cage to the main stb case).

Even after this decoupling the vibration is really intense and shakes the whole stb enclosure resulting in extremely audible low frequency hum (resonance frequency of the stb casing).

Without decoupling the vibration induced noise is intolerable.

As such, tread with caution when selecting this unit into installations where you can't fully decouple the hd from the case by means of suspension.

YMMV, of course.

Considering the user reports we've got at this point (added to the drive reviewed by SPCR), it seems the T133 suffers from a wide sample variance on vibration, from really good to really poor... I'll have a second HD401LJ in a few days; I hope it will be as good as the first one.

Does someone know if all Samsung T133 drives are manufactured in the same factory ?

My parallel ATA T133 series Samsung has the following information:

Model: HD400LD
Revision: A
Mfg date: 2006.7
unknown info: SEC-HD400LD(B)
Motor: NIDEC F0623711F TRD
Product of Korea (can't find real "Made in" information anywhere on the HD)

And yes, it vibrates A LOT.

The SPCR Review sample is also a product of Korea, for whatever that's worth.

Review of HD400LD at Techreport.
The review shows that the HD400LD is one of the quietest drives that they‘ve tested, with two 500GB WD Cavier models (SE16 & RE2) being the low noise champs whilst in Seek mode, being over 3 dB quieter than the Samsung.

The reviewed drive is a HD401LJ (SATA / 16MB) not a HD400LD (ATA/133 / 8MB);

Just received my HD401LJ; it vibrates more than the SP2504C, but it's not that bad; it's seeks are a lot quieter than the seeks of the P120, but louder than the seeks of the SP1614C;

my HD400LD from my server is now being RMA'd as Smart detected that the Reallocated Sector Count was critical with over 3000 bad sectors

Shame as it was running fine with no problems performance wise

Speedfan gave it a health rating of 0% so I didnt wanna wait for it to fail

hope the next disk is better

Samsung T166 (PMR) SATA2 160GB HD160HJ preview

Tristar (三星) actually means Samsung.

Sure looks good.