SPCR

I'm in the middle of setting up my computer, having problems with the hard drive at the moment (disk boot error...), so I'm not through eliminating noise yet. I have a NEC 3520A DVDRW drive and an Asus Quietrack CRW-5232AS, but is it just me or are the optical drives the loudest part of any system. This is especially noticable when one of the case pannels are left open. Does anyone else agree?

Also, my 5232AS makes a solid noise whenever I open it, is this normal?

Oh yeah, optical drives are the achilles heel of a quiet setup IMO. Luckily, though, it's not something you use all the time. I do whatever I can to avoid using my CD player. All my music CDs are ripped to the hard drive, for example.

The NEC drives are actually good as far as noise goes compared to other drives, i have 2 The original ND-3500AG and a ND-3520A. The newer ND-3540A is supposed to be slightly quieter. Cosidering they are some of the fastest drives on the market they are extremely quiet, they make noise when they are going but its more of an even drone, and does not fluctuate very much... overall they are probably the quietest ive ever used and the most reliable, one drive to stay away from for sure are any HP's. Honestly i think my lawnmower was quieter, it was TERRIBLE.

You want loud? Try a Lite-On.

Falcon159 wrote:The NEC drives are actually good as far as noise goes compared to other drives, i have 2 The original ND-3500AG and a ND-3520A. The newer ND-3540A is supposed to be slightly quieter. Cosidering they are some of the fastest drives on the market they are extremely quiet, they make noise when they are going but its more of an even drone, and does not fluctuate very much... overall they are probably the quietest ive ever used and the most reliable, one drive to stay away from for sure are any HP's. Honestly i think my lawnmower was quieter, it was TERRIBLE.

Good to know. I'm planning to upgrade to a DVD burner soon. I'll have to look at these. I've also heard the Pioneers are supposed to be pretty bearable as well.

The ASUS QuietTrack drives are also very good. I used a 52x QuietTrack in a family member's computer. Unfortunately though last time I checked, there weren't any CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drives of DVD burners for the QuietTrack line.

And yes, LiteOn drives are pretty annoying. It's not really the airflow noise that bothers me, but I can't stand optical drives that rattle or just plain sound cheap. And the LiteOn's just sound like they're going to fall apart.

i had an LG dual layer with my new system but had to dump it because of the noise. i've gone back to my old plextor 708A because it comes with software to reduce it's read speed on the fly which is handy for listening to cd's or whenever throughput is not critical.

Anyone else with the Asus Quietrack CDRW experience a physical thudding noise when they open their drive?? It's quite unlike the smooth noise made by the NEC when it opens.

Falcon159 wrote:The NEC drives are actually good as far as noise goes compared to other drives, i have 2 The original ND-3500AG and a ND-3520A.

Man, not mine (3520A) - a screaming banshee while I was installing XP and Office 2003. Maybe different parts? There's another thread here about "How to silence...NEC 3520", so it may have been a change in parts or something.

Anyone else here got a Quietrack? I think I might have got a slightly dodgey one. The noise on opening and closing is pretty harsh. Almost makes the 'noisier while spinning' NEC 3520AS just seem more smoother & quieter.

I didn't really believe that there were significant differences between optical drives in terms of noise until a bought a Samsung DVD drive, which vibrated and was very loud in comparison to my NEC DVD-RW drives.

For my HTPC, I run NERO Drivespeed, freeware available here:
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link ... speed.html
For DVD playback, I set it at 1x read speed, at which it is silent.

Also, I seem to remember reading a post herein, about specific optical drives designed for silence, with internal damping and sound insolation/isolation.

bomba wrote:Also, I seem to remember reading a post herein, about specific optical drives designed for silence, with internal damping and sound insolation/isolation.

Pioneer RETAIL burners.