Two Samsung Drive, Which is quieter/better?

SilentShoe · Post by **SilentShoe** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:58 pm

1. SAMSUNG 160GB 7200RPM SATA II8MB CACHE (HD160HJ)
Spinpoint T series i believe.

2. Samsung SpinPoint P80 160Gb - 7200rpm - 8Mb Cache - SATA2 Hard Drive - HD160JJ (OEM)

I heard that spinpoint T's are quieter and use less power but i just wanta double check with these specific models.
ty

on my way to making my quiet pc

BroadbandBill · Post by **BroadbandBill** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 7:37 am

Hi,

Can't comment on the drives you mention but just read an article on Samsung spinpoint S166.

Google it and see for yourself, I intend to delay my build until these are available.

All the best,
Bill.

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:32 am

I have a new S166 and a T166(320 GB), which replaced 2 out of 3 P120's in my system.

I have a slight amount of remaining vibration in my case, due to my suspension style. This has decreased with the swap of two of the hard drives. Initial impressions are good. The drives are speedy, around 40% faster transfer rate i think.

In time i will know more, but they are an improvement over p120's. I have no experience with the t133 series or any other quiet 3.5" drives.

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:19 am

Have compared noise characteristics of S166 and T166 head-to-head, preferably outside the PC, madman2003?

Because most manufacturers merely differentiate their "media HDDs" simply by enabling AAM by default and enabling some streaming features, etc. Usually those media edition HDDs are mechanically identical to normal desktop drives and features enabled by the factory could have been enabled by the end-user too (meaning there's no sense in waiting for availability and/or paying extra for AAM enabled HDD). How's it with S166? Is it actually more silent than T166 or is it just the same old marketing BS as with other manufacturers?

nemo · Post by **nemo** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:45 am

i have a t series and they are amazingly quiet. definitely get a t series.

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 12:03 pm

I had the S166 in a usb case and the T166 lying on the floor(since the usb transfer was to slow for the initial data transfer of more than 100GB), so i did not compare them equally.

I did notice they were better than P120's. While i do think the S166 is quiter, that could be due to AAM settings, which i haven't double checked with a bootcd, i can set them while running(i have reasons for believing i can), just not reading them.

During initial transfer i did notice that the seek noise was a bit louder, however i have not heard such sounds again after building it in s(and setting AAM), nor have i heard them from the S166.

I won't be taking out the drives anytime soon.

The T166 just means it has 2 or more platters, the S166 is just a single platter drive.

Seek sounds are a little bit different(both much better than the P120), but i'm going to check aam to be sure that's not the difference (EDIT: aam was on for all drives).

EDIT: Once i'm sure the seek sounds are actually different, i'll try to explain it

alfred · Post by **alfred** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:54 pm

I've got 2 S166 HD161HJ and 8 T166 HD501LJ (no 160GB T166 to compare with, unfortunately). The S166 vibrates much, much less and is some 1~3 dB/A lower in both idle & seek. It comes with AAM enabled; disabling it gives seeks a little sharper, but still quite muted. Overall tonality is in higher frequencies compared to T166. Enclosed in a Scythe Quiet Drive, it's quieter than a 2.5" Samsung MP0402H in free air. Performance seems to be equal between S166 and T166 (transfer rate, burst, access time).

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:14 pm

alfred wrote:I've got 2 S166 HD161HJ and 8 T166 HD501LJ (no 160GB T166 to compare with, unfortunately). The S166 vibrates much, much less and is some 1~3 dB/A lower in both idle & seek. It comes with AAM enabled; disabling it gives seeks a little sharper, but still quite muted. Overall tonality is in higher frequencies compared to T166. Enclosed in a Scythe Quiet Drive, it's quieter than a 2.5" Samsung MP0402H in free air. Performance seems to be equal between S166 and T166 (transfer rate, burst, access time).

I'd like to add to that the T166 sound is more constant, but much lower frequency than the typical samsung sound. I didn't listen for it at first when i put my ear next to the drive, but after a while i heard it came from the drive. It's not a bad sound though. It blends in with fan whoosh more easily.

taidi · Post by **taidi** » Sat May 05, 2007 12:02 pm

Can anyone advise the passively cooled running temperature of the S166 ?

alfred · Post by **alfred** » Mon May 07, 2007 12:04 am

taidi, my Scythe-enclosed S166 HD161HJ (used as a boot drive) is around 28Â°C under light work when room temp ~20Â°C; 30 minutes of various HDD benchmarking raised this to about 35Â°C. All temps according to SMART. The Scythe Quiet Drive has almost no airflow around it.

taidi · Post by **taidi** » Mon May 07, 2007 4:36 am

Thanks alfred, that's very encouraging and suggests it will run pretty cool as an unenclosed suspended drive.

There will be only one drive in my new system and I'd more or less decided on the 160GB Scorpio notebook drive, but the S166 could well change my mind.