Need something more silent than WD5000AAKS

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:16 pm

After reading some reviews I purchased a WD5000AAKS for my new HTPC, hoping it would be silent enough. But I need something more silent. The idle noise from the WD5000AAKS is easily heard from a couple of meters away. The WD5000AAKS is also causing some vibration hum but after putting the computer on a some packing material it can hardly be heard so it is not really an issue. I think I need at least 160GB capacity for the main drive. I am planning to buy a 1TB WD GP drive to use a secondary drive for storage of movies and music.

Is a 2.5" laptop hard drive a good choice for my HTPC?
I have good experiences of older 2.5" laptop hard drives, both 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM. They are much more silent than any 3.5" drive I have. But according to SPCR's review of Samsung 7200.2 2.5" drive can be quite noisy so now I don't really know what to do.

Or maybe a 3.5" 5400 RPM WD Green Power drive?
I guess a 5400 RPM 2.5" laptop drive can be very silent but now when WD has its 5400 RPM 3.5" GP series I figure it is more cost-effective to purchase a GP drive instead. Then I could use it for both operating system and storage since the drives are so big (1TB). Would a 5400 RPM drive be fast enough as a main drive in a Windows Vista installation? It must be fast enough for time-shifting of one or more TV channels.

Anyone that would like to give a newcomer some advice?

Cirkus

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:59 pm

I have the WD5000AACS Caviar Green 500 GB. It is extremely quiet, especialy when soft mounted (I use the silicone mounts on the P180 Mini). It is more than fast enough, and when I boot Windows or Linux (I have dual boot) I don't even notice any difference in speed compared to 7200 RPM drives.

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:16 pm

Have you tried enabling AAM on the AAKS?

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:21 pm

m0002a wrote:I have the WD5000AACS Caviar Green 500 GB. It is extremely quiet, especialy when soft mounted (I use the silicone mounts on the P180 Mini). It is more than fast enough, and when I boot Windows or Linux (I have dual boot) I don't even notice any difference in speed compared to 7200 RPM drives.

The WD GP drive sounds promising. Do you know if the 1TB model is as quiet as the 500GB model?
Since I have almost decided to purchase a WD GP drive anyway since I need a lot of silent storage I might as well try installing Vista on it see if it is fast enough to use as a main drive.

Cirkus

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:23 pm

Lawrence Lee wrote:Have you tried enabling AAM on the AAKS?

I am pretty sure I have tried this, but it was a couple of months ago I purchased the drive so I am not sure. I will have a look.
But AAM will not change the idle noise anyway, will it? It is the idle noise that annoys me the most with this drive.

Cirkus

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:35 pm

What about putting the current drive in a Scythe Quiet Drive or the like?

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:56 pm

jessekopelman wrote:What about putting the current drive in a Scythe Quiet Drive or the like?

I have considered this but there is a disctint advantage to mounting the drive in the standard 3.5" drive cage. It makes it easy to cool the drive because there is 92 mm fan just in front of the the 3.5" drive cage. A Scythe Quiet Drive I would have to mount in the non-ventilated 5.25" drive cage.

A 2.5" drive on the other hand would be possible to mount with vibration dampening and cooled by the fan in the 3.5" drive cage. I could even mount it in a 2.5" Quite Drive if needed and probably still get some cooling.

Cirkus

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:47 pm

Cirkus wrote:The WD GP drive sounds promising. Do you know if the 1TB model is as quiet as the 500GB model?
Since I have almost decided to purchase a WD GP drive anyway since I need a lot of silent storage I might as well try installing Vista on it see if it is fast enough to use as a main drive.

Here is what SPCR says in their recommeded section about the Western Digital Green Power WD7500AACS 750 GB drive.

"The quietest desktop drive we've tested, the Green Power is actually a 5400RPM model. Idle and seek noise are lower than any other 3.5", including the famous Barracuda IV. Vibration is also very low, the lowest of all current 3.5" drives. Performance is not quite the equal of 7200 RPM drives, but the high areal density helps. With one less platter, the 500GB version is probably even quieter; with one more, the terabyte model might be a touch louder."

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:01 pm

Cirkus wrote:I have considered this but there is a disctint advantage to mounting the drive in the standard 3.5" drive cage. It makes it easy to cool the drive because there is 92 mm fan just in front of the the 3.5" drive cage. A Scythe Quiet Drive I would have to mount in the non-ventilated 5.25" drive cage.

I don't have a fan in front of my WD Green Power 500 GB drive because it is specifically designed to generate less heat, in addition to being very quiet. IMO, having to cool the drive with a fan (that makes at least some noise) defeats the purpose of having a quiet drive running at 5400 RPM.

SPCR measured the SPL of the WD Green Power 750 GB drive at 19~20/19~20/20 (idle/AAM/seek). That is probably lower than a 92mm fan at slow speed, and lower than almost all currently available laptop drives.

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:51 am

m0002a wrote:
Cirkus wrote:I have considered this but there is a disctint advantage to mounting the drive in the standard 3.5" drive cage. It makes it easy to cool the drive because there is 92 mm fan just in front of the the 3.5" drive cage. A Scythe Quiet Drive I would have to mount in the non-ventilated 5.25" drive cage.
I don't have a fan in front of my WD Green Power 500 GB drive because it is specifically designed to generate less heat, in addition to being very quiet. IMO, having to cool the drive with a fan (that makes at least some noise) defeats the purpose of having a quiet drive running at 5400 RPM.

SPCR measured the SPL of the WD Green Power 750 GB drive at 19~20/19~20/20 (idle/AAM/seek). That is probably lower than a 92mm fan at slow speed, and lower than almost all currently available laptop drives.

For the 5400 RPM Green Power drive I don't think I need the fan. But if I put my current 7200 RPM WD5000AAKS in a box like the Scythe Quiet Drive in a drive cage without a fan I think it might get too warm.

Anyway, thanks for all your input. I think I will purchase a WD Green Power drive and try it out. If it feels fast enough I will install Vista on it. If it is too slow, I will probably go looking for a fast 2.5" 7200 RPM drive to use a main drive and use the GP drive for storage only.

Is there any particular GP drive you should avoid because of high fail rate etc? Is the 750 GB model a good choice?

Cirkus

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:13 am

My samsung 500 GB is in low 30's in QuietDrive with single undervolted 800 RPM slipstream in case. There is good changes that WD can be used in QuietDrive without worrying of overheating.

Yomat · Post by **Yomat** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:05 am

Cirkus wrote:
m0002a wrote:I have the WD5000AACS Caviar Green 500 GB. It is extremely quiet, especialy when soft mounted (I use the silicone mounts on the P180 Mini). It is more than fast enough, and when I boot Windows or Linux (I have dual boot) I don't even notice any difference in speed compared to 7200 RPM drives.
The WD GP drive sounds promising. Do you know if the 1TB model is as quiet as the 500GB model?
Since I have almost decided to purchase a WD GP drive anyway since I need a lot of silent storage I might as well try installing Vista on it see if it is fast enough to use as a main drive.

Cirkus

I'd say go for the 750 GB if you dont mind the higher price. I got the 500GB and I find the seeks quite annoying. Its hardmounted though. I havent gotten around getting elastic strings and suspending it yet. Although I doubt it will reduce it significantly. Even with AAM set to lowest it still makes very distinct and sharp sounds.

The thing is also that the 750 and 1TB (not the 500) variants have something WD call "Stable Trac" which is supposed to limit seek noise. My best guess is that its simply a completely different motor. And 750 over 1TB since its probably 3 platters vs 4.

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:29 am

Yomat wrote:
Cirkus wrote:
m0002a wrote:I have the WD5000AACS Caviar Green 500 GB. It is extremely quiet, especialy when soft mounted (I use the silicone mounts on the P180 Mini). It is more than fast enough, and when I boot Windows or Linux (I have dual boot) I don't even notice any difference in speed compared to 7200 RPM drives.
The WD GP drive sounds promising. Do you know if the 1TB model is as quiet as the 500GB model?
Since I have almost decided to purchase a WD GP drive anyway since I need a lot of silent storage I might as well try installing Vista on it see if it is fast enough to use as a main drive.

Cirkus
I'd say go for the 750 GB if you dont mind the higher price. I got the 500GB and I find the seeks quite annoying. Its hardmounted though. I havent gotten around getting elastic strings and suspending it yet. Although I doubt it will reduce it significantly. Even with AAM set to lowest it still makes very distinct and sharp sounds.

The thing is also that the 750 and 1TB (not the 500) variants have something WD call "Stable Trac" which is supposed to limit seek noise. My best guess is that its simply a completely different motor. And 750 over 1TB since its probably 3 platters vs 4.

There is a guy at the minhembio.com forum that has the 750GB variant and unfortunately he says the seeks are quite noticeable. On the other hand I am usually not that annoyed by seek noise. I kind of like to hear that the disk is doing some work! I am much more annoyed by idle noise and idle vibration hum.

Nick Geraedts · Post by **Nick Geraedts** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:36 am

I've got 8 of the 1TB WD GP drives in my file server, and while the seeks are noticable, they're not intrusive or annoying in any way.

Yomat · Post by **Yomat** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 5:15 am

Just wanted to point out that I saw on the other GP thread that there are newer 1TB versions out there with 333 GB platters.

As for the seeks: I agree that seeks are less bothersome than whine and vibration. And those are very good on this model. Nevertheless my drive has more bothersome seek noise and behavior than I think is normal for modern 3.5" drive.
Could be a flaw of my particular unit though. Hard to tell these days. Seems like WD is having many different specs under the same model name days.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 2:40 pm

Yomat wrote:I'd say go for the 750 GB if you dont mind the higher price. I got the 500GB and I find the seeks quite annoying. Its hardmounted though. I havent gotten around getting elastic strings and suspending it yet. Although I doubt it will reduce it significantly. Even with AAM set to lowest it still makes very distinct and sharp sounds.

The thing is also that the 750 and 1TB (not the 500) variants have something WD call "Stable Trac" which is supposed to limit seek noise. My best guess is that its simply a completely different motor. And 750 over 1TB since its probably 3 platters vs 4.

You could have your SPCR membership revoked for hard-mounting a drive.

But really, you don't need to suspend the drive (and I would not recommend it anyway). I prefer to use the silicone mounts found on newer Antec cases. Before they were available, I made my own silicone mounts.

My WD 500 GP drive does not make any noticeable noise in a Mini P180. But mine was a retail version (instead of OEM version), but I don't don't know if that makes any difference (but the retail version does come with a very nice SATA cable that is more secure than a normal cable and only fits WD drives).

The "Stable Trac" motor on the 750 GB and 1 TB is simply securing the motor shaft on both ends, presumably because the shaft is longer on the larger drives (more platters).

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 3:51 pm

I went for a 1TB WD GP drive (WD10EACS) in the end. It has a much lower idle noise than my old 7200 RPM WD5000AAKS drive. But the seek noise on the GP drive is quite noticeable, maybe even worse than my old drive. I have enabled AAM and it helped a lot but Windows Vista is accessing the drive quite often and that causes annoying seek noise. It helped a lot to turn off the "Windows search" service but Vista is still accessing the drive a lot every now and then.

I really thought the seek noise of GP drive would be quieter than this but I can't say I wasn't warned. Anyway I think I will keep this drive. The alternative would be to get a 2.5" drive instead but I think that would be too expensive.

Cirkus

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 1:16 am

I am already having second thoughts about having my new 3.5" WD GP drive as the system drive in my HTPC. I think seek noise from drive is ok as long as it is caused by something I do, like starting a program. But Vista is accessing the drive for reasons beyond my imagination and it is really annoying, especially now when I have a drive with very low idle noise that doesn't hide the seek noise.

When using the drive for playing music or movies the seek noise it hardly noticeable though. I guess it is because Windows is doing tiny sequential seeks in these cases. So using the drive as a music and movie storage drive should work fine and I plan to use the drive for this.

I will borrow a 2.5" drive and try it out in my case to see if is more silent. If it is I will probably purchase a 2.5" drive as system drive.

Anyone that recommend a good 2.5" drive for an HTPC?

Cirkus

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 1:20 am

Cirkus wrote:But Vista is accessing the drive for reasons beyond my imagination and it is really annoying, especially now when I have a drive with very low idle noise that doesn't hide the seek noise.

Try turning off superfetch (stop the superfetch service), indexing and system restore. This seems to calm things down a bit.

Cirkus · Post by **Cirkus** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 3:15 am

nutball wrote:
Cirkus wrote:But Vista is accessing the drive for reasons beyond my imagination and it is really annoying, especially now when I have a drive with very low idle noise that doesn't hide the seek noise.
Try turning off superfetch (stop the superfetch service), indexing and system restore. This seems to calm things down a bit.

Thank you for the tip. I had already turned of indexing and now I have turned off superfetch and system restore also. As you said it calmed downed Vista a bit. I still think I will get a 2.5" drive as system drive though.

Cirkus