Samsung's Ecogreen or WD's GreenPower?

dan · Post by **dan** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:38 am

Hi,
Well my ?'s about 2.5" have been mostly unanswered.

Another line of HD I am looking at is 5400 3.5 1TB class HD.

SPCR DOES review WD Greenpower stating it is the most quiet HD ever, outclassing the Barracuda IV.

Samsung does have its own 5400rpm 1TB, the Ecogreen. Sold everywhere.

How does Ecogreen compare in silence to GP? Both are comparable in price and capacity and performance and 5400rpm.

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:15 pm

Search the forums. I remember reading a post where an owner of both said he found the Ecogreen superior in every respect. I believe the Samsung is still fairly scarce in North America, so there hasn't been that much discussion.

aztec · Post by **aztec** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:50 pm

I just picked up the 1TB EcoGreen from OWC (macsales.com) for $99.

Its temperorily out of stock, but they should have another batch soon.

I'll be upgrading my TiVo HD with it.

I'll report on my findings this weekend.

seemingly.random · Post by **seemingly.random** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:32 pm

jessekopelman wrote:Search the forums. I remember reading a post where an owner of both said he found the Ecogreen superior in every respect. I believe the Samsung is still fairly scarce in North America, so there hasn't been that much discussion.

Having one each, I prefer the samsung to the wd simply because the samsung works and the wd doesn't. First wd in 15 years that died - a 320gb wd ordered shortly thereafter was doa also.

I believe there was a review on tom's h/w.

sneaker · Post by **sneaker** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:49 pm

I have a WD10EACS (3-platter version) and HD103UI. In terms of idle noise there's not much between them. Both are far less audible than my most recent 7200RPM drives (Samsung HD501LJs and HD400LD, which I'm led to believe are similar in noise level to the F1). I don't have much to say about seek noise as I'm unable to check or change the AAM status on either drive.

As for 2.5" drives, noise has been a non-issue with my WD1600BEVS, the WD2500BEVS that replaced it, and the HM500LI I have now. Even during the random seek test in HD Tach, I have to put my ear against the laptop to hear the HM500LI.

dan · Post by **dan** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 4:19 am

sneaker wrote:I have a WD10EACS (3-platter version) and HD103UI. In terms of idle noise there's not much between them. Both are far less audible than my most recent 7200RPM drives (Samsung HD501LJs and HD400LD, which I'm led to believe are similar in noise level to the F1). I don't have much to say about seek noise as I'm unable to check or change the AAM status on either drive.

As for 2.5" drives, noise has been a non-issue with my WD1600BEVS, the WD2500BEVS that replaced it, and the HM500LI I have now. Even during the random seek test in HD Tach, I have to put my ear against the laptop to hear the HM500LI.

As I posted in the other thread, Samsung and WD themselves posted something like 26 dB for their laptop drives while SPCR posted 21/24 dB for the original nidec sp80. (I of course know know it's an apples-oranges comparison)

so the 5400rpm 2.5" are definitely quieter than the 5400rpm 3.5 EG-GP from WD and Sam? Would you be willing to say the HM500LI is more quiet than WD2500BEVS?

defaultluser · Post by **defaultluser** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:18 pm

jessekopelman wrote:Search the forums. I remember reading a post where an owner of both said he found the Ecogreen superior in every respect. I believe the Samsung is still fairly scarce in North America, so there hasn't been that much discussion.

Well, I wouldn't jump the gun so quickly. There is a new revision of the WD GP 750GB drive that performs almost as well as modern 7200 RPM drives, and has even lower power consumption than the first generation GP.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storag ... undup.html

And in my opinion: if you can complain about the incredibly small amount of noise produced by the GP series drives, then you're crazy. I have two of them: one in my main gaming rig, and one as an external backup drive, and you can barely hear the things seek. Even with the gaming rig off, I strain to hear the seeks in my nearly silent room.

quest_for_silence · Post by **quest_for_silence** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:09 am

defaultluser wrote:Even with the gaming rig off, I strain to hear the seeks in my nearly silent room.

I have a WD GP in an Antec Minuet 350 (EC) case right now (with the onboard Tricool disabled): I hear it, even at night, when I mostly surf the web.

So, I'm not disappointed at all, but also I cannot say that I strain to hear it.

Best regards,
Luca

blaster5k · Post by **blaster5k** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 9:32 am

If you elastic mount it and adjust the AAM, you won't hear it even when it's seeking. I have two of them in my home server box and I have to put my ear right next to the case (Antec Solo) to notice any noise.

quest_for_silence · Post by **quest_for_silence** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 3:15 pm

blaster5k wrote:If you elastic mount it and adjust the AAM, you won't hear it even when it's seeking.

I guess maybe You don't exactly know how much space there is inside an Antec Minuet.

Best regards,
Luca

Esben · Post by **Esben** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:43 am

blaster5k wrote:If you elastic mount it and adjust the AAM, you won't hear it even when it's seeking.

I have only installed it in a elastic mount, and have a lot of trouble at all hearing it seek. WD support told me it's just IntelliSeek that's causing the muted seek noise, not AAM.