640GB Roundup at Xbitlabs

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:22 am

Roundup: Hard Disk Drives with 640GB Storage Capacity

Samsung SpinPoint F1 DT, 640GB: HD642JJ
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, 640GB: ST3640323AS
Western Digital Caviar Green, 640GB: WD6400AACS
Western Digital Caviar Blue, 640GB: WD6400AAKS
Western Digital Caviar Black, 640GB: WD6401AALS

No noise measurements.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:57 pm

QuietOC wrote:No noise measurements.

Well there is always the WD specs

Code: Select all

640GB            Black   Blue   Green
Idle dBA         25      25     24
Performance seek 29      29     29
Quiet seek       26      26     25

LodeHacker · Post by **LodeHacker** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:06 pm

I assume the WD Black is noisier than the WD Blue. At any case the WD6400AAKS is by my standards absolutely not quiet/silent. Installed in my case using suspension and it made loud airborne noise, which could be heard very clearly. Replaced it with a Samsung Spinpoint 750GB (notice this has a platter more!) and now the PC is silent so to say. No airborne noise what so ever. What do you think?

Munters · Post by **Munters** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:57 am

I've got two 640AAKS/Blue and there's no noise by the drives self.

Mounted in my Solo (with the supplied tray mount/silicone grommets), there was an unpleasant humming sound. Sometimes the sound disappeared when I grab the front of the case. So probably it is vibrations, going to the case (via air of the silicon mounts?).

I got rid of the tray system and use the elastic suspension system. There's no drive noise at all anymore.

ekerazha · Post by **ekerazha** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:08 pm

LodeHacker wrote:I assume the WD Black is noisier than the WD Blue.

Perhaps... but in the WD specs they are equal.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 5:48 pm

LodeHacker wrote:I assume the WD Black is noisier than the WD Blue. At any case the WD6400AAKS is by my standards absolutely not quiet/silent. Installed in my case using suspension and it made loud airborne noise, which could be heard very clearly. Replaced it with a Samsung Spinpoint 750GB (notice this has a platter more!) and now the PC is silent so to say. No airborne noise what so ever. What do you think?

I remember when you were getting that--I wonder if you just got a dud. Considering it got a stamp of approval from SPCR plus lots of fairly positive feedback on the forums, it would seem that way.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:35 am

LodeHacker wrote:I assume the WD Black is noisier than the WD Blue.

FWIW I bout a 640GB blue for home and several 640GB Blacks for work. I didn't power them up in the same room but I didn't notice any objectionable noise from the Blue or Black drives.

One of these days I'll probably buy a Black for home use and try the side by side comparison but with sample variance even that would be inconclusive.

I'm going on the working assumption that there is no noise difference between the two drives.

Trav1s · Post by **Trav1s** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:59 am

I have a WD6400AAKS (Blue) and in my current Antec HTPC case. The dual 120 MM fans on their lowest settings are louder than the drive. With them off you cannot hear it other than slightly under seeking.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:43 am

Didn't the SPCR review find the Black to be louder?

fyleow · Post by **fyleow** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:47 am

Not just SPCR but all of the reviews I've seen for the black with noise measurements have shown it to be louder.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 2:53 pm

psiu wrote:Didn't the SPCR review find the Black to be louder?

No, not at all.

1. This thread is about 640GB drives
2. SPCR has never reviewed a 640GB Black drive

Do I need to say any more?

OK, Probably so. Some people need it in numbers.

From the WD specs we have

640GB Black
Seek Mode 0 29 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 3 26 dBA (average)

1TB Blcack
Seek Mode 0 33 dBA (average)
Seek Mode 3 29 dBA (average)

The 1TB Black is quite a bit louder than the 640GB Black or Blue.

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:16 pm

Let me show you the WD specs another way

Code: Select all

        640GB Blue   25-29 dBA
       640GB Black   25-29 dBA
     750/1TB Black   24-33 dBA
400/500/750GB Blue   28-33 dBA

I sure hope some of you can see that the 640GB drives are quieter than the 400, 500, 750 and 1 TB drives in the same series.

I sure hope you also see that the black drives are even quieter than the blue drives of the 400, 500, and 750GB varieties.

fyleow wrote:Not just SPCR but all of the reviews I've seen for the black with noise measurements have shown it to be louder.

Given the information above I bet you can go back and notice that those reviews were based on 1TB black drives not the quieter 640GB version. Or worse they compared a 1TB black versus a 640GB blue. Talk about apples to oranges.

Oh and for those of you that are curious about the stated specs as compared to the Green series the order is

Code: Select all

1TB Green 16 or 32   25-27 dBA
         750 Green   25-27 dBA
     500/640 Green   24-29 dBA
  1.5/2TB Green 32   25-29 dBA

and the combined list is

Code: Select all

1TB Green 16 or 32   25-27 dBA
         750 Green   25-27 dBA
     500/640 Green   24-29 dBA
  1.5/2TB Green 32   25-29 dBA
        640GB Blue   25-29 dBA
       640GB Black   25-29 dBA
     750/1TB Black   24-33 dBA
400/500/750GB Blue   28-33 dBA

Which I'd simplify as:

Green drives are quieter than Black or Blue but they are slower.

640GB drives are quieter than other sizes and are generally faster.

The best balance for noise and speed is the 640GB black with the 640GB blue a close runner up.

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:05 pm

Why do people continue to quote manufacturers' noise specs? Everyone knows they are meaningless.

SPCR has never reviewed a 640GB drive

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article847-page1.html

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:20 pm

alleycat wrote:Why do people continue to quote manufacturers' noise specs? Everyone knows they are meaningless.

SPCR has never reviewed a 640GB Black drive
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article847-page1.html

Yes, I left out one word in that sentence vs what I meant.

Yes manufacturers dBA readings are different than SPCR dBA readings.

No, SPCR hasn't reviewed the Black 640GB drive.

The reason I quoted the WD specs is that they are an apples to apples comparison. Until SPCR reviews the 640GB black they are the ONLY apples to apples comparison we have.

maf718 · Post by **maf718** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:20 am

I thought the main difference between the Blue and Black drives, apart from the cache, was more aggressive seeks from the Black? I think it would be reasonable to expect slightly louder seek noise.

Xbit did mention the noise of the Black in the conclusion:

Do you want the fastest drive for a home computer? Take a Western Digital Caviar Black. This HDD is quite universal and looks good under server loads. It is actually free from serious downsides. Its high performance is accompanied with rather high power consumption, though. And some users may not like the clacking of its briskly heads.

I don't know what "briskly" heads are but I wouldn't want them clacking in my PC.

Alexandrus · Post by **Alexandrus** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:53 am

Yes, but the Black has more dampening, it's a heavier drive, 690 grams as oposed to 640 grams of the Blue version. I had the Blue 640 WD drive, it was sort of quiet, not record braking, but not loud either. Now I have the Black and the Blue, both in the same model enclosure(I use them on laptops) and I can say the Black is quieter. Maybe because it's new as opposed to 1 year old Blue drive, and I noticed the Blue was quieter when I first bought it, but never the less, the Black is not louder.

EsaT · Post by **EsaT** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:44 am

maf718 wrote:Xbit did mention the noise of the Black in the conclusion:
And some users may not like the clacking of its briskly heads.
I don't know what "briskly" heads are but I wouldn't want them clacking in my PC.

Neither do I.... and I have four of these drives.
One had slightly less vibration than others when I tested that but outside that they're all similar and even these supposedly agressive seeks aren't noisy and even "butterfly read" (constant full stroke seeks) doesn't make it any special for not maximum quietness aiming drive.

Maybe they had drives in resonating "loudspeaker" case with hard mounting?

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:45 pm

bugger, beat me to it.

I'm just glad that someone (even with Xbitlab's verbosity) has finally reviewed my accidentally bought WD6400AACS Green

Nice to see that power really is as low as I'd hoped and that performance wasn't as bad as I'd feared. It really is very quiet too - I struggle to hear its seeks even in the dead of night.

640GB Roundup at Xbitlabs

640GB Roundup at Xbitlabs

Re: 640GB Roundup at Xbitlabs