[Noise] WD Cavier or Seagate

milfner · Post by **milfner** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:05 am

I am undecided on whether or not to get a WD Cavier Green Hard drive (which is $100 more) because it is known to be very quiet, or just a standard Seagate (which is $100 less than the WD). So my question is, is the Seagate a lot loude than the WD green and is it worth spending $100 more on the WD for "significant noise reduction" if that is what I am aming for....

(Note: Same Size)

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 5:51 am

$100 price difference and same capacity.. What drives are we talking about here?

Benjiro · Post by **Benjiro** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:58 pm

Think he's talking about the 2TB WD ( 5400rpm), and the 1.5TB Seagate ( 7200rpm ).

Those have about a 100$/â‚¬ price difference...

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:32 pm

If the WD 2tb and Seagate 1.5tb are being considered, we've reviewed them both. The question of value when it comes to noise is almost always personal: Only you can assess whether the lowered noise is "worth it". It all depends on your particulars: ambient noise, other component noise, your own sensitivity, and finally, how well you can silence your machine.

viewtopic.php?t=53289
http://www.silentpcreview.com/wd-green- ... line-500gb

milfner · Post by **milfner** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:33 pm

The drives I am considering are the WD Green Cavier 1TB or the Seagate 1.5TB. Obviously the WDGC1TB is going to be quieter, but how much quieter? I would like to get the Seagate because it has more storage, but will it be a lot noisier and it is also $50 more than the WD, is it worth it??

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:00 pm

Well, assuming the 1Tb Caviar Green has roughly the same noise performance as the reviewed 2Tb version, the WD will be 13dBA / 14dBA for idle/seek vs 17 dBA / 19dBA for the Seagate.

If other parts of your system are very quiet, you may be able to hear the difference. (E.g. when I connect my storage HDD, a 1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F1 - measured at 21dBA / 22dBA in SPCR's old non-anechoic test lab - to the main PC in my sig, I can hear the HDD's idles and seeks, as the rest of my system is almost inaudible.)

Also, the Seagate is a 7200rpm drive vs 5400rpm for the WD.

I didn't see if you were intending on using this as a system / boot drive or just for additional storage. This might affect your decision, as the 5400rpm WD drive is not going to perform as well as the 7200rpm Seagate.

As MikeC said, it's a trade off. We can't tell you if it's ''worth it'' to you personally. Besides, without knowing the rest of your system, we can't say whether you might not even notice the louder Seagate drive if you suspend it properly.