WD 6400AAKS vs Samsung F3 1TB 7200rpm

[farns]

Hi there,

My 2 suspended WD 640gbs (the old SLK3000B foam sandwich) are the loudest part of my system. They are pretty snappy and quiet for 7200rpm, but id like a quieter OS drive.

Ive seen conflicting reviews, so does anyone know if the 7200rpm Samsung F3 1TB (500gb platters) is any quieter?

Techreport says its quiet in their benchmarks, Tom's Hardware says otherwise.

[solid_snake]

I'd like to know this as well. I can definitely hear my 1TB Caviar Black and need something quieter. Superbiiz dot com/ewiz dot com has them for $58.49 for the F3 and $49.49 for the 6400AAKS both with free shipping (using coupon code "PREPPY"). I've seen other posts here with prices in them so I'm assuming it is ok.

EDIT: It looks like the F3 is currently out of stock, saw the deal yesterday.

[orlandomike]

the samsungs are supposedly faster but not that you can tell. My problem with samsung is that I bought 3 of these from New Egg. One failed and Samsung said it was OEM so no warranty. You would have to go through new egg for any kind of satisfaction which will not happen.

[farns]

I just got a F3 also, I unplugged everything except PSU, seeks are very quiet (even with AAM disabled) but I only care about idle noise which perhaps is a little bit louder than the WD6400AAKS (the WD is really a great drive) and my HD Tune graphs show massive regular dips about every 7 seconds

I have seen this problem elsewhere on the net with these drives and have heard quite a few examples of dead drives, also my own days old new F3 has already "lost more health" in ActiveSmart than my 18month old WD Blue OS drive

Unlike the other 3 different model drives I have , the F3 seems to do this depending on which SATA port I use. Weird.
Its a new formatted drive with indexing disabled so not sure whats going on

Anyway when plugged into a sata port it liked, in terms of average read transfer rate vs the WD Blue it was 111ms vs 85ms .

F3 has 500gb platters, older WD6400AAKS has 320gb platters.

Random access time was 14.4ms vs 12.3ms in favour of the WD Blue.

Short-stroking them both to anywhere between 60gb-400gb (as I would for OS + games) gave the F3 a bigger statistical advantage, namely read transfer avge of 130ms vs 100ms and still behind on seeks by about 0.5-1ms.

Not sure which is best for an OS + gaming drive, random access or transfer rates, I personally dont move large programs like games etc around much, I install a bunch that stay on all year.
I do a ton of quicksaves and quickloads though , which OS drive would you reccommend given my short-stroke results above?

[rotor]

I just bought a 1TB F3 and installed it into my very quiet Silverstone Fortress FT02 setup, and the F3 has a very annoying whine that comes and goes every 2 seconds or so. Hopefully I can return it (doubtful, since it works fine).

[wanky]

dam i just went from 6400AAKS to F3 Samsung 1GB. That humming is so bad I can't believe ppl like these drives. Even soft mounted bottom of my case its stil got this humming wave going on At least its not a high pitch noise but still it sure sucks, my 3yo AAKS is quieter on idle and seeks than this samsung

[tawd1992]

I bought a SAMSUNG F3 HD103SJ 1TB drive this past spring & also have the vibrating/humming noise that drives me insane. Is this a trademark of all Samsung drives?

The drive is really fast & the seeks are very quiet but the vibration noise is annoying. This is about the 3rd or 4th different model Samsung drive I've bought that's been like this. Are the 2TB Samsung's the same?

[farns]

Mine doesnt hum , in a dead quiet environment it spins a little louder than either of my 2 old WD Blue 6400AAKS but not as you describe.

750gb platter drives have just started to be released so when a half decent 7200rpm version comes out Ill grab one of those

[rpsgc]

I'm going to resurrect this old topic to ask about the F3. Does it also hum when suspended? I have two other mechanical HDD (both WD) suspended inside my Solo and I was thinking about adding an F3 instead of a Caviar Blue as it's cheaper and faster.

[NinjaLombax]

My Samsung F3 hard disks hum loudly when mounted directly to the case, but I haven't mounted them by suspension yet. If they don't hum when they are suspended then I will probably use them in my HTPC build using a Antec NSK2480B case.

[ermi]

I have an F3 1TB suspended and I'd say it's relatively quiet. Sorry, I can't be any more specific than this.

But suspending any HDD makes a big difference in terms of noise, so you should do it anyway.

[NinjaLombax]

Suspension definitely sounds like a good idea, I am going to try this in my server and see how it goes.

[rpsgc]

Let us know how it worked out for you (did it still hum?)

[NinjaLombax]

I haven't tried it yet, I'll do that when I get some elastic material. As a guess, it will get rid of the vibration problem.