Hitachi 7k250 impressions

kbedwards · Post by **kbedwards** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 10:31 am

After reading and re-reading this forum and other sites, looking for the most quiet SATA drive, I decided to bite the bullet and buy an 80gig ver of this Hitachi drive.

Since there was so much conflicting info about whether or not this drive is quiet, I just wanted to post and give my thoughts to add in case others are looking for more feedback.

I have to say I was worried because I have spent some $$ trying to make my pc quiet (now I am a bit obsessed with it I'm afraid), but I also did not want to sacrifice performance.

I had heard about the "chirp" and other complaints, and was willing to accept it. I am happy to say that I am VERY pleased with this drive, from an acoustic standpoint. I hear a faint noise when I put my ear next to the open case, and there is a very slight high pitched ... presence, but DEF not a deal breaker for someone who wants a quiet rig. I certainly cannot hear it sitting in my chair, with the case closed.

Now, the odd "chirp" or whatever you want to call it...is there, for sure. But from reading tons of posts about it, I was prepared for the worst, and I have to say it is a LOT less of an issue than I was expecting (I guess everyone's noise tolerance is different though). It is almost amusing, I have to say, because it is such a strange noise...but again, it happens infrequently enough that it does not bother me at all.

Overall I am happy I bought the drive, knowing that I am not sacrificing performance for a very quiet drive.

Hope this helps someone in the same position.

al bundy · Post by **al bundy** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 12:06 pm

Good to know, thanks kbedwards for posting your information.

Welcome to the forums!

JavaLava · Post by **JavaLava** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:49 pm

I agree. Having used Barracuda IVs exclusively before being discontinued, I took the plunge like you did and bought the 180GXP, and then 2x 7K250.

I'll take the Hitachi drives anytime over the Seagate 7200.7 for one good reason: AAM. Even with AAM disabled, seek noise is far less obstrusive on the Hitachi drives.

That said, the Hitachi drives do need some sort of mount damping to lessen the high pitch noise.

Zeatrix · Post by **Zeatrix** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 12:59 am

My 7K250 is acting strange...

It's kinda unstable and its seek noise is extremely loud. I've run a couple of driver diagnostic tools and none show any errors. I don't know what's wrong.

My former drive, a Deskstar 120GXP was a lot more noisy when idle, but it's seek noise was way less loud than my 7K250's. Does anyone of you have this problem? Could the drive be faulty although working correctly except the noise?

Thx in advance...

Edit:

I just used the driver tool from Hitachi to lower the seek noise to the lowest value, and now I'm satisfied with the drive noise, but still, it's not as quiet as you guys seem to think. So feedback still wanted...

luminous · Post by **luminous** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 1:57 am

Just a quick heads up. The newest 7K250 drives are not meant to suffer from the reset "chirp". Hitatchi had altered the firmware to stop this from happening. A search of this forum will reveal a link to a tool you can use to stop this from happening.

A word of warning - the last time I read about it, the tool that is linked to here is not supported by Hitatchi. There is always that small risk that it may bugger up your drive.

Zeatrix · Post by **Zeatrix** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 10:30 am

Well I RMA'd the drive today, will get a new one (or the same back) hopefully within a day...