Stay away from the Seagate 7200.9 160GB model!Very Loud!

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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gto234
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Stay away from the Seagate 7200.9 160GB model!Very Loud!

Post by gto234 » Sat Oct 08, 2005 3:04 pm

I got the Seagate 7200.9 160GB IDE single platter and this hd has a very loud sound witch comes from the vibration i think(i am not sure though).My old maxtor 60gb is a lot better but not perfect.I am very dissapointed by the seagate and i got it back the next day i got it.
I think i must try the Samsung 160GB SATA.Is this a relatively quiet drive?

clarkkent333
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Post by clarkkent333 » Sat Oct 08, 2005 3:46 pm

Well that's a bit vague there chief. How did you have it installed? When did you get the noise: during idle or seek? Was the noise constant?

gto234
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Post by gto234 » Sun Oct 09, 2005 12:59 am

I replaced my older 60GB Maxtor and the Seagate was much louder.The noise was constant all the time.I have a chieftec case without a lot of things and the only annoying think is the HD.

Live
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Post by Live » Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:04 am

If the only/biggest noise source is vibration that can be handled by suspending the drive or using other "soft" mounting tech. .

tkirmuc
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Noisy 7200.9 160GB

Post by tkirmuc » Tue Oct 11, 2005 3:07 am

But I wonder if that newer 7200.9 160GB produce the same annoying idle-buzz-noise as older 7200.7 & 8?
I don't know if I should stay with Seagate or swtich to different brand. I cannot accept that self diagnostic noise of Seagate's anymore

gto234
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Post by gto234 » Tue Oct 11, 2005 6:49 am

Hey fellows I am just sharing my experience with you.
The Seagate 7200.9 160GB IDE model has also a high pitch whine that i forgot to mention before because the main source of noise is the vibration.I tried to put the hd on the floor(on a soft cloth) and the sound of the vibration didn't go away.If anyone has the same hd please tell us your experience.

willmans
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Post by willmans » Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:02 am

Hi, I just bought an 300gb 7200.9 and i can clearly hear the whine. It's very annoying, I just can't stand it. I will call the shop today and ask if i can change it to an 300gb 7200.8. Does anyone know if the .8 also have the whine sound?

xenithon
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Post by xenithon » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:37 pm

Hmm, must be the IDE models only. I got myself a Seagte 7200.9 160GB SATA drive and it is the quietest drive I have ever (not) heard!

rbel
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Post by rbel » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:25 am

I have been running a pair of 7200.9 160GB IDE drives for a couple of months and they are as quiet as my old Barracuda IV and that is near silent.

kentc
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Post by kentc » Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:15 pm

no problems what so ever with suspended 300gb 7200.9. excellent drive. quick.

diver
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Post by diver » Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:04 pm

xenithon wrote:Hmm, must be the IDE models only. I got myself a Seagte 7200.9 160GB SATA drive and it is the quietest drive I have ever (not) heard!
I have two of them, suspended. Very quiet & great performance in RAID 0. Prior to suspending the drives there was a vibration problem. $2 for Stretch Magic cured that one.

rm19
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Post by rm19 » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:03 pm

I just got two 500GB SATA ones on the cheap and have them set up in Raid 0 for my gaming machine. They're hard mounted in an Antec TX-640B and they're actually pretty quiet at idle, but while formatting the array, they make the worst sounding seek grinding noises (probably because they're not isolated from the case).

I don't recall hearing any whine from mine, so my main two complaints are the seek noise (no AAM available even) and the performance is not so great. HDTach ~97MB/sec avg., 180MB/sec burst in Raid 0. Gotta test a single drive now. Anyone else test their's in Raid?

For comparison, my near-silent server machine (Antec Fusion) has a notebook drive for boot + WD SE16 500GB (AAM enabled) and the tiny buzzing from my LCD is the most annoying sound. HDTach ~72MB/sec avg. from one drive.

andyb
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Post by andyb » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:06 am

I hope this is an isolated incident, due to shipping damage and not something that is common.

I have used 4-6 of these drives and so far they have all sounded and felt exactly the same, quiet with small vibration levels.


Andy

AZBrandon
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Post by AZBrandon » Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:41 am

Lest anyone forget, SPCR already has a full review of the 160gb Seagate 7200.9 if you'd like to read it yourself.

andyb
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Post by andyb » Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:27 pm

AZbrandon, this drive that is being discussed is the new SLIMLINE version and I have used both, the new version has much much quieter seeks, and as that was the only real drawback to the original drive its incomparable to the reviewed drive. Fortunatley all of the 160GB drives that I now have in stock at work are slim versions.


Andy

IdontexistM8
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Post by IdontexistM8 » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:42 pm

andyb wrote:AZbrandon, this drive that is being discussed is the new SLIMLINE version and I have used both, the new version has much much quieter seeks, and as that was the only real drawback to the original drive its incomparable to the reviewed drive. Fortunatley all of the 160GB drives that I now have in stock at work are slim versions.


Andy
What's the product code/s for this new version?

AZBrandon
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Post by AZBrandon » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:50 pm

IdontexistM8 wrote:What's the product code/s for this new version?
We know from Mike C's review as well as the 4 I have in my own P180 that the product code of the original drive reviewed was ST3160812AS. A quick look at Seagate's full product listing shows right under that drive to be one known as the ST3160811AS which says it is 20mm height versus the traditional 26mm height. I can only guess he is talking of this drive.

IdontexistM8
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Post by IdontexistM8 » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:01 pm

Curious, I was looking at the similar coded 160gb IDE and SATA models and only the ST3160811AS that has that specific listing, although they all say low profile in the big list.

andyb
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Post by andyb » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:06 am

The drive I am talking about is indeed the "ST3160811AS"

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/dis ... 68,00.html

This also has the reversed circuit board for the electronics (think WD), this is the first Seagate drive I have seen this on.

Either way, I think that the drive that "GTO234" has is either faulty, or damaged.


Andy

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