With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by IdontexistM8 » Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:00 am

Despite using WD Reds for basic storage for years I'd never put together a NAS setup.

With 2018 nearly upon us I thought I'd get round to it. So with the Asustor enclosure on the way, I received a WD Red 8TB (WD80EFZX) today. Switching on my test enclosure first thing I noticed was, in comparison to small capacities, ramped up vibration. Higher seeks I'd expected but the vibration is beyond my tolerance level.

From a quick search around all these 'helium' drives seem to have characteristics of quiet idle but noisy seeks and high vibration. So I'm wondering if anything 8TB+ will be unavoidably noisy.

I've been happy with a couple of 6TB Reds I use externally, so I might have to abandon my idea of 2x 8TB NAS and look at 3x 6TB.

Thoughts and experiences?

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Abula » Sat Dec 30, 2017 2:34 pm

Im using 6x WD 8TB My Book on my server atm, they are not quiet but to me they are not loud as WD Black, i simply needed the storage and didnt want to overspend, this have worked good for 6 months now, they seems to be like WD Reds (although i havent bought a single helium retail red).

We are not getting standard 8tb none helium Reds, there are some none helium but are 7200rpm. I recently had a brief experience on a friends build with a couple of Seagate Ironwolf 8tb didnt seem that bad either. I believe mike had some and said weren't that bad either for being a 7200rpm, personally im not a brand centric kinda guy, i simply buy whatever is cheap on storage.

But there are mix opinions on both, some say they are too loud other say they are very quiet, to me its neither, just a normal drive, not as quiet as WD 3tb red i have on my main pc, but i expected higher noise with the 6 or more platter design on the helium drives.

Also you will have a very tough time trying to find a prebuilt 3 slot nas, above 2 slot the next common amount is 4 slot NAS, if you can Synology would be my pick for a premade, simply their OS is simple and you get their hybrid raid that you can grow your server as your need increases, and you can mix match hdd sizes. Here some options,
Synology DS418j 4bay NAS DiskStation
Synology DS418 NAS Disk station, 4-Bay, 2GB DDR4 (Diskless)
Synology DS418play NAS Disk Station, 4-bay, 2GB DDR3L (Diskless)
Synology DS918+ NAS Disk Station, Diskless, 4-bay; 4GB DDR3L

Last recommendation, try to place you NAS away from you, the beauty of a NAS is that you can place it almost anywhere where you can get a your network cable.

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by IdontexistM8 » Sat Dec 30, 2017 4:36 pm

Thanks for that.

Yeah I should have said 3x in a 4 bay. No RAID requirement as nearly everything is both already drive and cloud backed up. Went for Asustor as I don't need anything fancy, pricing is keen and people seem pretty happy with them.

Plumped for the WD80EFZX mainly because I could get a decent discount using a coupon on eBay (UK) coupon. TBH I haven't encountered that level of drive vibration for some years. Probably every drive I've bought in the last 5 years has been a Red.

I was aware from the Reddit datahoarder sub people have been taking the drives out of MyBooks for many years. Do you know if they've kept that same 8TB drive in the latest MyBook incarnation? Probably where I'll go next before looking at a smaller size since it's an easy return with Amazon if I'm not happy.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Abula » Sat Dec 30, 2017 11:20 pm

IdontexistM8 wrote:I was aware from the Reddit datahoarder sub people have been taking the drives out of MyBooks for many years. Do you know if they've kept that same 8TB drive in the latest MyBook incarnation? Probably where I'll go next before looking at a smaller size since it's an easy return with Amazon if I'm not happy.
I bought my 6 drives on 2016, all work well no issues whatsoever, but i heard lately that WD changed something on the drives to use 3.3V for something, some reported using converters from MOLEX to SATA Power made them work fine. I ordered 10x 8tb my books mid of December, but they are coming by boat.... so earliest ill see them is ends of February, so for now i cant tell you for sure if what i read is true.

Luke M
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: here

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Luke M » Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:20 am

I have a WD80EFAX (8TB "Red" helium 5400rpm) pulled from an external. The idle noise is unpleasant (high pitched whine), but not loud. Installed in my PC case, it's fine.

Seeks are a loud, dull "thud". In addition, the drive does something in the background, which means you will hear seek noises even when the drive is idle.

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by IdontexistM8 » Sat Jan 13, 2018 9:29 am

Luke M wrote:I have a WD80EFAX (8TB "Red" helium 5400rpm) pulled from an external. The idle noise is unpleasant (high pitched whine), but not loud. Installed in my PC case, it's fine.

Seeks are a loud, dull "thud". In addition, the drive does something in the background, which means you will hear seek noises even when the drive is idle.
How is the vibration?

Luke M
Posts: 169
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: here

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Luke M » Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:22 am

IdontexistM8 wrote:
Luke M wrote:I have a WD80EFAX (8TB "Red" helium 5400rpm) pulled from an external. The idle noise is unpleasant (high pitched whine), but not loud. Installed in my PC case, it's fine.

Seeks are a loud, dull "thud". In addition, the drive does something in the background, which means you will hear seek noises even when the drive is idle.
How is the vibration?
I didn't pay much attention to that, sorry.

Overall the drive is quite ordinary except for the idle seek noise. That's new to me.

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by IdontexistM8 » Thu Nov 22, 2018 10:54 am

Nearly a year on. . . has anything improved?

I could just about live with noisier drives for semi-cold storage but not for day to day use. Especially if the majority of the noise is caused by vibration like my first foray into 8TB was.

May be forced to go the NAS route and load up on the 6TB Reds.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Abula » Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:13 pm

I'm running 20x WD 8tb drives, not really reds but whites, shuck them from Mybook, IIRC these are equivalent to reds, to me they are not noisy drives, not quiet as WD Greens were, no where near the noise of a Black, to me they are acceptable specially considering there there aren't much options and i need the storage. Even though they are all the same drive, bought on different dates, there is a huge variation on vibrations.

Be careful though, the new mybook drives you need to do 3.3V mod, as the drives wont start up on standard sata power, its really easy though, you either tape one of the pins or use a molex power to a sata converter.

I do think your best bet its to go with NAS/server, specially today there are such a small enclosures from synology that are very nice and easy to place outside the hearing environment. Im about to invest on one, since my DS111j was borrowed by a family member that probably will never give it back, i like to test the upgrades on the DSM and the surveillance station.

Ragnite_Powered
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2018 9:20 am
Location: Saratov, Russia

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Ragnite_Powered » Mon Nov 26, 2018 8:53 am

Regarding the use of these drives in a NAS, are there air circulation/cooling levels I should be paying attention to?
I've got sort of a pantry in my flat that I'd like to use to put a future NAS in, but since it's in a room with no windows and since it would be enclosed in a closet, I'm afraid that it would start overheat due to insufficient air circulation. I know that computers don't breath and don't need as much fresh air as we do, but I still worry about fire related issues, or at least about one of the components overheating and provoking a general shutdown.
I thought about putting the NAS there because the configuration of the pantry and room would muffle the already low sound of the thing so that everyone can sleep soundly (plus, my cat tends to be annoyed by loud computer sounds, and you don't want to deal with a cat who hasn't slept enough in the morning), but if it's a bad idea, then I'll figure something else.

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:50 am

Welcome to SPCR.

General answer: should be fine.

More specific answer: Depends on the NAS specs/number of drives/how you are using it and the size of the pantry. If it's just, say, a 4 bay NAS with high capacity drives used for backup and streaming for your home, it won't generate enough heat to cause any issues (unless it's in a really tiny space like a desk or cabinet drawer). If it's a PC being used as a NAS as well as spending 24/7 transcoding 4k video, then the power consumption may generate some noticeable temperature rise...again depends on the volume of the pantry space.

Ragnite_Powered
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2018 9:20 am
Location: Saratov, Russia

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Ragnite_Powered » Tue Nov 27, 2018 7:21 am

Roger, thanks!
I was intending to put quite a heavy workload on the NAS (not always, but at peak times when my son, my wife and I will all use it at the same time) so I'd rather find a place that's less enclosed. Hell, I'm fairly sure I can come up with something that will allow air from outside of the flat to flow and cool the NAS... Sure, it will be more demanding in terms of workload, but if I can have a silent and performant NAS AND not set my apartment on fire, it's worth it.

mingv7v
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:08 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by mingv7v » Wed Nov 28, 2018 5:09 pm

IdontexistM8 wrote:Nearly a year on. . . has anything improved?
I can't hear any difference between the Ironwolf 10Tb I bought recently and the 8TBs I bought a year(?) ago.

Only difference I've noticed doesn't affect noise, and mainly of interest to people running RAID 5, Seagate seems to have upped the URE spec for their consumer drives to 10^15 (when the WD Red *Pro* is still 10^14).

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Abula » Wed Nov 28, 2018 6:05 pm

mingv7v wrote:
IdontexistM8 wrote:Nearly a year on. . . has anything improved?
I can't hear any difference between the Ironwolf 10Tb I bought recently and the 8TBs I bought a year(?) ago.
I got scared about Ironwolf 10GB upon hearing this video today, Huge Workflow Upgrade - 40TB RAID NAS!, not sure if a drive was defective but its noisy.

flyingsherpa
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 475
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2003 6:28 pm
Location: CT, USA

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by flyingsherpa » Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:59 am

Abula wrote: I got scared about Ironwolf 10GB upon hearing this video today, Huge Workflow Upgrade - 40TB RAID NAS!, not sure if a drive was defective but its noisy.
I saw that yesterday too... though I wonder if any 3.5" drive would be quiet if there are four of them in a small case, and all hard-mounted as well. Be cool if that reviewer took those same 4 drives and put them in a larger normal PC case with decent soft mounting to see if it becomes acceptable (and try it with different quantities of drives).

IdontexistM8
Posts: 308
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:55 pm
Location: on your GPS

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by IdontexistM8 » Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:08 pm

Abula wrote:I'm running 20x WD 8tb drives, not really reds but whites, shuck them from Mybook, IIRC these are equivalent to reds, to me they are not noisy drives, not quiet as WD Greens were, no where near the noise of a Black, to me they are acceptable specially considering there there aren't much options and i need the storage. Even though they are all the same drive, bought on different dates, there is a huge variation on vibrations.

Be careful though, the new mybook drives you need to do 3.3V mod, as the drives wont start up on standard sata power, its really easy though, you either tape one of the pins or use a molex power to a sata converter.

I do think your best bet its to go with NAS/server, specially today there are such a small enclosures from synology that are very nice and easy to place outside the hearing environment. Im about to invest on one, since my DS111j was borrowed by a family member that probably will never give it back, i like to test the upgrades on the DSM and the surveillance station.
I bought 4x MyBook 8TB in the sales last week from 2 different sources.

They are all, as you say, whites (WD80EZAZ). Shucking was pretty easy once you've managed one. The guitar picks method is superb!

Based on initial checks I'd say they are all pretty similar tonally. Vibration on one seems marginally better than the others but I'll have to check it in my table top dock. Overall, similar to the WD80EFZX I previously returned? Sadly, most likely.

I'll stick with the 6TBs for day to day usage and I will get round to a NAS, though I still can't see me using an 8TB in one. However, they are fine for their intended datahoarding purpose. I guess there has to be a trade off. If I'm using them in a dock or enclosure then I'll stick a wedge of foam underneath. I'm sure I've got some sorbothane knocking around too.

With the cheap prices I was tempted to get a 10TB to see if that was 'better'. However, I've got a half built mini-itx Ryzen rig to finish before Xmas.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Abula » Thu Nov 29, 2018 6:53 pm

Im almost finish with my server, has take a lot of time doing all the 20x 8tb, but ill have some to spare, so im planning on doing some reserach on synology, liking a lot the DS918+, could be a good option for you use the WD whites and place it far away where you cant hear them, and connect it to the network.

mingv7v
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:08 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by mingv7v » Mon Dec 03, 2018 6:36 pm

Abula wrote:not sure if a drive was defective but its noisy.
I think it's the chassis. I have a 2 bay cousin of that QNAP with the same caddy system. I can hear the 6TB Ironwolfs I have there too -- the caddy is attached to the chassis by plastic latches, no damping anywhere. The 10TB Ironwolf is in a Antec 182, there, I don't think there's significant difference in noise level with any recent high capacity WD/Seagate drives.

With a NAS you can always put it where noise doesn't matter, stick it next to a Cisco switch with Delta fans and you won't hear it at all! :D

judelaw
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2019 6:03 am

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by judelaw » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:11 am

Hi ! I just bought a 12tb seagate drive st12000dm0007 and it's indeed terribly noisy compared to the current drives I'm using (I don't even hear them). I'm yet to find a 6 tb+ reliable silent drive, and have absolutely no idea what to choose. Many say smr drives should be avoided.
Last edited by judelaw on Mon Feb 18, 2019 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Abula » Mon Feb 18, 2019 5:52 pm

For people looking to avoid helium and still get big hdds, you days are numbered, i cant seem to find 6tb reds anymore, not sure if the newer will be helium also, but whatever happens, seems they standard drives are starting to get harder to find.

Personally i need more storage, so im moving on and placing the servers where i cant hear them, so i just bought some Seagate 12TB IronWolf ST12000VN0007, there are some people form hardocp that said they were not so bad sound wise... but will see. The user reviews seems decent, although not a very reliable source, still i can dream,

From newegg,
Newegg has improved their HDD packaging - 12TB Seagate IronWolf 5/15/2018 8:31:28 PM
Pros: I just wanted to let folks know that may have ordered from Newegg in the past, and received very badly packed HDD. I know I've received many HDD in the past, and cringed when I saw $$$ bare drives floating around unprotected, bouncing around in a box.
I just received this 12TB drive ordered off Newegg.ca, shipped from US, arrived in 2 days. The drive packaging is vastly improved. The entire drive is protected on all sides by a bubble package/envelope. It appears that Newegg has paid attention to the many, MANY comments from previous reviewers about lame HDD packaging. Honestly, I was going to order it from Amazaon, but decided to give Newegg 1 last chance to see if their shipping has improved. Glad that I did.

PS: I'll review the drive after I've got my NAS set up.

Update after 1 week: This 12TB is super quiet, no clicking, no noise at all. Does not run hot. Would buy another.

Cons: none so far
From BHPhoto,
Quiet and fast By John VERIFIED BUYER
Replaced 2 drives in a Synology nas for more storage space. Fit as expected and now up and running. Super quiet, especially compared to the HGST units I replaced them with.
From Amazon,
Nice drive with lots of room.....
Nice drive it's quieter than the 6tb NAS Ironwolf drive. Lots of room to backup all my data from my personal server. Oh and got it for a great black friday price of $349!
Perfect match for Synology Diskstation
These replaced two 6TB NAS hard drives in Synology 2-bay DiskStation 214Play. They work perfectly, are fast, and make little or no noise when operating. We plan to upgrade to a Synology 4-bay 418Play soon and will add our two spare 6TB NAS drives for a total of over 20TBs of storage. That's what we need for video, photo, audio, basic computer storage, backup, redundancy and daily file access operations. Highly recommend these drives.
starsGreat for backups
November 27, 2018
Capacity: 12TBStyle: IronWolfPackage Type: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
I bought this to use as a storage for home CCTV and connected via usb 3.0 to my home linux server. The parameters are as follows:

Write speed (measured as writing 4*10^9 bytes of data - time sh -c 'cat /dev/zero | head -c 4000000000 > /opt/media/horace/1.raw' where /opt/media/horace is the mountpoint, disk formatted as ext4):
real 0m11.115s

Read speed (measured as calculating MD5 sum of that file created above - time md5sum /opt/media/horace/1.raw):
real 0m15.921s

For comparison, the below numbers are taken using same measurement approach for my 2.5'' Samsung EVO SSD installed on the same server:
Write speed: 0m14.646s
Read speed: 0m8.785s

The noise level is also surprisingly low, overall, I'm satisfied with this purchase.
Silent!! so that means that is good for an HTPC.
After the initial experience I may say that I like this drive, it is SILENT which bring assurance of no issues. I recommend it if you are in the market for one.
Im sure they are not silent, but none of the newer drives are at the level of WD Greens, so here is hoping they are not as bad a black drives.

flyingsherpa
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 475
Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2003 6:28 pm
Location: CT, USA

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by flyingsherpa » Thu Aug 29, 2019 10:10 am

Abula,
I assume you have those 12TB Ironwolfs now? Can you comment on their noise (were newegg reviewers accurate)?

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Abula » Sun Sep 01, 2019 8:22 pm

flyingsherpa wrote:Abula,
I assume you have those 12TB Ironwolfs now? Can you comment on their noise (were newegg reviewers accurate)?
Sure, i got 2 running on a Synology DS718+, the drives are ok, but i can still hear its seek, i tested with the surveillance running so the drives never slept, they are not quiet drives, but they aren't noisy either, audible to me at 3mts away, its not a high tone but more a like lower tone, hard to describe. That said, i yet to find a quiet helium drive like the old Greens, i recently got a WD 10tb purple helium 5400rpm, and also not quiet, i would even say i can notice more than the seagates, there are definitely nosier drives out there. Either way, the seagates work well, but they aren't quiet drives, but keep in mind that the synology enclosure don't dampens any noise or vibration, i kinda think it increases it, so it could be fine inside a case suspended.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

developer1
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:38 pm

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by developer1 » Wed Dec 04, 2019 7:56 am

Abula wrote:
flyingsherpa wrote:Abula,
I assume you have those 12TB Ironwolfs now? Can you comment on their noise (were newegg reviewers accurate)?
Sure, i got 2 running on a Synology DS718+, the drives are ok, but i can still hear its seek, i tested with the surveillance running so the drives never slept, they are not quiet drives, but they aren't noisy either, audible to me at 3mts away, its not a high tone but more a like lower tone, hard to describe. That said, i yet to find a quiet helium drive like the old Greens, i recently got a WD 10tb purple helium 5400rpm, and also not quiet, i would even say i can notice more than the seagates, there are definitely nosier drives out there. Either way, the seagates work well, but they aren't quiet drives, but keep in mind that the synology enclosure don't dampens any noise or vibration, i kinda think it increases it, so it could be fine inside a case suspended.
I've read that you recommend Synology in many threads. I'm doing research on which NAS to buy in order extract the HDD out of my PC.

I was leaning towards a QNAP TS-453Be because of the hardward it provides for $349 at the moment. On the other hand, this Synology DS718+ is $309.

I had my eyes on the QNAP because I liked how its software looks and its "flexibility". But more importantly, do you think the Synologies are quieter than QNAP? I will have it in a cupboard so noise is also a concern.

I'm perfectly good with 2 bays, so let's not take that into consideration. :)

Thank you.

Abula
Posts: 3662
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:22 pm
Location: Guatemala

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Abula » Wed Dec 04, 2019 8:58 am

developer1 wrote:I've read that you recommend Synology in many threads. I'm doing research on which NAS to buy in order extract the HDD out of my PC.
I own 2 synologies personally and have installed 6 to friends and family, to me they are really good, probably not the best as its a pre made solution, but their software is what to me sells them, their hardware and pricing is high for what what you get, but you also get a very good overall experience.

In the past i was very picky about having celerons and atoms specially trying to do dual jobs, like surveillance + storage, but i had an experience that change my pov on this subject. I usually run a NVR with blue iris, where i used to run 4770k to manage 4x 3mp + 4x 8mp ip cameras, i always thought i needed this kinda of hardware for survaillance as that was my life with blue iris for 5 years, but recently i moved on Nx Witness, and with a celeron j5005 im doing the same, even more as im having full 100% recording with dual quality.... and 4 times less power consumption.... similarly Synology does it, they really make their software excel with the hardware they chose, what you pay with synology is their development, not their hardware (which for many seems overpriced). Personally im eyeballing the new Synology DVA3219 4-Bay Deep Learning NVR with nvidia + atom seems like a great combo for encoding and having a much beefier nvr, and if they are as good as they have been with quicksync... i expect it to be a very good nvr, problem is justifying the cost.
developer1 wrote:I was leaning towards a QNAP TS-453Be because of the hardward it provides for $349 at the moment. On the other hand, this Synology DS718+ is $309.
I have tested QNAP and they are great, specially for big IOPS, they have some of the best and fastest, that said i prefer the synology DSM, maybe because its more familiar to me, but certainly QNAP is a good choice.
developer1 wrote:But more importantly, do you think the Synologies are quieter than QNAP? I will have it in a cupboard so noise is also a concern.
On my 718+ i can hear more the drives than the fan, to me its very quiet operating, but not silent, still good enough for me being 6ft away, but the problem again are the hard drives, so be careful what you chose. I cant say much about the 453 as i never own it, but the ones that i have seen noisy from QNAP are the thunderbolt models that have high iops, i think you will be fine either way, if you like more qnap os go for it.

BTW what are you planning to do with the NAS? are you using it for pure storage, backup, plex transcoding, surveillance, etc?

developer1
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:38 pm

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by developer1 » Wed Dec 04, 2019 1:02 pm

Abula wrote:On my 718+ i can hear more the drives than the fan, to me its very quiet operating, but not silent, still good enough for me being 6ft away, but the problem again are the hard drives, so be careful what you chose. I cant say much about the 453 as i never own it, but the ones that i have seen noisy from QNAP are the thunderbolt models that have high iops, i think you will be fine either way, if you like more qnap os go for it.
Actually I'm still not sure if I like QNAP QTS OS or DSM since I've never tested any of them. I'm just reading and watching videos/demos. I'm a software developer and like what QNAP OS offers (at least what I've seen).
Is there anything you don't like about QNAP QTS OS?
Besides SHR, could you comment on another feature you like from DSM? Something that you feel QNAP lacks?

I'm trying to find what i'm missing from DSM if I choose a QNAP, but I don't know what yet. I understand that DSM is pollished and works flawlessly. But is it as limitating as some tech savvys say?
Abula wrote:BTW what are you planning to do with the NAS? are you using it for pure storage, backup, plex transcoding, surveillance, etc?
[/quote]

I'm planning to use it for:
- Storage on the go: Use it just as a hard drive and accessing to it daily from my PC
- Music streaming. Flac + cue files <- I'm doing research and I'm still not sure if Synology and Qnap fully support .cue format. I've read many users having trouble with it.
- Movies streaming (but no plex transcoding)
- Backups
- VMs and containers

What made me think about its noise is that these two NAS are all made of plastic, even the drive trays.. I believe I will have to do some modding. Have you?

Thanks again for the help.

Ibskib
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:38 am

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by Ibskib » Sat Apr 18, 2020 6:08 am

For anyone considering shucking a My Book, I found that having one suspended using clothes elastics instead of the tray in the 3.5" drive bay of my Fractal R5 cabinet made a big difference with noise since it vibrates a fair bit, at least with the 8 tb 5400 rpm helium drive I just got.

It's still noticeable when working, but when idling I can't hear it in my cabinet which is pretty quiet otherwise with fans running on lowest voltage setting.
Before I suspended the drive I could hear a deep humming from several meters away, apparently it made the whole drive bay resonate.

Not sure whether there's room for elastic suspension in a NAS, but maybe with a bit of creativity or Dremel modding to create holes for the elastics, it could work?
Overall, I would recommend the My Book Helium drives if you are gonna use them as storage drives that will be idling most of the time, but only if you are suspending them.

sneaker
Posts: 133
Joined: Tue Dec 24, 2002 8:37 pm
Location: Australia

Re: With helium drives, anything above 6TB = noisy?

Post by sneaker » Fri May 01, 2020 8:54 pm

Have some comments on the 16TB Seagate Skyhawk that I thought I'd link here as they're a bit out of the way in an Article Discussion thread. It also has older comments on the 12TB IronWolf, 10TB Skyhawk and 10TB WD Red:

https://silentpcreview.com/forums/viewt ... 42#p611442

Post Reply