Now the HDD is really on fire.....

OfflerCrocGod

Well not quite on fire but if anyone here has read my post about my attempt at a silent PC you will notice I muffled my HDD by placing a jacket , or two, on top of it and sticking it in a box. Well I decided I'd check out how it was doing, I pulled it out of my "Blue Peter":p jobby to find it.....burned my hand, no bullsh1t here it was warmer then my CPU!! :eek: . So no more half-assed measures I'm getting rid of it to be replaced by this baby here (Komplett link click twice for it to work), is this one of the best available?. I know that Seagate have a good reputation for quiet drives, is there an-other drive with the same specs(120Gb, ATA-100, 25Db), from someone else. I have ATA-133 on my motherboard, but I'm leary of buying a noisy ATA-133 drive that in reality will give me no speed boosts over an ATA-100.

It's amazing, by the way, the amount of noise and heat generated by modern drives!. Especially the heat from my WD it uses 8 Watts idle and yet it burns!. Is it worth it for me to get this drive, it will be replacing a WD120Gb 8Mb cache ATA-100 "screaming jennie:D" in an ATA-133 slot.

OfflerCrocGod

I've just been looking around and I have found out that my HDD hits 39Db:eek: just on idle that is more then twice the noise off the above Seagate, wow what loud rubbish!. The Seagate is definitely better then the WD. I've also found noise ratings for this Maxtor HDD DiamondMax Plus 9 in this PDF they are 27Db, at idle which is nearly as good as the Seagate. It's seek is 37Db which is quieter then my WD HDD at idle........Excuse me while I go and kick my HDD:D . Anyone hear the Maxtors are they nice and quiet?.

oneweb

I have a Maxtor 6L080L4 w/ liquid bearing - DiamondMax Plus D740X - and have to say I was mightily impressed at how quiet it is Only prob now is that the fan in the PC's PSU is now louder than the HD (was the other way round beforehand).
No doubt the newer models are quieter still.

ColinM

Hey, OfflerCrocGod

Check out this thread for some of the answers you are looking for.

BadCharlie

Same as my self now my PSU makes alot more noise then my Maxtor hard drive. But if i was to buy another drive i would also go for Seagate as i have heard great things about it.

OfflerCrocGod

Thanks ColinM! I didn't know someone had already asked that question and it seems as the seagate won!. Well then there is no surprise there really I would have ended up going for it anyway I suppose. Lots of ppl say good things about them, I was more curious about the diffrence between ATA-100 and ATA-133, but it seems as if the diffrence is negligable. So it's the Seagate.

ozmo

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
Thanks ColinM! I didn't know someone had already asked that question and it seems as the seagate won!. Well then there is no surprise there really I would have ended up going for it anyway I suppose. Lots of ppl say good things about them, I was more curious about the diffrence between ATA-100 and ATA-133, but it seems as if the diffrence is negligable. So it's the Seagate.

IBM have a tool for adjusting the noise the drive makes.
It works for most drives. Some bios have this built in. And
Intels Application Acceperator does it also.
But the IBM one gives you a variable slider of options from quiet to full speed.
Search their site for "Acoustic managment". Only problem is it needs to be run from a boot floppy.

ozmo.

Drazhar

in a review in CustomPC (new Ocing mag, very good) the Maxtor came second in their revies of drives, a samsung came first. Not sure of their reliability, but the revies was based on Noise and Transfer Rates

gurramok

I can tell you off-hand that I have 4 120gb maxtor drives in machine, each one is quiet and would not drive you mad

Remember its the old maxtors that have bad reputations, the newer ones have been just as good as the seagates for noise reduction.

OfflerCrocGod

To late now I went and ordered the Seagate all I can hope for now is that it will be fine, I know it will be quieter then the WD cause 39 to 25Db is a no-brainer! .

ozmo

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
To late now I went and ordered the Seagate all I can hope for now is that it will be fine, I know it will be quieter then the WD cause 39 to 25Db is a no-brainer! .

They are rated as 25db when they are sitting there doing nothing. By default - you will hear the disk access very easily - click click clunk -
make sure you try the setting to quiten this - the drive will be very slightly slower - I have them on max quiet and feel its worth it for the quiet room.

OfflerCrocGod

WOOO! osmo what settings? are you refering to the Seagate?, they can be quietened even more?. Cool! does it mention this on the Seagate site?. In reality I dont care about the clunk noise.....it reassures me I kinda like it:p , my main bug-bear is the electrical whine that my present WD drive makes:mad: , terrible!. I suppose I would try it on quiterer if its easy to do.

ozmo

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
WOOO! osmo what settings? are you refering to the Seagate?, they can be quietened even more?. Cool! does it mention this on the Seagate site?. In reality I dont care about the clunk noise.....it reassures me I kinda like it:p , my main bug-bear is the electrical whine that my present WD drive makes:mad: , terrible!. I suppose I would try it on quiterer if its easy to do.

Use Intel Application Accelerator - free off the intel site.
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=663
This also ensures the drive is running at the best DMA level - a must install. Will not work with some/all? amd motherboards

(The option to change is "Auto-Acoustic managment" - set this to "Mininum Acoustic Output" )

Or better but more difficult to use is the IBM Feature Tool.
http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-linux-e/2001-Jun/att-0780/01-welcome.htm
ibmftool-install.exe
It from IBM but works with lots of drives.