[dizzledorf]

Hi, I searched the forum and found 1 thread that sort of touched on this, but then meandered off without any solid recommendations.


I just upgraded my 5040 last month w/a Maxtor 160GB drive, and it lasted barely *two weeks* before developing a click of death and dying a hard death. Naturally the drive is now out of warranty (had been used very lightly before).


It's my second Crapstor that's died, so I'm avoiding them for a while.


SO... which is the "best" _quiet_ HD for a single-drive upgrade (160GB - 250GB)?


I've heard good things about Seagates except for the "new" ones (how do you identify these?) Western Digital?



Thanks!

 

[chain777]

I have 4 Maxtor drives, all going strong after 1-2 years or so. The 160G in my Replay has been solid. Sounds like you had some bad luck.


Maxtors are one of the quietest drives. Western Digitals are not. The new Seagates have some mixed reviews on noise, but most like them and they come with 5 year warranties which is a *big* plus. Hitachi's are good, but I haven't heard much about them. Stay away from Samsungs - they're not compatible with later Replay models.

 

[l8er]

I recently checked out the Seagate 200 GB drives. Acoustic management of the Seagates is not possible, but I'd say the head seek noise is a little quieter than a Maxtor that doesn't have acoustic management enabled. If completely quiet is required, then I'd go with Maxtor, otherwise the Seagates with their 5 year warranty is very attractive.


My 3 active ReplayTVs are running Maxtor 250 GB/7200 RPM/8 MB cache drives.

 

[Grimdeath]

The Seagates are noisier when they are idle than when they are actually doing something. When the Seagates are idle, the drive moves the head in a programmed pattern that is supposed to distrbute heat evenly over the disk surfaces. It sounds like a train clacking over rail road tracks. It is extremely annoying to me (my maxtors are MUCH quieter).

In addition, you cannot turn this "feature" off.

IMHO, I'd stick with Maxtor.

 

[l8er]

Quote:

Originally posted by Grimdeath The Seagates are noisier when they are idle than when they are actually doing something. .... It sounds like a train clacking over rail road tracks.

FWIW, the 4 Seagate 200 GB drives I have do not do that.

 

[mhargr03]

Quote:

Originally posted by l8er FWIW, the 4 Seagate 200 GB drives I have do not do that.

My Seagate 200 gb does not either. I seem to remember seeing somewhere that the 200 gb Seagates are quiter than their 160 and 120 gb family members.

 

[icecow]

Quote:

Originally posted by mhargr03 My Seagate 200 gb does not either. I seem to remember seeing somewhere that the 200 gb Seagates are quiter than their 160 and 120 gb family members.

Someone has said that and I've been avoiding 160 seagates to make sure.


The whizzing sound Grimdeath mentioned was present in idle seagates, but they changed their technology since then..exactly when is a mystery to me.


They seem quiet to me so far and have that 5 year warranty so I just bought my third 200 gig seagate for $70 after rebate.


The 5 year warranty should be a big deal to a pvr user...


I encourage buying them..


The water seems safe (to say the least)

 

[dizzledorf]

Thanks for all your input...


Ah yes, the Seagate screech! My 9.1 GB Seagate SCSI does that about every 3 minutes or so -- I don't mind it so much coz it gives me a 10K RPM boot drive But definitely don't want it in my living room!


It looks like the Seagate is the way to go. NewEgg has it for $110 -- where can I pick it up now for $70 after rebate?

 

[MrFussy]

Another option would be getting one already setup for a RTV. There are several selling drives like that on ebay.


As for rebates, I seem to see more offers on the WDs and Maxtors than the Seagates. Check out Fry's/Outpost.com weekly specials. Also dealnews, slickdeals.net, and techbargains.

 

[davester2]

Check this thread. It seems to me that the Hitachis are best overall from a reliability/noise standpoint.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=452857


and here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=458309

 

[icecow]

Saturday (2 days ago) Fry's had the 200 gig seagate for $70 after a $40 rebate and a $10 rebate. The box said $159 or whatever, it rang up for $120.


Fry's likes to put out ads and kinda hide the stuff. I see them do thinks like put sales items on bottom shelves with no sign in white boxes, or put a higher price on the box so you can't match up the original ad price with the price on the sign.




Once I asked a salesman if they had any of a sales item left and he took me to a cutout sign of the Maytag guy and gave me one of the three boxes stashed behind the cutout. I just took one, thanked him and didn't ask, but now I am: What was that all about?

 

[mhargr03]

In my few experiences trekking to Fry's for the Seagate deals, they have massive pallets of them right where one would expect to find them. Not sure about other sale items though.

 

[icecow]

Yes, the 200 gig I just got was on a conspicuous pallet. In my last post I almost started, "other times sale items will be completely conspicous.." but I got confused..


I believe

the ad said $120-$40-$10=$70

the pallet had a sign that said $120 (was thinking it said $159 at first)

the HD boxes themselves said $159


That's pretty straight forward



I have seen funky stuff though.



here's the offtopic, semi-related part of this post:

Just last night I almost bought 2 cambells chicken chowder soups marked on sale 2 for 1 @ $3 at STATER BROS. Most of them were gone, only about 7 left so I match the ounces on the can to the tag. The can said 16.9 ounces, the sale tag had the exact discription and said 17.0 ounces. There was no other soup or sign around so one would think the 17 ounce sign was just rounded off right?

Not me. After the groceries were rang up I asked the guy how much the soup rang up for--$6 for the 2, $3 each. I see this stuff everywhere. With a huge line behind me the guy calls over the intercom, "I need a price check". I said I don't want the soup and I don't want a pricecheck, I want you to correct the sign"


That's what these posts are really about. I'm pizzd that Stater Bros tried to rip me off last night. It switched me on to thinking about Fry's weirdnesses. At least I haven't seen a pattern of frys doing bate and switch.... just hiding.


stater bros #astards

 

[ksteele]

I just put one of the Seagate 200GB drives from Fry's in my ReplayTV. It is not as quiet as the original Maxtor, which was never heard. I can hear the Seagate whenever the heads move, depending on the volume in the room. If the volume is low, you can hear it, if you are listening for it. If the volume is medium, it covers the noise for the most part. I sit about 8 feet from the Replay box. The Replay is not behind a glass enclosure.


I chose the Seagate due to the price and the warranty. If I had to do it over again, I would pay more for a quieter drive.

 

[bpratt]

I have recently updated several 5000 and 5500 Replays with Maxtor drives for me, my family and a few friends. Some of the updates were 160G drives, and the rest were 200G. In every case, the 200G Maxtors were quieter than the 160. I have noticed a slight vibration in the 160 that does not appear in the 200.


Of the 8 upgrades I have done, one 160G drive failed and had to be replaced.

 

[Grimdeath]

Quote:

Originally posted by icecow The whizzing sound Grimdeath mentioned was present in idle seagates, but they changed their technology since then..exactly when is a mystery to me.

I purchase my 160Gig Seagate 1 month or so ago; it is covered in the 5yr warranty (I checked the serial # on seagates site). Since it qualifies, it was manufactured after June 1, 2004 and is therefore a new unit. I believe Seagate calls this feature "STIR". Check on their website (search it) and on the web. I cannot personally vouch for anything greater than 160Gig, but, as you can see in the links below, people have it too on the 200Gig drives.

http://forums.storagereview.net/inde...ST&f=2&t=12009

http://www.duxcw.com/yabbse/index.ph...Bthreadid=7102


As per Seagates Site:



* The disc drive is making noise when it is idle.

The heads on a disc drive are moved to the "high-flight zone" (toward the outside of the platters where the most air is flowing under the heads) during times of inactivity. To maintain the reliability of the drive the heads are moved within the high-flight zone in a pre-programmed pattern. This cannot be altered and does not affect the performance of the disc drive.

 

[icecow]

Quote:

Originally posted by Grimdeath As per Seagates Site: * The disc drive is making noise when it is idle. The heads on a disc drive are moved to the "high-flight zone" (toward the outside of the platters where the most air is flowing under the heads) during times of inactivity. To maintain the reliability of the drive the heads are moved within the high-flight zone in a pre-programmed pattern. This cannot be altered and does not affect the performance of the disc drive.

Long ago mikeyboy--time to time--mentioned the seagate whizzing sound.


So about a year ago I decided I wanted to know why and dug this up. It's the exact same quote you gave above.
http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/...hreadid=331821


That quote was clearly true for older generations but it is completely unclear whether it is true for the current drives.


You may have detected my cautious wording. I've been willing to accept there may still a whizzing sound, but I can't seem to prove that to myself. There's no majority consensus agreeing that there is still a whiz. In the link you gave it seems people are saying 'i think there is a whiz' or 'I don't think there's a whiz'.


I've listened for the whiz myself time to time for a month now.. I can't seem to hear it, but then again, the receiver has a fan and the replay has a fan. They aren't too loud, but enough to continue the uncertaintly.


But now my attitude is: until I start hearing a whiz that bothers me, I'm going to keep buying them for the 5 year warranty, cheapness, and the apparent 'no whiz'.


I'm still waiting for a whiz to pop out of nowhere. Those are the sort of slaps in the face I'm used to.


Just yesterday I installed one (200 gig seagate) in the bedroom computer/dva server. The computer is nearly silent with a seasonic PS and a super quiet CPU fan. I just turned off the room fan, turned off everything in the room and put my ear to the computer. The new seagate is not being accessed... I hear nothing.. zero. I can only assume it makes will make some noise at some point, but I sure don't seem to be in the room when/if it does it. As far as I can tell this is the most silent HD in history.


So the uncertainty continues.


Can anyone step up and say they've heard any annoying whizziing or other sounds?


.............


Also, I'd like to find out about seagate's equivlant to maxtor's amset. I remeber being on seagates website and reading that the tool was now only availible from 3rd parties and that they no longer supported it. The passage read as though they were practically encouraging it--at least saying it was a choice you have. In the link you left it was said that seagate removed the tool because of copyright reasons. Assuming these drives to make some noise (some noise I can't readily hear) there is still some exploration that can be done with the silencing software (whever they call it).


.......


my last word is


I'm still open ears to any reason these drives might be bad, but I'll be buying them until

 

[dizzledorf]

Hi Guys,



I found the drive special at Fry's online arm - Outpost.com:

$119 - $50 rebate = $79AR.



Thanks again.

 

[mhargr03]

 http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4008252

 

[Grimdeath]

Quote:

Originally posted by icecow Can anyone step up and say they've heard any annoying whizziing or other sounds?

I can and mine is a new unit

I was satisfied with Seagate's answer when someone else described the noise as a train on tracks also...

In the end, all I can say is that I own one late production Seagate drive and it is a 160Gig model and it does have this noise.


BTW; I can just have the power molex plugged into mine and hear STIR run its course twice a minute.

Quote:

Originally posted by icecow I'm still open ears to any reason these drives might be bad, but I'll be buying them until [/b]

This noise is not indicative of a bad drive and should stop anyone from buying one. Do note that if the drive is accessed at regular intervals, the internal STIR mechanism timeout is reset and will not occur. So, if your Replay is On, you will never notice.