[maloney]

I know there have been several threads for this topic, but I need more specific answers. My UTV unit is about 20 FT. away from my bed, so drive noise is a big issue for me, the 40 GB drive that came with the drive is in my opinion, loud. During the night its whine can be so bad that I have to unplug the unit. I need to find the quietest drive to make the upgrade.


I have my eye on the samsung - it seems like a good deal, and running at 5400 RPM, I would think would make it quieter. For anyone who has this drive please compare it to the drive that came with your UTV unit.


The western digital drive carries a name I trust. I just bought a WD 80GB drive for my computer, and for the most part it seems silent. Is this true of the 120GB drives as well? Again, if you have the drive compare it to the drive that came with your UTV unit.


For the rest of you, please make a comparison and give your recomendations and advice - this is all much appriciated.


Thanks.

 

[clip]

There are two types of noise from drives to be aware of. First, is the whine of keeping the platters spinning and second is the noise of the unit moving the heads. In my opinion, the whine is the much more annoying sound. If the whine of the original drive was too loud for you then you're definitely going to want a drive with fluid bearings. Drives of this type cut down on whine to the point of it being inaudible on better drives. Head noise is still audible on every drive I've heard, but some are much quiter than others.


On my original UTV drive I could barely hear the whine and could not hear the head noise. On the Maxtor drives with fluid bearings I don't hear the whine at all but the head noise is quite noticable. On the Seagate Barracuda drives with fluid bearings the whine is inaudible and the head noise is much quiter than the Maxtor. Therefore, I recommend this type of drive. I haven't tried any of the other drives with fluid bearings so I'm not sure how they compare.


To figure it out before you buy you can look at a few things. First, don't buy anything without fluid bearings. It makes a huge difference in the whine noise. Second, drives with a bigger cache should require less head movement and cut down on noise that way. Third, drives with a higher access/seek time should in theory be quieter (slower head movements = less noise).


Clip

 

[FRZ]

Clips information above is excellent. I use the WD 5400 120 Gig and I never hear it. I sleep very close to my UTV too. Kinda like a teddy bear.


I hear the cooling fan more than the hard drive. Certainly its not annoying though. Since I only have the one unit I can only comment on the WD 5400 RPM 120 Gig.

 

[maloney]

I wanted to point out that if you visit westerndigital.com and view their harddrives you can get a decibel raiting under the Dimension & Environmental tab. I can't rate a harddrive by the decibels of noice is makes alone, but it should be good for comparison.

 

[wrb]

The drive fan seems to make more noise then WD drive on mine. Remove the cover and disconnect the fan and check for yourself.

 

[NetworkTV]

Quote:

Originally posted by wrb The drive fan seems to make more noise then WD drive on mine. Remove the cover and disconnect the fan and check for yourself.

Just make sure you reconnect it when you're done listening.

 

[slim69]

There are utilites (such as AMSET from Maxtor) that allow you to set the sound level for drives. I have a Maxtor 120g, 7200 rpm that was very loud with head seeks. Running the utility allows you to adjust the speed of the seeks, slower seek times do not affect the UTV. I have it in quiet mode and you can't hear the drive at all. You can download it from the Maxtor website.

 

[clip]

Quote:

Originally posted by slim69 There are utilites (such as AMSET from Maxtor) that allow you to set the sound level for drives. I have a Maxtor 120g, 7200 rpm that was very loud with head seeks. Running the utility allows you to adjust the speed of the seeks, slower seek times do not affect the UTV. I have it in quiet mode and you can't hear the drive at all. You can download it from the Maxtor website.

That's a useful tip! I'll have to check this out. Do you know if the program must be run un on unlocked drive, or will it work on a drive that is currently being used in a unit?


Clip

 

[utvlvr]

I have one unit with a WD1200AB drive which is very quiet, and one with a WD800BB which seems much nosier. Perhaps the higher speed of the 80 gigger makes it louder :shrug: Both are quieter than the stock drives that were in them IMHO.