3TB, 2TB or 1TB noise-wise (WD Red vs Samsung F2 so far)

[mastabog]

Hi all,

I'm going to purchase a bunch of drives and I'm interested in primarily noise and vibration and then size ... I don't care much about speed. The drives I'm considering are:

- 3x 3TB WD Red 3.5" = 3disks, 3platters of 3.5"
- 3x 2TB WD Green 2.5" WD20NPVT = 3disks, 4platters of 2.5"
- 5x 1TB Samsung/Seagate 2.5" M8 = 5disks, 2platters of 2.5"

I'm going to create a RAID5 array in one of the three configs, which will replace all my current HDDs. If anyone owns or has any experience with any of the above, could you please state your opinion in which config would be the most quiet? How about vibration?


About my build:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yyv3zpnz12eek17/58tsQPn1HF (you'll have to excuse the dust)

I'm a silence fanatic, like many people on SPCR. My build is a water cooled i7-3770K @ 5.0 GHz, with a Liang D5 pump standing on thick soft foam running at minimum rpm, and a 520mm radiator with 5x140mm beQuiet SilentWings 2 fans (*) in push-pull spinning at ~350 rpm. All fans have rubber corners, and also rubber rims all around the circumference on both sides of the fan (not just the corners) so neither the screws, nor the case/radiator touch the fan's plastic case, the build quality of these fans is simply fantastic ... on top of that, I also added 1.5mm thick rubber spacers in between the case/fan and fan/radiator. The PSU is also a beQuiet one with the same type of fan .. the thing is inaudible.

I own a couple of Samsung F2 EcoGreens 1TB 3.5" (2 platter) which are already ancient, but fairly quiet but not so great vibration wise. I also own a Samsung M8 500 GB 2.5" (1 platter) which is quiet and good vibration wise.

With this build, all I hear is the Samsung drives, mostly their vibration ... and I'd like to keep the new RAID array to a minimum level of noise (lower than the 3 Samsung drives preferably).

(*) Regarding the beQuiet SilentWing 2 fans:

These are by far the most silent, least clicking, least vibration 140mm fans out there, and I'm willing to bet on it ... I know of the multitude of tests and subjective opinions. I actually purchased about 20-25 different brands and models of 140mm fans (I'm not joking) and did some thorough testing for a few good hours in the 250-900rpm range, being most interested in up to 500rpm (where they sit 99% of the time), monitoring clicking, vibration and noise;

The only snag about them is that they are bloody expensive! but I was so impressed with them that I ended up purchasing 6 of them! 5 for the radiator, 1 for the side panel. I'm still not sorry I did.

Did I mention they have not only rubber corners, but also rubber rims all around the circumference on both sides of the fan -- this was utterly useful in my case since the radiator (which is heavy) sits on two fans and then on the case, thus absorbing further vibration.

BTW, the 2nd best fans in my tests were the BitFenix Spectre (the low rpm version) in case you're interested, which are also much less expensive.

[fuzzymath10]

I have a huge variety of 3.5" drives running in my living room PC as a 3+1x3TB flexraid.

1.5TB Barracuda 7200.11 (old - from late 2007 - 4 platter)
1 and 1.5TB Caviar Green (both 3 platter, EADS series from mid-late 2009)
2TB Barracuda Green (3 platter, from 2011ish)
3TB Barracuda (3 platter, from late 2012)
3TB Caviar Red (3 platter, from early 2013)

I don't think any of them make significant objectionable noise; I'm quite picky about fans but my drives produce a different and less obtrusive kind of noise. The 7200rpm Seagates are the worst, but fine on an absolute scale. If the new Caviar Greens have addressed the buzzing/head parking issue then they're OK too (mine buzz after they head park, but make almost no noise when active).

The Caviar Red is my favourite. I can barely hear it turn on, and cannot hear it operate. The case is running some fans, but decent ones (<800rpm S-Flex and S12Bs). The only issue with the Caviar Red is price. I bought mine on sale for $120, and I regret not buying one more.

They spin down after an hour; I download stuff to the boot SSD (old 80GB Intel) and then to a 64GB USB drive plugged in full time. When I'm through with them, I move them to the flexraid, and then it updates every night.

[mastabog]

I just had the chance of testing the WD Red 3TB and 2TB drives. I tested 4 drives of each kind (8 in total). The results are quite interesting, and also disappointing.

All drives have quite different acoustics, despite same model.

- The 3TB ones varied with as much as 2.2 dB between the quietest and loudest drive when measured from 10 cm away. This was actually noticeable from 1 m away as well.

- The 2TB ones varied with about 1.9 dB and they were on average just as loud as the 3TB ones. In fact, the quietest 2TB was louder than the quietest 3TB.

- All 8 (eight) WD Red drives (2TB and 3TB) were noticeably louder than both my Samsung F2 EcoGreen 1TB, which has 2 platters. The average difference when measured at 10 cm was about 2.1 dB. The noise of the Samsungs is much more pleasant, kind of a dampened whoosh, while the WD Red seemed like an undampened whoosh. If I was to guess with my eyes closed, I would have said that the Samsung is inside an enclosure while the WD Red is opened. That kind of difference.

- 2 (three) WD Red drives, no matter which 2, are very noticeably louder than 2 x Samsung F2.

- 3 (three) WD Red drives, no matter which 3, are very much noticeably louder than 2 x Samsung F2 + 1 x Samsung M8 (2.5"). A bit of an unfair comparison, but this is the sound level I'd like to maintain.

EDIT: I just weighed the drives. Turns out the 2TB models are the same weight as the 3TB ones, 650 g ... so the 2TB ones also have 3 platters, which explains the results.

[mastabog]

Note that I tested the WD Reds without booting into the OS, with only the power cable attached (to speed up testing). Does anyone know if they spin faster without the data cable attached?

Also, does anyone really know the max rpm of these drives? Is it 5900rpm? Some people are saying 7200 rpm but I doubt it.