how noisy are they?

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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zoran
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how noisy are they?

Post by zoran » Thu Jul 17, 2014 11:23 pm

Im in between of purchasing one of the two,
- 4.0TB HGST Deskstar NAS (0S03665)
- 4.0TB WD Caviar Black (WD4003FZEX)
but i can't find any specs on how noisy they are, can anyone help?

quest_for_silence
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Jul 18, 2014 5:59 am

Those specs you're looking for are both readily available on WD site and HGST site.

Those drives are both 5 platters (800GB) models, and they are the most noisy mechanical drives in the market (set aside enterprise-grade drives), but while the HGST is an high-reliability (24/7), proven, 2-years old design, the WD is a more recent refresh of their performance-oriented Black lineup, so likely a tad better performing (and maybe a tad less reliable) than its Hitachi cousin: IMO they are both unsuitable for quiet operations (if you compare the 4Tb Green and Black, you will see that the latter can be up to 7-10dB noisier: and, you know, that means a 5-10 times higher sound pressure level).

zoran
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zoran » Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:50 am

quest_for_silence wrote:Those specs you're looking for are both readily available on WD site and HGST site.

Those drives are both 5 platters (800GB) models, and they are the most noisy mechanical drives in the market (set aside enterprise-grade drives), but while the HGST is an high-reliability (24/7), proven, 2-years old design, the WD is a more recent refresh of their performance-oriented Black lineup, so likely a tad better performing (and maybe a tad less reliable) than its Hitachi cousin: IMO they are both unsuitable for quiet operations (if you compare the 4Tb Green and Black, you will see that the latter can be up to 7-10dB noisier: and, you know, that means a 5-10 times higher sound pressure level).
Many thanx Luca, the reason i ask for those drives and not for eg. WDGreen drives is because im looking for drives to be fitted on an OWC Mercury Pro drive bay http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-dri ... D/Desktop/ and due to the fact that i might use them for RAID i cannot get variable speed drives. So amongst those drives i had to choose the quietest. What do you think?

Vicotnik
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by Vicotnik » Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:36 am

As far as I know there are no variable speed drives, just marketing BS from WD..
Go with WD Reds, they are pretty much made for what you will do with the drives.

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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by xan_user » Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:48 am

hmmm drive enclosures... little hope for drive suspension or isolation. and a smallish fan of unknown quality, speed control and sound signature. (unless some SPCR'r kows these first hand :?: )

sometimes its easier to remote locate than truly silence and keep it close by.

quest_for_silence
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:17 pm

Vicotnik wrote:As far as I know there are no variable speed drives, just marketing BS from WD..
Go with WD Reds, they are pretty much made for what you will do with the drives.

+1: set aside there are no variable speed drives in the world (so the so called "intellispeed" is sort of a bunch of lies), IMHO for reliability reasons in a NAS environment a WD Red should be preferred over a WD Green.
Money-wise a Seagate NAS HDD is a very good and pretty viable alternative to those WD Reds (and it would be my actual choice, if I were you).

Eventually, if you'd rather a faster drive, up to the 3Tb-size the Seagate SV35.6 may worth a look, noise wise: but, to be fair, I never found any actual task for a such a faster drive, at least in a home NAS system.

Abula
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by Abula » Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:35 pm

Another vote for WD Red 4tb or Seagate NAS 4TB, either is a good choice for a server or array.

zoran
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zoran » Sat Jul 19, 2014 12:57 am

Vicotnik wrote:As far as I know there are no variable speed drives, just marketing BS from WD.
But what about users that have used variable speed drives on NASes (in RAID mode) and claim that have lost data due to the fact that variable speed drives may not properly sync to each other causing failure?

quest_for_silence
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Jul 19, 2014 1:05 am

zoran wrote:and claim that have lost data due to the fact that variable speed drives may not properly sync to each other causing failure?

Given that those WD variable speed drives do not exist, they surely misinterpreted the actual reason of their data loss (more probably that not, those were controller-related issues, a very common problem in a RAID environment).

zyg0tic
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zyg0tic » Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:03 am

I have both the Black and the Red. The Black is the noisiest drive Ive ever had, apart from maybe those old humming Samsungs. The Black vibrates strongly, and is also noisy when active (especially writing). The Red is much quieter, but still makes the typical hard drive noises when it is active.

zoran
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zoran » Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:13 am

zyg0tic wrote:I have both the Black and the Red. The Black is the noisiest drive Ive ever had, apart from maybe those old humming Samsungs. The Black vibrates strongly, and is also noisy when active (especially writing). The Red is much quieter, but still makes the typical hard drive noises when it is active.
What capacities are those two drives you have?

Vicotnik
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by Vicotnik » Sat Jul 19, 2014 8:19 am

zoran wrote:
Vicotnik wrote:As far as I know there are no variable speed drives, just marketing BS from WD.
But what about users that have used variable speed drives on NASes (in RAID mode) and claim that have lost data due to the fact that variable speed drives may not properly sync to each other causing failure?
As already pointed out, there are no such drives.
And even if there were, I don't see how that would be an issue. Why would the rotation speed of the drives have to be synced in an array of HDDs? I've never used drives in a RAID myself, I see little point in doing so for a home user, but as far as I know you can mix drives pretty much how you like. The slowest drive will determine the speed of it all, but it can even be wise to mix models to reduce the risk of having several drives fail at the same time due to some problem related to that model or batch of drives.

zyg0tic
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zyg0tic » Sat Jul 19, 2014 8:57 pm

zoran wrote:
zyg0tic wrote:I have both the Black and the Red. The Black is the noisiest drive Ive ever had, apart from maybe those old humming Samsungs. The Black vibrates strongly, and is also noisy when active (especially writing). The Red is much quieter, but still makes the typical hard drive noises when it is active.
What capacities are those two drives you have?
4TB. Latest models.

zoran
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zoran » Sat Jul 19, 2014 9:31 pm

Eventhough i checked their specs, i cannot see the differences between the WD Red and WD Green... is there something im missing here?

Vicotnik
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by Vicotnik » Sat Jul 19, 2014 9:39 pm

They are almost the same. The Green is a desktop version, not really intended for RAID and not intended for 24/7 usage. The Red is a "NAS version" and a little bit more expensive, but with longer warranty and a firmware that makes it more suitable for RAID. Of the two I'd go with the Red, especially if you plan to put it in a NAS box.

zoran
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zoran » Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:24 am

Vicotnik wrote:They are almost the same. The Green is a desktop version, not really intended for RAID and not intended for 24/7 usage. The Red is a "NAS version" and a little bit more expensive, but with longer warranty and a firmware that makes it more suitable for RAID. Of the two I'd go with the Red, especially if you plan to put it in a NAS box.
- Its not a NAS box, its a DAS. No Ethernet port on it, just FW800, USB3 and ESata (why does everybody think its a NAS anyway? :-D ).
- Since its a DAS thats the reason i was thinking about Green. On the other hand, if Green its exactly the same as Red, perhaps its smarter to go with Red incase at some point i want to create a Raid Mode, although i doubt it (Timemachine is the best solution for Backup and it beats any RAID mode for a such solution!)
- Maybe their difference is their RPM?

quest_for_silence
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Jul 20, 2014 7:19 am

zoran wrote:- Since its a DAS thats the reason i was thinking about Green.

Whether you will power it 24/7, WD Red are better suited (longer warranty, tuned firmware), while for an "on/off" operations scheme, IMO the Green is fine and perhaps a tiny bit furtherly quieter (just remember to disable the "autopark").

zoran wrote:- Maybe their difference is their RPM?

There's no difference between them.

zoran
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zoran » Sun Jul 20, 2014 7:38 am

quest_for_silence wrote:Whether you will power it 24/7, WD Red are better suited (longer warranty, tuned firmware), while for an "on/off" operations scheme, IMO the Green is fine and perhaps a tiny bit furtherly quieter (just remember to disable the "autopark").
Thanx Luca!
Since this drive will be on a DAS, and will only be used by Apple's Time Machine application (which occurs every hour) for backup, do you agree that it might be better to have a WD Red for it, rather than a Green?

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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by Vicotnik » Sun Jul 20, 2014 8:23 am

The only thing better with the Green over Red the pricetag, nothing more. If you plan to have the disk on a few hours a day and not 24/7 - consider the Green to save money. If you think you might have it spinning 24/7 or might put it in an array then go with the Red (or any other "NAS" type of HDD, like the Seagate mentioned eariler).

Abula
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by Abula » Sun Jul 20, 2014 8:25 am

Personally i no longer consider nor recommend the Greens, just the extra warranty of the RED justifies the extra cost imo, and being raid complaint or NAS oriented, you can down the road move it to a NAS and not be worried about it been Green.

quest_for_silence
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Jul 20, 2014 1:14 pm

zoran wrote:do you agree that it might be better to have a WD Red for it, rather than a Green?
As said by Vicotnik: " If you plan to have the disk on a few hours a day and not 24/7 - consider the Green to save money."

Anyway, that's not a problem, IMHO: whether you still used a WD Red "for a few hours a day use", I think it would be perfectly fine, as you would have spent just a bit more money but borrowing a longer warranty.

zoran
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by zoran » Tue Jul 22, 2014 11:10 pm

The warrantee for REDs is 3 years, isnt it the same for Greens too?

Vicotnik
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Re: how noisy are they?

Post by Vicotnik » Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:05 am

For what WD calls "Component Drives" (that's a bare drive in an antistatic bag, not the whole retail box) it's 2 years for the Green and 3 years for the Red.

http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp

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