Very disapointed in the WD Red NAS 8TB noise level

[erkan]

I got two WD Red NAS 8TB drives (WD80EFZX 128MB 8TB) and a Node 304 recently to replace my 14 drive Lian Li fulltower fileserver.

I thought 3.5" HDD had come a long way in recent years. In my 14 drive fileserver I used mainly WD green drives, and they where silent. By no means quiet, but they where silent compared to what I was running back in 2001. Sometimes I forgot my fileserver was running. They where mounted in a Lian Li big tower.

So I was a bit surprised just how loud these new 8TB drives are. Even when they are mounted in the Fractal Design Node 304 (the drives are hanging isolated by rubber). And I am only running two drives!
I can not have my fileserver running in the same room I am in. I put the fileserver in another room but I hear the loud humming noise even when it is in another room, it drives me nuts! Sure when the drive is working (the head) it is also very noisy, that is fine with me, but when the drive sits idle it is very loud, humming.

Maybe if I mount them in a Scythe Himuro HDD cooler, but I doubt it will help much. I do not think they will be quiet even if I mount them in the Himuro and put them in full ATX case with sound proofening materials inside. It is like stepping back 15 years in time, WTF.

I would have prefered to have them spinning 24/7 but now I will have to spin them down. My next fileserver will be full 2.5" or SSD based, I hope these will last until then because of all the spindowns and spinups.

Just a warning if you are in the market for one and can not put it in a walk in closet or closed door. I am very disapointed.

[quest_for_silence]

Just a warning if you are in the market for one and can not put it in a walk in closet or closed door. I am very disapointed.

Providing that each of us has different perception/expectations, but I got a somehow similar feeling with the smaller 6TB Red (I guess they use similar mechanics/electronics): way more noticeable than the 3TB Reds I was accustomed to. And as wrote elsewhere, the NAS-class drives from Seagate (IronWolf) are even louder than those 6TB Reds (though they are 7200rpm ones, TBH).

If our host Mike should come back in 2017 (or whenever) doing some reviews, I hope SPCR will take stock of current situation of the mechanical drives and home servers.

[Abula]

I fear all the helium drives.... we really need SPCR to review some.

I have read newer reds not being as quiet, but my 3tb is whisper quiet, so are my 5tb wd greens..... but i do need to add drives, as the server is will get full if i don't, i have discarded the WD Red Helium as i read very similar user reviews to your, I kinda think that Seagate that enter helium before WD, might have a better drive out, and i have good luck with the Seagate 5400rpm 4tb, but the helium seagates are 7200rpm. I think that mike has some and from some brief comments i think they are not so bad, besides there are not that many options either... so sooner or later i will try some, im eyeballing the

Seagate 8TB IronWolf 7200 rpm SATA III 3.5" Internal NAS HDD
Seagate 10TB IronWolf 7200 rpm SATA III 3.5" Internal NAS HDD

[nitelife]

Very sorry to hear about the noise, but also a good warning for others. What's the suffix on these drive models after the WD80EFZX-...? I'll update these drives as being noisy on my list here:
https://silentpcreview.com/forums/viewt ... b15aa1e089