Very disapointed in the WD Red NAS 8TB noise level
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 7:03 am
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.
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.