Hi. I would like to share my experience with modifying the AAM (Automatic Acoustic Management) setting on my Seagate Barracuda ATA IV 40GB model ST340016A hard disk. I used the IBM tool suggested to me by quokked in this thread which can be downloaded here from this webpage. I have no IBM hard disks...

A Barracuda IV should be as quiet as a laptop disk, I expect.

Okay. The buzzing could be caused by a defective part. It could be a loose wire winding on one of the coils. You might try and resolve the issue yourself. Find out what the computer is doing to cause the buzzing, is it consistant and find the component causing the buzzing. Put on a glove and grab t...

Hi. I'm of the opinion that trying to "mask" the noise is ineffective. I tried putting my power supply in a wooden cabinet. I could still hear it. I tried lining my case with various materials. I could still hear it. The only solution to quieting a computer is to replace loud components with quiet o...

Thank you quokked. I admit I am apprehensive about running this type of software on a non-IBM disk, but I will read the documentation on IBM's website to be sure.

Although I really don't understand what it is you're requesting in your second post (??)

Okay Gerwin you've reminded me about this SCSI issue. I've read others inquiring about it on other forums. I should persue this issue as the main cause of my performance troubles. And I'll check on other hard disk forums like www.storagereview.com as this is no longer a "silent pc" issue. Thanks aga...

2. Thanks, I'll check IBM for their tool. 3. I used a benchmarking programme called Sandra whose homepage is either www.3bsoftware.com or www.sisoftware.co.uk I'm not sure as I found it in both locations. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it, I thought it was a rather popular benchmarking applicati...

I own a Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB ST340016A and when I benchmark this disk using SiSoftware Sandra, I get a performance rating nowhere near the compared level of an ATA100 7200rpm disk. Are you people getting decent performance in benchmarking the Barracuda? Is the wonderful quietness of the Barracu...

I also want to add my vote for the Q-Tech. I'm very satisfied with this product

Okay thanks for the explanation TerryW. Although I still don't understand why my Q-Tech buzzes sometimes and most of the time it's quiet. Load? Strange, because it can buzz during light load, and not buzz during Unreal Tournament gaming.

Great, thanks for the advice feldt and CodeX.

Oh I see, you want to sandwich your hard disk for cooling because you'll be stuffing it with some foam for noise reduction. Aha -- I just read the Hard Drive Silencing: Sandwiches & Suspensions article (: Sorry, I'm still new here (: Man, if you can afford it, the Barracuda is the way to go. I love ...

Well what are you suggesting? That the cooler your hard disk is the faster it will read/write?? I figure if the hard disk's temperature doesn't exceed the upper limit set by its manufacturer, then what's the issue? Sort of like with CPUs. I'm tried of thinking my Thunderbird should be running at 45 ...

I want to know if it's electrically safe for my computer for me to go plugging and unplugging fans via the 4-pin power supply connections and the 3-pin mainboard connections while the system is powered on and booted into my operating system. I don't intend to plug in devices like hard disks while th...

Does cooling of the hard disk really matter? I just stuck my thermal probe on top of my Seagate disk and noticed the temperature doesn't exceed the upper limit mentioned in PDF specifications and that was sufficient for me. Plus if you've got your disk inserted into a 3.5 inch bay next to your flopp...

I guess Seagate tech support would have the best explanation as to why the disk is noisier than others. My 40GB Barracuda IV is as quiet today as when I bought it eight months ago.

Hmm, I wonder why people buy >300W PSUs anyway?

MikeC wrote: coil whine in a PSU is a sign of stress under load due to less than ideal circuit design or implementation.

Stress under load, eh? Okay, makes sense. I find that my QT-02300's coil whine is absent more often than it is audible. Which is satisfactory for me.

Sunesha wrote: It is almost quiet. But a long way from silent.

Okay but compared to what? Seasonic? A fan-less PSU? I'm honestly very pleased with my Q-Tech QT-02300 unit, but I'm not a "music computer user."

But you hear it in yours! Yes I do. But it's intermittent. Sometimes it's audible, sometimes it's not. You say it's based on load? Okay, I'll look out for that. This issue of coil whine is completely new to me, I didn't know it existed until I started reading silentpcreview.com this week. My questi...

But is the Q-Technology quality rating (7) marked down from the original 8 because of coil whine or because of inefficiency, as seems to be the main topic of this thread? I think coil whine was mentioned as the reason for the markdown. I think it IS possible that the combination of components in th...

Thank you for the excellent Q-Technology PSU review, Mike Chin. I own this unit (QT-02300) and indeed it does raise my mainboard temperature (as reported by software -- the Asus Probe) by about 2-3 degrees Celsius compared to my previous 300W AOpen PSU. But I run my case completely open (no sides, n...

I recommend you visit the Maxtor and Seagate websites and look at the PDF specification documents and compare their rated noise characteristics. I recommend Seagate.

I own a 40GB Seagate Barracuda IV ST340016A hard disk. When I was making the choice between a 40 and a 60GB, I decided to go with the 40GB because I noticed on the PDFs on Seagate's website that the 40GB model with only one platter had slightly lower noise characteristics. I can't say if the 40GB is...