anyone else's Samsung too loud?

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 10:38 am

ok, i've got 3 P80's in various systems and two of them, both 120GB, are very quiet. i have to get within inches of them to hear them. but the 160GB in my main system is clearly audible from over 10' away. the 160 was my first samsung and i've had it for much longer than the other two. at the time i bought it i still had some fan noise so i thought the drive was great. now i have basically no fan noise and the drive is the only thing i can hear.

so i'm not sure whether or not it was always this way or if it got louder over time. both the 120's remain very quiet. what's frustrating is the 160 is in the system i use most so it bothers me all the time. all my drives are decoupled so its idle noise that i'm hearing. its hard to describe the noise.. its sort of a cross between mildly whiny and white noise. anyone else have this issue with any samsung drives. i've run their Dx s/w and it all checks out.

i don't think there's much i can do about this, but if anyone has any ideas i am all ears. i'll probably end up swapping the 160 for one of the less used 120's, but i'll miss the space and the swap could be a bit of a pain.

Alev · Post by **Alev** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:28 am

Exactly the same problem. My samsung is SP1614C.

The drive's idle noise is stronger then the rest of my system (including idle suspended raptor).

The noise is indeed a "cross between mildly whiny and white noise".

It is driving me crazy.. I am also looking for any ideas to quiet it down.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 8:38 am

flyingsherpa wrote:ok, i've got 3 P80's in various systems and two of them, both 120GB, are very quiet. i have to get within inches of them to hear them. but the 160GB in my main system is clearly audible from over 10' away. the 160 was my first samsung and i've had it for much longer than the other two. at the time i bought it i still had some fan noise so i thought the drive was great. now i have basically no fan noise and the drive is the only thing i can hear.

so i'm not sure whether or not it was always this way or if it got louder over time. both the 120's remain very quiet. what's frustrating is the 160 is in the system i use most so it bothers me all the time. all my drives are decoupled so its idle noise that i'm hearing. its hard to describe the noise.. its sort of a cross between mildly whiny and white noise. anyone else have this issue with any samsung drives. i've run their Dx s/w and it all checks out.

i don't think there's much i can do about this, but if anyone has any ideas i am all ears. i'll probably end up swapping the 160 for one of the less used 120's, but i'll miss the space and the swap could be a bit of a pain.

How is the drive decoupled?

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:08 am

i've tried several methods and all sound the same. currently the drive is resting on two pieces of sorbothane (one along each edge where the bottom mount holes are). the sorbothae is resting on a large piece of foam and this whole thing is resting on the bottom of my case. i can feel no vibrations in the case from this setup at all.

i've also set the drive outside the case on my carpet (with a piece of foam too) just to be absolutely certain there was no case coupling. this drive is just loud in idle (i can't hear the seeks when the case is closed). i don't get it... the other two are as quiet as in MikeC's reviews. i think its way to late to try an RMA, unfortunately, and it runs fine otherwise. i don't think a smart-drive would even help... any other ideas out there?

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 10:22 am

flyingsherpa wrote:i've tried several methods and all sound the same. currently the drive is resting on two pieces of sorbothane (one along each edge where the bottom mount holes are). the sorbothae is resting on a large piece of foam and this whole thing is resting on the bottom of my case. i can feel no vibrations in the case from this setup at all.

i've also set the drive outside the case on my carpet (with a piece of foam too) just to be absolutely certain there was no case coupling. this drive is just loud in idle (i can't hear the seeks when the case is closed). i don't get it... the other two are as quiet as in MikeC's reviews. i think its way to late to try an RMA, unfortunately, and it runs fine otherwise. i don't think a smart-drive would even help... any other ideas out there?

Sorry, I don't have any ideas. I am interested to know what kind of sound you hear. Is it a solid or broken sound? Sound like something spiniing? Something scraping?

bigred · Post by **bigred** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 10:52 am

Overall I like my new Samsung. The idle noise is much much lower than my old drive (WD 40GB), but sadly the seek noise seems to have become about twice as loud.

justlnluck · Post by **justlnluck** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:17 am

I have the 160GB SP1614N Samsung drive and it runs great. I can't hear any spin noise from it no matter how close I get. This is in strong constrast to my former hdd (WD 120GB SE). That thing whines so loud, no one even wants to take it from me for free!!

Access noise is a little audible, but quiet enough not to be bothersome.

Justin

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:30 am

justlnluck wrote:This is in strong constrast to my former hdd (WD 120GB SE). That thing whines so loud, no one even wants to take it from me for free!!

I like that. ROTHFLMAO

Hey, I'll throw in my old Maxtor DX 740 and we could get arrested for disturbing the peace.

Vector · Post by **Vector** » Mon Mar 22, 2004 12:10 pm

justlnluck wrote:I have the 160GB SP1614N Samsung drive and it runs great. I can't hear any spin noise from it no matter how close I get. This is in strong constrast to my former hdd (WD 120GB SE). That thing whines so loud, no one even wants to take it from me for free!!

Access noise is a little audible, but quiet enough not to be bothersome.

Justin

Ditto. Only I have the 1614C, not the N.

Stephen7372 · Post by **Stephen7372** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 8:30 am

How fast is the samsung drive I can't find any reviews of it anywhere. I'm not sure of which benchmarking software was appropriate but there you go

Please let me know.

Is the N thing slower than the non N ?

Thornogson · Post by **Thornogson** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:43 am

I've just recently fitted a new Samsung 1213N (120GB) to accompany a Seagate 7200.7 80GB drive. I also find it noisier that expected:

I first fitted it in a plastic 3.5" to 5" adapter and into a 5" drive bay. I was pleased to hear no idle 'whining' noise, but I thought the seeks were a bit loud. Also the drive's temp. was 41C which seems a bit high...

So... I've now fitted it in the same standard 3.5" drive bay as the Seagate. Now, the seek noise is almost inaudible, the temp is down to 29C, but now it whines!

By blocking up the case's side ventilation holes, it's now more or less inaudible. I wasn't expecting to have to do this though, so am a bit surprised. The Seagate has no audible whining or seek noise, but I guess being only an one-platter, 80GB model helps!

Stephen, there's a review over at Storagereview.com:

http://www.storagereview.com/articles/2 ... 14N_1.html

As far as speed goes, I must admit I find this 8mb cache Samsung noticeably faster than my Seagate 7200.7 (with only 2mb)

DonP · Post by **DonP** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:04 pm

bigred wrote:Overall I like my new Samsung. The idle noise is much much lower than my old drive (WD 40GB), but sadly the seek noise seems to have become about twice as loud.

Just to add my opinion..
I installed a SP0802N (80GB PATA 2MB cache) yesterday and while idle noise is very low I have to admit I'm slightly disappointed in seeks..
Anyway.. it's hard mounted so suspension will probably help seeks a bit.. and I also noticed that the drive was shipped with AAM set to _off_. So if you want lower seek noises then check your AAM and fiddle it if necessary.
I can;t compare to other spinpoints as this is my first.

GOODFELLA · Post by **GOODFELLA** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:17 pm

Ill take that Western Digital hard drive for free.

jimbobUK · Post by **jimbobUK** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 4:31 pm

I have 4x160gig Samsung drives and my experience with them varies.. I brought a 3700 Antec case as raved about on here and put an aged p3 450mhz machine inside it with twin samsungs in raid mirror for a backup machine.. I was expecting silence and was gutted that the hdd cages were very noisy... on closer inspection 1 of my samsungs vibrates about 3x more than the others.. this causes major vibration in the case and basically makes it very noisy..

In other machines my samsungs are quiet... following 2 seperate drives failing and losing various amounts of data my next hdd will be an 8meg 200gig seagate drive.. i can take the performance hit if there is one and i'm hopefull it'll be reasonable for sound

dimva · Post by **dimva** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 8:59 pm

flyingsherpa wrote:ok, i've got 3 P80's in various systems and two of them, both 120GB, are very quiet. i have to get within inches of them to hear them. but the 160GB in my main system is clearly audible from over 10' away. the 160 was my first samsung and i've had it for much longer than the other two. at the time i bought it i still had some fan noise so i thought the drive was great. now i have basically no fan noise and the drive is the only thing i can hear.

so i'm not sure whether or not it was always this way or if it got louder over time. both the 120's remain very quiet. what's frustrating is the 160 is in the system i use most so it bothers me all the time. all my drives are decoupled so its idle noise that i'm hearing. its hard to describe the noise.. its sort of a cross between mildly whiny and white noise. anyone else have this issue with any samsung drives. i've run their Dx s/w and it all checks out.

i don't think there's much i can do about this, but if anyone has any ideas i am all ears. i'll probably end up swapping the 160 for one of the less used 120's, but i'll miss the space and the swap could be a bit of a pain.

I have a SP1614C and the exact same problem; the idle whine noise is unbelieveable. Does anyone have any experience with Newegg's RMA? Is this an acceptable reason to return a hard drive?

I'm probably going to have to do this even if there's a 15% restocking fee; it's impossible for me to remain sane with this noise.

dCrypt · Post by **dCrypt** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 3:34 am

I have recently purchased a 1213N. I noticed what DonP says related to AAM. Mine has AAM active in minimal noise mode by default, so different Samsung drives might have AAM enabled or disabled in production.

I tested drive performance with AAM enabled and AAM disabled, obtaining similar numbers but found significant noise improvements with AAM enabled and set to minimal noise. If you want, I'd post some HDTach screen captures to share with you.

Anyway, I found this HDD a bit louder than expected in seek mode, while idle mode is totally silent for me (even with my ear 1 cm away from the disk); no whine at all. I shall mention that I have the disk laid over a cardboard box, and the temperature is 37º almost all the time. The ambient temperature should be between 21-25º.

Vector · Post by **Vector** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 4:25 am

dimva wrote:I have a SP1614C and the exact same problem; the idle whine noise is unbelieveable. Does anyone have any experience with Newegg's RMA? Is this an acceptable reason to return a hard drive?

I'm probably going to have to do this even if there's a 15% restocking fee; it's impossible for me to remain sane with this noise.

I'd return it. There's obviously something wrong with it. I have the same drive also bought from newegg, and it's silent while idle. I have it mounted in the drive cage with rubber grommets, though. Seek noise is noticable, but hardly what I'd call loud. I can barely hear the seek noise from a couple feet away.

Newegg's RMA policy is excellent. I've had to return a couple of large items to them in the past (including a PSU), and they replaced them immediately.

Goober · Post by **Goober** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:06 am

I have 2 120gig P80's here and I noticed that they use different motors which maybe why there seems to be so much variation among them. One has a sticker with JVC on it stuck to the motor and that one vibrates a lot but has less idle noise. The other one has NIDEC stamped on it and has much less vibration but it has the idle whine/white noise some of you are talking about. I have to make a decision which one to keep today and it's really anoying having to decide between a whiney drive and one that makes my case rattle. I just wish manufacturers would pick their parts and stick with them instead of changing to whatever's cheapest this week.

dimva · Post by **dimva** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 8:05 pm

Vector wrote:I'd return it. There's obviously something wrong with it. I have the same drive also bought from newegg, and it's silent while idle. I have it mounted in the drive cage with rubber grommets, though. Seek noise is noticable, but hardly what I'd call loud. I can barely hear the seek noise from a couple feet away.

Newegg's RMA policy is excellent. I've had to return a couple of large items to them in the past (including a PSU), and they replaced them immediately.

Well, I got another drive so that I could copy my data over, and it turns out to be almost as whiny as my old one. They are both JVC, although one has a JVC stamp and the other one has a JVC sticker. Perhaps I have very sensitive hearing? Or are both of them broken?

Right now, with both of them in my case, it sounds like a bunch of crickets chirping outside my window, except quieter but at a much higher pitch.

Vector · Post by **Vector** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 4:35 am

james22 · Post by **james22** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 7:07 am

Yeah, my 160GB SATA (1614C) is driving me nuts too. Very loud (at least compared to what I was expecting) high-pitched whine at idle. On the bright side, there is almost no seek noise on top of this....

Doesn't seem to vibrate much, so I doubt suspension is going to help very much. I have it sitting on a piece of foam and it is still just as loud.

Probably needs to be put into one of those enclosures (Silent Drive, Smart Drive). Runs quite cool, which is good.

James

owain_thomas · Post by **owain_thomas** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 7:18 am

Has anyone used a silent drive with a noisy SATA samsung, mine is driving me nuts and is a lot worse than I expected from all the reviews.

Do silent drives work ok with SATA drives?

Owain

dimva · Post by **dimva** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 10:39 am

Vector wrote:JVC?

Yes, JVC. It's quite a large company. jvc.com is their website, but it's down at the moment.

What sticker do you have on the bottom of the harddrive, near the spindle?

Also, does anyone have any other drives to compare this with? My old drives (that are about 4 years old) also have a whine, although both together are about as loud as the second drive I received for the RMA. Reading some SPCR reviews, I am under the impression that all drives whine. Maybe I just have more sensitive hearing?

EDIT: UPDATE: The new drive is actually noticeably quieter. I can still hear it when I'm on the computer, but now I have to listen for it. The other one was noticeable even when I was trying to think about something else.

EDIT2: No wait, it's not that much quieter. Sometimes when it spins up it becomes quiet, and sometimes it remains loud. Strange. Looks like I will have to get a harddrive enclosure or line the outsides of the HD with foam.

I took out the hd and put a towel ontop of it, and it was silent. HD temps remained at below 35 degrees. So I'm guessing foam will help.

dimva · Post by **dimva** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 5:57 pm

Big update:

I put a lot of foam around the drive, and I can usually not hear it. By usually I mean that it is silent most of the time, but sometimes it becomes very loud and the computer needs to be rebooted...

EDIT: Oh yeah, even though the hard drive is completely covered in foam, HD temps are below 35. I guess a good thing about these samsungs is that they run cool.

Goober · Post by **Goober** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 11:49 pm

I tried suspending both my Samsungs and surprisingly the whine became better but not entirely gone. If I shut down my noisy cpu fan I can still hear them. If I had a computer that could support them I probably would have went with one of those 200gig Seagates. These Samsungs are too much trouble.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 7:11 am

Just for samsungs defense.

I have 3 samsungs spinpoint drives. 1 160gig PATA and 2 160 SATA.

other then it causing horrible vibration noise in my 3700BQE case. they r the quietest HDD i have every used.

I have had western dig, maxtor, and even 2 seagates.

In order i would put.

Samsung>seagate>>maxtor>>>>>>>>>>WD

When i got into quiet PC. i was very picky, In my head i was thinking, man i am spending extra money just to bring the noise down, it better be worth it. i have alrdy been through a bunch of fans and like 3 psus.

My moto is, if i can hear it from a meter away, then it rocks.

So the samsungs drives rock hardcore! Since i cant even hear them from a foot away.

~RaNDoM

jimbo7707 · Post by **jimbo7707** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:35 pm

My SP1614N PATA is virtually silent. Easily the quietest drive I have ever owned. My Sonata is 2 feet away from me on my desk I never hear the drive. I does seem to vibrate more than other drives but fortunately for me that does not translate into any audible noise.

Goober · Post by **Goober** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:39 pm

Without suspension all 5 of the Samsungs I've tried have been audible from across the room. Either from whine or case vibration. They maybe the quietest out there, I don't know, but they're nowhere near silent.

dimva · Post by **dimva** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 8:45 pm

Goober wrote:Without suspension all 5 of the Samsungs I've tried have been audible from across the room. Either from whine or case vibration. They maybe the quietest out there, I don't know, but they're nowhere near silent.

When did you get yours, and from what supplier? Also what is the stamp at the bottom of the spindle? JVC or something else?

If your samsung is "silent", when did you get yours and from what supplier? Also what is the stamp at the bottom of the spindle? JVC or something else?

If enough people participate, maybe there will be a pattern and we can figure out this mystery.

Goober · Post by **Goober** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 9:27 pm

I've got all mine from Newegg, I think they hate me now.

I didn't check all of them but I know that the 2 that vibrated the least had Nidec on the bottom. Unfortunately those had more whine or at least more annoying whine.

anyone else's Samsung too loud?

anyone else's Samsung too loud?

Re: anyone else's Samsung too loud?

That's strange

Re: That's strange

Re: That's strange

Re: anyone else's Samsung too loud?

Re: anyone else's Samsung too loud?

Re: anyone else's Samsung too loud?