Samsung SATA drives are NOT THAT QUIET

owain_thomas · Post by **owain_thomas** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 10:13 am

I've just been putting together a HTPC, I've got a silenX PSU (amazing), a Zalman 7000Cu (good) and two spinpoint SATAs (not at all impressed).

I wondered initially if it was because the drives were mounted on the floor of the Alu case, but even with taking them off there and having them rest on foam rubber they are still really annoying. The seek noise from the 80GB is audible from 15-20 feet in a quiet room. the 160GB seems quieter but is just a data disk, rather than a system one so I'm not yet sure. They both have a really annoying high pitched whine when on (definitely coming from the drive, not the PSU), again the 80GB seems worse than the 160GB. Its the sort of noise that when they spin down to just leave the PSU and the zalman you sort of go, "ahhhhhh" and enjoy the almost inaudible whisper thats now coming from the computer.

I don't know if I'm just being over sensitive but this is not at all what I was expecting from these drives. Does anyone know if the PATA versions are any better or if maybe housing them in a Silent Drive enclosure helps?

Very disappointed...

Owain

wdekler · Post by **wdekler** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 10:36 am

I just installed two 80GB sata Samsung 7200rpm drives in one of my parents computers but they lived up to my expectations.

The PSU in that computer isn't extremly low-noise but the seeks certainly can't be heard from over one meater. No drive suspension but the case isn't aluminium. My LIAN-LI 6070 case at home is also very "noisy" when it comes to drive vibration (including a low noise Seagate). I recommend that you try drive at least drive suspension. Or test the drives on a piece of foam to get some kind of preview what to expect of suspension.

Wanne.

owain_thomas · Post by **owain_thomas** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 10:39 am

cheers Wanne, but as I mentioned in the first post, I have taken the drives off the floor of the case and now have them on foam. its not really any better

wdekler · Post by **wdekler** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 10:54 am

Hi Thomas,

too bad that the noise is still to much for you!

I guess that you can only expect some help from a drive enclosure. If not mistaken, the Samsung drives run fairly cool so I think that it should be possible,

Also, it could be possible that you've been sold damaged HDDs. If an entire crate of drives was handled very roughly during shipping this could be a possibility. If you could only listen to another Samsung drive which has been sold by another shop you could be sure if that's the case or not.

Noise is very subjective (I know because I foolishly bought a whisper quiet Enermax once....). But if most people on Silentpcreview agree that the Samsungs are "low-noise"... it shouldn't be a bad drive for most people.

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 12:02 pm

I still heart my Seagates, though I have one Spinpoint and it is about as quiet as the SG (though I've read some stuff about reliability lately).

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:32 pm

owain_thomas wrote:I don't know if I'm just being over sensitive but this is not at all what I was expecting from these drives. Does anyone know if the PATA versions are any better or if maybe housing them in a Silent Drive enclosure helps?

I have a 120GB PATA Spinpoint, and although I certainly wouldn't call it loud by any stretch, it's not *quite* as silent as I'd been led to expect before I bought it. The seeking is definitely audible as you say, but for some reason it doesn't bother me that much, it's not a "noisy" noise if that makes any sense...That said, I haven't tried it with AAM set to "quiet" which would probably make a difference, and I don't (yet) have any fancy mounting systems in place.

I've never heard anything like the whine you've mentioned though...that would definitely drive me potty...

If you got the drives from the same source at the same time, maybe it's worth RMA'ing them and seeing if you have better luck next time. After all, Samsung make a big sales pitch regarding the quietness of their drives, and it seems like yours are definitely much noisier than you had a right to expect.

Regards, Nick

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:36 pm

I have a single 80Gb SATA and, bungee mounted, I have basically forgotten it is there. I suspect you have bad luck.

I realise there is a difference between your/my ears & environments, but my SATA is in a Biostar iDeq case (70mm psu fan, twin 60mm CPU h/s and case controlled on speedfan). When I slow the fans with Speedfan I can still hear them from about 2m, but still never hear the P80 even at 50cm. (i.e. my fans are quiet but certainly not equivalent to an 80mm L1A at 5V. And they are not that loud they would be drowning significant disk noise.)

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 7:38 pm

I got 3 samsung spinpoints now and i love them all.

They use to vibrate in my case but thanks to ralf and sorborthane strips i hear nothing at all.

I am totally happy with my systems.

~RaNDoM

Tigr · Post by **Tigr** » Wed Apr 07, 2004 8:51 pm

What you have done now - placing the drives on the foam - is basically equivalent to suspention. That will help to reduce the vibration but not the high freq whining noise. To remove that, you will have to build the HDD enclosures, I am afraid...

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 4:12 am

Compare them to some first gen Raptors, you'll probably thing those Samsungs are the quietest things ever.

juansolo · Post by **juansolo** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 5:43 am

I've got an earlier 2MB cache P80 ATA and a later 8MB cache P80 SATA. The later drive is a little quieter. But to be fair, there is little in it. 'Soft mounted' in the bottom of the case they are *very* quiet. I can't hear the SATA seeking at all at my desk.

dis · Post by **dis** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 12:51 am

I've just been experimenting with 2 160GB Spinpoints and so far i'm pretty impressed. They do have a whine, audible easily from a couple of feet away but there is no comparison at all with my 80Gb Maxtor Plus 9, the spinpoints are very quiet in comparrison and the whine is of a different pitch that makes it less obtrusive.

At the moment i've got them hard mounted in a standard case, i'm hoping that when i fix them into my quietened case they'll be near inaudible. Seek noise hasn't been a factor at all yet but i haven't been paying too much attention, i'm more interested in idle noise levels.

dimva · Post by **dimva** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 8:34 am

Sizzle wrote:Compare them to some first gen Raptors, you'll probably thing those Samsungs are the quietest things ever.

Well... since this is my first time making a quiet computer, I compared the samsungs to some IBM drives (all are 7200 RPM) in my old computer. The IBM drives are louder than all the fans in the case as well as the fans of two other computers combined, BUT there is no whine.

... Or maybe the drives are so loud that the noise they are making overlaps the whine?