Testing the DiamondMax 10 in a silent system

bsoft · Post by **bsoft** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:33 pm

Well, I've decided to take a chance on the Maxtor DiamondMax 10. I'm going to try to do some subjective listening and get some actual results.

My current system:

Antec 3700-BQE Case
Seasonic Super Tornado 300W v3
Zalman CNPS-7000ALCU (controlled by motherboard)
Seagate PATA 7200.7 80GB
Gigabyte Fanless GeForce 6800
Stock Antec case fan (controlled by motherboard)

Using Cool n Quiet (800MHz / 0.8V) and my motherboard's fan controller, the case fan and CPU do not run when the system is idle. The only remaining fan is the 120mm Yate Loon in the Seasonic. I will stop it momentarily. The goal is to make the rest of the system virtually silent - the Maxtor drive will be the only moving component in the system.

I will test the Maxtor drive with AAM both enabled and disabled.

I do not have the proper equipment to do measurements, so the results will be subjective. Unfortunately, the only drive I have as a reference is my PATA Seagate 7200.7.

I'm also going to compare vibration with the 7200.7 using the stock rubber mounting of the 3700BQE.

Hopefully we can get some more data points to form a better evalutaion of the DM 10.

The drive should be here on Friday. Here's to some results.

BOOGS · Post by **BOOGS** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:14 pm

I for one, will be very interested in the results.....

the pata 7200.7 is a very quiet drive already.......get yourself a Seagate Sata version, and you will freak out on the seek noise.........(!)

Ive actually mounted my max 10 rigidly in drive bay, such is the quietness

bsoft · Post by **bsoft** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:33 pm

BOOGS wrote:I for one, will be very interested in the results.....

the pata 7200.7 is a very quiet drive already.......get yourself a Seagate Sata version, and you will freak out on the seek noise.........(!)

Ive actually mounted my max 10 rigidly in drive bay, such is the quietness

"the pata 7200.7 is a very quiet drive already"

I'm not so sure about that. Idle noise is indeed very quiet, but seeks are clearly audible in my Antec case. The PATA 7200.7 may be quieter with a proper suspension system, though.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 10:56 pm

Seeks are clearly audible hard mounted in any case(or even with those tiny bits of rubber), with pretty much any hard drive, unless there are other obnoxious components drowning it out.

BOOGS · Post by **BOOGS** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:44 am

A lot might depend on the quality of the pc case

I have my Max 10, rigidly mounted in my case, and I cant hear it at all, with the case closed

and yes, my pc is quiet, not ultra quiet, there is a slight fan hum sound, but thats all.........

my case is a full tower Supermicro, and is a big and heavy beast, and doesnt get affected much by vibes, even the 52x cdrom reader fails to rattle it

palled · Post by **palled** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:21 am

I've just replaced my Samsung 160GB (NIDEC) with a Max10 300GB in my fanless Pentium M system. I had my doubts about it, but it's really very silent!

Seek noise with low AAM setting is almost as low as the Samsung with low AAM. The AAM setting really makes a difference. Idle whine is also comparable to the Samsung, maybe a tad higher. Vibrations are lower than the Samsung.

Recommended!

tay · Post by **tay** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:30 am

BOOGS wrote:A lot might depend on the quality of the pc case

I have my Max 10, rigidly mounted in my case, and I cant hear it at all, with the case closed

and yes, my pc is quiet, not ultra quiet, there is a slight fan hum sound, but thats all.........

my case is a full tower Supermicro, and is a big and heavy beast, and doesnt get affected much by vibes, even the 52x cdrom reader fails to rattle it

If you touch your cpu case do you feel vibrations? I dont think youre using the same reference for quiet as the rest of the folks around here.

vhx1 · Post by **vhx1** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:08 am

I have the DM10 mounted in my BQE with the rubber grommets. Very minimal vibration near the center of the side panel. I guess this is the limitations of the stock rubber grommets

bsoft · Post by **bsoft** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:46 pm

So far, so good:

- Idle noise is etremely good, certainly better than the PATA 7200.7
- With AAM off, seek noise is quieter but more annoying (sharper & higher frequency) than the muffled sounds on the 7200.7.
- Vibration seems to be low

I'm going to do some tests with AAM on tonight,

NicktheNorse · Post by **NicktheNorse** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:46 am

could you do some HD tach 3 tests with AAM off and with AAM on? Im probably going to get a 300gb Maxtor SATA next week but would like to know how big a performance hit AAM involves...

geogecko · Post by **geogecko** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 10:46 am

What do you use to change the AAM settings on the hard drive. I have a SP1614C (I think, it's the SATA version). Do you use a Samsung utility?

Mumrik · Post by **Mumrik** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:12 pm

Is this the SATA version you're testing?

BOOGS · Post by **BOOGS** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:38 pm

geogecko wrote:What do you use to change the AAM settings on the hard drive. I have a SP1614C (I think, it's the SATA version). Do you use a Samsung utility?

use the hitachi tool ( link is in this forum somewhere - do a search )

works very well

bsoft · Post by **bsoft** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 3:02 pm

I couldn't get the Hitachi tool to work, so I used a Knoppix CD with hdparam to set AAM.

Wow, what a difference. Seeks are very subdued with AAM on - quite a bit better than my PATA 7200.7. Performans still seems to be good.

The Maxtor does get a bit hot, though, so be sure you have good ventilation.

Mumrik · Post by **Mumrik** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 3:54 pm

So both idle and seeks are now in the 'very good' category? again, is this the sata version you're commenting on?

I'm increasingly tempted to buy the 300GB model as the 7200.8 seems to be dissappointing and costs more...

If only one of the crew could write a review...

BOOGS · Post by **BOOGS** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 1:29 am

if youre after a large and quiet drive, the max 10 is as good as youre gonna get at the moment.........

i dont think u would go wrong, in getting one..........

certainly, no one knows of a quieter drive, for the same capacity.....