Nidec P80 the quietest?

@TOMMY@ · Post by **@TOMMY@** » Wed May 04, 2005 10:02 pm

I'm looking for a HD that has the least noise. Would Samsung P80 series w/ Nidec motor be the best bet? Is the up coming P120 series quieter than P80's?
Thanks for any help =)

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Thu May 05, 2005 4:27 am

I think a Western Digital 80GB Caviar made this year would be your best bet unless you're willing to get a hard drive in a 2.5" form factor. Then the 40GB Western Digital Scorpio would be your best bet.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu May 05, 2005 5:33 am

Shining Arcanine wrote:I think a Western Digital 80GB Caviar made this year would be your best bet unless you're willing to get a hard drive in a 2.5" form factor. Then the 40GB Western Digital Scorpio would be your best bet.

What do you base these recommendations on?

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:45 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:
Shining Arcanine wrote:I think a Western Digital 80GB Caviar made this year would be your best bet unless you're willing to get a hard drive in a 2.5" form factor. Then the 40GB Western Digital Scorpio would be your best bet.
What do you base these recommendations on?

All of the good things I've read about them in comparison to other drives (e.g. Samsung drives) on this forum. Not to mention the fact that my 320GB Western Digital Caviar and a 40GB Western Digital Scorpio are quietest drives I've ever heard in their form factors.

Why do you ask?

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:55 am

A new review of hard drives is in progress by SPCR and coming soon (I hope), and will include some of the new drives.

I am one of the people who is very satisfied with new WD drives. With my mounting technique, it is silent for idle and seeks (no AAM). But the mounting does have an impact.

However, I have never done an A-B comparison test of the new WD drives with Samsung Nidec (or any other drives) to know exactly which one emits the lowest noise. Vibration is also important to me, since it can also cause noise problems and I have a suspicion it is at least somewhat related to reliability.

DonP · Post by **DonP** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:22 pm

Ok, I'm hesitating to make lots of noise about this comparison because I think it's the first such comparison on SPCR.. and it's only a single sample, with disclaimers.

I recently bought a black top WDC WD2000JB - it's manufactured March 2005. I also have about four Spinpoint SP0812N - all Nidecs.. and from causal inspection...
wait for it..

I'm mixed in my opinion

Seeks - Spinpoints are quieter, definately - but it's not a huge margin.
Idle - spinpoints win, but not by much.
Vibration - WDC wins for sure.
Heat - WDC is cooler.

In general usage.. mounted in my SLK3000B I'd prefer the WDCs because the SPs vibrate so much. WDC is a fast drive too... and taken together with the low noise and low temps, I'd choose WDC again.. especially for the server that the WDC is in now.

But I should add something - the WDC is brand spanking new - got it only a few days ago.. BUT it was packaged very badly - took one hell of a beating... what's worse there are some benchmarks (on the UltimateBootCD) that make the whole drive resonate and make a hell of a lot of noise. I don;t know why it happens - the drive could be damaged. In normal everyday linux usage this ruckus doesn;t happen.

Second thing to add - my spinpoints are pretty old.

Ok, no flames please - and please take my obesrvations with a pinch of salt.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:36 pm

DonP wrote:But I should add something - the WDC is brand spanking new - got it only a few days ago.. BUT it was packaged very badly - took one hell of a beating.

Was this a retail packaging? If not, where did you get the drive?

@TOMMY@ · Post by **@TOMMY@** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:19 pm

Thanks for the input guys.

Now I'm torn b/t WD1600JB and Samsung 1614N

skj · Post by **skj** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:12 pm

I'm really happy with the WD1600-JB (the 160GB EIDE). I pieced together much of my system based on recommendations from this site, but I bought my WD hard drive w/o research because it was $30 after rebates at BestBuy. I suspended it with Stretch Magic and whaddyaknow I can't hear the thing. I understand manufacturers' specs are flawed, but WD lists the WD1600-JB as its quietest drive.

That said, I'd also be happy to own a Samsung Nidec.

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Fri May 06, 2005 8:34 am

@TOMMY@ wrote:Thanks for the input guys.

Now I'm torn b/t WD1600JB and Samsung 1614N

The WD2000JB is supposed to be a three platter drive even through Western Digital now has 106.7GB platters and could use two platters instead of three. The SP0812N is a 1 platter drive. Given that the SP0812N's single platter design generates just a bit more noise than the WD2000JB's three platter design when idle. The two platter design of the WD1600JB should generate less idle noise than the single platter design of the SP0812N and much less idle noise than the SP1614N.

Since the WD1600JB should have 4 heads compared to the WD2000JB's 6, seek noises should also be quieter. I doubt they'll be quiet enough but in that case there is always soft mounting and AAM.

@TOMMY@ · Post by **@TOMMY@** » Sat May 07, 2005 10:24 pm

Shining Arcanine wrote:
@TOMMY@ wrote:Thanks for the input guys.

Now I'm torn b/t WD1600JB and Samsung 1614N
The WD2000JB is supposed to be a three platter drive even through Western Digital now has 106.7GB platters and could use two platters instead of three. The SP0812N is a 1 platter drive. Given that the SP0812N's single platter design generates just a bit more noise than the WD2000JB's three platter design when idle. The two platter design of the WD1600JB should generate less idle noise than the single platter design of the SP0812N and much less idle noise than the SP1614N.

Since the WD1600JB should have 4 heads compared to the WD2000JB's 6, seek noises should also be quieter. I doubt they'll be quiet enough but in that case there is always soft mounting and AAM.

Wow! good comparison. I guess WD1600JB is the way to go then. Thanks!

david · Post by **david** » Sun May 08, 2005 7:57 am

Did you turn on the aam on the wd? The drive supports it but WD doesn't provide a tool to enable it. My drive was shipped with it off as I think that is the default they ship with. I used the Hitachi one to enable it on my WD drive. I would be interested in your comparsion with the aam enabled.

David

DonP wrote:Ok, I'm hesitating to make lots of noise about this comparison because I think it's the first such comparison on SPCR.. and it's only a single sample, with disclaimers.

I recently bought a black top WDC WD2000JB - it's manufactured March 2005. I also have about four Spinpoint SP0812N - all Nidecs.. and from causal inspection...
wait for it..

I'm mixed in my opinion

Seeks - Spinpoints are quieter, definately - but it's not a huge margin.
Idle - spinpoints win, but not by much.
Vibration - WDC wins for sure.
Heat - WDC is cooler.

In general usage.. mounted in my SLK3000B I'd prefer the WDCs because the SPs vibrate so much. WDC is a fast drive too... and taken together with the low noise and low temps, I'd choose WDC again.. especially for the server that the WDC is in now.

But I should add something - the WDC is brand spanking new - got it only a few days ago.. BUT it was packaged very badly - took one hell of a beating... what's worse there are some benchmarks (on the UltimateBootCD) that make the whole drive resonate and make a hell of a lot of noise. I don;t know why it happens - the drive could be damaged. In normal everyday linux usage this ruckus doesn;t happen.

Second thing to add - my spinpoints are pretty old.

Ok, no flames please - and please take my obesrvations with a pinch of salt.

Ephemeron · Post by **Ephemeron** » Sun May 08, 2005 9:21 am

WDs are in the running for top silent 7200 rpm drive?

What kind of bizarro world have I entered? Have I really been out of the loop so long? Is there a crack epidemic hitting the streets?

Green Shoes · Post by **Green Shoes** » Sun May 08, 2005 10:05 am

Ephemeron wrote:WDs are in the running for top silent 7200 rpm drive?

What kind of bizarro world have I entered? Have I really been out of the loop so long? Is there a crack epidemic hitting the streets?

They just really figured out the whole FDB thing...

...but if you're looking for some perspective, it's not like IBM is making new HDDs that don't crash after a week or anything

(stupid deathstars...)

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sun May 08, 2005 11:08 am

Ephemeron wrote:WDs are in the running for top silent 7200 rpm drive?

What kind of bizarro world have I entered?

And delta is making quiet fans, thermaltake is making effective and innovative heatsinks, and antec smartpower PSU's seem to be quiter than truepower units and might actually be decently quiet.

DonP · Post by **DonP** » Sun May 08, 2005 4:20 pm

m0002a wrote:
DonP wrote:But I should add something - the WDC is brand spanking new - got it only a few days ago.. BUT it was packaged very badly - took one hell of a beating.
Was this a retail packaging? If not, where did you get the drive?

It was an OEM drive - wrapped in bubble wrap and in a brown box with some other bits. I can;t remember where I got it from

it was at a time when I was getting lots and lots of bits for a few builds. It was either dabs.com, microdirect.co.uk, komplett.co.uk, overclockers.co.uk, novatech.co.uk, kustompcs.co.uk(prolly not) or someone else who's slipped my mind. To be fair though, maybe the packaging wasn;t that bad - just the courier wasn't the best.

It's been working hard recently and I reckon it's fine.

david wrote:Did you turn on the aam on the wd? The drive supports it but WD doesn't provide a tool to enable it. My drive was shipped with it off as I think that is the default they ship with. I used the Hitachi one to enable it on my WD drive. I would be interested in your comparsion with the aam enabled.
David

It was at factory setting - which I believe is AAM off. I guess I could try swicthing it on but right now it's already deployed and working as a server... maybe in the future.

Nidec P80 the quietest?

Nidec P80 the quietest?

Re: Nidec P80 the quietest?

Re: Nidec P80 the quietest?

Re: Nidec P80 the quietest?