Seagate 7200.7 vs 7200.8

Slidax · Post by **Slidax** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:00 pm

Hi ive been reading this great forum for a while but something has been bugging me...
On Seagate's site they list 200GB SATA models as 7200.8 and 7200.7, apart from NCQ is there any difference in noise?

From the site
7200.7 - "Idle acoustics of 2.5 bels- the industry's best"
7200.8 - "Whisper-quiet acoustics"

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:01 am

Seagate had the barracuda IV (and later V) which were supposed to be very quiet drives. The 7200.7 is louder and the 7200.8 is even louder and not considered useable in a quiet computer, because of seek noises. This is what i know based on reading the forums here, i have never had a seagate drive in my life and by the looks of things i never will.

Slidax · Post by **Slidax** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:56 am

Hmm ok, quite annoying these new seagate drives. Does the idle noise change at all because i guess i can cope with the seek noise or use elastic suspension.

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:59 am

Doesn't suspension deal with idle noise and vibrations?
I would not recommend a seagate 7200.8, any particular reason for wanting one?

Slidax · Post by **Slidax** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:07 am

Really for performance without going as far as a raptor, i.e. a hope for performance with not much idle whine (seek noise isnt as important)

what i read from a post in this thread http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=8240
"and can virtually eliminate seek noise"
"Yes. These systems remove seek and idle noise, but usually make the largest impact on seek noise."

ah well, i'm not really set on this drive. just trying to throw in a few opinions from people who own them

|Romeo| · Post by **|Romeo|** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:42 am

madman2003 wrote:Seagate had the barracuda IV (and later V) which were supposed to be very quiet drives. The 7200.7 is louder and the 7200.8 is even louder and not considered useable in a quiet computer, because of seek noises. This is what i know based on reading the forums here, i have never had a seagate drive in my life and by the looks of things i never will.

Seek noise for the 7200.8 is not all that it seems -I have 6 along with 2 7200.7s -there seems to be considerable variation in the seek noise between the 8s -some of them are as quiet as the 7s, others are an awful lot louder. I haven't traced which is which; but there are at least 2 and possibly 3 different controller chip combinations on the drives which may or may not be related to the noise diferences.

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:58 am

I stand corrected, i thought it didn't have much of an effect on seek noise. (guess i got a few things mixed up

)

Pauli · Post by **Pauli** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:18 am

I have a 7200.8 400GB model and the seek noise is not particularly loud. The problem is that there is no AAM available, so they are typically louder than competing brands that do support AAM (when enabled). The only thing that I'm disappointed in is the Idle noise, which is a fairly loud "whoosh" sound.

Slidax · Post by **Slidax** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:04 pm

Well it looks like the store i'll be buying it from will take several days to get the 7200.8 model in so i'll try my luck at the 7200.7 one

inti · Post by **inti** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 2:48 am

I have four 7200.8s, two 7200.7s and two Maxtor Diamondmax 10s.

At idle, the 7200.7s are the quietest, followed by Maxtor, followed by the 7200.8s.

The Maxtor seek the quietest, the 7200.7s and 7200.8s are about the same.

Zorander · Post by **Zorander** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:40 am

As owner of both drives, I can testify that the seek/write noise of the 7200.7 is much louder than the 'cuda IV (which is truly dead quiet). The (seek/write) noise is very audible from my sitting position and can sometimes even be heard across the room.

If the 7200.8 is supposed to be even louder, I will certainly avoid using it in a quiet system.

Regards.

Slidax · Post by **Slidax** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:19 am

Ok i got the 7200.7 sata model and so far it seems quiet enough for me. I can hear some seek noise but that doesnt bother me (the old cuda it replaced was louder).

But i will know for sure how much noise it makes once i get round to replacing the screamer on my new A8N-SLI board. Yes it is that fan.

Slidax · Post by **Slidax** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 11:21 pm

Just an update for anyone interested. I needed to get another drive due an old one failing and tried a 200GB 7200.8

I dont think it is any louder than my 160GB 7200.7 one... although the noisy zalman 7700 does drown everything else out.

edit: zalman fan replaced, current drives are:
Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ 160 GB
Barracuda 7200.8 SATA NCQ 200 GB

perhaps the 7200.8 is slightly louder on idle but if so its not by much or i am just imagining it
these drives are now suspended and make a lot less noise. the computer is 3m away in a cupboard and i have to listen pretty hard to hear the seek noise.

HOWEVER i imagine mounting these in a cheapo case and sitting it close to you would make it quite noisy indeed.