Samsung MP0402H vs WD WD400VE experience

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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Tigr
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Samsung MP0402H vs WD WD400VE experience

Post by Tigr » Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:42 am

I recently have acquired a few notebook hard drives of the 2.5" family and here are my observations about their performance in "our" terms :)

Samsung MP0402H - here
Western Digital WD400VE - here

Both drives are 40 GB PATA. Both are 5400 rpm. To get the issue of speed right out of the dicussion, I did not notice any difference. That is, I do not feel any difference in speed whatsoever if a computer is installed with the Samsung or WD drive as the system disk. Moreover, I do not notice any difference in speed between using a 3.5" 7200 RPM disk and a 2.5" 5400 RPM disk except for the boot time. The system boots longer but when you work on your PC you do not use so much of the disk performance so, basically, the speed is not an issue at all. I am perfectly fine now using the disk as my system disk and I do not feel disadvantaged in the slightest.

Now, to the real stuff. Installing a WD or Samsung into a couple of laptops turned those into really nice computers. Those old Vaios had the old Toshiba drives that whined like hell. With either WD or Samsung the laptops become very, very quiet. The disks can still be heard if you put your ear against the laptop or you listen for it in the quietness of the night. Otherwise, they are as good as silent. Almost. Read on.

The big difference between the Samsung and the WD is that WD has an annoying clicking sound that it emits at irregular intervals. I read here that some 3.5" drives exhibit this strange behaviour due to some tests run in idle or something like that. This is the first time I come across this problem. The 2.5" WD drive make sthat sound. It clicks and whirrs and it is most irritating to hear that sound from otherwise an almost silent computer. For this reason, and this reason alone, I will take a Samsung MP0402H over WD400VE any time.

When the disk is placed in a "regular" case (that is, not a notebook), the improvement it brings is absolutely marvellous. First, you have to suspend it, there is no other way to mount it in an Antec case. Once you are done with all that and you start the computer up, it is absolutely quiet. It is definitely quieter than the Barracuda IV and V drives that are still my benchmark on this. They are practically inaudible. Except, again, for that whirring and clicking of the WD drive. The best thing is that you can wrap them into foam and they will become totally inaudible.

Why you can wrap them? Because they are also very, very cool. The Seagate I replaced in my main computer ran at 47-49 degrees with a low speed fan in front of it. The Samsung is now hanging right under the CD drive somewhere up in the case without any airflow and it ran at cool 37 degrees at the time of replacement. 10 degrees drop and removal of airflow. Right now my Seagates are running at 38 degrees (with fan) and the Samsung is 36 degrees (up where no air stirs).

To conclude, I love the 2.5" drives. They are not so expensive anymore if you do not need large capacities (40 GB is quite adequate for all the things I do really). They are cool, they are quiet, they are fast. Get them, laddies!

frostedflakes
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Post by frostedflakes » Fri Oct 21, 2005 8:58 pm

The Scorpio clicking is a fairly common problem. There's Dell firmware that resolves the issue, do a search on the forums and you should come up with some information on it.

After updating to the click-free firmware, my Scorpio 40GB is very quiet. It does seem to produce a lot of vibration, at least in comparison to a 4200RPM 2.5" Toshiba (not really a problem, though, since I suspend the drive). Unfortunately I don't have any other 5400RPM drives to compare it against. Did you happen to notice any difference in vibration between your Samsung and WD?

Tigr
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Post by Tigr » Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:29 am

frostedflakes wrote:The Scorpio clicking is a fairly common problem. There's Dell firmware that resolves the issue, do a search on the forums and you should come up with some information on it.
Well, I want to wait for a while and see if it goes away all by itself. If it does not stop I will try to update the firmware. Thanks for the hint.
frostedflakes wrote:Did you happen to notice any difference in vibration between your Samsung and WD?
I did not really check for the vibration. I may do so later on and I would post the results then.

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