Noise difference between WD3200JD and SP2504C? + Edit

Mav · Post by **Mav** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 1:01 pm

Hello everyone

I'm buying a new HD to use with my Arctic Cooling t1 case, in that little box that comes with the case. Idle noise is most important to me but that dosent mean that I dont care at all for the noise when the drive is being used.

I'm considering Spinpoint 250 GB and WD 320 GB I know that the Spinpoint dosen't make much noise, but can the WD compete with it? How big is the difference in noise level? The price difference is minimal so the extra 70 gb would be greatly appreciated but not if it means a lot of extra noise.

Also, I read that the WD dosen't have support for SataII like the Spinpoint. But is this difference noticable? I have heard something about drives today being too slow anyway so SataII will only be worth it in the future with faster drives available. Is this true?

And by SataII I off course mean Sata300mb/s.

I appreciate any help, as you might have figured out I'm new to SPCR.

Edit: Just got my eyes up for a third contestant, Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB. The price difference is minimal and its got 16 mb cache aswell! It haven't got SataII support so the question still stands if it really matters.

So i would really appreciate any help in the matter of lowest idle noise and not too annyoing noises during load (or seek if you wanna call it that).

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:39 am

I'm considering Spinpoint 250 GB and WD 320 GB ...Just got my eyes up for a third contestant, Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300 GB

SP2504C noise stats:

Samsung Website

2.5 Bel (idle), 2.8 Bel (seek)

===============================================

WD3200JD:

WD Website

28dBA (idle), 33dBA (seek), 29dBA (quiet seek)

===============================================

Maxtor DM10 SATA:

Maxtor Website

According to this spec sheet the DM10 SATA does have SATA II support.

I'm assuming the 300GB model has 3 disks:

2.9 Bels (idle), 3.8 Bels (seek), 3.0 Bels (quiet seek)

Clearly the Spinpoint is the quietest in idle.

If you want all-out performance go for the Maxtor, if you want quiet go for the Samsung. You're right, the WD doesn't have SATA II support, but I think you would have to be doing VERY data-intensive tasks to come up against the transfer speed limits.

Mav · Post by **Mav** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 7:49 am

But can we really trust what the manufactors say about the noise their drives make? 25 dB (Spinpoint) vs. 29 dB (Maxtor), how big is this difference with the HD box that comes with Arctic Cooling Silentium case? Or has anybod experianced less/more noise with these drives? Especially the Maxtor DM10 300GB.

[STG]Bean · Post by **[STG]Bean** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:41 pm

Mav wrote:But can we really trust what the manufactors say about the noise their drives make? 25 dB (Spinpoint) vs. 29 dB (Maxtor), how big is this difference with the HD box that comes with Arctic Cooling Silentium case? Or has anybod experianced less/more noise with these drives? Especially the Maxtor DM10 300GB.

I don't have the audio equipment or setup like SPCR, I can tell you that I have a Spinpoint and that it is subjectively much quieter than any of the multiple WD and Maxtor drives that I have. To complicate things further, I would also highly recommend the relatively new Seagate Barracuda 7200.9, I just got one a few days ago and the damn thing is silent. I have the IDE version, I'm so impressed that as soon as I can outfit a new SATA system I'm getting a few of the SATA versions.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 11:19 pm

Mav wrote:But can we really trust what the manufactors say about the noise their drives make? 25 dB (Spinpoint) vs. 29 dB (Maxtor), how big is this difference with the HD box that comes with Arctic Cooling Silentium case? Or has anybod experianced less/more noise with these drives? Especially the Maxtor DM10 300GB.

dB = Sound Pressure Level

Bels = Sound Power Level

Similar sounding units, but completely different meanings. dB varies by distance, Bels do not.

spiffy102 · Post by **spiffy102** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 4:32 am

[STG]Bean wrote:
I don't have the audio equipment or setup like SPCR, I can tell you that I have a Spinpoint and that it is subjectively much quieter than any of the multiple WD and Maxtor drives that I have. To complicate things further, I would also highly recommend the relatively new Seagate Barracuda 7200.9, I just got one a few days ago and the damn thing is silent. I have the IDE version, I'm so impressed that as soon as I can outfit a new SATA system I'm getting a few of the SATA versions.

What size 7200.9 do you have?

I'm thinking of using three or four 500GB's in RAID. (SATA II)

SZ · Post by SZ » Fri Nov 11, 2005 6:05 am

I've got 250GB Samsung + 80GB 7220.7 + 160GB samsung in my Antec P180 and WD 320GB external drive. Subjectively WD is much louder than the whole computer - I cannot hear anything from inside Antec when WD is turned on, but the case is under the table, the drive is on the table.

Anyway I would say that WD is much much louder than Samsung, I've heard bare Samsung 250GB on the table.

Mav · Post by **Mav** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 4:29 pm

jaganath: I believe that the Maxtor DM10 has Sata II in the sense that it supports NCQ, but it hasent got Sata 300 mb/s.

I am now standing between the Maxtor DM10 300 GB and the Samsung 250 GB.
50 extra GB + 16 mb cache vs. Sata 300 mb/s + a little less noise.

If it is true that the difference in noise is small then the noise issue should not matter to me because as i said I'll be putting the drive in a special box that comes with Arctic Cooling for better cooling and less sound. Right?

Thanks for all the help so far.

Mav · Post by **Mav** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:15 am

Anybody?

Chaendler · Post by **Chaendler** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:25 pm

I have had all three disk and I can say that Maxtor is the quieter when it comes to idle noise.
Western was the loudest by far.

Samsung was pretty good in idle too, but it died after two weeks :S

[STG]Bean · Post by **[STG]Bean** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:32 pm

spiffy102 wrote:
[STG]Bean wrote:
I don't have the audio equipment or setup like SPCR, I can tell you that I have a Spinpoint and that it is subjectively much quieter than any of the multiple WD and Maxtor drives that I have. To complicate things further, I would also highly recommend the relatively new Seagate Barracuda 7200.9, I just got one a few days ago and the damn thing is silent. I have the IDE version, I'm so impressed that as soon as I can outfit a new SATA system I'm getting a few of the SATA versions.
What size 7200.9 do you have?

I'm thinking of using three or four 500GB's in RAID. (SATA II)

Sorry for the late reply, mine is only a 160GB.