Bad time to buy a new HD ?

Svartberg · Post by **Svartberg** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:05 am

I was reading quite a few posts here and the impression i have is that HD's today are noisy, unreliable, and have high vibrations.
However i still have a need for a 250gig drive, and am looking for something in the noise levels of my old Seagate Barracuda (ST3120026A) 120gb 7200rpm. (i hear today's seagates are quite noisy)

Those are the HD's i found in my country so far, please recommend me one of those in relation to my seagate :
Western Digital 250GB SATA II 16MB 7200RPM WD2500KS
Western Digital 250GB SATA II 8MB WD2500JS
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 SATA II 8MB ST3250824AS
Samsung Sata2 250GB 7200RPM SP2504C

Thanks for reading

haelduksf · Post by **haelduksf** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:03 am

It ain't 250GB, but Seagate's new laptop drives are up to 200GB, if you can live with that.

Svartberg · Post by **Svartberg** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:30 pm

haelduksf wrote:It ain't 250GB, but Seagate's new laptop drives are up to 200GB, if you can live with that.

Well, since i don't own a laptop nor did i mention it - i assume you meant mounting the laptop HD on my Desktop.
I haven't heard of that yet, what advantages/disadvantages would that give me ?

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:02 am

Laptop drives run at 5400 RPM, so they're substantially quieter than standard desktop drives. They also use less power, generate less heat, and are physically much smaller, so they're much easier to suspend, enclose, etc.

The trade-off is that capacity is limited, cost is higher (2-3x as much per GB), and performance is slightly lower.

QuietOC · Post by **QuietOC** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:06 am

Svartberg wrote:I was reading quite a few posts here and the impression i have is that HD's today are noisy, unreliable, and have high vibrations.
However i still have a need for a 250gig drive, and am looking for something in the noise levels of my old Seagate Barracuda (ST3120026A) 120gb 7200rpm. (i hear today's seagates are quite noisy)

Those are the HD's i found in my country so far, please recommend me one of those in relation to my seagate :
Western Digital 250GB SATA II 16MB 7200RPM WD2500KS
Western Digital 250GB SATA II 8MB WD2500JS
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 SATA II 8MB ST3250824AS
Samsung Sata2 250GB 7200RPM SP2504C

How about searching?

I'd say the majority of hard drives are getting quieter due to the industry-wide adoption of FDB.

My WD2500KS is quieter than my SP2504C, but drive noise may be just luck of the draw. Both drives are quiet, but seeks are also quite noticeable with both. I'd say they are both a good choice.

My last Seagate was a 250GB 7200.8 which was very noisy.

nici · Post by **nici** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 4:27 am

Perceived noise depends on your ambient noise, i for example can hear one suspended quiet 3,5" drive in a normal case under the desk, with the hdd being the only thing making noise in the first place. Now at my cousins i canÂ´t hear heÂ´s computer at all, though he has about seven quiet fans and three HDDs.. So obviously heÂ´s ambient noise is much higher. And no, my drives arenÂ´t abnormally loud either.

Svartberg · Post by **Svartberg** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:14 pm

nici wrote:Perceived noise depends on your ambient noise, i for example can hear one suspended quiet 3,5" drive in a normal case under the desk, with the hdd being the only thing making noise in the first place. Now at my cousins i canÂ´t hear heÂ´s computer at all, though he has about seven quiet fans and three HDDs.. So obviously heÂ´s ambient noise is much higher. And no, my drives arenÂ´t abnormally loud either.

Well, like i said on the first post, i don't look for a "quiet" one, just for one which is of comparable noise to my seagate 7200.7 - if i buy one of those drives i don't want to find out their seek noise are much noisier than my 7200.7, rendering this purchase useless.

Csoszi · Post by **Csoszi** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:22 am

Go for the WD2500KS.

I bought a WD3200KS (320 GB) last week, and was surprised how quiet it was. Idle noise is significantly less than that of my Samsung SP2504C. If AAM is enabled and set to minimum (I used the Hitachi Feature Tool for setting), the seek noise is also very low. So I will say goodbye to my Samsungs and migrate my stuff to WD's.

As for the Seagate: I used to have a 200 GB Sata disk (maybe a 7200.7, no Acoustic Management): that was just horrible, used it for half an hour, than sold it.

Svartberg · Post by **Svartberg** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:08 am

Aye, this thread helped clear some things that confused my when i read other posts about today's HD's, the WD2500KS seems like the best bet and has a solid price tag - so thanks Spcers again for listening and helping

Oscar · Post by **Oscar** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 6:38 pm

...... Sample variance? Tweaked firmware?? Different components???

http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200601/250_7.html

TomMe · Post by **TomMe** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:50 am

Well, I'm lost too. I have all the parts for my new computer, except the HDD.. I guess I'll just have to make a choice and cross my fingers.

ultrachrome · Post by **ultrachrome** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:20 am

For what it's worth I have a SP2504C and I can't hear it. Seeks are also very subtle. The drive is elastically mounted.

For comparison purposes, the only noise from my machine (before adding a 7900GT last week) is a Nexus 12cm rear case fan running at 12v/1000rpm.

afrost · Post by **afrost** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:10 pm

go with the WD SE16.....even if there is some sample variance it is obviously capable of being very quiet. i don't trust other review sites assesment of accoustics. they often make stupid conclusions about numbers that are obviously within the error of their test equipment/setup.

Svartberg · Post by **Svartberg** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:11 pm

I've finally bought the WD2500KS, and it seems like a very good buy.
I run them both in the upper HDD box of my p180, and I don't find it any noisier than my beloved barracuda 120gb, and the performance boost over the barracuda is quite nice.

The only alternative i considered was the Samsung sp2504c, which is supposedly more quiter but less of a performer - it's also priced 50% more here which made my WD2500KS purchase seem the right move.

TomMe · Post by **TomMe** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 8:03 am

I was considering to buy a Samsung, but with all the complaints about them this WD2500KS seems like a good bet.

Bad time to buy a new HD ?

Bad time to buy a new HD ?

Re: Bad time to buy a new HD ?