Samsung disappointment -what drive next?

silence_seeker · Post by **silence_seeker** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:27 am

About 6 months ago I ended up buying a Samsung HD400LD which seemed to be the best option available for me, wanting a silent and high performance drive. But I was disappointed

The drive on its own isn't that noisy (but I certainly wouldn't call it "silent"!), but the vibration which it generates causes a loud "hum" through the external metal enclosure, which is unbearable in the long run.

Now I need another hard drive (also for use with an external enclosure), but I surely don't want to make the same mistake!!!

So what kind of drive would you recommend if I want a really silent 3.5" IDE drive? It shouldn't be any smaller than 400 GB as I've experienced how quickly these drives fill up (I'm going to use it for video-editing).

Worker control · Post by **Worker control** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:44 am

Enclosures are hard to silence. Many of the quietest drives vibrate quite a bit.

Perhaps you could reconsider your need to use an enclosure? Soft mounting in a case is pretty easy, and much quieter.

EsaT · Post by **EsaT** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:59 am

WD5000AAKS would be excellent candidate.
If you check HD reviews you'll see that four platter WD5000KS has lower vibration than that three platter Samsung and now AAKS has three platters.
(less platters > less rotating mass > less vibration if balancing is equal)

silence_seeker · Post by **silence_seeker** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:04 am

Worker control wrote:Perhaps you could reconsider your need to use an enclosure? Soft mounting in a case is pretty easy, and much quieter.

I'm using a laptop, so that's not an option.
However, if I can find some sort of mounting screws with non-vibration conducting rubber in between I could lessen the vibration. So far I haven't found anything like that.

But for this new drive I want to find something more silent if possible.

silence_seeker · Post by **silence_seeker** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:38 am

EsaT wrote:WD5000AAKS would be excellent candidate.

That's a SATA drive, and my external enclosure can only take IDE drives.

However, I've been wondering about the Western Digital WDG1C5000 500GB "my book" external drive. I already have a much nicer enclosure (in my opionion), and since I can't find anyone selling the bare 500 GB drives here I thought this might be an option (remove the drive mechanism from the "book" enclosure and mount it in my existing enclosure. That of course depends on what kind of drive mechanism is used inside that "my book" enclosure -WD advertise that it's a very silent running drive, but I can't figure out which mechanism they're using.

Mirar · Post by **Mirar** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 10:45 pm

I never managed to get an enclosure silent. It's too light and the vibration goes right through...

However, you can get rid of almost all the noise by placing the enclosure on something soft, like a piece of plastic foam or a pillow.

There are 2.5" enclosures, they might be more silent, but 2.5" can't store very much...

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:29 am

Hello,

Some drives vibrate noticably, and others do not -- you got a bum Samsung, because some are very smooth and very quiet. Suspending a vibrating drive helps a lot to silence it.

PrivatePixel · Post by **PrivatePixel** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:11 am

silence_seeker wrote: However, I've been wondering about the Western Digital WDG1C5000 500GB "my book" external drive. I already have a much nicer enclosure (in my opionion), and since I can't find anyone selling the bare 500 GB drives here I thought this might be an option (remove the drive mechanism from the "book" enclosure and mount it in my existing enclosure. That of course depends on what kind of drive mechanism is used inside that "my book" enclosure -WD advertise that it's a very silent running drive, but I can't figure out which mechanism they're using.

I have a couple of 250GB My Book Essential Edition USB drives and both are reasonably quiet (I won't classify either as silent, but they are both substantially less noisier than the WD 80GB IDE drive in my current PC). I don't know what brand or model your enclosure is, but there's no assurance that if you swapped the HDD between enclosures that the one you currently own will be better at noise suppression. Of course, you can order 500GB IDE drives online, but I've found them to be comparable in price to external USB models, if not more expensive in some cases.

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:29 am

Maybe you can just buy a long cable and place the disk far- far away where you don't hear it

.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:13 am

I don't know if my limited sample is representative, but every 3.5" Samsung drive I've ever encountered has had a LOT of vibration. I thought that was typical. In my experience, Samsungs are quiet, but only if they're softmounted. I personally associate that distinctive weird Samsung hard drive shape with vibrations.

One of my oldest hard drives is a 4.3gig Samsung with that distinctive weird hard drive shape. It isn't quiet, like more modern Samsungs, but it sure vibrates the same.

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:32 pm

Antec MX-1: Actively Cooled External HDD Enclosure might be of interest.

I'm going solid state soon, but they aren't anywhere near 400GB atm.

Samsung disappointment -what drive next?

Samsung disappointment -what drive next?

Enclosures are hard to silence

Re: Enclosures are hard to silence