Seagate or Samsung?

leila87 · Post by **leila87** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:17 pm

Hiya,

few months ago i bought a Seagate ST3320620AS (320 GB 7200.10).

But now im running out of space, and this driver, from time to time, is doing some strange sounds, like if the Â¿motor? was not working well, but still when not doing this, its extremelly quiet.

Thing is, now i am looking for a 500 GB driver, and have those in mind:

Samsung HD501LJ

Seagate 500GB 7200.10

I was decided to go with seagate, as i have used it in last 12 years, but with these last driver doing this noise, i am afraid of having same problem on 500 GB or even worse, maybe these have more noise at idle/seek?

I have read many posts about saying Samsung to be a really quiet one, but compared from coming of seagate, its more or less?

I'll greatlly appreciate your response, as i am about to decide so i can go this monday to buy it.

Thanks!

laguz1 · Post by **laguz1** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:23 pm

yes, the newer samsung HDs are quieter than Seagates...but its not like heaven/hell difference, just slightly more muffled seek/read noises

the HD i've seen heard many people praise is the Samsung T166 500gb ones

SlaveToSilence · Post by **SlaveToSilence** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:40 pm

Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

Thats the one you want

i have one sat beside me and its the quietest drive i've ever owned, i did ALOT of research before buying my new drive and everwhere agreed it is the quietest, and also fast!

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:59 pm

Samsung, no contest. To a silence enthusiast, Seagate is as good as dead.

leila87 · Post by **leila87** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 10:26 pm

Cool! thanks for all your fast responses!

I'll post back once i got it installed.

Michael Sandstrom · Post by **Michael Sandstrom** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:53 am

You will love the 500GB Samsung. I have four units and all of them are extremely quiet with no detectable variation. I don't even need to use AAM.

SlaveToSilence · Post by **SlaveToSilence** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:49 am

how do i turn the AAM OON?

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 4:24 am

Three options:
1) Do it as FAQ tell you to do:
- download FTOOL boot floppy creator (freeware) from Hitachi's website (don't worry it will work on non-Hitachis as well) (only a few megabytes at most)
- install an empty floppy into your floppy drive
- create the boot diskette
- reboot the system with floppy inside (and if it doesn't boot to floppy disk, enter BIOS setup and make the floppy drive bootable in higher priority than your hard drive).
- set the noise value for AAM to a level you consider quiet enough
- exit the program and remove the floppy from the drive
- reboot to your OS. You're done.

2) Make yourself an Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) (freeware). It includes FTOOL boot diskette image (amongst many other useful utilities) and an emulator for mounting floppy images.
- download UBCD CD image (a few hundred megabytes)
- burn a CD from that image with Nero or equivalent software
- reboot the system with CD inside (making sure BIOS has CD booting at higher priority than your harddrive)
- when booted to CD, find hard drive utilities and locate Hitachi FTOOL and run it
- do like you would do if you had booted from a FTOOL floppy. There's no difference in how it operates as it uses original floppy image supplied by Hitachi

3) If you run a Win XP/2000/related OS you can change AAM value without rebooting the computer and without using a floppy or CD. Just download HDDScan v2.8 (freeware) and change the setting. Due to some glitches in the program, after you have changed a value the slider may return to default position (i.e not remain in the position where you set it before clicking "Apply"/"Set"/"Enable" or what even that button reads). Usually this does not mean setting a new value failed. It is set to where the slider was positioned before clicking the button, it just doesn't tell you the current value. Try to make random seeks (with some other program like AIDA32 (freeware)) and you'd notice how big or small the difference is.

pool · Post by **pool** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:20 pm

I just bought myself a 400GB Samsung and maybe I got a bad one, but I was really disappointed in its noise characteristics. There's not much sound from it, but it really vibrates. When writing to it, it almost jumps around. I have never really felt the need for HD-suspension before with my Seagates and Hitachis, but now I can really see why people spend so much effort on that. I hope you get better luck than me with your purchase.

leila87 · Post by **leila87** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 9:23 pm

Hey, finally i had it installed, and it is a pleasure, compared to my old seagate, there is no vibration, seeks are almost inaudible and temps improved little (im on a p182, lower chamber a tricol set at lowest speed, before 37+ now 32 CÂº)

So if you want silence, this is the best, and think about putting it into an enclosure like smartdrive, then it would be totally silence.

Now, only i heard is the aire through case, so nice! hehe

Best regards.

seemingly.random · Post by **seemingly.random** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:56 am

A further step towards silence could be to remove the lower chamber fan, close off the air vents by the psu (and seal any other air leaks) causing the psu to draw from the front vent. I haven't tried this but others on this forum have. Your mileage will vary depending on the psu. The drive will probably be ok under 45c.

vortex222 · Post by **vortex222** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:46 pm

pool wrote:I just bought myself a 400GB Samsung and maybe I got a bad one, but I was really disappointed in its noise characteristics. There's not much sound from it, but it really vibrates. When writing to it, it almost jumps around. I have never really felt the need for HD-suspension before with my Seagates and Hitachis, but now I can really see why people spend so much effort on that. I hope you get better luck than me with your purchase.

All drives have vibration issues for me, My samsungs seem very good in most charictoristics. I have had 2-250 gig P Series drives, and both work very well.

I Tried two WD 500 gig AAKS drives this time around, and i have to say im pleased with them. I only got them in lou of not finding a samsung at the price i wanted. I put these WD's over the new Seagate's, However if you can get the new Samsung, GET IT. If you cant, then you wont be disappointed with the AAKS either.