Noise comparisons, Hitachi Travelstar 200GB 2.5" drive

Stormwind · Post by **Stormwind** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:03 am

Does anyone have any experiences comparing the Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 drives to other 2.5" notebook drives for noise?

I just bought a Dell XPS m1330 notebook computer with a Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 200GB 7200RPM drive (model HTS722020K9A300) and it doesn't seem that quiet to me. I only have my old desktop computer with an older quiet 3.5" drive to compare it to though.

The tech doc from Hitachi: http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/te ... K200DS.pdf
The review by StorageReview: http://www.storagereview.com/HTS722020K ... page=0%2C5

The idle and seek noises of the drive are noisier than I expected since reviews of the m1330 notebook commented on the quietness of the system:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3826

Thanks!

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:31 am

You're not comparing 2.5" drive noise. You're comparing one 2.5" drive mounted in one laptop against something else. It may be that the laptop accidentally (through careless design) provides a sounding board (thin sheet-metal HDD mounting) that the comparison device lacks.

A good comparison will reduce the number of variables as much as possible. Do you really think all that HDD noise is the fault of the HDD and not the HDD mounting in your new Dell laptop?