Western Digital WD7500AAKS vs. Samsung HD501LJ

bryanb · Post by **bryanb** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:58 am

Has anyone had a chance to use both of these drives? I've seen reviews which generally show the Samsung as a little bit quieter than the WD, but I'm wondering about things like vibration, noise characteristics etc.

I have the WD now and the seeks are quite audible. I'm wondering if I'm better off getting the Samsung or figuring out how to make the WD quieter.

Thanks,
Bryan

bystander · Post by **bystander** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:32 pm

Bump for you. I want to hear more about WD vs Samsung too, since I need to get rid of my tiny Samsungs for big and better drives.

I'm already using HD501LJ and I'm satisfied with its noise, but I haven't heard any WD 5000 or 7500 AAKS. Samsungs pretty much extinct in my area so I might need to go WD after all.

cienislaw · Post by **cienislaw** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:09 pm

i have wd5000aaks and im very statisfied with it. problem is that in Poland is impossible to get it now, so possibly in near future i will get wd7500aaks. for now i have drive softmounted in solo and i cant hear it at day, but at night when disk is on heavy duty, there are nearly audible seeks.

Wibla · Post by **Wibla** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:08 pm

I have 10 500GB samsung's in use right now, happy with all of them

bryanb · Post by **bryanb** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:00 pm

I'm starting to think the HP chassis is amplifying the seek noise a lot. Normally I would build the PC, but I wanted CableCards for my media center which meant I had to buy a built system.

The way the system drive is mounted I don't know what I can do to prevent vibration though. I'm going to try the Zalman ZM-2HC2 which means moving the drive to the 5.25 bay. I'd like to be able to add a 2nd drive though, so I still need to figure out how to make the main bay quieter.

wwenze · Post by **wwenze** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 2:34 pm

I'm also interested to know which is quieter especially the seeking part. The dbA values in the reviews of Samsung vs WD don't tally with the reviewer's opinion - that the Samsung is louder than the WD even though the dbA is slightly lower.

When I heard the mp3 myself... somehow there is too much wind noise generated by the WD to make a good comparison, but it did seem softer.

Plus... variance of WD is a problem.

Now that brings to me another concern... about that idle noise of the WD. Surely it wouldn't be that loud as in the mp3? I actually tried calibrating the loudness using the P120 mp3 and the P120 that's inside my system, using the seeks that are goddamn loud.