Can a Western Digital Raptor 150GB be made quiet?

[lm]

Hi

I need a performant drive for working at home.

Does a 150GB raptor have any hope in a spcr-grade system?

With modding and/or some of those hdd box that you can buy?

Anyone satisfied with theirs, in a spcr-grade system?

[sanse]

Hi

I need a performant drive for working at home.

Does a 150GB raptor have any hope in a spcr-grade system?

With modding and/or some of those hdd box that you can buy?

Anyone satisfied with theirs, in a spcr-grade system?

i'm using a wd raptor 74gb in my solo rig and not even suspended.

it's quiet; don't worry.

[Shaman]

i'm using a wd raptor 74gb in my solo rig and not even suspended.

it's quiet; don't worry.

No offense, but how do you know your system is up to SPCR standards? I see too many fans in your sig.

BTW, where did you put that '140mm mobo-fan'?

[Richdog]

Hi

I need a performant drive for working at home.

Does a 150GB raptor have any hope in a spcr-grade system?

With modding and/or some of those hdd box that you can buy?

Anyone satisfied with theirs, in a spcr-grade system?

i'm using a wd raptor 74gb in my solo rig and not even suspended.

it's quiet; don't worry.

I have a 74GB Raptor and it is FAR from quiet... not by a long chalk. Very loud and intrusive seeks.

[nutball]

I had a Raptor 150 for a while, it wasn't at all quiet. It was suspended, but seeks were still a problem. I honestly doubt you could eliminate the seeks -- your best option would be to mask the sound by installing half-a-dozen fans in your system to drown it out

More importantly though the performance wasn't really that different from the 7200rpm drive which has since replaced it. Raptors = over-priced, over-rated, and loud. Waste of time and money. Don't bother.

[lm]

Hmm, I think I won't probably care so much about seek, it's the idle noise that matters most.

Very mixed opinions, I see. Maybe the ones who think it's quiet are happy with idle noise, and those who are not happy are because of the seeks? Could you perhaps mention your opinion on both idle and seek separately?

I'm going to have a large storage drive which only needs to be large, and a fast system/apps/work drive that only needs to be fast, but both would need to be quiet.

Raptor seems to be less than 200EUR nowadays, so it's not so huge investment compared to a regular drive, than it used to be.

[Shaman]

Raptor seems to be less than 200EUR nowadays, so it's not so huge investment compared to a regular drive, than it used to be.

It's still a big investment if you compare it with the less than 50EUR 160GB 7200rpm drives.

BTW, SPCR reviewed the 150GB Raptor. Read AND hear it HERE

[Sizzle]

I had a 74 gig Raptor and even in a Smart Drive you could still hear the seeks. Not a quiet drive.

[sanse]

No offense, but how do you know your system is up to SPCR standards? I see too many fans in your sig.

BTW, where did you put that '140mm mobo-fan'?

any slow running fan is better than convection. a system with 6 fans can still be very quiet.

you know the difference between quiet and silent?

that 140mm mobo-fan is attached to a zalman fb123 bracket and blowing towards the motherboard.

and of course i was talking about the continuous idle noise of the raptor. not the incidental seeks, which are not intrusive imho.

[sanse]

I had a Raptor 150 for a while, it wasn't at all quiet. It was suspended, but seeks were still a problem. I honestly doubt you could eliminate the seeks -- your best option would be to mask the sound by installing half-a-dozen fans in your system to drown it out

nutball, please read the story of mike chin about the pc he assembled for his friend in thailand. it will teach you about multiple fan systems.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article293-page1.html

[Shaman]

you know the difference between quiet and silent?

I thought an 'spcr-grade system' was supposed to be silent.

But yeah, it would have helped if you mentioned you were referring to the idle noise only.

[SebRad]

Hi, SPCR reviews talk about 30dB as the approximate cut off above which you wouldn't call it quiet. But dB don't tell the whole story, the sound quality is also important due to the way humans hear sound. To me HDD seek noise isn't to bothersome, it tells me when the PC is working and to wait for it. (that Vista seams to hammer the HDD almost all the time may change my mind on this) It's the constant (so called idle) noise of the spinning disks/bearings that I dislike where others can "tune it out" but are bothered by the intermittent seek noise.
I have a Scythe Quiet Drive and find it to be very good at reducing the idle noise from my WD5000AAKS and muffling the seeks almost entirely. (in fact almost too much for my taste!)
My understanding is that the Raptors have pretty quiet idle noise but (very) loud seeks that also have a sharp noise signature. I think I could live with one and I'm pretty sure you can put them in an enclosure (with some airflow) successfully.
If seek noise doesn't bother you then a Raptor should be OK, if you dislike seek noise then avoid the Raptor. Some of the latest 32MB cache drives aren't far off in the performance benchmarks, are similarly priced and much greater capacity. I've no idea how the Raptor's speed would "feel" in use, if it would follow the benchmarks or not.
Regards, Seb

[nick705]

My understanding is that the Raptors have pretty quiet idle noise but (very) loud seeks that also have a sharp noise signature. I think I could live with one and I'm pretty sure you can put them in an enclosure (with some airflow) successfully.
If seek noise doesn't bother you then a Raptor should be OK, if you dislike seek noise then avoid the Raptor.

The main problem here is that people who buy a Raptor will almost certainly use it as an OS/boot drive (it wouldn't normally make sense to use it for anything else, at least if you only had the one). As you point out, given the way recent versions of Windows are constantly accessing the OS partition for one reason or another, the seek noises become a royal pain in the proverbial (at least, that's what I found).

It was easy to make a case for a Raptor when its performance advantage was conclusive, but nowadays when you can get a much quieter 750GB 7200rpm drive for the same money or less, and lose little or nothing in real-world performance, it becomes a much harder sell.

[lm]

I totally missed the review, even though I looked for it a bit. Sorry for that.

But this might be interesting:

At idle, the new Raptor was quieter than every other 3.5" drive in the lab except for our old standby, the Barracuda IV.

Unfortunately, poor seek noise disqualified the Raptor from consideration for the title of quietest full size drive

The vibration level was about average for a 3.5" drive, although the resulting noise was a little more audible thanks to the higher frequency of the vibration.

Just about eliminates seek noise with many drives.

Reviewers, you have both products reviewed, do they work together?
Would those 2 products be a match made in heaven?

[Shaman]

Reviewers, you have both products reviewed, do they work together?
Would those 2 products be a match made in heaven?

Not really, no. The NoVibes 'eliminates' the seeks of drives that already had quiet seeks to begin with. That's not the case with the Raptor.

Do a search, there are many threads about the Raptor. Many have tried suspension, enclosures, suspended enclosures and the seeks are always audible.

[lm]

Search revealed a lot. However it's sad there's only subjective results, instead of objective measurements.

[Keto]

Just get one of the new 1TB 7200 rpm hdd's. My SpinPoint F1 is *almost* inaudible screwed into the grommets of my p182. I plan to suspend it very soon. Single drive = less power and heat = good.

Really, why waste money on an old raptor? If you're obsessed with speed there's always SSD's....

[dhanson865]

Just get one of the new 1TB 7200 rpm hdd's. My SpinPoint F1 is *almost* inaudible screwed into the grommets of my p182. I plan to suspend it very soon. Single drive = less power and heat = good.

Really, why waste money on an old raptor? If you're obsessed with speed there's always SSD's....

1. TB hard drives are not the obvious replacement for a raptor. 320GB single platter or 640GB dual platter drives would be a much better choice. Less platters equals less noise and less power, less power equals less heat. But the important thing is platter size. To offset the lower RPMs you need higher density platters. Your average 1TB drive is on 250GB platters right now, 320GB platters are out now which gives a performance boost over the 250GB platters (the 150GB raptor got there on two 75GB platters at 10,000 rpm)

2. SSDs are not as fast as a traditional hard drive in many of the same ways that RAID 5 is not as fast as a single drive. They don't handle lots of small writes well. You don't want your OS or pagefile on RAID5 and you don't want them on a cheap/old SSD.

3. SSDs that compete with a raptor in all usage modes are way more expensive.

Yes RAID and SSDs separately or together have their advantages but they aren't better in every way. Everything is a trade off. Speed, Reliability, Cost; Pick 2.

The cheapest option with real performance to compare to a raptor is a single platter 320GB drive from Samsung or Western Digital (should be available for sale within the next few weeks).

The least confusing option is to look for the 640GB versions that are soon to be available (Feb or March of 2008) as some of the 320GB drives have less dense platters (for example you could order a 320GB drive and receive a 2 platter version with 160GB platters). There have never been 640GB drives made from other platter sizes so there is no chance of ordering the drive and getting the slower performing version.

I don't care about the extra storage capacity so I'll look at price shipped to my door and so long as I'm sure its the 320GB platter version I will buy the cheaper of the two sizes.

[Strid]

I'm buying a Scythe Quiet Drive for my Raptor as we speak. Seems like the only way to silence the loud seek noises, from what I've been reading. Also buying A Scythe kit with rubber grommets to softmount my Samsung 7200.9 drive which has exactly the opposite problem. Seeks are barely audible, but the spinning is noisy. The Raptor barely has a fairly quiet, constant spin-hum but the seeks are intrusive. I hope the enclosure will help this.

I will let you know how this goes when I receive the goods!

[Erssa]

I'm buying a Scythe Quiet Drive for my Raptor as we speak. Seems like the only way to silence the loud seek noises, from what I've been reading.

Been there, done that. You will probably be disappointed. Of course it all depends on your expectations.

[Strid]

Been there, done that. You will probably be disappointed. Of course it all depends on your expectations.

They are HIGH, lol.

[Shaman]

Yes, no enclosure is going to 'silence' the seeks, it will only make them quieter.

[Strid]

I'm buying a Scythe Quiet Drive for my Raptor as we speak. Seems like the only way to silence the loud seek noises, from what I've been reading.

Been there, done that. You will probably be disappointed. Of course it all depends on your expectations.

I received the Quiet Drive and the soft-mount bracket (Scythe Hard Disk Stabilizer II) today. Will post how it went when I'm done installing it this afternoon!

[francis12]

Hi

I need a performant drive for working at home.

Does a 150GB raptor have any hope in a spcr-grade system?

With modding and/or some of those hdd box that you can buy?

Anyone satisfied with theirs, in a spcr-grade system?

I am using the Smart Drive Classic Cooper, having tried first the Smart Drive 2002c (which was unable to make the Raptor silent in my case).

This http://www.pcsilenzioso.it/forum/showth ... post#29415 is the link to a comparison I made.

I made a comparison betwen the two, first in Idle and second after an Everest benchmark disk test to measure the rise temperature difference between the two and not the noise as the noise will no more be a problem with this enclosure.
First two shots when in Idle, the very first with the Raptor inside the Smart Drive 2002c and then inside the Cooper, than the other two shots during the Everest disk test, same as first, with the Raptor inside the Smart Drive 2002c and than inside the Cooper.

During this test the enclosures where ventilated by a Sharkoon 140 mm fan running always at 570 rpm, more or less, (chassis 3 in the test).
I made the test in a Lian Li B20 alluminium case, which has Nexus panels applied on each side, ambient temperature was 23°, the disk sensor is just the one of the Raptor.

The first problem with the Cooper is the cost, the second (not a great problem though) is due to the fact that, strange as it may seem it doesn't do better with temperatures than the Smart Drive 2002 c, infact it does worst as you can see from the test I made.
The difference is always 2 Celsius grades more than the Smart Drive 2002c, 40° vs/ 42° in Idle, 43° vs/ 45° after 10 minutes of an Everest average disk test.

Not a problem though and anyway it is great in killing the sound of the Raptor 150 GB, there remains just a very very little noise that is audible only with the case is open, staying close and in a silent ambient, otherwise in a closed case the Raptor is completely dead.

The Cooper weights 1800 gr, but I think it's the only way to make that disk silent.
As far as I can see both the enclosures (the Cooper too) shouldn't be put just inside the 5" bays, but you will have to position them in a different way to let them free with their vibrations.

As for the Cooper you'll have to ensure a good airflow on it, al least during the hot season.

[Strid]

Okay, so I went and installed the dampener. I placed the Raptor inside the Quiet Drive and put it to rest vertically on a piece of foam and fixed it with a bungee chord so it just stands there on the bottom of the case, right in front of the 120 mm intake fan as a bonus.

The spinning from the Raptor is now completely inaudible, so great results here. The spinning as almost inaudible before, so I don't know how it would do if you have a loudly rotating drive. The seeks are also silenced quite a bit. Before, I would say they were 8.5-9.0 on a scale from 1-10, where 1 is basically inaudible and 10 is too loud and obnoxious. Now I would rate the seeks as around 3.0. Not in completely audible, but definitely something you won't notice. You can only hear it when you're doing something that seeks heavily. Copying a 700 MB film from one drive to another wasn't noticeable, if I didn't know it was happening, I wouldn't perceive the sound.

The soft mounting of the Barracuda 7200.9 (ST3250824AS) reduced the spin-noise, but I think it increased the seek-noise by a tiny amount. Don't think that soft mounting (Atleast not the Scythe Hard Disk Stabilizer II solution) would do anything to the Raptor, as seek noise is the biggest culprit here, and not the constant vibrating hum.
Next step will be to add sound dampening material on the inside of the case.

[Edwood]

The Smart Drive Cooper is so expensive, I would actually contemplate an SSD solution.

OK, not really, but $175 for a HDD enclosure that doesn't cool better than the Smart Drive 2002c? Uh, OK.

Has anyone tried the SilentMaxx Enclosure with a Raptor?
http://www.quietpcusa.com/Silentmaxx-Al ... 26C44.aspx

Or the Nexus Drive a way?
http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std ... anium.html

-Ed

[Moogles]

I had a 74GB Raptor in a Scythe enclosure resting on a piece of foam on the bottom of my case for a while, it might be acceptable for you. As long as you don't hard mount the Quiet Drive, I think you'll be ok with the noise level. As mentioned before the Raptors all idle really quietly, and it's only vibrations and seeks that are bothersome. Eventually I wanted an even quieter disk solution so I switched to enclosed 2.5" drives.

Performance per decibel, I don't think you can get a better solution than an enclosed Raptor (Smart Drive or Scythe Quiet drive, forget the Silentmaxx and Nexus offerings) suspended or resting on foam, unless of course you're willing to shell for an SSD.

If you really want silent disk operation and speed, I'd get a 16GB Mtron MOBI 3000 ($395) for windows XP (if you're using Vista you'd probably need the 32GB SSD, which is $700) and some programs, and a large 2.5" drive in a Scythe 2.5" Quiet Drive for storage. I ordered a 16GB Mtron MOBI for just that kind of setup, I should have it in a week or so.

Within the next 6 months I think we'll be seeing a lot of SSD offerings from different manufacturers, and it seems like a waste to buy a mechanical harddrive now for anything other than storage.

[QuietOC]

Does a 150GB raptor have any hope in a spcr-grade system?

Anyone satisfied with theirs, in a spcr-grade system?

I just installed one into my 20" iMac last week. The iMac has decent soft mounting and the drive sits in the middle of the machine behind the LCD. I can notice a very slight high pitched whine, and the seeks are definitely noticeable.

Overall, I am satisfied with it in an office system. It is easily twice as fast as the 250GB Seagate 7200.9 that came in the iMac. I have another system with a 1600rpm Scythe S-Flex F sitting on the ground next to my desk today, and I can't hear the Raptor in the iMac at all over the noise of the S-Flex.

I think the single platter WD3200AAKS might be a good alternative. The two platter version was pretty fast and quiet already. I just got a 500GB Deskstar P7K500 for my home system. That is a very quiet drive even when hard mounted. Maybe SPCR will do a review of these sometime.

[laserred]

I'm buying a Scythe Quiet Drive for my Raptor as we speak.

Well, you might want to lower your standards some. I had a WD 2500 that I thought was a tad loud, but I got a QuietDrive for Christmas. So, I stuck a Maxtor 500GB drive in it, and expected the HDD sound to disappear in my system. NOPE! The Maxtor in the QD was actually MUCH louder than the 2500 was hanging upside down in the upper cage in my P180. So, at the expense of capacity, I went out and bought a 200GB Hitachi 2.5" drive and stuck it in a 2.5" QuietDrive. NOW we're talking silent! To give you an idea how silent my system is now, I recently noticed that when I move my wireless Microsoft Intellimouse, that there is an annoying high-pitched squeal that is about the noise level of a whisper that only happens when the mouse is moving. So, if anybody has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks!

[Strid]

Well, the spinning is inaudible, only a very soft seek noise you don't notice with the case placed under the disk.
The Quiet Drive is resting (vertically) on a piece of foam on the bottom of the case and held in place with a bungee chord. I tried to put all my drives to sleep mode in linux via "sudo hdparm -y /dev/sda /dev/sdb" and it didn't make any difference noise vise. they're that silent.

The PSU fan is the only audible component, but I couldn't find a more silent 140 mm fan than the Yate Loon I fanswapped it for. I say the Quiet Drive was definitely worth it. No doubt in my mind. The seeks are so much quieter now, and that is by far one of the most annoying noises - loud seek noises. Can't say how it would work if the Quiet drive was screwed into a 5.25" bay, but the mounts are glued on rubber pieces (though fairly hard rubber). Also, it shaved 4 degrees off of the Raptor temperature. from 39° C to 35° C.