Samsung Acoustic Ratings of 103UJ and HD203WI Compared

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rwo
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Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:21 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Samsung Acoustic Ratings of 103UJ and HD203WI Compared

Post by rwo » Thu Jun 24, 2010 2:51 am

Hi All, long time reader, first time poster :)

I have a set of 3 Samsung 1tb F1's (103UJ) drives running in a raid 5 array (on an Ubuntu media pc) that I am looking at upgrading to something quieter with a larger storage capacity.

While the F1's seem to be great drives and have served well, the array is fairly audible when accessed (i.e. playing movies), to the point it is annoying. With this in mind I was looking at upgrading to the 2tb F3EG drives (HD203W) as they are 5400rpm drives, and hopefully a bit quieter. When I was comparing the Samsung specs of these two drives, I noticed that the F1 and F3EG drives both have the same "idle" acoustic rating of 2.7 bels, but to my surprise, the seek ratings actually state that the F1 drives are quieter (2.9bel) than the F3EG drives (3.1bel). This doesn't sound right to me when the F3EG drive is a 5400rpm drive compared to the 7200rpm of the F1!

So to anyone who has compared both of these drives in a "real world" test, are the F3EG drives actually quieter than the F1 drives when seeking or are the Samsung specs correct?

Also, is the 2TB Samsung F3EG drive the quietest 2tb drive available on the market at the moment or should I be looking at something else to cut noise output (i.e. the 2tb/1.5tb WD's, 2.5" drives or wait till the F4's)?

Hammy
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Location: Finland

Post by Hammy » Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:02 am

I have only had a single sample of both of these drives but the acoustic properties of both are very similiar. However I believe it is generally accepted that the HD203WI is noisier than the HD103UJ (if it is then not by much).

It is also generally accepted that the WD20EARS is the quietest 2TB drive on the market today, but comes with issues I wasn't prepared to deal with. FWIW the HD203WI is a quiet, efficient drive imo :)

Michael Sandstrom
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Location: Albany, GA USA

Post by Michael Sandstrom » Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:47 am

I have three HD103UJ drives and two HD203WI drives. I fully concur with Hammy's assessment. The HD203WI, while quite, is slightly noisier. Price and concerns re compatibility and reliability keep me away from the WD unit.

rwo
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Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:21 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by rwo » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:47 pm

Hammy wrote:I have only had a single sample of both of these drives but the acoustic properties of both are very similiar. However I believe it is generally accepted that the HD203WI is noisier than the HD103UJ (if it is then not by much).

It is also generally accepted that the WD20EARS is the quietest 2TB drive on the market today, but comes with issues I wasn't prepared to deal with. FWIW the HD203WI is a quiet, efficient drive imo :)
No worries, thanks for the info. I think I will need to look further into the WD issues and see if they will cause me problems.

Just out of curiosity, how do the 1.5tb WD's compare to the 2tb WD's when it comes to noise, I assume the 1.5tb's are 3 platter drives (hence quieter) while the 2tb's are four, is this correct?

sas
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Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:55 am

Post by sas » Thu Jun 24, 2010 11:19 pm

whatever you choose, you may find that 3x 3.5" drives are going to be annoying, so I would suggest thinking about changing your drive set up.

3x 1TB in Raid5 gives you 2TB. So why not change those 3 drives for a single 2TB drive to store everything on, and use the 1TB drives as offline backups. Then your HD noise will be divided by 3, and the 1TB drives can be stored safely.

Alternatively and of course if possible, why not think about a NAS (like this http://www.synology.com/enu/products/DS410j/index.php) to stick in a cupboard somewhere and to keep the raid 5 array in. That way your media pc needs just one HDD for the OS, which can be a 2.5" or an small SSD.
The disadvantage with this is that your home would need to be networked.

good luck!

Hammy
Posts: 56
Joined: Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:15 pm
Location: Finland

Post by Hammy » Fri Jun 25, 2010 8:08 am

Both the 1.5TB and 2TB EADS drives have been reviewed by SPCR (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page2.html) and the 1.5tb came out on top, probably due to the 3 vs 4 platters.

The 1.5TB EADS drive is highly recommended by SPCR.. in terms of quietness anyway ;)

rwo
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:21 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by rwo » Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:11 pm

Awesome, thanks for the link.

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