Seagate 7200.7/8/9 Survey

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:07 am

Super quiet versions of these drives exist, and these are arguably the quietest 3.5” drives available. Trouble is, when it comes to purchasing, there’s no guaranteed way of identifying these from the not so quiet versions. From this thread we can perhaps conclude that: despite Seagate having legal issues with AAM, the super quiet versions appear to have AAM enabled, and most of these drives are PATA as opposed to SATA. Now with sufficient feedback, hopefully we’ll come up with more accurate ways of identifying the super-quiet versions.

Survey questions:

- Version (7200.7, 7200.8, 7200.9)?
- Model number (eg. ST380013A-RK)?
- Size in gigabytes?
- PATA or SATA?
- Cache size (eg. 2mb/8mb)?
- Manufactured where / when?
- Firmware?
- Purchased where / when?
- Noise (brief account including seek, vibration, idle, self diagnosis noise)?
- Also give your drive marks out of three for overall acoustic behaviour. See below:
Score 3 - silent / very quiet
Score 2 - between 1 and 2
Score 1 - very noisy

Please post your answers

7200.7 PATA

Score 3/3: Model # ? - 80GB – 8MB cache – China - in my office PC -> it was DOA, replaced be the same model and - surprise surprise - it is quiet and not annoying at all (which means you cannot judge just according to country of origin - too bad....). (Thanks to tkirmuc – 17th Oct. 05)

Score 3/3: ST3160023A - 160GB – 8MB cache - Firmware 3.06 - Singapore - S/N: 3JS2CGEK - Date Code: 04221 - almost no vibrations, reasonably fast, very quiet both in idle & seek, those famous 'self-diagnostic' noise -> very very quiet (to be honest, I didn't know it's present until I put out drive from the case and put me ear next to it); I'm very happy with that unit. So happy that I bought another (see below), but this time it was not so good purchase (for my dissappointment). (Thanks to tkirmuc – 17th Oct. 05)

Score 2/3: ST3160023A - 160GB – 8MB cache - Firmware 3.01 - China - S/N: 5LJ1M1JL - Date Code: 05393 - more vibrations than in Singapore mode, reasonably fast, quiet idle & seek, but famous 'self-diagnostic' noise audiable & annoying (I also had SATA 7200.8 160GB also made in China, but it diagnostic noise was even louder so I sold it out). (Thanks to tkirmuc – 17th Oct. 05)

7200.7 SATA

Score ?/3: ST380817AS - 80GB – 8MB cache - Firmware 3.42 - Singapore - S/N: 3MR04R44 - Date code: 05237 - almost same behaviour as drive above (quiet idle & seek & a little vibration), but 'self-diagnostic' noise little bit quieter. (Thanks to tkirmuc – 17th Oct. 05)

7200.8 PATA

7200.8 SATA

7200.9 PATA

7200.9 SATA

tkirmuc · Post by **tkirmuc** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:01 pm

Barracuda 7200.7 / ST3160023A / ATA / 160GB / 8MB cache / Firmware 3.06 / Product of Singapore / S/N: 3JS2CGEK / Date Code: 04221 - almost no vibrations, reasonably fast, very quiet both in idle & seek, those famous 'self-diagnostic' noise -> very very quiet (to be honest, I didn't know it's present until I put out drive from the case and put me ear next to it); I'm very happy with that unit. So happy that I bought another (see below), but this time it was not so good purchase (for my dissappointment).

Barracuda 7200.7 / ST3160023A / ATA / 160GB / 8MB cache / Firmware 3.01 / Product of China / S/N: 5LJ1M1JL / Date Code: 05393 - more vibrations than in Singapore mode, reasonably fast, quiet idle & seek, but famous 'self-diagnostic' noise audiable & annoying (I also had SATA 7200.8 160GB also made in China, but it diagnostic noise was even louder so I sold it out).

Barracuda 7200.7 / ST380817AS / SATA / 80GB / 8MB cache / Firmware 3.42 / Product of Singapore / S/N: 3MR04R44 / Date code: 05237 - almost same behaviour as drive above, but 'self-diagnostic' noise little bit quieter.

I had 7200.7 GB 80GB / 8MB cache / ATA / Chinese in my office PC -> it was DOA, replaced be the same model and - surprise surprise - it is quiet and not annoying at all (which means you cannot judge just according to country of origin - too bad....).

Generally speaking - newest Seagates seems to be VERY different drives than unforgettable Barracuda IV series (ST340016A still running in my old PC - I love this dead-silent drive). Of course 7200.7/8/9 are much faster but for what price? My long mail conversation with Seagate support brought me to conclusion that they don't care about acustics anymore. According to them all 7/8/9 drives had that 'self-diagnostic' procedure implemented which is good as it improves reliability. When some unit is louder - you hear that annoying frequent buzzing, when the drive is quiet - buzzing is so low that you don't care.

They just should give customer a chance to choose. One will like to have extreme fast, hot, noisy killer, other one - like me - prefere to have maybe slower but silent drive in a bedroom.

I'm afraid there is no way you can pick-up less noisy drive before you already spend your money. Which makes me thinking that I'll have to forget about my favourite hard-disk brand after all this years & give Samsung a chance.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:00 pm

Maybe their hard drives which are intended for DVR's might be all from their best factories or cherry picked for low noise?

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:52 pm

PATA vs SATA is usually the key. Seagate's PATA drives are set for quiet seek; the SATA drives are set for max performance. This has been repeated to me many times by Seagate reps, and generally confirmed by experience -- my own and others'. Within that generalization, there are variances, of course.

sun.moon · Post by **sun.moon** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:00 am

A new guy at work (who was formally a business unit manager of storage/network solutions at a large german distributor) mentioned the other day, that yeah, he was aware of this AAM issue in the 7200.x Seagate drives, but he had also heard that one can reprogram the firmware (bios?) in the Seagates to enable AAM. He said this tool is of course not available at Seagate.com, but other harddrive manufacturers who also use the same firmware (bios?) supply this tool for their harddrives - and apparently it works on the Seagate drives as well.

(I don't remember if he said firmware or bios...)

Anybody here hear similar stories? If I run into him again, I'll pick up on this conversation again, as I also am plagued by sounds in my 7200.7 which I would prefer not to hear. It is meanwhile the loudest noise in my system.

He also did confirm, by the way, that the Spinpoints from Samsung are really very good drives - from the reliability, performance and noise point of views - he sold them, as we say in Germany, like "sliced bread" - meaning, they flew out the door.

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:39 pm

Thanks tkirmuc!

I’ve now added a scoring system. How do you want me to score the ST380817AS? Your comments on that drive were referring to the ST3160023A. I'll also edit those comments, referring to the other drive, to save confusion, because the ST3160023A won't always be above it in the list.

Have you the model number for the other 80GB? Also, in your ST3160023A feedback, you mention a SATA 7200.8 160GB. Any more detail on that? I wasn't aware there was a 160GB 7200.8

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:49 pm

MikeC wrote:PATA vs SATA is usually the key. Seagate's PATA drives are set for quiet seek; the SATA drives are set for max performance. This has been repeated to me many times by Seagate reps, and generally confirmed by experience -- my own and others'. Within that generalization, there are variances, of course.

Yes, there are definitely variances. Not all PATA are super quiet, but maybe this explains it:

MikeC wrote:“Several commercial system integrators that I contacted were of the opinion that AAM is NOT enabled in any 7200.7 drive. Seagate's AAM is the subject of a lawsuit; their disuse of this feature is pending the outcome of the case. However, it appears that, at least until fairly recently, OEM buyers could order large batches of the Seagate drive custom configured to their requirements. This means, for example, that HP or Dell might purchase 20,000 80G Barracuda 7200.7 with AAM permanently enabled. If excess inventory is produced, and that inventory makes it to the grey market, then you'd find AAM enabled 7200.7 drives from a few retailers for a brief period.”

But I’m not convinced this does explain it. I think Seagate are exploiting a ‘work around’ in their AAM legal wrangle, and this is some kind of smoke screen to what's really going on. Hopefully this survey will uncover a little more of the method to Seagate's 'madness'.

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:57 pm

sun.moon wrote:A new guy at work (who was formally a business unit manager of storage/network solutions at a large german distributor) mentioned the other day, that yeah, he was aware of this AAM issue in the 7200.x Seagate drives, but he had also heard that one can reprogram the firmware (bios?) in the Seagates to enable AAM. He said this tool is of course not available at Seagate.com, but other harddrive manufacturers who also use the same firmware (bios?) supply this tool for their harddrives - and apparently it works on the Seagate drives as well.

(I don't remember if he said firmware or bios...)

Anybody here hear similar stories? If I run into him again, I'll pick up on this conversation again, as I also am plagued by sounds in my 7200.7 which I would prefer not to hear. It is meanwhile the loudest noise in my system.

He also did confirm, by the way, that the Spinpoints from Samsung are really very good drives - from the reliability, performance and noise point of views - he sold them, as we say in Germany, like "sliced bread" - meaning, they flew out the door.

Very interesting! Hopefully it won’t compromise the warranty/reliability, because it’s the outstanding Seagate warranty/reliability that motivates us to find an answer to this, otherwise yes, we might as well all go and buy Samsungs.

Please keep us informed sun.moon

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:39 pm

I will get back to you with specifics.

The PATA 200GB 7200.7 i have does NOT make any kind of self diagnostic noise at all ever, (it is either so quiet it is inaudable, or as I beleive, my drive does not have it). I would give it 3 out of 3. I seem to remember its made in Singapore.

All of the other 7200.7's I have listened to have been 2-3 for the PATA's made in China, 2 for the PATA's made in Singapore, 1-2 for the SATA's made anywhere, including my 200GB 7200.7, which i can hear the self diagnostics for.

BTW, none of these drives are as quiet during seeks as my 200GB Samsung SATA drive, although my 200GB PATA 7200.7 is not far off under light usage.

I have some 7200.9 80GB PATA's that at first seem like the Chinese made 7200.7 PATA's (7200.9's also made in China). But my office is very noisy and I hant had time to listen.

Andy

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:27 pm

Someone already posted here about their noisy 7200.9 160GB PATA, but there’s promising feedback at NewEgg for the SATA version.

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:36 pm

andyb wrote:I will get back to you with specifics.

Please do, especially for the 7200.9’s

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:23 pm

got a ST3120023A, 7200.7 120gb PATA model (no idea the country of origin, sorry) - very quiet both relative to other drives I've heard and in absolute terms. Idle is almost undetectable and seek noises were dull percussive taps with the drive soft mounted in my SK1650 case - elastic suspension cured that. Now that the rest of my PC is so quiet (best description is that when it's on you can't hear it, but when it's off there's a barely noticeable absence of sound, if that makes sense) I can hear a low hum from it, I think, but that's it.

Hellspawn · Post by **Hellspawn** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:13 pm

Pardon for the question, but what are the differences between the .7, .8 and .9 drives? I have checked for threads about it and Seagate's website. Are they simply generations, or hardware differences within a family (OEM/retail)?

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:22 pm

Seagate rates the 7200.8 as louder than the 7200.7 and 7200.9. That's one difference.

dmc · Post by **dmc** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:29 am

I have 2 Seagate 7200.7 200 GB SATA in a system, bought 9 months ago in Belgium.
I bought that because I didn't trust Samsung!

In your range I give them '2'
They are not really silent by themselves but if you manage properly, they do have the potential to be very quiet.
If you directly mount them you will have vibration, hum, whine and typical seek noise, but with a suspension-like (*) design you just hear them spin up and then muffled seeks.
To keep them cool, I use 2 silent 80 mm Zalman fans.

(*) The pair is mounted in a 3,5 drive cage, but the cage is not mounted in the tower, it just lies upside-down on a mat on the bottom of my bigtower. The tower itself is on a mat on the ground. I previously had the tower on a piece of furniture, but the hum was just terrible. Those hard disks do vibrate a lot.

Laz Winterz · Post by **Laz Winterz** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 10:12 pm

I have a 200gb PATA 7200.7 that says it was made in singapore but uses the 3.01 firmware and it's data code is 04351. It makes a high pitch whine and I can here it seek when my computer is idle. I power it on the same line as my video card and it is hard mounted. Could the hard drive just be a bad sample? (since pata is suppose to be quieter than sata "performance model")

flokel · Post by **flokel** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:38 am

Hi,

I've bought a Seagate 7200.9 160Gb SataII that replaced my Samsung SVN802N.

What can I say? I'm completely fascinated by this drive,
put in a bitumenbox(http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/inde ... topic=4827)
I can't hear it (by now

).
Rest of the system is inaudible as well (distance 0,5m,
only one yl running at 4-5V).

Performance is compared to the samsung very good:

mtx · Post by **mtx** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:35 am

I am very disappointed.

OLD DRIVE:

Score 3/3: ST3160023AS - 160GB SATA 7200.7 – 8MB cache - Firmware 3.18 - Singapore - Date Code: 04474
-almost no vibrations, reasonably fast, very quiet both in idle & seek, those famous 'self-diagnostic' noise -> very very quiet (to be honest, I didn't know it's present until I put out drive from the case and put me ear next to it)

NEW DRIVE:

Score 1/3: ST3250823AS - 250GB SATA 7200.8 – 8MB cache - Firmware 3.03 - China - Date Code: find out later
-COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF ABOVE..MAD VIBRATIONS TO THE TABLE, LOUD HUMMING NOISE, DAMN THIS DRIVE SUCKS!

MoJo-chan · Post by **MoJo-chan** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:25 pm

I think all you can say about Seagate drives is that there is a lot of variation in the manufacturing. Some a brilliant, some are horrible.

Personally, I'm going to ditch my two 200GB drives and get some Samsungs instead. Seek times for the Samsungs are comparable to Seagates, better in some cases, and RAID will keep the sequential transfer rate up.

I bought the two Seagates after I had six very quiet ones, two 40GB and four 80GB. That was before they had to disable AAM though.

mtx · Post by **mtx** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:53 pm

I am very disappointed.

atlr · Post by **atlr** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 7:34 pm

I am with you mojo-chan. The 200GB I just bought has got to go.

Survey questions:

- 7200.7
- ST3200822A
- 200GB
- PATA
- 8MB
- Thailand/2005
- FW 3.01
- CompUSA, Georgia, 11-2005
- quiet when idle, loud/frequent self-diagnosis noises
- Score 1

mtx · Post by **mtx** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:51 pm

Got a new RMA and it is 200x better. NO vibration, very quiet. And Seagate gave me a 400GB instead of a 250GB

400GB 7200.8, 3.03, Singapore

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:19 am

Thanks for everyone’s further response. I’ll update my first post with your data when I’ve time.

Sooty · Post by **Sooty** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:23 am

The Tech Report 7200.9 160/500 review here.

Noise levels page. 160 is impressive, but not as quiet as Hitachi’s T7K250.

MikeMcLarenF1 · Post by **MikeMcLarenF1** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:40 pm

I may be underjudging the Seagates, but I don't think the 7200.8 is THAT loud. I own the Barracuda IV 40G, 7200.7 160G, and 7200.8 250G SATA.

Barracuda IV PATA 100 - ST340016A - 40Gb - F/W 3.75 - Singapore - Date code 02361 - Site code AMK:
Well, what can I say really. King of Quiet. It does get warmer than others after a while, thats the only thing I dislike. This drive is competing for lowest noise with the IBM T42's cpu fan at low-speed.

Barracuda 7200.7 PATA 100 - ST31160023A - 160Gb - F/W 8.01 - Thailand - Date code 05494 - Site code TK:
Louder than the IV by around 50%, but here's the thing: I noticed a kind of low low volume motor whine in the IV, which does not exist in the .7, instead, the .7 has the swish sound of the platter spinning, accounting for the volume gain.

Barracuda 7200.8 SATA 150 - ST3250823AS - 250Gb - F/W 3.03 - China - Date code 05513 - Site code WU:
This drive's got some vibration. More than the .7 really, but add another 30%. It gets obvious when placed on a hardwood table or something because you DO notice a little more ripple effect. HOWEVER, funny how when you screw it in tight in the case it doesn't vibrate much anymore. I guess the case is absorbing the vibration and eating it up or something. I just use normal screws and it cancelled the vibrations out altogether. If you hold the drive in mid-air, aka not accounting transferred vibration sound, the .8 seems just as quiet as .7. HOWEVER, I didn't test seek of this since I JUST bought this drive and I don't have the SATA computer built yet - the P4P800 is still in its box. Might have to wait till next week when my finals are over. Nonetheless, w/o the vibration, the China 3.03 7200.8 seems still rather quiet for its size. At least it does give the DM10's a run for their money (I own 2x DM10 300Gb's)

iatacs19 · Post by **iatacs19** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 7:41 am

I have 3 x 250GB 7200.8 SATA (all from the same batch, serials are pretty close together)

Model: ST3250823AS
Firmware: 3.03
They are made in Thailand (weird)

I never heard of a Made in Thailand before, I was just worried I would get Made in China one, those do not have a good reputation from what I hear.

Rating: between 1 and 2, like 1.5

They are fairly quiet, I have then inside a ReadyNAS which is pretty compact enclosure. I can hear that the drives are on, but seeking and write seem to be low and muted, not silent but not annoying nor high-pitched.

QuietYou · Post by **QuietYou** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:57 pm

- 7200.7
- ST380817AS
- 80 GB
- SATA
- 8 MB Cache
- Made in Thailand / Date Code 05364
- Firmware 3.42
- Purchased locally / July 2005
- Noise (seeks - loud, vibration - a little, idle - quiet, self-diagnosis noise - a big yes)
- Score 1 - very noisy

The self-diagnosis noise was driving me insane. It would do it after a few minutes of idle time and last for 30 seconds each time. So I had get rid of this drive. I sold it to a friend.

- 7200.9
- ST3808110AS
- 80 GB
- SATA
- 8 MB Cache
- Made in China / Date Code 06157
- Firmware 2AAA
- Purchased online (ncix.com in Canada) / November 2005
- Noise (seeks - medium low, vibration - a little, idle - quiet, self-diagnosis noise - no or very faint)
- Score 3 - silent / very quiet

What a big difference compared to the 7200.7. I tried listening closely for the self-diagnosis noise and it wasn't there, or maybe it's so faint that I can't hear it. This drive is definitely a keeper. I might have gotten lucky and struck gold this time.

Stjopatron · Post by **Stjopatron** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:33 pm

2 x Barracuda 7200.7
- Model no: ST3160827AS
- 160 Gb
- SATA
- 8 Mb cache
- Manufactured Singapore (AMK site) Date 05227 (27 Feb 2005?)
- Firmware 3.42
- Purchased UK May 2005

Idle noise OK and little vibration. Read/write is pretty loud and crunching. The diagnostic seek starts whenever the drive gets bored, but it's less noisy than the read/write. No high pitched whines at all. Both drives behaviour is identical.
Score: 2. - This is because I have a 40 Gb ExcelStor Jupiter J340 (2,5 years old) that is much more silent then the Barracudas. My other 10 drives are noisier, worst being a 20Gb IBM Deskstar.

tkirmuc · Post by **tkirmuc** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:27 pm

I've just bought Seagate 7200.9 ATA 80GB. ST380210A. Firmware: 2AA. Datecode: 06187. Site code: WU (China). I'm very surprised how quiet this drive is. After using 7200.7/8 160GB/250GB I was expecting noise, buzzing drive but this one is as quiet as Barracuda IV was.
Drive is 50 cm from my ear at the moment, I don't hear almost anything from it. Thanks God it doesn't produce that terrible self diagnostic noise. It's dead silent (yes, it's working - otherwise I wouldn't be able to write this post

. HD Tach 3 showed it is also very fast (even with only 2MB cache). It's fastest of all my present drives (Seagate: 160GB, 250GB & Samsung 40GB).
Last but not least - it is very cold. Current temperature (after two hours of working) is only 33 C degree (no fan attached). In the same time 40GB SATA Samsung runs at 42 C degree.
I can strongly recommend that drive for all silent PC lovers!

tkirmuc · Post by **tkirmuc** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:36 pm

P.S.: HD Tach results:
- Random access: 15.6ms
- Average read: 60.6 MB/s (starting from almost 74 MB/s).
- burst speed: 84.5 MB/s

I love this drive. I wish I could have Seagate single platter 500GB drive already!