HDD is the noisiest thing in my system?

SCOSaltire · Post by **SCOSaltire** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 6:40 am

Hallo

ive been trying to make my pc quiet.
I have:

a case with NMB30 120mm fans front and back
enermax FMA 431 powersupply (turned right down)
asus a7nx8 m/b
amd 2500 barton
zalman cu CPU cooler with NMB 92mm fan
sapphire 9800 pro ultimate 128 with panaflo L1A 80mm fan on zalman bracket
zalman multi fan controller for cpu, graphics and 120mm case fan control.
westren digital 40gb SE hd
LG dvd player

i have a high pitched sound coming from the case.
i think its from the hdd.
the 92 mm fan does give out a slight click or ticking noise

but the noise that annoys me is kinda whiney yet cycles too...
almost as if something wasnt centred correctly.
i disconnected the HDD and it seemed to go away

so is this an exceptionally noisy hd?
if so - what new SATA one (seeing as i have the capability on the MB) should i get in the UK?
i got it for speed without knowing that it may be noisy

ta
Phil

silvervarg · Post by **silvervarg** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 6:50 am

Check for Seagate or Samsung harddrives with 8MB cache.
Both manufacturers have SATA drives and both are very silent.
I think price and local availability should be the deciding factor among those brands.

SCOSaltire · Post by **SCOSaltire** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 6:57 am

thanks
i can get a seagate easily enuff

the place also stocks maxtor
seagate is better i take it?

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 7:28 am

I've just finished swapping all of my Maxtor drives for Seagates. If you care about noise, Segate is the way to go.

The Spinpoints don't really exist yet, in my world. I asked several vendors but couldn't find any stock. Of course, that was about eight weeks ago. The Seagates are excellent.

My Maxtors made a high pitch whine. This could very easily be the noise you identify. The Seagates make a very gentle whirring sound but you have to lean in to hear it, even in an extremely quiet room.

-- Tom

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 7:52 am

I agree Tom; now that I have all my setup sweet and a new psu, here come the maxtor, and is actually the only thing I think I can hear now. Too bad I am out of money.

bob670 · Post by **bob670** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 11:44 am

After silencing my PC I find the only noise is my living room now is a really whiny Maxtor drive in my Tivo, gotta' swap that thing soon.

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Fri Oct 31, 2003 1:13 pm

I'm no expert on TIVO modding but I have one and was under the impression the upgrade path was to a specific model of larger Maxtor. Has someone figured out how to get a working TIVO system with generic disks now?

-- Tom

Seal · Post by **Seal** » Sun Nov 02, 2003 3:20 pm

Yeah i have exactly the same mobo and am still waiting for the samsung sata 160gb's to come out, i want to get 2 to put in a raid0 configuration.

if it dosent come out soon in england i will get seagate, i already have an 80gb seagate and its pretty quiet although i can hear mine a fair bit because the rest of my computer is very quiet. (im watercooled - lucky me:) )

p.s. i have emailed overclockers.co.uk about getting those drives in and they said:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your e mail,
Sorry, we do not stock those drives, but we may do in the future.
I will forward the suggestion to our purchasing dept.
Regards,

Gavin Meldrum
Overclockers UK - Customer Services
Web: http://www.overclockers.co.uk

Beyonder · Post by **Beyonder** » Sun Nov 02, 2003 6:02 pm

In my experience, the older model WD's are pretty "whiney" drives....so, I'd say you're right on in labeling it as the perpetrator. I know the samsungs are supposedly quiet....