Anyone have a Atlas 15K ?

[jose]

I'm running 10k2's & 10k3's in my system now. Is the 15K atlas much louder ? I checked the specs at storagereview there's a 2db diff.

Is this a big difference ? Also is a 15K noticeably faster than a 10k drive ?

Thanks for the input.

Regards,
Jose

 

[Confused]

An increase of 3db is doubling the sound.


Confused

 

[Cowser1983]

No it's not.. every 10dB is a doubling in sound.

 

[beatle]

A 3db increase is "noticeable," but not twice the sound. In the realm of speakers, if you have one speaker with a sensitivity of 89db and another with a sensitivity of 92db, you need twice as much power to drive the 89db speaker to the same volume without distortion.

 

[mechBgon]

The Atlas 15k is still a ball-bearing drive AFAIK, so if you're asking the noise question, you should probably consider the Cheetah 15k.3, which has fluid-dynamic bearings and should age more gracefully as a result. Five years is a long time to live with an escalating bearing noise (if it does end up escalating).

I have the X15-36LP (also with fluid bearings), the predecessor to the 15k.3, and its idle noise is about on par with my Radeon 7500's fan. My 15k.3 should be arriving today, can't wait...

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Cowser1983
No it's not.. every 10dB is a doubling in sound.

Sorry, you are confused, but Confused is not. 3 dB = a doubling of sound pressure level. For reference, I design pro audio electronics.

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: Harvey

Originally posted by: Cowser1983
No it's not.. every 10dB is a doubling in sound.

Sorry, you are confused, but Confused is not. 3 dB = a doubling of sound pressure level. For reference, I design pro audio electronics.

No, Cowser is correct and you are misunderstanding him. Nobody cares about sound pressure which does double every 3dB. It's perceived noise that matters here, which doubles every 10dB.

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The Atlas 15k is still a ball-bearing drive AFAIK, so if you're asking the noise question, you should probably consider the Cheetah 15k.3, which has fluid-dynamic bearings and should age more gracefully as a result. Five years is a long time to live with an escalating bearing noise (if it does end up escalating).

I have the X15-36LP (also with fluid bearings), the predecessor to the 15k.3, and its idle noise is about on par with my Radeon 7500's fan. My 15k.3 should be arriving today, can't wait...

The Fujitsu MAS is quiter than the 15K.3 on idle and load. It also happens to be faster and cheaper (except in the 18/73 configuration)

 

[BuckNaked]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The Atlas 15k is still a ball-bearing drive AFAIK, so if you're asking the noise question, you should probably consider the Cheetah 15k.3, which has fluid-dynamic bearings and should age more gracefully as a result. Five years is a long time to live with an escalating bearing noise (if it does end up escalating).

I have the X15-36LP (also with fluid bearings), the predecessor to the 15k.3, and its idle noise is about on par with my Radeon 7500's fan. My 15k.3 should be arriving today, can't wait...

MechBgon,
Let me know what you think of your 15K.3... I am thinking of replacing my 10K3 with something different, even though its been a gread drive...

Dave

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: dexvx

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The Atlas 15k is still a ball-bearing drive AFAIK, so if you're asking the noise question, you should probably consider the Cheetah 15k.3, which has fluid-dynamic bearings and should age more gracefully as a result. Five years is a long time to live with an escalating bearing noise (if it does end up escalating).

I have the X15-36LP (also with fluid bearings), the predecessor to the 15k.3, and its idle noise is about on par with my Radeon 7500's fan. My 15k.3 should be arriving today, can't wait...

The Fujitsu MAS is quiter than the 15K.3 on idle and load. It also happens to be faster and cheaper (except in the 18/73 configuration)

Is that from firsthand experience as far as the noise level goes, dexvx? I know the MAS's use fluid bearings, and are fast as heck, but so far no one's given us a reality check on the noise level as heard by human ears. I know SR.com says that the Fujitsu is louder (at idle), but if you've used both then I'll take your word for it

Buck_Naked, I got home and there's a FedEx "we-missed-you" tag. Gonna go down to the annex and get my new 15k.3 after 5PM here

 

[mastertech01]

It depends on the enclosure. If the fans and power supplies are loud, you wont even hear 4 15Ks running... Like my Nstor SCSI raid tower... noisy bastage!

 

[jose]

mechBgon:

I have a Cheetah, not sure which rev. but it's very loud. It has a high pitch whine.

Do you have a Sound Meter ? ie radio shack

Let us know how loud it is at idle.

SR list the drives at idle:

Maxtor Atlas 15k - 47.6 db/a@0.7"
Mas3735 Fijuts. - 50.5
Cheetah 15k3 - 45.1

compared to a Atlas 10k4 @ 47.7db/a

Right now my system is 67db @ 7".......
But all the noise is from the 120mm & 80mm panaflows fans combined w/ all the other stuff in my case.

Regards,
Jose

 

[Deskstar]

The noise is as much related to the model of the drive than it is to the speed of rotation. My Seagate X15-36LP (15k) is much quieter than the predecessor Seagate X15 (first version also 15k). And my Fujitsu MAP3367 is quieter than both of them, yet still seems just almost as fast (10k drive)

 

[mechBgon]

I'm down at work with the new 15k.3 here. It and the X15-36LP are both 18Gb models.

Seek noise is a little quieter on the 15k.3 than on the X15-36LP, and I think idle noise is lower as well. The fan on my Radeon 7500 is definitely making more noise than the 15k.3 at idle. I'm not a noise Nazi who can't stand seek noise (actually, I like a little of it) so this is a good setup for me. I was happy with the X15-36LP but I wanted a second drive, and it was a difficult choice between the Fujitsu MAS and the 15k.3.

Maybe next month I'll get a Raptor just to check it out, and do a four-way shootout between the Raptor, the 15k.3, the X15-36LP and a 40GB Seagate 7200.7. I have the perfect real-world benchmark routine for it, a batchfile I made that takes the contents of an original Office2000 Pro Disc 1 and Disc 2 CD set, makes an Administrative Installation Point out of them, then patches the AIP to SP1A-level, then patches it to SP3, then tacks on the post-SP3 Outlook2000 patch. It takes a long time and generally the CPU is at about 40-50% usage, waiting for the HDD. I did this with a 5400rpm Maxtor IDE drive and nearly lost my mind with frustration!

Wearable computers... I can't wait, they'll go great with my straitjacket!