Anyone understand noise measurement rated by "Sound power: bel"?

[jrichrds]

Maxtor rates the acoustics (noise level) of their drives by this measurement they call "Sound power: bel". Hopefully, there are some engineers, physics majors, or just all around intelligent people who know this type of sound measurement and can discern whether there is a noticeable difference in noise level between these two drives:

My current Maxtor drive: 3.0 (idle) / 3.5 (seek)
The Maxtor drive I'm looking at: 2.7 (idle) / 2.8 (seek)

Is there going to be a noticeable difference in noise level, or are the difference between the #s not significant enough to translate to any real world difference in noise level?

 

[RossGr]

Are you familar with the Decibel, well that is .1Bel. I would be surprised if the numbers given are indeed Bels and not decibels, This Chart will give you an idea of what sound level this is refering to. Note that if the number is decibels then there is no significant difference, if it is bels there will be a noticable difference, I'll bet on the numbers being decibels.

 

[jrichrds]

Doh! <whack myself on the head>
I'm an idiot. Thanks for clearing that up RossGR. Makes sense now!

And thanks for the links as well!

 

[bizmark]

Originally posted by: RossGr
Note that if the number is decibels then there is no significant difference, if it is bels there will be a noticable difference, I'll bet on the numbers being decibels.

What do you mean... I think that the listing is probably right (i.e. Bels not deciBels). His current drive is 30dB (idle) and 35dB (seek). The new one is 27dB and 28dB. I don't think it's possible to find a hard drive at 3.5dB unless it's a Compact Flash drive!!! Anything with a motor spinning at thousands of RPM *must* produce a fair amount of sound....

 

[jrichrds]

Haha, yah, I wasn't able to make the relation between bel and decibel, the latter of which I'm familiar with. Thanks to you guys for clearing that up.
Any engineers know of this mysterious length measurement called the "meter"?

Now I can make some sense out of the numbers. I probably wouldn't have just paid a premium for ultra-quiet fans if I knew the 27dB from a new hard drive would override the 21dB ratings of the fans. Should've gone with the 25dB fans for 75% less cost!

 

[bizmark]

well, that depends on how many fans you have... add 3dB for each doubling of actual sound output (approximate but close). So one fan @ 21dB, 2 fans @ 24dB, 4 fans @ 27dB.... while the cheaper ones would have been @ 28dB if you had two of them.