Barracuda 7200.7 sata 120 gb seems noisey

[Atlantean]

It is the sata 120 gb model. ST3120026as 8.5ms seek time. I can hear it and it seems quite noisy. My old drive was a seagate barracuda 4 and it was silent, but this one I can hear it moving when it is reading... is it a bad drive or is that just the way it is?

 

[Gerbil333]

I'm gonna bet it's bad. RMA it. I just put a 7200.7 PATA 40gb in one of my computers and it's silent.

 

[Looney]

Aren't these fluid bearing drives? If so, they should be pretty quiet.

 

[Atlantean]

Yeah its fluid bearing afaik, the seagate website says its the quietest drive on the market at 2.5 bels... whatever that means, but you know how with old harddrives you can hear that clicking sound when its reading data? Thats the sound I am hearing now.

 

[Looney]

Then there's definitely something wrong with it. Fluid bearing drives are as silent as it can get.

 

[lazybum131]

It might be a defective unit, but I think he's just talking about seek noise. Wouldn't the fluid bearings affect the disk whine, not the seeks?
The 7200.7 seek noise is suppose to be a lot louder then the Barricuda IV's, and you can't turn on AAM to reduce the noise. But then again, you can't be sure it's normal unless you got other identical drives to compare to.

 

[yhelothar]

I think you can download a utility that tells the drive run at quiet mode by seeking slightly slower.

 

[tallman45]

2.5 bels equates to 25 decibels, is one of the quieter SATA drives, you have built a quiet system if the loudest component is a 25 db disk drive. You may have a bad drive if it is loud.

 

[JimRaynor]

i dunno, just read some of the reviews on newegg, this is something that a lot of people are complaining about. The sata cudas just seem to be noisy. *shrug*

 

[Ionizer86]

Yea, the SATA ones are set to a higher performance mode, but of course, they're going to be louder than the PATA ones as well.

 

[thirdlegstump]

Actually I have 8 of these hooked up to various systems and they all seem noisy during write/read. Sitting idle, it's quiet enough. They are DEFINITELY louder than the B IV's. You also probably got the one without acoustic management. Can you see the PCB under the drive or is it blocked off with a blue foam and a plate of metal?

 

[spclwpns]

Mine are the quietest thing in the box !

I've really never heard mine at all, then again, they're the slowest of the bunch

 

[kiranv]

Originally posted by: deathkoba
Actually I have 8 of these hooked up to various systems and they all seem noisy during write/read. Sitting idle, it's quiet enough. They are DEFINITELY louder than the B IV's. You also probably got the one without acoustic management. Can you see the PCB under the drive or is it blocked off with a blue foam and a plate of metal?

I got a pair and I can see the PCB. Actually haven't installed them yet but I'm curious whether or not I'll need earplugs when they're installed