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How loud is the WD Raptor 74gb?

G

Gerbil333

Diamond Member
How loud are the Raptors? I heard the mp3 here at AnandTech, but that's relative...it depends on how loud my speakers are turned up. Can someone compare its loudness to other hard drives, like Seagate 7200.7's, Samsung, and Hitachi SATA drives?

I'm either going to upgrade to a 74gb Raptor now and a Samsung/Seagate for storage, but only if the Raptor is quiet enough. My WD400JB sure isn't.

Edit:
Scroll down to see my opinion, or:

Cliff Notes
-Raptor Idle noise is silent
-Raptor seek noise is loud, but only because it shakes my case, making it sound louder than it really is
-I like seek noise; I don't like idle noise. The Raptor meets those expectations and I'm very content with it.
-Fast (duh)
 
Compared to my old WD 120 caviar it is loud, but that is not saying much. Only during read/writes is it audible and if your listening to music you will surely not hear it at all! Compared to seagate and WD 7200's its loud, but again that is not saying much for the 7200 HD's are virtually silent to my ears.
 
I think its pretty damn loud. But mines in a SNG95G5 barbone so i have the thing 2 feet away from my face and those little cases are really sound profe. If i knew it was this loud i wouldnt have got it becuase i hate loud computers.
 
Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Ok, so it's loud. Is it worth the noise and extra $?
Click to expand...


Originally posted by: JBDan
It was for me 🙂
Click to expand...


People talk about how loud the Western Digital Raptor 74 GB is. I have two of them in a RAID 0 array and I have no problems with the noise it emits. In fact in my opinion they are as quiet as any other hard drive I have owned. Maybe the case (and case fans) makes a difference about drive noise. I like the performance I have from them compared to my slower hard drives.

I'm glad I went with the Raptor drives for the price and performance I get from them. They are worth it especially when I do my video editing and some gaming. Mi dos centavos.
 
Mine isn't loud when its idle infact I think it is inaudible. Now when it reads and writes its another story it is quite loud but not any louder than my old 40 GB Maxtor with fluid bearings, but I like to hear it when it does stuff like that.
 
Could any of you record your system for about 30 seconds to demonstrate idle and seek noise? The one on the AnandTech review was too brief and didn't have mush seeking.
 
Of all my HDDs, it's the loudest.

For a silent PC, a Raptor would not be the way to go.

I have enough cheap noisy case fans though that i don't really mind.
 
it doesn't make a continous whinning or what, just periodically clicks when idling and access. In terms of
that, is is loud.
Well, it depends on people, I am sensitive to these clicks, so returned it.
 
mine is quieter than any fan in my system.
my cdrom drive is louder.

my fans/cooling pretty much drown out everything (even people 🙂 and the tv) so i never noticed the drive making noise without putting my ear to the case.
guess that says enough
 
Loudest hardware in my case.

Have 2 Raptors, which I bought at different times, so probably not from the same batch, and man, these are the loudest hard drives I have ever heard! Totally unbearable for me.

I'm getting a Samsung 200GB SATA drive shortly, which I've read are not far behind the Raptors as far as performance, plus they are super quiet.

 
Originally posted by: Trey22
Loudest hardware in my case.

Have 2 Raptors, which I bought at different times, so probably not from the same batch, and man, these are the loudest hard drives I have ever heard! Totally unbearable for me.
Click to expand...

Loud idle noise, or loud seek noise? I don't care about seek noise. I like to hear my hd seek and I am more bothered by not hearing it. I absolutely hate loud idle noise though. I can't stand my Seagate 120gb drive because it has a super high pitched whine.
 
If its your system and you fans are 28dba or greater with fan grills (which cause whooshing sounds) then it will be worth it. however if you get quiet fans and your fans dont make whooshing sounds, i think a raptor will be heard a lot. my 36gb's is pretty quiet though, but you can definitly hear it when its seeking. otherwise, it justs emits a high pitched sound that isnt too bothersome. i have headphones that cancel out backround noise, and my computer is under my desk so i dont mind noise that much.

if someone where smart, they would make a device that cancels out the noise that hard drives and fans make. If it were cost effective without problems, that company/person would make a lot of money. its a sure bet dell/compaq and many computer enthusiasts would use them.
 
Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Originally posted by: Trey22
Loudest hardware in my case.

Have 2 Raptors, which I bought at different times, so probably not from the same batch, and man, these are the loudest hard drives I have ever heard! Totally unbearable for me.
Click to expand...

Loud idle noise, or loud seek noise? I don't care about seek noise. I like to hear my hd seek and I am more bothered by not hearing it. I absolutely hate loud idle noise though. I can't stand my Seagate 120gb drive because it has a super high pitched whine.
Click to expand...

My 74 gig is silent when idle
 
I just got a pair of WD 74 GB raptors from NewEgg. I also got a 250 GB 7200 RPM WD drive.
I installed all three in my Antec case. (the raptors are in RAID 0)

I can hardy even hear the 7200 RPM WD drive when it is seeking. It's only the faintest whisper of a sound. (So I know the case is not noisy.)

But the Raptors.... I think there must really be raptors in those drives making all that noise! It sounds like someone is shooting a machine gun inside the PC case during active seek. (Otherwise quiet during idle)

Here is the mystery, and I welcome your thoughts on this. Before my current PC, I had a Dell XPS which also had two Raptors. Those Raptors were quiet as little mice. Couldn't hear a thing. These two are far noisier.

I know its not one defective raptor. (I know the noise is coming from both Raptors because I've configured the drives as regular IDE drives in the BIOS and run DOS read and write tests and heard it during tests of each drive. )

I'm rather disappointed. I went through alot of trouble to build a quiet PC and now these are the loudest equipment I own.

Either WD had variable quality with so people get quiet drives and others get noisy drives or Dell had some special WD drive that isn't otherwise available.

 
Besides Seagate Barracudas, what other hard drives are quiet? I've been sticking with Seagate in my near-silent PC, but I think it's time for me to branch out into other brands. Last time I looked at specs from various manufacturers, on average, Seagate had the quietest drive. I think Samsung was next, followed by Hitachi and Maxtor, which were neck to neck. WD had the loudest drives by a good margin.

The thing is, some people have said that they can't hear their WD drives at all. However, I have yet to see a WD drive with a db rating under 30 when idle. And I would think that "silent" should require 25-27 db or less (although maybe this depends on the design of your case and how sensitive you are to noise). This makes me wonder if some manufacturer measures their acoustic ratings differently.

So what are your personal experiences? What other hard drives can be put into a PC that is designed to be quiet?
 
The quietest drive I've used is a Samsung 120gb SATA 8mb cache drive. My Seagate 120gb ATA 8mb cache hd has a high pitched whine and louder seek noise, and my Segate 40gb has similar noises, but not as bad. However, the Samsung was in an Antec Sonata. That may have had something to do with the quietness.
 
Originally posted by: Gerbil333
Originally posted by: Trey22
Loudest hardware in my case.

Have 2 Raptors, which I bought at different times, so probably not from the same batch, and man, these are the loudest hard drives I have ever heard! Totally unbearable for me.
Click to expand...

Loud idle noise, or loud seek noise? I don't care about seek noise. I like to hear my hd seek and I am more bothered by not hearing it. I absolutely hate loud idle noise though. I can't stand my Seagate 120gb drive because it has a super high pitched whine.
Click to expand...

mine is almost silent when idle

when it's seeking though, you definitely know it - it's a loud sound, nothing like the quiet whirring of my wd2500jd
 
I'll see what I think...I'm definetly going for a Raptor. Speed, reliability, and quiet idle noise are all I ask for.
 
I've spent a week with my shiny new 74gb Raptor, and I'm completely satisfied 😀

Idle noise is non-existent, which is what I'd hoped for because I could plainly hear my WD400JB idle, and that drove me mad. The Raptor's seek noise is fierce, but rewarding. I've never minded seek noise. The heads move so quickly that my case panels shake. I don't think the drive itself is noisy, but rather the heads move with so much speed and force that it shakes the crap out of my tower; if I apply pressure to the front and side panels of my case, the seek noise hushes significantly. This doesn't bother me at all.

Performance is phenomenal, as expected. My Raptor's HDTach scores blow away my old WD400JB, and I can really feel the difference. My computer boots up about 10 seconds faster than before and programs launch much faster. With my last hard drive, programs didn't feel this responsive until they'd already been running (stored in the RAM). The Raptor makes apps seem like everything is already in the RAM. That's very nice 🙂

While typing this post, I haven't even heard a peep out of the drive. I'm glad to say that the WD Raptor 74gb is the best hd I've owned so far, and I've owned a fair number of drives (back to ~200mb drives). Hopefully its reliability will prove to be as great as the warranty hints at...
 
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