How loud is too loud for mechanical HDDs?

[GoStumpy]

I've had one HDD fail on me in the past, and now I may be paranoid about the sounds my HDD makes...

I just made my PC nearly silent, and now the only real noise I hear is the crunching of the HDD as it seeks... Should I be able to hear that? It's a brand new WD Caviar Blue 1TB drive... I have other HDD's that are quieter that are much older than this one...

Thanks!

 

[Saracen]

Caviar Blues aren't noted for being the quietest drives available, but I have two (640GB) in this machine, and I struggle to hear them if I've got my ears 6 inches from them, at the side of the case with the cover off. I know, 'cos I just tried it. I can hear a very quiet clicking if I do a full file search (such as all .xls files), but that's it.

However, it's not the world's quietest machine either. It's a bit case with a 200mm main fan, 5 * 120mm case fans and two more in the PSU. Even though they're fairly quiet, shifting all that air causes an audible whir. So there's a modest amount of ambient noise from the case. Put it this way, I can just about hear the fans from about 10-12 feet away, but can't really hear two drives with my ears all but pressed up against them.

It's hard to give you a categoric answer, though. First, mine are the 640's not the 1TBs, and second, what sounds like a "very quiet clicking" to me might be a "crunching" to you. It's a very subjective matter.

Hope that helps.

 

[Blain]

How loud is too loud for mechanical HDDs?

47dB @ 1 meter

 

[deimos3428]

You can probably hear the HDD because you struggled so hard to make everything else quiet. If you haven't already, one thing that can help is rubber mounts on the screws, to isolate the vibrations.

 

[Concillian]

Drives make crunchy seek noises, I wouldn't worry about it.

Suspend it and you won't hear it anymore.

Go to REI and buy some 1/8" shock cord it's like 15 cents a foot or something. Make a couple loops going through screw holes in the unused 5 1/4" bays in your case and twist the loops to get the tension to hold the drive (slide the drive between the loops.)

This is how I've run my 3 1/2" drives for almost 10 years. Quiets the seek crunching noises WAY down. Like eliminates it unless you really listen for it quiet.

Like this, but with a 3 1/2" drive in a 5 1/4" bay instead of a 2.5" drive in a 3.5" bay:
http://10n.ca/images/suspension.jpg

 

[exdeath]

Check SMART data, if it's ok don't worry about it. Should always have backups anyway, right?

Now my usual answer: anything more than 0 db for a hard drive is bad because that means it's a slow obsolete crappy mechanical drive and that crunchy sound means you are moving data at ab astounding 2 MB/sec random access rate...

 

[Coup27]

I had 2 caviar blue 500's which were silent. Later I got a caviar blue 1000 which I can hear crunching away. Unless it's uber loud, it's normal for hdds to make noise reading or writing data.

 

[Blain]

Now my usual answer: anything more than 0 db for a hard drive is bad because that means it's a slow obsolete crappy mechanical drive and that crunchy sound means you are moving data at ab astounding 2 MB/sec random access rate...

:sneaky: If I remember correctly, your "usual answer" also involves some mention of "1950's technology"

 

[Macproman]

Listen:
http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php
()

 

[coffeejunkee]

I have the same hdd. It is indeed fairly noisy and also vibrates a lot, especially compared to my other green drives, but it seems to be a feature of the model so I wouldn't worry too much. I used it to replace 2 older 5000AAKS drives which produced much less noise/vibrations. Not really sure why the 1TB Caviar is so noisy.

Also, always make backups, funny noises or not.

 

[jhansman]

My aging Samsung F1s (one internal, the other in an external housing) are both pleasantly quiet. The 74 GB WD Raptor I used to boot with was annoyingly noisy. Now I boot silently.

 

[tommylommykins]

IMO disk noise is heavily influenced by the case the disk goes in. I made my disks almost inaudible by putting them in a case which had rubber feet in the disk trays.

 

[corkyg]

IMO disk noise is heavily influenced by the case the disk goes in. I made my disks almost inaudible by putting them in a case which had rubber feet in the disk trays.

Good idea. I never hear my HDDs mainly because they are in a full tower case that is under the desk. I bare hear the cooling fans, but that's good - lets me know that things are running OK. The only way I know a hard drive runs is to look down and see if the LED on the case is flashing.

 

[peonyu]

My Caviar Black is the loudest thing in my system [or was], its not the noise that is bad, its the vibration it makes. Put it next to anything metal or solid and the noise becomes un bearable. I ended up taking it out of the case and putting it on some foam, now its silent.

 

[peonyu]

IMO disk noise is heavily influenced by the case the disk goes in. I made my disks almost inaudible by putting them in a case which had rubber feet in the disk trays.

A good case helps, but some drives are just prone to vibrate way more than others do. The WD black I have, if you put a penny on it will wobble off pretty quick, its that bad. Rubber feet is not enough for some drives.

 

[coffeejunkee]

IMO disk noise is heavily influenced by the case the disk goes in. I made my disks almost inaudible by putting them in a case which had rubber feet in the disk trays.

My case has sophisticated drive bays with all kinds of rubber stuff but this hdd still made my case resonate.

Solved it by suspending the drive in elastics.

 

[thelastjuju]

I actually have three WD 1tb's, the WD1001FALS..

Interestingly enough, the first two I got are almost dead silent.. first two were manufactured in late 09.. the newest one I got was manufactured late 2010.. the late 2010 model sounds like a friggin popcorn maker when it seeks, and even has a much louder idling vibration going on. When you put your finger on it when seeking, you really FEEL it seek when compared to the other two.

Is WD cutting back, or are some drives just by chance going to be quieter than others?

 

[coffeejunkee]

That is certainly interesting. I'm assuming TS is talking about the 1000EALX (or EALS sata 3Gbps version) and I've heard more people complain about noise/vibration. The 1002FAEX Caviar Black is known to be noisy as well. Seems to me something changed over at WD during the 1001FALS time. Where are your drives manufactured, Thailand or Malaysia? (mine is from Thailand)

 

[thelastjuju]

Wow, I don't know how I never noticed that before .. but the newer and nosier drive was manufactured in MALAYSIA, while all my other ones were from THAILAND! I even have a few WD 640GB's (6401AALS) and they too are silent and made in Thailand..

Anyone else able to weigh in on this? I'm very interested to know why it seems that over time, hard drive reliability seems to be going down, not up. I thought by now I'd have a massive 10TB drive or something.. but I can't even find 3TB drives that don't have unusually high failure rates.

 

[dbcooper1]

Yeah, it can have as much to do with the case/mounting as the drive itself. Rubber feet instead of hard plastic or soft, pliable bushings for the drive mounting can greatly reduce the amount of noise transmitted. As far as how much is too much? I don't know, but I know it when I hear it- depends greatly on the environment as well, including time of day in many instances at home.

 

[Concillian]

A good case helps, but some drives are just prone to vibrate way more than others do. The WD black I have, if you put a penny on it will wobble off pretty quick, its that bad. Rubber feet is not enough for some drives.

A good case helps, but rubber bushings are really only a marginal improvement compared to suspending, in my experience.

 

[Mark R]

It's just worth mentioning that suspending or rubber mounting a hard drive could potentially affect its performance.

The drive actuator mechanism is balanced for a rigid mounting. If the actuator can cause the drive to swing around, it can potentially degrade the seeks by making them go marginally off course.

RAID edition drives incorporate gyroscopes and vibration sensors which are used to compensate the actuator mechanism in case the drive rattles around (12 drives in RAID seeking together can shake even the stiffest of cases). However, these expensive components are omitted in desktop drives.

If you're going to suspend a drive, it would be sensible to benchmark it before and after to be sure that you aren't degrading performance

 

[Tsavo]

I actually have three WD 1tb's, the WD1001FALS..

Interestingly enough, the first two I got are almost dead silent.. first two were manufactured in late 09.. the newest one I got was manufactured late 2010.. the late 2010 model sounds like a friggin popcorn maker when it seeks, and even has a much louder idling vibration going on. When you put your finger on it when seeking, you really FEEL it seek when compared to the other two.

Is WD cutting back, or are some drives just by chance going to be quieter than others?

I got my 1001FALS in 2008 I think, and it sounds like a tin coffee can full of ball bearings being shaken. It was so annoying that I set it to quiet operation with aam software...totally obviating any performance the black may had. Not to mention it vibrates like mad, so I've got it set on a foam pad. Further is has an oscillating 3Hz hum. What an annoying drive.

All my Samsung desktop drives are silent and vibration free, and totally murder WD's in performance.

 

[Rvenger]

A lot of drives are single platter now which can produce more seek noise I believe. I noticed the recent WD blue drives are much noisier and have a high pitched whine that gets on my nerves!

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Listen:
http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php
()

Great link! Ill have to keep this on mind.