Installed a new power supply. Now my hard drive is louder?

[Dankk]

Just a couple weeks ago, I put a new power supply in my machine. My old one was an OCZ unit of questionable quality and with a lot of annoying coil whine, so I bought a new one. Someone on the forums recommended I get a Rosewill Capstone 450w. So far it's been a great new PSU.

But since I installed it, I've noticed something.... my hard drive has gotten considerably louder. How could this be? It's a Hitachi Deskstar 2TB drive, and for the past ~7 months that I've owned it, it's been pretty damn quiet. After installing the new PSU and re-wiring my PC, it's noticeably louder now. No apparent reason.

I don't hear any "clicks of death", or any noises that would lead me to believe it's dying. But you know the tiny noises an HD makes when reading/writing, or seeking, or whatever? Those noises have become 3x as loud. It's the traditional noises that a hard drive would make, but suddenly a lot louder.

When the drive is idling, it makes no noises. Just regular stuff like loading files and loading Steam games triggers the noise. Regular hard drive activity, really.

I've seen no reductions in performance. Everything loads the same speed as before. In addition, I've ran a full disk check, looked at SMART data multiple times via HD Tune and CrystalDiskInfo, and I've even ran the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test in Advanced mode to see if it passes. Every diagnostic utility I throw at this hard drive, it passes with flying colors.

What do you guys think? Can a drive pass multiple tests and still be on the verge of failure? Am I looking into these noises a little too much? Does the new PSU have something to do with it? Did I bump the HD around a little too much?

Currently I have the hard drive removed from it's regular 3.5" cage, and suspended it with some bungee cords underneath a 5-1/4" bay to reduce noise (trust me, I've done this before, it's not as ghetto as it sounds). It's definitely helped the noise a little bit, but the noises are still obvious. You know it's fairly loud when the hard drive is sitting in a noise-reducing suspension holder and you can still hear noise coming from it.

For reference, I'm one of those people who puts their computer on their desk, right next to their head. I like to be able to have my computer off the ground so I can hear and see it.

What do you guys think? For reference, this is my hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475 (edit: fixed link)

 

[philipma1957]

could it be the old psu was so loud it masked the hdd sound?

 

[KingFatty]

Another possibility is that somehow your bungee suspsension hanger may be variable in how it works. Perhaps you jostled it just enough, during the PSU swap, that now it somehow amplifies the sounds from the hard drive? Maybe re-bungee it and see if that changes it, or while it's making noise, fiddle with the bungee cords and see if the volume varies.

 

[Tuna-Fish]

White noise has the ability to mask sounds, so that you don't distinctly hear the other sounds it is masking, you just hear the white noise a bit louder. (That's sort of why singing in the shower sounds better than usually -- the white noise masks the discordant parts of your voice.) This might well be what's happening here.

 

[taltamir]

maybe the old PSU generated waves that interacted with the noise from HDD via destructive interference to cancel out sound (this is a joke, its highly implausible that they would remain in sync)

The reality of the thing is that your brain has a built in amplifier for audio signals coming in which it adjusts upwards the quieter things are. On a really quiet night in the desert you can hear people talking normally from up to several miles, and old people whose hearing starts to go end up with Tinnitus where they hear static and other noises you get when you have your amplifier set very high without an input.

Furthermore, your brain has layers of signal processing... a repeating expected signal will eventually be ignored by the brain and then even blocked at a local nerve node before being even sent to the brain, until it changes at which point you become aware of it again. And your attention would automatically focus on the most "distracting" noise first.

So there are all kinds of physiological and neurological mechanisms that could cause you to perceive something as noisier now that a really loud PSU was removed.

anyways, I suggest you get an SSD.

 

[tweakboy]

I really think its your PSU. It just feels like the sound is coming from hard drive.
I never heard of a PSU making a hard drive sound louder.
You need to test another PSU like borrow a friends or something.
Then you see if the noise is there.

Don't think its HD. BTW Hitachi is not the best hard drives out there.
Try another power cable on the drive. Try changing the sata cable.
Out of ideas.

Worst case RMA roswell if it turns around and its your PSU instead of HD. gl

 

[corkyg]

I suggest you get an SSD.

A very interesting read - and, I have yet to hear a sound out of my SSD.

I do agree about the brain adjusting to different threshholds of sound.

At the same time, the change in PSU involved moving and accessing cables and connectors. It is very possible that one moved so it causes HDD vibration to be picked up more. I don't see it as an indication of imminent drive failure.

 

[taltamir]

At the same time, the change in PSU involved moving and accessing cables and connectors. It is very possible that one moved so it causes HDD vibration to be picked up more. I don't see it as an indication of imminent drive failure.

This reminds me of how shock absorbers work for tennis rackets... you could very well be right and it was simply a case of the previous PSU absorbing vibrations from the HDD thus muffling the sound.

 

[Zap]

Maybe cabling on the new PSU is stiffer, and contacting the case near the HDD?

 

[KingFatty]

Hey maybe a cord/cable was pushing just the right way to damp out the sounds before. Like, maybe a cord from the old PSU was touching against the HDD and was like a vibration damper.

Try bundling up something against the HDD to damp the vibrations, maybe a spare cable or extra cable from the new PSU.

 

[Dankk]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm convinced it's not psychological; the increase in noise after working inside my PC case is quite obvious. Perhaps there really was something about my previous configuration that was dampening noise - a coincidentally-placed PSU cable or something - and now the vibrations from my hard drive aren't being dampened anymore.

I'm tempted to get this and call it good: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/3040/noi-05/FrozenCPU_HDD_Noise_Reduction_System.html Basically two giant blocks of rubber. It looks like an effective, permanent workaround for the noise.

 

[taltamir]

So there are all kinds of physiological and neurological mechanisms that could cause you to perceive something as noisier now that a really loud PSU was removed.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm convinced it's not psychological

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiological
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological

There is a difference between the two. Unless you measure with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_level_meter then the biological reasons I explained earlier are why you should not be so sure of that.

 

[hhhd1]

This is a DIY solution, it is more effective than many other solutions:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article8-page2.html

tested myself and its great.

 

[taltamir]

This is a DIY solution, it is more effective than many other solutions:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article8-page2.html

tested myself and its great.

The OP explicitly states he has the HDD suspended via bungee cables exactly like what your link says to do

 

[Dankk]

Thanks for the clarification, taltamir. You may have a good point.

The DIY hard drive suspension method is decent enough, but assuming you physically move around your case at all whatsoever, it can be unsafe. The hard drive moves and swings around inside the case, potentially bumping into the side of the cage, or worse, it can fall out altogether and sustain permanent damage.

I should mention that my hard drive is quite heavy... probably heavier than most hard drives. Even with the elastics, it sags quite a bit. I also have to balance it to make sure it doesn't slip out of place and fall. But with the solution I posted above (the thick rubber blocks), it should provide effective noise dampening while still having the strength and stability of mounting the HD directly into it's cage. I can move around my PC freely with nothing swinging around inside.

Thanks again guys. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

In my quest to make my computer as near as possible to silent, every time I've changed out a "loud" part, another, quieter noise is revealed and suddenly it seems the computer is as loud as it was before. I'd say there's a good chance some of the effect OP is experiencing is psychological.

 

[tweakboy]

A very interesting read - and, I have yet to hear a sound out of my SSD.

I do agree about the brain adjusting to different threshholds of sound.

At the same time, the change in PSU involved moving and accessing cables and connectors. It is very possible that one moved so it causes HDD vibration to be picked up more. I don't see it as an indication of imminent drive failure.

LOL silly. If nand flash makes noise then this world is coming to a end! lol

But lets get serious now poor guy is suffering. Ok go and download CrystalDisk info ,,,,, and see if it says GOOD on your hard drive. gl