PS3 320GB Optical drive noise

[RampantAndroid]

Hi all,

Just bought a PS3 slim - the serial is CECH-3001B. Playing a DVD, I noticed some noise on loading the disc (pretty loud) and then it got pretty quiet.

I loaded Heavy Rain and once installed, started playing. I hear the drive seeking often enough, and it's loud. It's not always loud, but the head moving seems to be loud. Is this normal? I'm under the impression that 3001B means the unit is extremely new? I've also read people claiming the newest units have louder drives?

Does my drive sound normal? Better, why does an installed game even need to spin the disc up? My Xbox, once the game is installed, doesn't spin the drive other than at load time for the game itself. Should I walk the thing back to the store and ask for an exchange?

Thanks!
RA

Edit: Example - first scene of heavy rain, as I walked around the bedroom, I could hear the drive moving the laser assembly around. It was bad enough that I just turned it off and wrote this post. I'd like to be happy with my purchase, but this is loud enough that I can't believe it's normal.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Many PS3 games only do partial installs, not a full disc install like on the 360. A full blu-ray disc can contain up to 50 GB of data so not doing a full install can be a good thing.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Many PS3 games only do partial installs, not a full disc install like on the 360. A full blu-ray disc can contain up to 50 GB of data so not doing a full install can be a good thing.

Isn't it 200GB actually? And there are some XBox games that are 2 or more discs (one I remember hits 4) which is what 36GB? And you're allowed to install all of it too. If you have the space, you should be allowed to install it, IMO.

Anyway, any word on the noise levels?

 

[Ross Ridge]

My PlayStation 3 is pretty loud when it loads disks, but its fairly quiet when playing them.

 

[RampantAndroid]

My PlayStation 3 is pretty loud when it loads disks, but its fairly quiet when playing them.

But can you hear the laser seeking/moving while playing?

 

[Ross Ridge]

But can you hear the laser seeking/moving while playing?

I can hear it, but I can hear the hard drives's head seeking too. It's barely audible over the fan, which is pretty quiet.

 

[ManBearPig]

i kinda of had a similar problem when i bought mine (model 2500 or something). its really NOT as quiet as everyone says...i think its just a lot quieter than previous Xbox 360s so people made a big deal about it, i dunno though.

 

[leper]

But can you hear the laser seeking/moving while playing?

I think this depends on the game. Red Dead Redemption, for example, is quite noisy as it is constantly loading data whereas other games like Crysis 2 seem to load up an area and the disc is quite as you move throught it (partial install probably helps too.)

 

[I4AT]

Isn't it 200GB actually? And there are some XBox games that are 2 or more discs (one I remember hits 4) which is what 36GB? And you're allowed to install all of it too. If you have the space, you should be allowed to install it, IMO.

Anyway, any word on the noise levels?

25GB or 50GB for dual layer.