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Quiet ATA HDDs: Seagate or Maxtor?

J

JPS

Golden Member
I need some more space (gee, imagine that) and I am torn between getting another Maxtor DiamondMAX Plus 9 or a Seagate Baracuda IV. I am trying to make my system more quiet and I am curious which of these two drives you all find the quietest and most reliable. I will not be putting in any sound enclosures or suspension setups, just staright mouting to the HDD cage.

TIA for your input...
 
Definitely Seagate. The Barracuda 7200.7 is already very quiet, while the IV is probably next to inaudible.

THe DM9+ I have seeks pretty loud. It's annoying.
 
I use a Barracuda IV and I can't hear it running. I installed a new mobo that was defective recently; it wouldn't boot. I thought the HDD wasn't running even though it was. I'm building a new system and plan on using the Barracuda SATA 7200.7 or a Hitachi but I'm leaning toward the Seagate. Not sure yet , though.
 
Originally posted by: Ionizer86
Definitely Seagate. The Barracuda 7200.7 is already very quiet, while the IV is probably next to inaudible.

THe DM9+ I have seeks pretty loud. It's annoying.
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The Seagate will win hands down. I've got both. The Maxtor is quiet, but I can hear it seek. The Seagate is silent. I can't tell if it's on or not, and I haven't heard it seek yet, even after formatting and installing Windows and all my programs and games!
 
hands down, seagate is the most quiet. although i hear you can tweak the diamondmax plus9 so that it runs quieter...
 
maxtor is pretty quiet.. except it's very loud when it seeks.. though yes you can download this utility which can quiet it down, at the cost of performance.
 
I usually favor Maxtor drives but when I buy a SATA drive for my system I'm probably going with a Seagate model. I dream of getting a Raptor but I am trying to quiet down my computer and the small increase in real world speed of the Raptor over a Seagate SATA drive is too small to overcome the increase in noise.
 
If you get the IBM Hitachi Feature Tools, you can adjust the Maxtor's AAM (Acoustic Audio Management) so that it seeks quieter. But performance gets hit. Right now, the way I set my drives, my Maxtor DM9+ is like about 15% slower than my 7200.7, and it's still a tad louder than the Seagate at seeking. But it's a lot quieter than out of the box though (and a bit slower too)
 
For a Maxtor, it's probably better to use their own acoustic management tool:
http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/olh_adp.php?p_faqid=1200

The large, modern Maxtor's I've seen default to the /FAST mode, which is the middle ground. I'd be interested in hearing more results from changing /fast to /quiet.

/off - Turns Acoustic Management off, the drive operates at normal acoustic levels
/quiet - Quietest seeks, the speed of the seek operation is reduced to its lowest level to provide the quietest operations, this level has the most impact on drive performance.
/fast - Fastest seeks, the speed of the seek operation is reduced to provide quieter operation with the least amount of impact on the drive performance.
 
I have both and the Maxtor can be just as quiet yet is faster at least at any equivalent AAM setting, if not indeed even at disparate settings favoring the Seagate. The higher density and 8MB cache makes a huge difference, especially at large copying operations like making backup images and unarchiving movies. If the HDD cage is removeable, then you may consider placing it on some foam at the bottom of the case -that way the cage acts as a sturdy mount to eliminate minor performance loss from loose suspension, plus acts as a heatsink, yet will not transfer vibration to the case to be amplified into noise.
 
I recently replaced a Barracuda IV 40gb with a Barracuda Plus 7200.7 120gb. Both drives are excetionally quiet. In fact, it is hard to tell if they are running. I had the acoustic Mgmt on the IV turned off and I still could not hear it running. The 7200.7 is the faster of the two so I would suggest this drive since it is virtually silent. I've been very happy with both drives and would buy another if I needed on right now.
 
Originally posted by: Davegod
seagate.

btw they have 8mb cache versions now also.
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Not in the stated IV and the newer ones oft lack AAM. I was a "fan" of Seagate when they were the manufacturer of quiet and reasonable performance drives. But they are no longer the only choice, nor necessarily the best one.
 
Yeah, but from everything I've been reading lately, Seagate seems to have an edge on reliability issues -- can't underestimate the value of that.
 
I've had 2 barracuda IVs (first died, had to RMA 🙁), and they're both completely silent. You literally have to put your ear ON the drive to hear anything.
 
Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey

I've had 2 barracuda IVs (first died, had to RMA 🙁), and they're both completely silent. You literally have to put your ear ON the drive to hear anything.
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I had one of three IV's crap out. As said, the Plus9 can be as quiet yet is supremely faster. And if you want to compare equivalent generation, the 'cuda's lack AAM. So it's game, set match: Maxtor.
 
Seagate, Maxtor and WD all use fluid bearing drives now. So the difference in noise shouldn't be that much - but historically Seagate drives have been the most quiet, particularly back when the Barracude IV's came out.
 
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