RV Sensor, RPM, and Storage HDD for PC Build Questions

[rovopio]

i'm about to build my 1st PC. i've bought several components of it already and have decided what to buy on the rest. The only thing i hvn't decided is the HDD. i'm going to use the HDD as storage, and the SSD as boot drive.

i'm building a quiet system. i didn't know before today that HDD contributes to Quiet PC noise. I will buy 2 or 3 more internal HDD for storage over the next couple of months.

i hv a couple of questions regarding which drive to choose. I read that a WD Red HDD is ideal for a quiet PC because its less noisy than a barracuda. I'm leaning more towards barracuda because of it's higher RPM.

1) i just finished reading WD red drive review link wd red review. the reviewer said "WD Red don’t employ rotational vibration sensors, which is another reason they're being positioned as solutions in smaller storage systems, and not big racks loaded down with spinning disks that weather more severe vibrations.". After reading that i googled the meaning of rotational vibration sensors. and then i arrived here link RV sensor.

It said "Additionally, enterprise-class drives must also maintain high performance levels in multi-drive configurations where physical vibrations transmitted through a cabinet occur. This phenomenon is known as Rotational Vibration (RV)..... RV itself is a twisting/torqing type action experienced by a hard drive inside a cabinet...... The main sources of RV energy are: 1) the drive’s self-actuation 2) additional drives inside the cabinet accessing data, and 3) external forces acting on the cabinet."


basically.. my question is um... i'm going to buy a total of 2tb drive x 3 or 4 in the next couple of months. So i will "stack couple drives" on my case.
Should i be concern about Rotational vibration if i choose WD Red when i "stack 3 drives" on my rig...?
Does WD green / WD blue / Seagate barracuda have a rotational vibration sensor? or is that RV sensor an enterprise-drive only feature?


2) If i'm watching a video file, will the HDD get noisy if i choose barracuda / blue over red?
==> When does HDD emits noise? does it emits noise all the time or only when its being accessed? what's the definition of being accessed?


3) i always thought that all things being equal, a 7200 RPM will have better transfer rate than a 5400 RPM, is that understanding wrong?
==> by transfer rate i mean copy / paste-ing large files between drives. For an internal SATA drive does RPM matters to the speed of copy / paste-ing large files?

 

[MoInSTL]

You're going to stack them ON your case or IN your case?

The article you linked to is in an enterprise setting versus desktop for servers and all of those cabinets for the most part contain racks which are rigid pieces of steel. Those drives are working much harder than the desktop you are building.

Just get a case with rubber grommets on the drive sleds to quiet the HDDs some and make sure you have adequate cooling.

I don't know what the specific differences are between those drives. Someone else will have to respond.

Yes, 7,200 RPM is faster. I used to run WD Raptors in a RAID 0. They run at 10,000 RPM. I just sold one and when running it through all of the diagnostics and zeroing it out I had forgotten how loud they were. They also get quite warm.

You didn't mention what you plan on doing with all of those drives except for storage. If it's just storage you have to weigh noise and heat versus performance. You may want to check over at Silent PC for more specifics.