Seagate / Hitachi SATA drives...

[alteredNate]

I'm looking at either the 160 / 250 GB Hitachi SATA drives, or the 200GB Seagate SATA. I've read several reviews claiming that idle noise with the Seagate is REALLY low, however there is a serious grinding sound with accessing - like in drives from 5 years ago.

Any thoughts? I'm looking for a silent drive, but I HATE loud grinding noises when accessing! I think I'm spoiled with my laptop's hitachi drive - I know it's slow, but I can barely hear it when it's accessing!

 

[imported_Phil]

I have the PATA 200Gb 8Mb cache Seagate, and it's virtually silent. The only noise is a slight fluttering now and then when it thrashes.

Google "hitachi mew noise" and read.

 

[alteredNate]

I wonder if that's the same for the SATA?

 

[Blain]

My 160GB Seagate SATA is laying on my desk about 24" from my right ear.
It is very quiet. It does make short "grunting-like" sounds when seeking. But even with it laying on my desk, it's not as loud as my ATI HS/fan.
It will really be quiet when I get it stuffed away in a case... some day. :laugh:

 

[edelbrock]

I have 2 - 200GB and a 160 GB SATA Seagate. The 160 is the new NCQ enabled one. I don't know why but it is much louder during seeking than the 200's.

 

[alteredNate]

Originally posted by: Blain
My 160GB Seagate SATA is laying on my desk about 24" from my right ear.
It is very quiet. It does make short "grunting-like" sounds when seeking. But even with it laying on my desk, it's not as loud as my ATI HS/fan.
It will really be quiet when I get it stuffed away in a case... some day. :laugh:

Thanks for the info... which ATI card do you have?

 

[alteredNate]

Originally posted by: edelbrock
I have 2 - 200GB and a 160 GB SATA Seagate. The 160 is the new NCQ enabled one. I don't know why but it is much louder during seeking than the 200's.

Yeah, it seems as though all Segate drives are not created equal - even the same model. I read a review of one guy who bought a SATA 200GB when they first came out in may, and said it's nearly silent while seaking... and he bought another in september and it makes all sorts of noise! Weird! I was just trying to get some more opinions...

Thanks!

 

[Blain]

The "grunting-like" sound is very slight.
I have an AIW 9800 (stock HS/fan). It too is in the MB laying about 24" from my right ear.

 

[wchou]

most seagate hd do not have noise acoustic management built in therefore it makes noise during access.
noise acoustic greatly reduces access time as well from quietest at 19ms to quiet 16ms and off @ 13ms
noise is created from fast access, by slowing the head down noise is reduced.
a car makes more noise at 100mph then it does at 50mph... simple mechanics.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: edelbrock
I have 2 - 200GB and a 160 GB SATA Seagate. The 160 is the new NCQ enabled one. I don't know why but it is much louder during seeking than the 200's.

It's been mentioned at Storagereview.com. Also, Seagate SATA drives tend to run louder than their PATA drives. My 200GB Seagate SATA drive is much louder than the 120GB PATA drive I have in another PC. I won a Seagate SATAII NCQ 160GB drive and am waiting for delivery. I hope it's not too loud.

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: wchou
most seagate hd do not have noise acoustic management built in therefore it makes noise during access.
noise acoustic greatly reduces access time as well from quietest at 19ms to quiet 16ms and off @ 13ms
noise is created from fast access, by slowing the head down noise is reduced.
a car makes more noise at 100mph then it does at 50mph... simple mechanics.

I have two WD800JB drives with adapters in RAID0 on ICH5R SATA (Abit IC7-G). The drives drop out intermittently. I read a WD KB article that says this is due to acoustic noise management. It sounds as though this could affect drives on SATA channels as well.

Why do EIDE drives disappear from the IDE RAID array or system after a short period of error-free operation?

Problem:
WD EIDE drives are dropped from an IDE RAID array or system after several days or weeks of error-free operation.

Solution:
The problem is a result of a feature that reduces idle acoustic noise in desktop drives. This feature may cause a timeout likely (though not exclusively) in an IDE RAID environment. To disable the feature, you can run a simple Western Digital utility to turn off a single bit in the drive?s run-time configuration. Disabling of this feature will NOT impact normal system operations. No firmware or hardware changes are required.

I ordered two Seagate 200GB SATA drives from Newegg last night. I like Seagate's five year warranty. And I'm glad to hear they don't have acoustic noise management. I'd rather have a dependable drive.

 

[arsbanned]

How about extremely quiet AND extremely dependable. Yeah, I know, it's a lot to ask. I've got Maxtor 80 gig SATAs and they are silent at all times, at least to my ears.

 

[uOpt]

I have three 7000.7 barracudas PATA 200 GB.

They are very silent idle (can't believe it, actually) and the seek noise is very low, too.

I didn't check whether they are set to performance or noise-reduction seek but short benchmarking indicated I don't have a performance problem.

Very satisfied, although they seem to draw a bit more power than the Maxtors I had.

 

[piroroadkill]

I am a Seagate whore, and have been since 1994. I remember a 254MB Seagate drive, made a shitload of noise, but hell, as far as I know, it still works today, with a few bad sectors.

I've never had a Seagate drive that has failed. I had a 2.1GB Seagate that went a bit funny, and refused to work unless it was master. That's it.

My server has 6 Seagate HDD's, 5 of those happen to be 8MB Cache Barracuda's.

My PC has an 80GB 2Mb cache Barracuda (I needed this drive quickly, since the crappy slim 40GB Maxtor failed after less than a year)...

I have never purchased any drives other than Seagate.

 

[mechBgon]

I set up rigs for a couple of my sisters, one with a PATA Seagate 7200.7 80GB and the other with a PATA Hitachi 120GB. The Seagate's definitely quieter on seeks. The Hitachi idles quietly but has a light clickety-click seek noise almost like my Cheetah 15k.3, just a little more subdued. I wouldn't call either one unpleasant, though. The funky Hitachi "meow" noise could be an issue after you've played too much Doom3 and are trying to get some sleep MP3 of Hitachi's noise

 

[edelbrock]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: edelbrock
I have 2 - 200GB and a 160 GB SATA Seagate. The 160 is the new NCQ enabled one. I don't know why but it is much louder during seeking than the 200's.

It's been mentioned at Storagereview.com. Also, Seagate SATA drives tend to run louder than their PATA drives. My 200GB Seagate SATA drive is much louder than the 120GB PATA drive I have in another PC. I won a Seagate SATAII NCQ 160GB drive and am waiting for delivery. I hope it's not too loud.

Mine is definately louder than my older 200GB drives. I am using the 160 as my boot drive with NCQ enabled. It is noticably faster so I can live with it.

 

[alteredNate]

Thanks for all the info... seems like I'll go with the seagates, even though they are a tad bit more than the hitachis.

I still don't quite understand - is the accoustic management something that exists in all seagates, but is disables by default? Or is is something that appears in only some models? Seems like it's nothing to really want, after reading about that problem with the WDs.

And is NCQ really worth paying extra for, for general desktop use, some large photo / video manipulation, and gaming? I read that it's not all that...

 

[alteredNate]

Originally posted by: Engineer

It's been mentioned at Storagereview.com. Also, Seagate SATA drives tend to run louder than their PATA drives. My 200GB Seagate SATA drive is much louder than the 120GB PATA drive I have in another PC. I won a Seagate SATAII NCQ 160GB drive and am waiting for delivery. I hope it's not too loud.

I just searched storagereview and couldn't find it... any link handy?

 

[Sunner]

Accoustic management is off by default on the S-ATA Cudas, while it's on on their P-ATA models, hence that S-ATA ones are louder by default.
I have both 7200.7's and 7K250's, the P-ATA Cudas are the questest, closely followed by the 7K250(very little difference between these two, neither is annoyingly loud), and the S-ATA Cuda comes in a distant third, being significaly louder than both the others.

As for the "mew noise", IIRC that was an issue with some earlier drives, as well as the 180GXP, none of my 7K250's have it.

IMO, if you want the absolute questest drive, a Cuda with accoustic management is it.
If you're willing to sacrifice some silence for some performance, the 7K250 is your drive.
Cuda with accoustic management off is for people who want a Seagate and are willing to sacrifice silence for performance.

 

[alteredNate]

hmm... ok thanks. So I assume there's a little utility to change the level of accoustic management for the cudas?

 

[Zebo]

Seagates are the quietest drives. As a bonus they carry a 5 yr warranty.

This is not to say seagates are silent which is why I buy smart drive 2002s http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/smartdrive2002.html

to house them but they put all other drives to shame especially WD or Maxtor or HITACHI which all whine and crunch. Only thing close is the samsungs with nidec motors, problem is product code does'nt tell you which motors they are using so B&M is the only way to buy these as it's hit or miss.

 

[alteredNate]

*gulp* at $67 I guess you care alot about a quiet PC! I do too, however I'll have to wait until I get my 2 seagates up and running before deciding to buy those!

Just by chance, what video card do you have, and is it super-quiet? I'm in the market for one of those too... looking for a 6800 but haven't decided which flavor yet. GT may be pushing the wallet a little far...

 

[drpootums]

if u want something almost dead silent just go with Samsung for either the same price or cheaper. They're still fast, cheap, and use liquid berrings. Very quiet!

 

[Zebo]

So it appears seagates are fudging to get their great reviews for low noise huh sunner? I've only used thier PATA drives which you say have acoustic management enabled and it's outstanding... How do I turn it off so I can see what potentially a non-enabled SATA would sound like? Also to see performance diff....

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Zebo
So it appears seagates are fudging to get their great reviews for low noise huh sunner? I've only used thier PATA drives which you say have acoustic management enabled and it's outstanding... How do I turn it off so I can see what potentially a non-enabled SATA would sound like? Also to see performance diff....

I don't know, never changed it, but there's a huge difference between having it on or off.