Thinkpads Forum

I'm considering replace 60GB 5400rpm HDD with 100GB 7200rpm one. I'm considering Seagate because that is the quietest i've used. What do you guys think?

I can't complain about my 40GB, 5400rpm Fujitsu - at least so far. About 15 months and counting. Quiet as a church mouse.

The 40gb Hitachi 5k80 in my ThinkPad 600E is also super quiet and also very reliable. This drive also runs very cool as well.

I can't speak to the 100g but I do have all the machines in my sig running 60g 7200rpm drives and the noise is totally a non issue.

I have both the seagate and hitachi. The seagate is very quiet and fast. However, the Hitachi drives are just as fast, rock solid dependable, fully compatible, and configurable with thinkpads.

Just my 2 cents.

A credit to Western Digital Scorpio 60GB 5400rpm......complete with 3 years warranty. QUiet and cool......

Fresh off slashdot...


http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q2/mo ... dex.x?pg=2

Ah, Tech Report! (I'm on that site...)

Anyway, I gotta agree with them. You can't go wrong going with Seagate.

And, I've still got some sour taste in my mouth from the 60GXP. Also, I had a Travelstar DK20EA-30 (IIRC) in a Dell, and it would randomly corrupt data for no good reason.

Seagate's got that nice 5 year warranty, too, versus three for the Hitachis.

I just replaced a Seagate 60GB 5400 drive in my T23 with a Hitachi 60GB 7200 drive. The Hitachi is noticably louder.

That said, I haven't implemented the Hitachi noise control software which I understand quiets the drive quite a bit without much of a performance hit.

bhtooefr wrote:Anyway, I gotta agree with them. You can't go wrong going with Seagate.

Perhaps, but I am a little concerned about Seagate buying out Maxtor. I've had Maxtor drives in my desktop PC, and I had three go out - each with less than a year of service. That said, I have always liked Seagate drives.

I guess we can all hope that the Maxtor line improves with the buyout.

Maxtor Loss Widens on Deal Concerns

The Associated Press wrote:Maxtor Corp., a maker of computer hard drives, on Wednesday said its first-quarter loss widened sharply due to customer concerns over its pending acquisition by Seagate Technology.

If you really want to find out which drive is the quietest, go to http://www.silentpcreview.com. I guarantee it won't be a 100gb 7200rpm model. In general Samsung makes the quietest hard disk drives.

Well, I would suspect that he meant quietest and most reliable 100GB 7200RPM drive.

FWIW, my Samsung MP0402H 40GB 5400RPM drive in my X21 is audible, but not TOO loud. Sounds like a second small fan whirring away. Less seek noise than the old IBM Travelstar that came with it, FWIW.

bhtooefr wrote:Well, I would suspect that he meant quietest and most reliable 100GB 7200RPM drive.

Yes, I suppose that's more accurate. Anyhow, the folks at silentpcreview will still be able to tell you very accurately what the quietest drive is for whatever configuration you're looking for.

this discussion is so helpful to me. At this point, I will perhaps go with seagate

That TechReport comparison was good reading. I bought a Hitachi 7k100 100 gb drive based on price and word of mouth. In their tests, it didn't do nearly as well as the Seagate 7200.1 in Adobe Premiere tests (though it bested it in Photoshop). Well, I use both and bought this second drive for those in particular.

The Hitachi seemed to take the lead in multitasking tests ... that is, those more closely simulating that of a primary drive doing OS/Program/Data duties. My recommendation would be the Hitachi 7k100 for a primary/system drive replacement, but that Seagate 7200.1 would make a great secondary/data drive.

Or course in these kinds of tests, where they're performing intense data operations that take 10+ minutes, the 10-15 second differences really won't be noticeable when you're opening a Word doc in less than 4 seconds. And in real world computing, you'd get more performance boost from increasing RAM from 512 MB to 1 GB than buying a slightly faster hard drive. YMMVAPW.

davidspalding wrote: you'd get more performance boost from increasing RAM from 512 MB to 1 GB than buying a slightly faster hard drive. YMMVAPW.

thanks for a helpful comments. I agree with you. Then would you say the same thing for the upgrade from 5400 to 7200? Not much difference in the everyday computing? I wonder how much difference it would make given my primary purpose is documenting, of course, in many programs popped up. What do you think?

Many programs?

More RAM is your friend.

However, a faster HDD will help if you run something like Photoshop, or do things involving loading lots of data.

Or, of course, if you were gonna get the bigger hard drive anyway, then go ahead and get faster - there's not much of a disadvantage going from 5400 to 7200...

I replaced my 60g Hitachi drive with a Seagate 100g drive. All I can say I never haer the drive and it is fast as anything. There was a five dollar price differance between the 100g Hitachi and Seagate. But the plus for Seagate was FIVE year warrenty as apposed to Hitachi's three year.

my two cents...

The Seagate and Hitachi drives have different strengths, it seems. Hitachi has a command feature that makes it a speed demon multitasking, e.g. running Windows Media Player, loading an Excel file and browing the Internet. The Seagate appears to have the edge in high-demand apps like Photoshop, Premiere Pro.

I didn't notice if those reviewers even specified if the drive was tested as the primary, system drive, or as a secondary drive. Makes a difference in most disk-based OS'....

If all around computing is the demand, I'd get the Hitachi for a primary drive, and the Seagate for a secondary. EITHER will provide a slight boost over a 5400 rpm drive (though some of those tests indicated a good 5400 was just as responsive in some situations).

At the end of the day ... either will be a good buy. Don't lose sleep wondering which is "the best." They're both great.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q2/mo ... dex.x?pg=3

Under "Test system".

They list a bunch of laptop drives, and no desktop drives, leading me to believe that they're in a single-drive configuration.

I have four laptop drives 2 Samsungs and 2 Fujitsu drives. The Samsungs are faster and more quiet, though one of the Fujitsu drives is 4200RPM making it the most silent.

I have had many Seagates in Desktop PC and they are just great, heard good things about the Seagate Momentus drives also.

If I had to make a choice I would take Seagate, that is in the 7200RPM range of drives, in the 5400RPM range I would take 120GB Samsung its quiet, fast and has lots of space.

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T43 2668-97U (PM760, 1,5GB Ram, Fujitsu 80GB 5400RPM, Radeon X300, 15" SXGA

Nolonemo wrote:I just replaced a Seagate 60GB 5400 drive in my T23 with a Hitachi 60GB 7200 drive. The Hitachi is noticably louder.

That said, I haven't implemented the Hitachi noise control software which I understand quiets the drive quite a bit without much of a performance hit.

Where can I find this Hitachi noise control software you mentioned? Mine in the T43 is pretty loud too...

It's called the Hitachi Feature Tool, downloadable from Hitachi. You create a bootable floppy disk which gives you access to a bunch of tools that work on Hitachi and other brand drives. The one you want is called Acoustic Management, which adjusts the level of seek noise from the drive.

Word of Warning: use this tool at your own risk - it does have the possibility of damaging your drive. It shouldn't if used carefully - however I have had one drive that died by coincidence or not while adjusting the power management feauture. I've used Acoustic Management on several drives of different makes with no ill effects, however.

kovacsab wrote:Where can I find this Hitachi noise control software you mentioned? Mine in the T43 is pretty loud too...

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Thanks folks, anybody has any experience with this Hitatchi Feature Tool tool interfering with TP fancontrol?

Yeah, but the normal average joe user, even gamers, wouldn't buy a hard drive for performance as much as dependability and durabilty and also lifespan.

I did alot of reading and decided to upgrade to the 100GB 7200RPM Hitachi Travelstar, because it performed will enough, but it was also dependable and durable. Also it is relatively cheap compared to spending $20 to $30 less for a 60GB or 80GB drive.
At present, i wouldn't even think of buying a 5400RPM drive. Sure they are cheaper, but so will the resale value of your IBM when you sell it off or trade it in a few years to upgrade. And forget about a 4200RPM drive...those are a total waste of money.