E7K60 40gb noise in a X31

[RS_003]

Hi,

I just pulled the 4K40 drive (4200rpm 40gb) from my X31.
And when working on battery the laptop was virtually silent.

But now I put an E7K60 40gb 7200rpm hdd in the X31.
And now I can really hear the laptop while sitting on my lap.
This even when the cpu fan is at very low... The hdd is still to be heard over the cpu fan.

Also the harddisk clicks a little bit when idle or makes a sound like its reading / scraping the harddisk, only a lot softer. (Compared to actual reading / writing on the harddisk)
But not like every 5 second.
And I don’t worry about it, since the harddisk checked good at a smarttest.

I have had it for 2 hours in my laptop and only noticed it 4 times (but the most of the time I have been installing programs, since I reinstalled Windows today)


All of this together, is this normal?

[aabram]

If it is of any consolation - I swapped 4200 rpm drive out of my X30 and put in 5400 rpm drive and was also surpised to learn that it actually makes noise I can hear. Not when reading-writing, but just in idle too. It's not loud but I'm definitely a silence lover so it bothers me a lot. I'd rather live with old drive making loud noises when reading-writing but being dead silent other times than with new drive being fairly silent with disk access but having higher operating noise level. I'm proabably going for bigger but quieter 4200 drive instead, I think.

[RS_003]

Yes... I think Ill do too..

And sell the two E7K60's I bought..

Because I really love silent computers... (On my current pc I spend over 100 euro to make it more silent, and on the pc before that over 300 euro)

Also that scraping / reading kindish noise really makes my nervous... while the performance Isn’t off, or the smart status reads wrong..

But still... I feel more secure with a disk I cant hear. (When I Hear that soft reading kindish noise the harddisk action light doesn’t goes on… strange???)

[vorsicht]

I replaced the Hitachi Travelstar 40GN that was the default model for X30 with the below 5400 rpm drive.

Samsung Spinpoint M 60GB 5400RPM 8MB 12MS ATA100 2.5IN Notebook Hard Drive
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... re=Samsung

I can't even feel now if the harddisk is in there. No idle sound no spinning clicking sound. Incredible.

I also had (for a short while) Travelstar 4K40 that was provided by IBM (as a part of warranty replacement). It had no idle noise but had audible clicking noise while searching.

I also found if the file system is kept FAT32 it is much quiter as oppose to NTFS.

[RS_003]

I have been looking, and found out that an E7K60 has no acoustic management.

So I can never shut this damm thing up.

And that you hear the harddisk spinning… Well I can live with that, but those scary seek- noises ... no... So ill try to find a Real 7K60 ... and test again.
And report-back.

Also I found out that some of you have sounds issues with the 7K60 series and some don't even hear them and find them even more silent then their old 4K40's

Now I am confused

[JonathanW]

I'm 'pleased' that others are finding that, as nice as 5400 and 7200rpm drives are to have for performance, they ARE noisier than 4200rpm drives. All the 4200 drives in my various TP's have been to all intents and purposes silent. All the 5400/7200's have been considerably noisier which isn't surprising as they are spinning considerably faster!

I've never concurred with those who reckon there is no noise penalty with faster drives.

Jonathan

[aabram]

I'm 'pleased' that others are finding that, as nice as 5400 and 7200rpm drives are to have for performance, they ARE noisier than 4200rpm drives.

Yeah, I was actually surprised about the noise level on my 5400 rpm 80gb Samsung Spinpoint (MP0804H). Though it's by no means loud and in regular office environment I wouldn't even hear it, it is clearly audible when I'm using it at home. I have relatively low background noise in my apartement and new drive bothers me a lot. I can only imagine what 7200 would sound like.

As vorschicht said those old 4k Hitatchi 40gb Travelstars have basically no idle noise but they trash like mad when seeking (like shaking thumbtacks in a box). Yet I'm willing to live with that rather than with constant whining the new drive produces.

Btw, if anyone has extensive experience with 5400 rpm drives - which models tend to be the quietest? I've heard good things about WD drives but I haven't actually seen one in action myself.

[RS_003]

Me too, I heard those WD Scorpio's are more silent then 5K80's and they are almost or faster then 7K60's ...

So I think ill go looking for an scorpio HDD

[vorsicht]

I have been looking, and found out that an E7K60 has no acoustic management.

So I can never shut this damm thing up.

And that you hear the harddisk spinning… Well I can live with that, but those scary seek- noises ... no... So ill try to find a Real 7K60 ... and test again.
And report-back.

Also I found out that some of you have sounds issues with the 7K60 series and some don't even hear them and find them even more silent then their old 4K40's

Now I am confused

could you try this?
http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm#anchor_download

[pphilipko]

My x40 hard drive is LOUD. My previous T41p was much quiter, in comparison. To me, faster drive = quieter drive

[aabram]

I replaced the Hitachi Travelstar 40GN that was the default model for X30 with the below 5400 rpm drive.

Samsung Spinpoint M 60GB 5400RPM 8MB 12MS ATA100 2.5IN Notebook Hard Drive
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... re=Samsung

I can't even feel now if the harddisk is in there. No idle sound no spinning clicking sound. Incredible.

Ah, I'll hold you for your words, I found out that my friend has the same model and I'm going over to see how it behaves in my X30. I'll report back when I've tried it, I hope we have the same standards for "loud", "audible" and "silent"

[RS_003]

My x40 hard drive is LOUD. My previous T41p was much quiter, in comparison. To me, faster drive = quieter drive

Strange... I had an X40 (* See my sig )
And that one was much more silent.
My T1XP which also has a 1.8" Disk (Tough an other type) is much more silent then my X31 atm.

Also I feel the disk spinning, where my 5k80 in my T42(P) did not have that... needles to say that al my others disk where even less noticeable.

I have been looking, and found out that an E7K60 has no acoustic management.

So I can never shut this damm thing up.

And that you hear the harddisk spinning… Well I can live with that, but those scary seek- noises ... no... So ill try to find a Real 7K60 ... and test again.
And report-back.

Also I found out that some of you have sounds issues with the 7K60 series and some don't even hear them and find them even more silent then their old 4K40's

Now I am confused

could you try this?
http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm#anchor_download

Will do... when I have time ... but it will happen this week

[vorsicht]

Please do after reading your message I was a bit confused.
I delberately selected a 60 GB drive because of the platter size. Less usually mean less noise in most cases.
Also I am very pick about the noise and I consider myself having musical ears and hate any kind of buzz, click etc on a computer device.

I replaced the Hitachi Travelstar 40GN that was the default model for X30 with the below 5400 rpm drive.

Samsung Spinpoint M 60GB 5400RPM 8MB 12MS ATA100 2.5IN Notebook Hard Drive
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php? ... re=Samsung

I can't even feel now if the harddisk is in there. No idle sound no spinning clicking sound. Incredible.

Ah, I'll hold you for your words, I found out that my friend has the same model and I'm going over to see how it behaves in my X30. I'll report back when I've tried it, I hope we have the same standards for "loud", "audible" and "silent"

[asiafish]

I don't think that speed and noise are directly related. I've had loud 4200rpm drives and my 7200rpm drive is near silent.

That said, I've had very good luck with 5400rpm TravelStar drives for their combination of speed and silence, and that is what will go into my X32 when it comes (hopefully tomorrow).

[aabram]

Well, I had a chance to try 60GB Samsung MP0603H and compare to my 80GB MP0804H. Unfortunately they have about the same noise level, give or take perhaps few notches. Both have slight but still quite audible running noise. I'm not talking about seek noise here, I'm talking about the disk spinning noise. It sounds like faint fan noise and at first I mistook it for such. In average ambient noise it is not too noticeable but in quiet room it is very well distinguishable whether the disk is spinning or not (seatools online can manage those two Samsungs as well). Seek noise, on the other hand, is pleasantly low but it's the spinning sound that bothers me.

So I'm still looking for that quiet drive to replace my venerable 40GB Travelstar.

[vorsicht]

That is fan noise not the HD spinning noise. I think you should've listened a bit more.

[aabram]

That is fan noise not the HD spinning noise. I think you should've listened a bit more.

When I spin down the disk with afforementioned software that sound will promptly stop. When I spin the disk up, it starts again. And I can see the fan through the ventilation holes on the side and yes, I actually can tell whether the fan is moving or not. Besides I've never seen my fan working with temperatures below 40C (starting cold).

Its either that I happen to have:

a) unusually noisy models
or
b) good hearing