How silent should the idle noise of my Hard Disk be?

[Tinus]

Recently I posted some problems with a Hitachi tool on my Hard Drive in my Z60 -2529 EPG. http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=20192
Lenovo gave me another drive: this time a Toshiba 80GB Sata (MK8032GSX).
Again: i think the idle noise (soft/mid-tone fan-like sound) of the HD is too loud!
The differences with the HD turned off is too big in my opinion. Suddenly it's all quiet. I can hear the spinning of the drive from 1 meter distance.

But, do I make a correct judgement? I compare the sound with an older P4 2.8Ghz HP notebook with a Hitachi 40GB 4200 drive. This notebook is older, has not centrino equipement, but is in idle mode much more quiet than my new Lenovo z60m (it's silent! I only hear the drive when I lay my ear on the notebook). Also the older Toshiba (with celeron) of my girlfriend is silent when working in a silent space.

Is this idle sound inherent to the 5400 S-ATA Hard-drives? Nobody seems to complain about this issue.

[own6volvos]

The ONLY HD sounds I can hear/feel on my z60m (same HD) is when it is under constant seeking, and even then you can barely hear it. You need to stick your head to the case to hear it.

[ams999]

I have the same drive and can definitely hear it during idle times.

It's about as loud as the fan with 2300-2400 RPM, although the sound of the fan feels more prominent because it's got more of a whine than the HD.

As all the other HDD in my computers so far weren't exactly quiet, either, it doesn't bother me. However, the sound is definitely there, even from some distance.

[own6volvos]

I have the same drive and can definitely hear it during idle times.

It's about as loud as the fan with 2300-2400 RPM, although the sound of the fan feels more prominent because it's got more of a whine than the HD.

As all the other HDD in my computers so far weren't exactly quiet, either, it doesn't bother me. However, the sound is definitely there, even from some distance.

Maybe this is a really subjective topic. I had the laptop doing a full system restore behind me for like 30 minutes with constant harddrive activity, and you could barely hear the thing going. Right up on top of the laptop yes you can hear it, but it is much less noisy than any fullsize 3.5" desktop harddrive.

[snife]

It's all about environment and hearing - I have had systems in the past that I can barely hear and others complain that they are really noisy and I couldn't even tell you my T30 is on by listening at work but at home it does seem really noisy (again the hdd in my case but it is rarely ever idle so I can't complain).

The acoustical specification is normally quite spread so even if it is noisier than other Z60m systems it is unlikely it would be outwith specification, i'm surprised you got the drive replaced as Lenovo policy should mean that a drive isn't replaced for noise alone.

[Tinus]

i'm surprised you got the drive replaced as Lenovo policy should mean that a drive isn't replaced for noise alone.

They gave me a new drive because it crashed during the Hitachi feature tool with which i tried to reduce the amount of noise.

About the subjectivity of noise. I think you can objectively measure a difference between silent and idle sound. The subjective part of it will be how annoying (or not) you qualify this noise.
Compared with old machines, I think it's pretty annoying.

Here is a recording of the noise. I recorded it with the z60m build-in microphone. I used the audio-recorder of XP pro.
The environment was very quiet, although it was during daytime.
http://home.wanadoo.nl/vanderwijst/sound.html

So, I did some search through this forum, and there are actually people complaining about the idle spinning sound of their HD's. Mostly it's about 5400rpm drives.
My plan at the moment is to downgrade my HD to a 4200rpm. BUT: there aren't any s-ata 4200 rpm drives !!!!
Oh no!
Some suggestions anyone??