Auditory difference between 80GB 5400 rpm and 60GB 7200

[padmania]

Looking at getting a T42p 2378EZU. Any experiences, impressions, opinions on the difference in sound between the 80GB 5400 and the 60GB 7200? (I bought a 10000rpm drive for my desktop and had to take it back...almost unhearable, but somehow changed the vibe in the room.) Also, I read a report about a 'click' that the 80GB makes when it parks its head...starts louder, then fades within a week or so. Any experiences with that?

[sktn77a]

My Hitachi 80Gb 5400rpm drive is as silent as the 40gb it replaced. No complaints.

[kjarrett]

I have the 7200 RPM HD in my T42p and coincidentally a 10000 RPM Western Digital Raptor in my Dell XPS desktop. Both are completely quiet, as far as I'm concerned...

[RonS]

I have both drives. 80GB 5400, and 60GB 7200, both 2.5" notebook drives. They are both very quiet, but I think that the 60GB is a little bit quieter. It's the Hitatchi 7K60.

Between the two, I like the 7K60 best because it delivers noticably superior performance. It's my primary drive. I moved the 5K80 into a USB enclosure and use it for backups.

[padmania]

Thanks for input. Big help. Speed rules! (for my target apps )

[rocketman]

My T42 has the 60GB 7200rpm Hard Drive. It is the quietest hard drive I've ever heard or in this case "not" heard. It is practically absolutely silent.

[Thinker]

Really? That's very surprising, I would have thought that a 7200 drive would be noisy. I guess technology has come around lately in that department as well also.

I might upgrade my X31's 40 Gb 5400 drive with the 7K60 within a few months then

[brewt]

"quiet" is all relative. It depends on what environment you're in (a normal room with other noises (music, other computers, etc), vs a very quiet room (eg. library, where you can hear the slightest noise). And then there's the person. My hearing isn't that great and have tinnitus (ringing in the ears), so I'm not to sensitive to slight hard drive whining. However, I have a friend who is extremely sensitive to noise and constantly complains about noisy hard drives (that I'm fine with) that are whining.

[Thinker]

"quiet" is all relative. It depends on what environment you're in (a normal room with other noises (music, other computers, etc), vs a very quiet room (eg. library, where you can hear the slightest noise). And then there's the person. My hearing isn't that great and have tinnitus (ringing in the ears), so I'm not to sensitive to slight hard drive whining. However, I have a friend who is extremely sensitive to noise and constantly complains about noisy hard drives (that I'm fine with) that are whining.

You're right about different ways that people perceive noise. For example, my wife sometimes hears crickets outside in the Summer and I can't hear anything (it must be some problem with that specific frequency).

Regarding your tinnitus, how did you acquire it? I got tinnitus when I was about 10 years old due to an experiment gone awry involving firecrackers and a round plastic shell (boys will be boys )
I remember this bothering me for a while, but after about 10 years it went away. I thought I would have it for life, but it went away after that long (go figure).

Ruben

[brewt]

Regarding your tinnitus, how did you acquire it?

I don't really know I've just been hearing ringing since who knows when, and I stumbled into a web page talking about it one day and was "hey, that happens with me". Supposedly, it's a fairly common thing too - 1 in 5 people experience some form of it. I guess the nice thing about it is you get used to the whining and sort of filter it out and this makes filtering out computer whining a little easier. Though right now, since I'm thinking about it, it's starting to get annoying