In article <RbHvf.41904$(E-Mail Removed)>, "KILOWATT"
<kilowatt"nospam"@softhome.net> wrote:
> Thanks a lot Timothy, Sleepy and Paul for your useful replies. The next hdd
> i wish to buy will be installed in a PC that will be used mainly as a
> multimedia one for TV and DVD viewing. The sound level of the hdd must
> evidently be low. I'm pretty satisfied of my actual p-ata Diamond Max Plus 9
> installed in the actual PC. It's a 80GB. I've read in one of the many forums
> i've searched before posting here, that platter density of Maxtor's hdd is
> now 100GB per platter. I wish to acquire a 200 or 250GB hdd from the Diamond
> Max Plus 10 series. I'm not shure yet. It is ok to assume that the 6L200S0
> i've mentioned in my op would be a better choice? I mean
> acoustically-speaking, since if the platter density is 100GB/platter, the
> 6L200S0 should contains two platters instead of three. The result should be
> less whining/seek noises...right? TIA.
>
> --
> Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
> Montréal Québec
> PS: 1000 excuses for grammatical errors or
> omissions, i'm a "pure" french canadian! :-)
> (If replying also by e-mail, remove
> "no spam" from the adress.)
For acoustic noise, you can either examine the various manufacturer's
datasheets for their products, or you can select "idle noise"
on the storagereview database and list the tested drives there.
http://www.storagereview.com/comparison.html
One reason idle noise is low now, is the industry uses a lot
of FDB (fluid) bearings for disks. That is one reason that
the idle numbers have come down.
But seek noise can still be an issue. You can use the
Hitachi Feature Tool V1.99 on this page:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
to set Quiet Seek Mode on either Hitachi drives or
even other makers drives. Quiet Seek Mode may add a
millisecond or two, to the full stroke seek time, in
an effort to reduce the noise. For playing movies,
you don't need full seek preformance, so you could
try using Quiet Seek Mode.
It is possible that if a disk drive does SMART testing
while the drive is running, you may hear more noise
coming from the drive, than you would have expected.
I don't know if SMART self test can be disabled or not.
Also, for any drive 200GB or above, I recommend more
attention to backups than for smaller drives. Either
review the SMART data, enable the SMART warning in
the BIOS if one is available, or just do more
backups, so there won't be any surprises. If the
data on the drive already exists somewhere else, then
you won't really care about the drive's state of
health.
While you may be tempted to turn the fans down in
your multimedia PC, remember that the disk drive is
the most temperature sensitive component. If the
drive is the first electronic device in the cooling
air stream, that will ensure it gets the best
cooling. That might mean using a perforated grill
right in front of the disk drive, so cool air
enters the computer and flows immediately over your
large drive. Leaving a large disk drive in a "stagnant
corner" of a warm computer is asking for trouble.
HTH,
Paul