Barracuda 7200.7 sata 160gb noise.

[J.Clarke]

Dam, I presumed that they would make the same amount of noise, I
should have prehaps gone for the 120GB version.

Thanks for the reply though

Always read the spec sheet. For the 7200.7 family it is at
<http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_7_155
9002_2003_03.pdf>

The data sheet indicates that seek noise in quiet mode is 2.8 Bels for
the 120 and 160 and 2.4 for the smaller drives. In performance mode it
is 3.4 and 3.1, a good deal louder.

I don't think Seagate has a utility for switching modes, but if you can
get hold of a bootable Linux distribution you should be able to use
HDPARM to change from performance mode to quiet mode and once done the
drive should remember the setting.

 

[Jaime]

Well I fianlly brought this drive and now wish I hadnt. The idle noise is
nice and quiet, however its very noisy when seaking comapred with the cuda
4's I have which arnt exactly quiet either. Is there any way to make it seak
quiter, is this normal.

Thanks

Jaime

 

[John Smith]

I did some research online before buying and quite a few people were saying
the 160GB plus VIIs were noisey so I opted for a 120GB which, only been in
for a couple of hours, is wonderfully quiet. Touch wood.

J.

 

[John Smith]

Sorry... If it is any consolation I had to spend about 5 - 6 hours digging
out the info yesterday before ordering and one website review of the VII
series commented that Seagate had made it very difficult, re numerous
different model numbers, to actually get a handle on which drive was what,
has what cache, how many platters, what the performance is like, etc, etc.

Dependent how long ago you ordered/bought it you could send it back.

J.

 

[Jaime]

Sorry... If it is any consolation I had to spend about 5 - 6 hours digging

out the info yesterday before ordering and one website review of the VII
series commented that Seagate had made it very difficult, re numerous
different model numbers, to actually get a handle on which drive was what,
has what cache, how many platters, what the performance is like, etc, etc.

Dependent how long ago you ordered/bought it you could send it back.

Yhe I know very confusing their current range, It is tempting to try and
send it back although that would be a lot of effort so I guess I'll hold
onto it.

Thanks

Jaime

 

[John Smith]

UK Law changed on March 31st and if you say something is faulty the onus is
now on the vendor to prove it is not faulty plus, at last, they must also
pay for return shipping and cannot deduct it from your credit card. I would
say a noisey drive is potentially faulty.

J.

 

[Jaime]

UK Law changed on March 31st and if you say something is faulty the onus is
now on the vendor to prove it is not faulty plus, at last, they must also
pay for return shipping and cannot deduct it from your credit card. I would
say a noisey drive is potentially faulty.

Hm, well first I am in the UK and are aware of that. However is the drive
faulty, probably not so thats not going to get me anywhere. What about the
DSR saying I can return for a full refund, well I've used the product so
that doesnt apply either. I'll get in contact with Tekheads and ask them
about this.

Thanks again

Jaime

 

[John Smith]

Don't you have to use a drive to discover it is faulty?

J.

 

[Jaime]

Don't you have to use a drive to discover it is faulty?

J.

But its not faulty, its just not as I wanted. Or is it faulty? the thing is
its nice and quiet idle and when the head isnt moving all over the place, so
thats not too bad. I cant see why though that it make sso much more noise
than the cuda4 when seaking so prehaps it is fauly.

Anyone else care to comment.

Jaime

 

[John Smith]

And this thread MIGHT just help you -
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=4093

J.

 

[Jaime]

The problem in this kind of situation is do you know your drive is faulty or
is it supposed to be like that? I mean, you go to someone's house in a week
or a month, discover they have a silent PC and, worse, discover they have
the same drive you have - would that then make your drive faulty?

Go here and post your question on the storage forum -
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Dam stupid me, I had heard of this and as I though the cuda 4's where noisy
I asumed they where in performance mode, I think it seems that my impression
of noise is a little different and that my cuda 4's where already on quite
seeks.

This is very anoying, I think I will contact the vendor (tekheads) telling
them the whole story and asking what they will let me do about it. Then
depending on their reaction decide if I shope with them again.

Regards

Jaime

 

[Rod Speed]

Dam stupid me, I had heard of this and as I though the cuda
4's where noisy I asumed they where in performance mode,
I think it seems that my impression of noise is a little different
and that my cuda 4's where already on quite seeks.

This is very anoying, I think I will contact the vendor (tekheads) telling
them the whole story and asking what they will let me do about it.
Then depending on their reaction decide if I shope with them again.

One approach would be to emphasise the fact that the pdf
says the drive can do acoustic management and in fact it cant.

Legally the goods you were supplied with do not match the
description and legally they have to refund, even if you had
to use it to discover that it does not match the description.

 

[Jaime]

The problem in this kind of situation is do you know your drive is
faulty

faulty?



One approach would be to emphasise the fact that the pdf
says the drive can do acoustic management and in fact it cant.

Legally the goods you were supplied with do not match the
description and legally they have to refund, even if you had
to use it to discover that it does not match the description.

Thanks, I shall make sure I try and get a refund out of them, although I
think I will have to wait until Monday to get it sorted. I guess the next
question is which SATA or PATA hard disk is as quiet as the cuda 4's (or
nearly as quiet) yet provides high capacity ( >=120gb) and who in the UK
still has stock.

From the forum linked a cuda 5 pata/sata 120gb drive would fit the bill,
however finding a supplier that stil stocks these rather than the 7200.7 is
difficult.

Regards

Jaime

 

[John Smith]

Jaime,

This url for the Citizens Advice Bureau gives pdf info on a variety of
Consumer Rights. I find it is handly having one of these close at hand to
quote precise phrases when getting refunds:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_world/consumer_affairs/consumer_fact_sheets_index.htm

The research I did on finding a quiet drive basically concluded, from a
variety of sources, that no drives were as quiet as the Barracuda IVs. The
Seagate SATA in particular - well, I have read first hand accounts online in
that forum I gave you the url for, as well as reviews there, that noise-wise
it ain't too hot and that its performance is not that brilliant either.

Alot of people appear to be going for the Samsung drives for peace and
size - http://www.watford.co.uk sell them under Savacentre - but there are
some newer, faster, bigger and supposedly very quiet Samsung ones out
recently but which have not yet appeared here in the UK so... it might be
worth waiting.

I am very happy with my Seagate VII with 8MB cache - that 8MB cache makes a
big difference - and I got mine from http://www.wstore.co.uk for under £100
incl P&P and VAT. They also sell the IV and V series.

If you want the Seagate V series then http://www.overclockers.co.uk sell
several sizes but all with the 2MB Cache. Also.
http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk sell them but I emailed them yesterday
asking what size cache they had and, so far, no reply from them so,
personally, I would not buy there.

I think http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/k.asp has some V series and also you
could try http://www.microdirect.co.uk or the UK version of www.insight.com


J.

 

[Jaime]

Jaime,

This url for the Citizens Advice Bureau gives pdf info on a variety of
Consumer Rights. I find it is handly having one of these close at hand to
quote precise phrases when getting refunds:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_world/consumer_affairs/consumer_fact_sheets_index.htm

Thanks for that.

The research I did on finding a quiet drive basically concluded, from a
variety of sources, that no drives were as quiet as the Barracuda IVs. The
Seagate SATA in particular - well, I have read first hand accounts online in
that forum I gave you the url for, as well as reviews there, that noise-wise
it ain't too hot and that its performance is not that brilliant either.

Alot of people appear to be going for the Samsung drives for peace and
size - http://www.watford.co.uk sell them under Savacentre - but there are
some newer, faster, bigger and supposedly very quiet Samsung ones out
recently but which have not yet appeared here in the UK so... it might be
worth waiting.

I'll chekc them out, thanks.

I am very happy with my Seagate VII with 8MB cache - that 8MB cache makes a
big difference - and I got mine from http://www.wstore.co.uk for under £100
incl P&P and VAT. They also sell the IV and V series.

But the vII doenst have AMM so will be as loud as the drive I have wont it?
Which isnt quiet at all.

If you want the Seagate V series then http://www.overclockers.co.uk sell
several sizes but all with the 2MB Cache. Also.
http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk sell them but I emailed them yesterday
asking what size cache they had and, so far, no reply from them so,
personally, I would not buy there.

I think http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/k.asp has some V series and also you
could try http://www.microdirect.co.uk or the UK version of

www.insight.com

Thanks for the links.

I think I will try and pick up another barracuda 4 80 gb for now, If I can
get the drive returned.

Regards

Jaime

 

[Jaime]

I did some research online before buying and quite a few people were

Always read the spec sheet. For the 7200.7 family it is at
<http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_7_155
9002_2003_03.pdf>

The data sheet indicates that seek noise in quiet mode is 2.8 Bels for
the 120 and 160 and 2.4 for the smaller drives. In performance mode it
is 3.4 and 3.1, a good deal louder.

I don't think Seagate has a utility for switching modes, but if you can
get hold of a bootable Linux distribution you should be able to use
HDPARM to change from performance mode to quiet mode and once done the
drive should remember the setting.

Thanks, however I tried the Hitatchi feature tool and it says that the drive
doenst support amm which I am lead to believe is the case for all 7200.7
drives. Any idea if it is actually possible to make this change?

Thanks

Jaime

 

[John Smith]

My Seagate VII 7200.7 120GB with 8 MB Cache, model number ST3120026A, is
incredibly quiet and incredibly fast. I got it from Wstore, ordered it at
4ish last night and it arrived about 11 this morning.

I was afraid it would be slower than my noisy WD 120GB with 2MB Cache -
because people say the WDs are so fast - but this Seagate flies. I am very
pleased I bought it and wish I had got it a few weeks back first of all
instead of ordering the WD. If it keeps up this performance I will be
ordering another one in a few weeks.

J.

 

[Jaime]

My Seagate VII 7200.7 120GB with 8 MB Cache, model number ST3120026A, is

incredibly quiet and incredibly fast. I got it from Wstore, ordered it at
4ish last night and it arrived about 11 this morning.

I was afraid it would be slower than my noisy WD 120GB with 2MB Cache -
because people say the WDs are so fast - but this Seagate flies. I am very
pleased I bought it and wish I had got it a few weeks back first of all
instead of ordering the WD. If it keeps up this performance I will be
ordering another one in a few weeks.

J.

My drive is st316002 3as, which as its also a 7200.7 I woudl have though is
as noisy. Its not that my drive is like a nail gun or anything when seeking,
its just that I can hear the seaks of the cuda 4's (which are in quiet seek
mode as I checked with the hitachi tool). I leave my machine on in my
bedroom so hence I require it as quiet as possible.

Thanks for the post

Jaime

 

[Jaime]

No idea - you need to ask this question in that forum as they all seem to be
Seagate gurus who, like you and I, want a quiet drive.

Thanks, I shall head over there.

Regards

Jaime

 

[John Smith]

Do a search in there, or post a question, to see if someone has done it on
the VIIs using the Hitachi software.

J.