Seagate S-ATA Hard Drives noise levels

[Dave]

Hi

Mainboard: MSI875P Neo FIS2R
CPU: Intel 2.40C GHZ 800Mhz

I have the Seagate ST380013AS (80GB) and ST3120026AS (120GB) S-ATA hard
drives and, after reading a particular thread in the MSI forum, I am a bit
concerened about the noise levels that are coming from my S-ATA drives,
especially the 80GB system drive which is the busiest of the two drives and
I would like some feed back regarding the noise levels from owners of
Seagate S-ATA drives please.

One of the comments that caused me to question the noise level was this one
from a user of the ST380013AS S-ATA drive:

"I chose the Seagate not for its performance, but for its SUPERIOR noise
rating. (that is, lack of noise). I have to hold the drive in my hand and up
to my ear to even hear the drive spin up on power up. This new 7200.7 SATA
model should perform fairly well and given that it cannot even be heard, I'm
already sold".

Another user commented: "When the OS loads, yes I can hear the drive being
accessed, but I do not know if I can explain correctly in that since the
drive itself is not noisy, the disk access noise that can be heard is not
loud per-say and seems shorter in duration".

I have also had a few replies from owners of the same drives who say that
thier drives are noisy so I don't know what to make of it.

Because of the above replies, I started to notice that my 'new' Seagate
drives arereally quite noisy during POST and booting into Windows XP, I can
hear the drive very clearly right into windows and also when the drive is
busy. In fact I would say that compared to other drive makes that I have
used, the Seagate's are very noisy and I can easily hear the boot drive when
I sit back away from it in my computer chair and also from around 8' -10'
away.

I am now a bit concerned about these drives which I only purchased a couple
of weeks ago and would like to hear from owner's of Seagate S-ATA drives
with regards to the noise level or lack of it please and also comments from
owner's regarding my apparently noisy drives.

Last night I carried out a few tests in Windows XP using Seagate's Disc
Wizard 2003 and these are the results:

Test 1 (Return S.M.A.R.T. Status): "No S.M.A.R.T. thresholds exceeded".

Test 2 (Short Drive Self-Test): "Self-Test routine completed without
errors".

Test 3 (Run extended drive Self-Test): ""Self-Test routine completed
without errors".

So there are no apparent faults on the drives but during the tests, I did
notice that
the drives got very warm, especially the system drive and whilst I know that
all hard drives get very warm, I have never really spent anytime touching
the drives. I could keep my fingers on "top of the drive silver cover with
labels on" for as long as I wanted to, but when I laid my fingers on the
'black casing' (that forms the chassis around the side of the drive) of the
drive, just above the power/S-ATA connectors, I could not keep my fingers
there for more that 7 seconds or so.

Naturally I am a bit concerned because I've only just purchased the drives
and I would like to know if my drives have a problem and need to be
returned. To this end, I would like to hear from other Seagate S-ATA drive
owners and their findings please.

Regards

Dave

 

[Bob Harris]

I have a pair of 120 Gig Seagate SATA drives. They work well.

As for quiet, a suppose that is all relative. They are quieter than the
Maxtor 40 Gig IDE disks I had in my previous PC. However, in a room with no
other noise, no kids, no TV, central heating off, windows closd, etc, I can
hear them clicking from ten feet away when I do a search from wtihin XP.

However, unless I do some disk-intensive activity (e.g., search, XCOPY, etc)
I rarely hear them. I suspect that is because I have 1 Gig of RAM and once
a program is loaded there is no reason to access the disks, until I save a
file. If you have less than 256 Meg of RAM and XP, get some more RAM to
prevent continual usage of the pagefile. If you regularly process large
digital images or videos, get even more RAM.

It has been a while since I opened the case and touched them, but I do
recall that they ran cooler than the Maxtor drives. And, certainly they
were not so hot as to cause me to remove my fingers.

 

[Dave]

Hi

I posted this problem in the correct 'hardware' newsgroup on the 28th
December and I am a but puzzled as to why no one has replied ...... yet?

Regards

 

[joust in jest]

Hi Dave:
This is a forum, hosted by Microsoft, for Windows XP -specific hardware
problems.

As your post indicated, you are not having a problem with the manner in
which your hardware and Windows XP interface.

The proper response to "no problem" is -- no response.

Try taking your concerns to a Seagate newsgroup, where people talk Seagate
language -- people here talk WinXP language.

steve

 

[Dave]

Mmmm, it's now January 5th 2004 and still no replies to my hardware problem
which I posted in the "microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware" newsgroup.

Guess I must have posted my hadrware problem in the wrong newsgroup?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

I have recently tried Seagate, Maxtor, Hitachi and Western Digital SATA drives.
All were excessively noisy, especially the Seagate. All were returned for
a refund. The only drive I have found that is very quiet is a Western
Digital EIDE drive with a 8MB cache. IMHO, SATA drives need more
refinement before I'll try one again. Also, there was very little noticeable
performance increase with the SATA drives.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Mmmm, it's now January 5th 2004 and still no replies to my hardware problem
| which I posted in the "microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware" newsgroup.
|
| Guess I must have posted my hadrware problem in the wrong newsgroup?
|
| | > Hi
| >
| > I posted this problem in the correct 'hardware' newsgroup on the 28th
| > December and I am a but puzzled as to why no one has replied ...... yet?
| >
| > Regards
| >
| > | > > Hi
| > >
| > > Mainboard: MSI875P Neo FIS2R
| > > CPU: Intel 2.40C GHZ 800Mhz
| > >
| > > I have the Seagate ST380013AS (80GB) and ST3120026AS (120GB) S-ATA hard
| > > drives and, after reading a particular thread in the MSI forum, I am a
| bit
| > > concerened about the noise levels that are coming from my S-ATA drives,
| > > especially the 80GB system drive which is the busiest of the two drives
| > and
| > > I would like some feed back regarding the noise levels from owners of
| > > Seagate S-ATA drives please.
| > >
| > > One of the comments that caused me to question the noise level was this
| > one
| > > from a user of the ST380013AS S-ATA drive:
| > >
| > > "I chose the Seagate not for its performance, but for its SUPERIOR noise
| > > rating. (that is, lack of noise). I have to hold the drive in my hand
| and
| > up
| > > to my ear to even hear the drive spin up on power up. This new 7200.7
| SATA
| > > model should perform fairly well and given that it cannot even be heard,
| > I'm
| > > already sold".
| > >
| > > Another user commented: "When the OS loads, yes I can hear the drive
| > being
| > > accessed, but I do not know if I can explain correctly in that since the
| > > drive itself is not noisy, the disk access noise that can be heard is
| not
| > > loud per-say and seems shorter in duration".
| > >
| > > I have also had a few replies from owners of the same drives who say
| that
| > > thier drives are noisy so I don't know what to make of it.
| > >
| > > Because of the above replies, I started to notice that my 'new' Seagate
| > > drives arereally quite noisy during POST and booting into Windows XP, I
| > can
| > > hear the drive very clearly right into windows and also when the drive
| is
| > > busy. In fact I would say that compared to other drive makes that I have
| > > used, the Seagate's are very noisy and I can easily hear the boot drive
| > when
| > > I sit back away from it in my computer chair and also from around
| 8' -10'
| > > away.
| > >
| > > I am now a bit concerned about these drives which I only purchased a
| > couple
| > > of weeks ago and would like to hear from owner's of Seagate S-ATA drives
| > > with regards to the noise level or lack of it please and also comments
| > from
| > > owner's regarding my apparently noisy drives.
| > >
| > > Last night I carried out a few tests in Windows XP using Seagate's Disc
| > > Wizard 2003 and these are the results:
| > >
| > > Test 1 (Return S.M.A.R.T. Status): "No S.M.A.R.T. thresholds exceeded".
| > >
| > > Test 2 (Short Drive Self-Test): "Self-Test routine completed without
| > > errors".
| > >
| > > Test 3 (Run extended drive Self-Test): ""Self-Test routine completed
| > > without errors".
| > >
| > > So there are no apparent faults on the drives but during the tests, I
| did
| > > notice that
| > > the drives got very warm, especially the system drive and whilst I know
| > that
| > > all hard drives get very warm, I have never really spent anytime
| touching
| > > the drives. I could keep my fingers on "top of the drive silver cover
| > with
| > > labels on" for as long as I wanted to, but when I laid my fingers on the
| > > 'black casing' (that forms the chassis around the side of the drive) of
| > the
| > > drive, just above the power/S-ATA connectors, I could not keep my
| fingers
| > > there for more that 7 seconds or so.
| > >
| > > Naturally I am a bit concerned because I've only just purchased the
| drives
| > > and I would like to know if my drives have a problem and need to be
| > > returned. To this end, I would like to hear from other Seagate S-ATA
| > drive
| > > owners and their findings please.
| > >
| > > Regards
| > >
| > > Dave
| > >
| > >
| > >
| > >
| > >
| >
|