320GB, 7200RPM Vibration, Noise and Heat Problems

I have been searching for 7200RPM, 320GB Notebook hard drive. There are 3 brands currently in the market. Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N=2010150380 1035507776 1309733643&name=320GB

From the reviews, it seems that WD and Seagate have vibration, noise and clicking problem. I did a bit of research and people mentioned NHC to reduce the clicking, but I would not buy a hard drive that needs a 3rd party software in order to make it quiet. I would not buy a hard drive which performance needs to be reduced in order to make it quiet. And what about the vibration and heat?

Should I buy Hitachi drive instead? It cost more and currently out of stock. I am willing to wait and pay more as long as it is quieter, cooler and vibrates less. The hard drive will be used frequently in a public library and I don't want to annoy anyone and get attention from a noisy laptop. Nor would I want to feel vibration and excessive heat on the palm rest.

 

My WD only had strange sounds the first week (but not as high as it would disturb any in a library), then it got all quiet, only noise is when it's hard-seeking, otherwise it's totally quiet. All harddrives vibrate it all depends on how you mount it to the chassis, with or without rubbergromits. I have with.

If there is pages that has review the WD drive and said its noisy then i suppose they haven't had it running for atleast a week to test it for noise.

My WD reaches 45-46C load.

That's what i have to say about the WD 320GB anyways.

Let's hear what other says about it and the other ones.

 

The Hitachi 7K320 is a very quiet drive. I do not have the other drives for comparison, but you can see that their is a difference by looking at the drives.
The wd, and seagate have a single cover over the drive, whereas the Hitachi has a triple thick layer, thus dampening more noise, and keeping teh drive very quiet.
I have a single platter 7K320, which is 160GB.
A single platter drive will have less moving parts and will run cooler and quieter than the dual platter variants.
If you are worried about noise, go for a 160gb model. I have two 7K320's and they are the quietest 7200rpm drives I have ever heard. The seagate momentus 5400.3 drive I replaced in my dell e1505 was louder than the 7200rpm drive it currently has installed.

K-TRON

 

Michel.K what explanation can you give about becoming more quiet after a week?
Is the HDD like a new car that needs to run a few miles first?

All 7200 drives rotate at 7200rpm. So I really doubt it there is much of a difference between them as far as vibration concerned.
160GB is very limited capacity, so I don't think it's a good choice, even if it's slightly quieter.

I think that SSDs is the only way to go if you need a quiet, cool and vibration free HDD, but unfortunately they are still expensive.
Let's hope that they will become mainstream next year, as samsung reps had mentioned.

 

All of the three 320GB/7200rpm drives can be noisy and hot. If you look at the Newegg reviews or search several forums you can find complaints about all three of them.

What matters is how well your notebook absorbs noise and heat, and how good the cooling is. Using some rubber can help a lot with noise and vibration.

If you want to play it 100% safe, take a 5400rpm drive. The WD5000BEVT is a good choice. If that's out of your budget get a Hitachi 5K320.

I would not worry too much about the clicking noise because it can be overcome in several ways, not just NHC.

 

I heard that SSD has faster access time but slower writing time. Is that true?

 

You can't generalize with SSDs. SSDs definitely will have faster access time, while some will have slow writes and others will have fast writes. Check up the SSD forum for more info.

 

Never experienced that a HDD will get more quiet after a week but now, so it seems like it needs a "run-in", atleast this one did(?) i can't say for sure, all i can say is that it got more quiet after a week, i have my notebook on 24/7 so running-time may be important?

 

Is it possible that you just get used to it but the noise itself doesn't change?

 

I have the Seagate, but haven't yet installed it in the notebook. So far testing it out in an enclosure.

When I install it in the notebook, how do I "use some rubber"? What kind of rubber, where do I get it, how do I install it, etc.? (I don't think you meant condoms or rubber bands, or pieces of old tires, as "some rubber". )

Also, if I do anything unusual in the HD installation, if later I have a problem with the notebook, and it is being repaired under warranty, and they see something unusual in the HD installation, different from how they do it in the factory, could that cause a problem down the road?

 

I don't think you can repair a hard drive. They will most likely just replace it. You can not open a hard drive casing without destroying it, or at least not with a clean up equipment which would cost you more than the hard drive itself.

 

That post looks like it was in response to mine. I didn't say anything about repairing a hard drive. In fact, if something went wrong with the HDD, Sony (notebook manufacturer) would not be responsible for it, as that HDD didn't come with the notebook, I bought and installed it separately. If I had a problem with the HDD, I'd have to take it up with Seagate. Of course they would just replace it.

But that wasn't what I wrote about, in any case. A couple people mentioned using rubber in installing a hard drive, and I asked what that meant? What rubber? Where does one get it? How does one install it?

I didn't post about repairing hard drives.

 

Where do you get these grommets? How do you use them in installation?

Also someone mentioned a cooling pad. Where do you get those? Do they work? How do you install them?

 

These are questions for K-Tron. I never had to use it.

 

Sorry, I misunderstood. I think you meant to say repairing the notebook under warranty and not the hard drive. In the scenario you mentioned, Sony may refuse to repair under warranty. But I am not so sure how vigilant they are when inspecting the notebook. Do they check each and every upgradable component to make sure that nothing has been upgraded? If I replace 4GB RAM CAS 6 with 4GB RAM CAS 5 with different brand, would they notice it?

 

for rubber pieces, you can use just small grommet like pieces which you can get at a hardware store.
Something like this will be fine.
http://www.moddersmart.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=29835

It just needs to have that little bit of rubber to help absorb the heavier vibrations that the drive makes.

If you cannot find them, get a bicycle tire repair kit. It will have a small piece of rubber in it. Simpl cut out some small circles or strips, and than use them between the caddy and the harddrive.

K-TRON

 

No i could clearly hear the noise before!