Are the new WD scorpions noisy?

I was thinking of buying a new faster HDD for my laptop (Compaq 8710p) since the default Fujitsu 160GB @5400 is killing me.

The new scorpion 320GB @7200 (or even @5400) would seem a nice choice, but I have read various rumours about clicking sounds,vibrations etc.

The last thing I would like to sacrifice would be my dead silent laptop.
Right now, I have to stick my eye to the led of my HDD to know that it is been accessed.

The reviews about the drive do not mention much so far about the noise produced. Just some mere db which refer probably only to the seek noise.
They mention nothing about the vibration, the sound of air turbulence etc and unfortunately SilentPCreview have not tested a 2,5'' for a long time...

Could anyone tell me his personal exprerience with the new scorpions or some other fast and quiet alternative.

I was also thinking of buying a small Ocz 32GB SSD and keep my old HDD in an enclosure. The amount of money are about the same (around 150euros), but it's not a very convenient way to have external drives attached.

Thank you.

 

I just answered this in another thread but it seems right here too:

The Scorpio 7200rpm is not so quiet. The Scorpio 5400rpm is quiet as you can see in the benchmarks above, it does use a bit more power than normal and there have been a lot of reports that it gets hotter than normal. Another quiet alternative is the Samsung 320GB/5400rpm.

Clicking can happen on many drives though, and it seems there are different solutions too this. NHC is one I have heard of.

Keep in mind that the person who posted that review on Newegg has a Macbook Pro and they seem to be very vulnerable to vibration and noise. If you have a more heavy build laptop you're more likely to absorb the noise and vibration.

 

Thank you PhilFlow.
I am well aware of the reviews you mention, but they don't tell me much about vibration , air turbulence , "white" noise.

Yes, you can set the accoustic management (AAM) to "low" with the NHC or HDtune pro, but with that option you usually sacrifice around 4msecs of access time. (and has no effect to the air turbulence)

 

My scorpio does click from time to time. However, when it's running at full spindle, it doesn't click. When it idles, it occasionally clicks and is annoying, but a simple 10 second run of hdtune gets rid of the clicking. Under load, it doesn't click.

 

You get rid of the clicking just by running an hdtune speedtest Mr._Kubelwagen?
How does that work and how long it lasts before it starts clicking again?

I am mostly concerned about idle noise, because most of the time HDD are idle.

 

Not sure if it will help you but I'll post it anyway:
http://www.chip.de/bestenlisten/Bestenliste-Notebook-Festplatte--index/index/id/87/findAll/0

They also say the 3200BEVT is pretty quiet, while the Samsung's are more quiet. I'm pretty sure the idle noise of the 3200BEVT is fine, I'm just not sure how it's vibration is.

 

Τhere are a lot of complaints about clicking sounds of the 3200BEVT as well...
Heat is another issue, since it consumes more energy than the 3200bekt@7200 and the guarantee is limited to 3years, compared to the 5years of the black scorpio or the Seagates...
I don't think it's a very good choice...

 

Well, like I said, when the hard drive's spinning (like when you're using hdtune), then the clicking stops. It usually takes a couple tries, but the clicking does stop eventually. My hard drive hasn't clicked in almost a week, actually.

 

I'd like to suggest Hitachi 5K320 and Samsung HM320JI.

Especially the Hitachi has very low power requirements and good performance. (according to these charts at Tomshardware).

 

As a previous owner of the 3200BEVT I can confirm this drive has no vibration.