Does anyone have any hands on experience of moving from a WD1600BEVS to a newer Drive?

The topic title says it all really, I've been looking to change hard drives for what feels like an age now (I was waiting for the Seagate 7200.4) but seeing as that doesn't seem to be coming out any time soon I was thinking of getting either the:

1) WD3200BEKT
or
2) WD5000BEVT (I know this is only 5400RPM)

Now I'm guessing that both of these drives will be far superior to my WD1600BEVS in every benchmark test (correct?) but I've read that the WD3200BEKT can be rather noisy and cause a lot of vibration, which the more I think about it is a concern.

So if anyone has any stories or experiences with changing from the WD1600BEVS (or any similar drive) to a newer drive then please share so I can finally make my mind up haha. Thanks

 

About the performance, here's a head to head comparison between WD3200BEKT and WD1600BEVS. It's a big difference.
http://www.storagereview.com/php/be...&numDrives=1&devID_0=365&devID_1=344&devCnt=2

And the WD5000BEVT can be noisy as well, you need to be lucky. As you can see in this quote by zfactor.

I'm not sure if he has tried the hdparm solution. That may fix it though.

 

Well that's a rather off-putting quote!
Maybe i'd be best off waiting for the 7200.4 or finding a Seagate alternative

 

I agree, unless it could be solved with a simple tweak like hdparm.

PS. I doubt Seagate will be free of the clicking problem.

 

My current hard drive clicks a couple of times on startup and that's really about it, so is it a problem with all new drives?

 

I had a wd1600bevs in my Dv6500t I know lots of people who have upgraded to WD1200BEVs's ( xbox 360 120gb hard drive ). the WD0000bevt serries is pretty good i have one in my dv7 it gets around 60mb/s if i remember correctly i would reccomend it.

 

Hi.

I have an WD5000BEVT , and it made a clunking noise when it goes into low power mode, so i installed hdparm and now it is totally silent.

Regards

John.

 

Is it this kinda clicking you guys are experienceing? http://hem.bredband.net/widddde/wd320gbclick2.mp3

I don't have that clicking issue but i know a guy who has the same drive(wd3200bekt) that has it in a macbook.

 

That would be rather unbearable if it constantly happened every 3 or 4 seconds

 

Yes, that's why i'm asking It seems very annoying, though i don't have that problem with my wd3200bekt.
I just noticed that the drive in that .mp3 is a wd3200bevt(the 5400rpm one).

 

My current hard drive is pretty silent I guess, I've never noticed any clicking (besides during bootup) or other wrong doings and beyond a small bit of vibration when im doing hard drive intensive tasks the drive seems to be good, which is why im slightly reluctant to move to a quicker drive as i've heard so many horror stories on the forum... Anyway,

The way I see it I have 3 choices:

1) Buy a 320GB 7200RPM Drive (probably the WD) for a reasonable price and hope that that's all the storage I need

2) Buy a 500GB 5400RPM Drive, sacrifice speed and hope it's as quiet as my current WD1600BEVS

3) Buy a 500GB 7200RPM drive (when the Seagate finally comes out over here), this is obviously the quickest option but i'm guessing it'll be loud-ish and have a substantial price tag of £100+; which bearing in mind my laptop is probably only worth 3x that now is quite an expense.

Decisions, decisions eh

 

Say goodbye to silence if you get the WD3200BEKT. It is supposed to be the quietest of the 7200 RPM drives but this still means a constant sound similar to the laptop fan at 70%.

You will not hear it in a noisy environment (traffic, tv, trading floor, emergency room) but it is audibly annoying in a silent environment (library, meditation room, zen garden, think tank, operating room).

 

Is that coming from personal experience?

 

Also, quick question. Is the speed of the hard drive actually important when gaming?
It's just hit me that I may of been looking at this from the wrong point of view

 

Loading times should decrease dramatically. I'm thinking on getting one WD3200BEKT but I need to wait 3+ weeks because of shipping to my country. I really wish I could give my laptop a signifcant performance boost.

 

Thats a shame but atleast you'll have it soon-ish.
I'm really tempted to get the 500GB 5400RPM drive, save a bit of money and put it towards a brand new laptop. Is S-ATA in any danger of becoming 'old' technology anytime soon?

 

Right no more dilly dallying about, 320GB 7200RPM drive it is