Hitachi 7K500 Travelstar vs Seagate 7200.4

So... my drive came in today, installed it, and well... I can hear it. I have both the Seagate and the Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM drives, and from what I notice from using it so far, is that the access noise of the Hitachi sounds slightly louder. Speed I don't really tell a difference, but power consumption does feel slightly higher than my original Seagate. I was hoping for a more quiet drive, but oh well. For those who are in the same situation as me, do you notice what I have noticed? What are your thoughts?

I just installed it today, so still checking it out. If I observe more things throughout usage, I will update more. One thing that I have not noticed so far is that there is no head parking noise during long term usage like the seagate. It occurs very rarely, (once maybe in 25-30 mins), but Hitachi has not made a single parking noise yet.

 

Hmmm, that's too bad and slightly disappointing too.

I will let you know when mine gets here this weekend.

Actually, I expect to hear the heads moving on a Hitachi - but at the same time, they should be faster, or, at least have more 'snap' to them.

 

I have a 2 gen older 160GB 7200RPM Hitachi. The heads have never made a parking noise as far as I know. It does have a low fait electric motor noise to it. Not bothersome at all but maybe I'm used to it. I mean really faint. If the 7500 is like that I would be satisfied.

 

is the hitachi really that noisy? that sucks, i was planning on getting one to replace my 250gb samsung, i like the samsung because its way more silent than the seagates

 

Noise is relative.

Girls/women have more sensitive hearing in the treble range (where they can hear the drive actually spinning) as well as overall better hearing than same aged boys/men do.

Not only that; what is noise to one person is not even noticeable to another.

Also, remember that the environment makes a difference too. In some boardroom offices, my camera's shutter sounds like a cannon! Whereas in other situations, it is hard to tell I just tore off almost 40 frames in the last 3 or 4 seconds...

Moral of this story; base the 'loudness' aspect on your direct experience and taking into consideration the circumstances you normally use your notebook in.

After all, if we concentrate on the computer/HD noise - we'll hear it. If we concentrate on what we're doing with the computer - the whole world can fade away.

 

not really, i leave my computer on when i'm sleeping, the noise the seagate made was enough to bother me. the samsung on the other hand was completely inaudible.

 

Maybe Forte will volunteer to record and upload an MP3 of the "noise." lol

 

Its a slightly louder click, but it does not make any audible head parking noises every 20-30 mins, so it is sleep throughable. The Seagate was quiet most of the time instead of the head parking noises it made infrequently. The Hitachi appears to not have any such noises as I slept through it fine.

Enabling "Quiet" mode on my laptop does a very good job silencing the hard drive. Bypass mode appears favor the Seagate over the Hitachi. So ambient noisewise the Hitachi drive makes from accessing is very very slightly louder than the Seagate, but makes no head parking noises, so the Hitachi does make for I guess a more silent drive.

 

my 7k500 is as quiet as a mouse in my Z

 

That's some deep stuff! rep

 

I really don't hear anything on my 2 gen old Hitachi. What I hear as far as hum is probably a fan but I'm not an eggspert like you folks. Thanks Forte, I hate parking noises. To the layperson likes myself it sounds like something is defective.

 

Even whn it's not doing anything, it'll make a regular... I can't really describe the sound. Almost like a click, but not quite.

And this is a disk that isn't being accessed, either, except during games. Not really bothersome, but it's troubling because this is almost the same noise my WD drive was making before going on a pre-boot consistency checking spree. My drives never made noice in Vista.

 

my crappy toshiba drive in my sony seems to make a racket when im at home, sometimes i have to turn up my music quite loud until i cant hear the annoying clicking any more. Whereas at school in a classroom with the noise from the air conditioning and the other computers i cant hear it at all. but im gonna upgrade to a 500gb WD scorpio blue and hopefully it will be quieter

 

Just replaced a dead (all of 4 months life) 7200.4 with new 500GB travelstar...it's dead quiet, even defragged it with ear to the driver, almost no audbile noice, and from normal distance, can't even hear it....

Downloaded HDTune, seems at least as fast as Seagate, without noise and likely wil last longer than 4 months....

HD Tune Pro:
Access TIme 16.8ms
CPU use <1.0%
Burst 127.2 MB/sec

Read tests:
Max 108.5
Min 56.2
Avg 83.6

Sidenote: was at relative's house for Xmas dinner thing last night. Wanted me to look at their Lenovo laptop as munch 2 hard drives since they bouth it...oddly, the OE and replacements were Scorpio BLue...hmmm, thinking this HItachi is new the leader....and TomsHardware (FWIW) indicated uses lass power too, so good for battery like

 

Since I have identical HP 8510p laptops, thought interesting to compare the one with Seagate, with the new Hitachi (since the pos Seagate puked in it)...

Essentially the Hitachi just beats Seagate like a drum...NOTE: I ran benchmark test with the Seagate on AC power, the Hitachi on battery......will re-run Hitachi on A/C to see if different (added below)

So here's the HDTune numbers:

Seagate 7200.4 -- on AC power
Transfer Rates:
Min 28.7
Max 98.1
Avg 73.9
Access Times:
18.8ms
Burst: 69.1MB
CPU -1%

Hitachi 7K500 -- on battery
Transfer Rates:
Min 35.4 -- 23% faster
Max 106.6 -- about 7% faster
Avg 76.3 -- a little over 3% faster
Access Times:
17.2 ms -- 10% faster
Burst 122.5 MB -- 77% greater
CPU -1%

Hitachi on AC Power:
Min 34.7
Max 108.5
Avg 83.0
Access Time 17.0
Burst 122.3 MB

Clearly, Hitachi has the Momentus whooped on all measures.

I ran WinUpdate and rebooted prior to each test, machiens are same CPU, RAM, mobo, everything....so if the HItachi lives its 3 year warranty period, it's faster, as quiet (neither make noise), likely more power efficient, and cheaper.

Makes me want to put one in the notebook with the Seagate before it pukes too.