Owners of T500 + SSD I need your help about noise!

Hi,

Sorry about the double post (in hardware group) but I'm thinking that this is a issue with my T500.

I have a new T500 and just got a new Intel X-25 SSD. It runs fine but when the drive is working hard theres definately some "rattle" or static noise comming from it! It is so faint however that I wouldn't have heard it if it also was present with my HDD - the spinning of the drive would be too load.

Compared with the fact that every test and review of that SSD says that it is 100% silent - and an answer from Intel that the drive should be completely silent, I wonder if this is my T500 making this noise - instead of the SSD drive being faulty.

So I need some input about other T500 owners that are running SSD only. Do you sometimes hear this "noise" I'm talking about - or know someone that has the same issue?

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well that should be the cpu and / or gpu fan. besides that the only thing i could imagine is the intel cpu "whine", which is quite common with core2duo processors.

 

I don't think there is any way for a SSD to make that kind of noise. Is it possible that perhaps it's not seated tightly, and the vibration from a nearby cooling fan is causing it to shake a bit, or perhaps the fan itself is making a noise?

 

Well I suspect that if it were a fan I would also hear the sound when the drive light isnt lit. This noise is ONLY noticable when the drive light is lit. And again being a SSD drive without any moving parts any "work" done by the drive shouldn't rattle the drive itself...?

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But that would (most likely) at some point create that sound when the drive light isnt lit, dont you agree? And this sound is ONLY noticable when the drive light is flashing.

About the cpu whine - well I dont know for sure, It could I suspect - but the noise is not really a whine - its more a rattle. Like a normal HDD but with a much higher pitch and very faint.

I dont know - could it be cpu whine? It would explain the situation. Does anyone know if there is a cpu-whine sound downloable somewhere on the net? I would like to hear this for comparasing.

Thanks,

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i have heard a whizzy, fizzle, crackle when the laptop is working heavily on my x300 with samsung slc 64gb.

my guess is that it could be the cpu/motherboard or the ssd. even your power adapter makes noise, similar high frequency; fizzle, crackle, whistle type of sound.

even solid state component makes noise.

 

Thank you! It is so faint that it doesnt bother me at all, all I want to be sure of is that the drive isnt faulty. I'm going to call Intel tech ppl today, hopfully they can comment on this.

Its just weird why every sinlge one of all the reviews and tests on SSD's always states that the SSD is completely silent. I dont understant this - I could not write such statement. Almost silent yes, but not completely...

 

Different people have different definitions of silent. In addition, the noise made by solid state technology (as well as the infamous Penryn whine) is of such a high frequency and low amplitude that many people very well may not be able to hear it.

 

Well yes - perhaps you are right, although I dont find the frequency particularly high - my dog doesnt react either

 

This is normal, I've heard the noise with every SSD I've owned. Whether or not you or others hear it depends on age and genetics: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=359910

 

Yes, but I'm probably an old mf compared to the people in this forum. Besides, after attending a couple of Metallica concerts in my time I dont think my hearing is that good anymore .

No seriously, you are probably right. My wife cannot hear this, which does support that thought.

 

I bought a intel x25-m drive a couple of days ago.
I'm currently testing it against my usual hdd wich is a 80GB drive from western digital. I'm running Windows 7 on both drives and as far as sound go, I almost can't tell which one is which. The rattleing sound you speak of is there and it's loud enough for anyone to hear it. I was as suprised as you are about this. Since I've read the same thing about them being completely silent. Ofcourse there is a slight possiblity that other components combined with loading from it may cause this sound. I doubt it though, since that would most likely make the hdd in conjuction with those other components produce the same noice aswell.

 

Can you guys with a T500 + X25-M post your results of HD Tune or HD Tach?

With my T500 + X25-M 80GB I can only seem to reach 180 MB/s read speed while most of the benchmarks I've seen reach 240 MB/s. I'm not sure if has something to do with configuration or a limitation of the T500 hardware. Thanks!

 

could be that your drive suffers from speed degradation. if it really bothers you, get the latest firmware for the x25 from intel, create an image of your hdd (ie with acronis trueimage, just "normal" image not sector by sector), flash the new firmware and run hdderase (intel tool which uses the "secure erase" command to low level format your drive). finally, restore the drive image and your drive should reach it's top performance again.

windows 7 uses the TRIM command where this procedure should no longer be neccessary (maybe there is also some driver or patch for vista or xp, but i'm not aware of that).

 

in comparison to the cpu whine, the noise that comes from my ssd is very similar, but much louder when connected to my desktop.
my ssd is silent and barely audible in my notebook, but when i plug my cheap zif connector ssd in my desktop ata adapter, the noise is more audible than my wd hard disk. part of the reason that the drive is louder when connected with my desktops ata connector may be that the drive then gets 5v instead of the 3v (the drive can handle both).

i suspect that there is variation with the capacitors used, which eventually makes some drives really louder than others.

 

The drive was only used to install Windows 7 and has 10GB used and 64 GB free, so no, I don't think it has anything to do with degradation. It also has the latest firmware version. My guess is that it has something to do with the T500 hardware but I would like to confirm this with others.