Uh oh, I bought a WD Scorpio Black 500GB 7200rpm drive two days ago. I haven't opened the static-free bag. Now that three people give a negative review, should I return it for a Seagate 7200rpm drive?
That's strange considering all the Scorpio Black 7,200 RPM 500GB drives that I have installed and even my son's installation in his new MBP, there's not *any* sound or even any indication that the drive has actually even spun up and working.
Absolutely silent and cool running. Just like the older 3GB/s 3.5" WD Black model I installed in my Intel iMac mid-2007 a few weeks ago when the Apple branded WD 500GB drive died.
I just looked up the detailed specs of the WD Scorpio 500GB 7200rpm drive and the Seagate 500GB 7200rpm drive.
The power dissipation of the Seagate drive is higher in read/write mode by 0.35/0.65Watt, and in idle mode by 0.16W. But in standby and sleep modes, the Seagate drive is cooler by 0.25W.
In the acoustics dept., the Seagate drive is 2-5 decibels lower than the WD drive.
Looks like when the drive is working, the WD drives runs a bit cooler but also a bit noisier.
That's strange considering all the Scorpio Black 7,200 RPM 500GB drives that I have installed and even my son's installation in his new MBP, there's not *any* sound or even any indication that the drive has actually even spun up and working.
Absolutely silent and cool running. Just like the older 3GB/s 3.5" WD Black model I installed in my Intel iMac mid-2007 a few weeks ago when the Apple branded WD 500GB drive died.
I seriously am wondering if you have abandoned your faculties these last few weeks. Some of the sh1t coming out of your mouth makes 0 sense. Less than 0, actually.
Well, I guess if you want the best silence of any HD, just bite the bullet as suggested and get a reasonabley priced SDD for your average use and then just use the 'noisy' drives in an enclosure when you might need to access the extra stored data.
Or search for the quitest non-SSD SATA drive specs but I have no idea what your 'normal' work you do actually is.
And then with any of the quietest drives installed, you may then be upset with the sound level of the CPU cooling fan that you had never noticed before. Hmmm... now what???
In the acoustics dept., the Seagate drive is 2-5 decibels lower than the WD drive.
Fwiw 10db increase in SPL= roughly a doubling in volume, ergo 5db louder means it's about 25% louder. Nothing to shake a stick at, and says nothing about the vibrations as well, which lead to louder noise also as the computer around the drive resonates
The best analogy I can think of is the kid with the crazy car stereo coming down the street...sure you hear the music, but you also hear the car trunk/windows/bumper vibrating like crazy
I seriously am wondering if you have abandoned your faculties these last few weeks. Some of the sh1t coming out of your mouth makes 0 sense. Less than 0, actually.
I have no idea of your implicated comments broad and I was only relaying my own and some client's experiences regarding any noise, vibration or possible extra heat when using the WD Black 7200 RPM Scorpio drives or otherwise.
The only noise that they or I can perseive is from the normal fan noise that appears to be louder than any internal hard drive when using such drives.
But it seems that maybe your and some other's experience seems to be different according to some of the posts. I was just posting what I and some client's have observed which seems to be different according to your post and opinion.
^^^^ I also wanted a very quiet drive in my '09 13 MBP. I tried several different drives from Seagate and WD before settling with the TOSHIBA MK5055GSX which is very quiet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hype
I'll take a look into this, thanks.
I was also considering the Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 750GB 2.5" SATAII 5400rpm 8MB Cache or also the Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500GB hard drive. Any opinions on either?
Quote:
Originally Posted by pm-r
WD Scorpio, either Blue 5400 or the preferred Back 7200 for a bit more speed and with no increase in sound level or heat/power consumption - and a 5 year warranty and dual processors and platter drive heads.
Even their newest 1 TB Black Scorpio 12.5 mm drive would work with that MBP.
OK, to expand on my original comment, I firstly installed a Seagate 7200 to increase the size and speed over what I had. I was disappointed by the vibration that I could feel on the surface of my MBP so I decided to try a Seagate 5400.6 but it was still noticeably louder than the stock Fujitsu drive my MBP came with. I then tried a WD Scorpio Blue because of all it's fantastic reviews, I didn't like how loud it was, much louder than the Fujitsu, it sounded like my cooling fan was running at low speed, and it made a slight ticking sound every few seconds. I assumed it was defective so I installed a second WD Sorpio Blue and it was identical! I then did a little more research and discovered that the Toshiba MK5055GSX also had a lower power consumption, so I tried it and voila, quiet and smooth! - quieter than the Seagate and much quieter than WD Scorpios. I have since installed a second Toshiba into my wife's MB.
Most people wouldn't care as much about the different noise levels, however I work in a very quiet environment (home office in a rural area) so low noise was the most important criterion for me. I would've bought an SSD if they weren't still so expensive for large sizes.
/ 24"Dell UltraSharp
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