27 vs 36 decibel HDD

[Valantar]

Well, you're right.
Don't you think specs of same company can make some sense. specially when they're on the same page of the same pdf in the same product series?

Or WD says our 5k blue idles at 23 and our 7k Ultrastar 18tb idles at 20 (basically all helium from WD idle at 20). Could it be the other way around in test? Still waiting for @Xeon to answer

It's entirely possible that their consumer and enterprise departments have different standards or methods for noise testing. Unless they publish their methodologies, there is no way of knowing. I would expect any serious company to test in at least a semi-anechoic chamber, which tends to mean a ~15dB noise floor. I would also expect them to test the drives either mounted in a foam block or suspended somehow - i.e. a best case scenario. But there are many ways in which testing can differ from (other testing that gets put into) spec sheets:
- directionality: Especially high frequency noise like motor noise will be highly directional and will thus differ greatly depending on the orientation of the drive and the relative orientation of the measurement device
- resonance: even assuming a well dampened room, sound will resonate. A drive sitting on a table will sound different from one sitting on a cardboard box, which will again sound different from one hard mounted in a case, which will sound different from one mounted in a case with dampening. And the case material, thickness and construction matters a lot too.
- sound pressure is (largely) additive, meaning the more noise you have, the more noise you'll measure. The specifics of the interplay between sound waves in a material are way beyond my understanding, but on a pre-school level it's as simple as sound being energy; more sound = more energy. So, adding a 26dBA sound source (at a given distance etc.) to a 26dBA room will (roughly) result in a 3dBA noise increase, as you're doubling the sound energy present - assuming the frequency spectrums are matched. But the log scale of dB/dBA confuses this - so adding a 26dBA sound source to a 30dBA room will only result in a less than 1.5dBA increase in overall sound pressure. But this also means that your noise floor will impact your readings. Even the quietest fan or HDD will be measurable in a normal "quiet" ~30-36dBA room, as long as you're close enough - it still transfers energy to the air, after all! - but the readings will also be higher than if the room was quieter.

And so on and so on. Meaningful, useful and comparable sound measurements are hard.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I’ve used 15,000rpm drives, too, and they were often not as bad, either.

Wait, you're claiming 15k drives are MORE noisy that Raptors? There's an old saying that rings true here, and you're full of it.

Or WD says our 5k blue idles at 23 and our 7k Ultrastar 18tb idles at 20 (basically all helium from WD idle at 20). Could it be the other way around in test? Still waiting for @Xeon to answer

The sum total of this thread is simple: Almost all of the modern high capacity drives being considered are reasonably quiet and will meet your needs. Pick the one you like, buy it, enjoy.

As the trolls seem to be setting in, I'm out.

 

[claes]

Wait, you're claiming 15k drives are MORE noisy that Raptors? There's an old saying that rings true here, and you're full of it.

No, that’s the opposite of what I said. You were the one claiming 10,000rpm+ drives were quieter than Raptors…

That is patently wrong. Seagate, IBM, Fujitsu, Quantum, Conner and Maxtor all made consumer 10krpm drives that were MUCH louder than anything that came in the Raptor range of drives. Comparatively, the Raptor as a whole was very quiet.

Please read twice before jumping to insults.

The sum total of this thread is simple: Almost all of the high capacity drives are reasonably quiet and will meet your needs. Pick the one you like, buy it, enjoy.


As the trolls seem to be setting in, I'm out.

Reasonably quiet enough to be louder than the OP’s preferred maximum dB rating, according to manufacturer specs.

I’m drunk and answering between Covid ads with a friend — what’s your excuse for trolling at this hour?!

 

[Flanker]

@Lei OP, I don't know what the return policy is around where you live, but I think the best thing to do is buy from the list of drives you are considering, listen to them when running some HDD benchmark programme and decide which ones to keep and return the rest. It's just too subjective to discuss noise levels.
I was VERY picky with noise back when I lived in a quiet neighbourhood in New Zealand, but I can easily deal with 40db rated fans these days after moving to some busy city with population of 20M+

 

[Lei]

Return Policy doesn't work that way.
You can return if it was damaged during transport or didn't match what was advertised, but not if you don't like what you asked for.
Specially because hard disk is sealed and once tested, it internally keeps track of power-on count and...

If returning was that simple, I'd open an unboxing YouTube channel! testing Playstation, threadripper, rayban, holographic kiosks etc hmm an Oculus, HoloLens , may be a 30TB ssd too an Steinway grand piano, a 32" Wacom cintiq

@Lei OP, I don't know what the return policy is around where you live, but I think the best thing to do is buy from the list of drives you are considering, listen to them when running some HDD benchmark programme and decide which ones to keep and return the rest. It's just too subjective to discuss noise levels.
I was VERY picky with noise back when I lived in a quiet neighbourhood in New Zealand, but I can easily deal with 40db rated fans these days after moving to some busy city with population of 20M+

 

[Valantar]

@claes @lexluthermiester Could you two tone it down like five to seven notches? Disagreements are fine, but this is really unnecessary. Chill out. Getting into the weeds of 10-15k drives is entirely off-topic and irrelevant to the OP's questions.

 

[claes]

Return Policy doesn't work that way.
You can return if it was damaged during transport or didn't match what was advertised, but not if you don't like what you asked for.
Specially because hard disk is sealed and once tested, it internally keeps track of power-on count and...

If returning was that simple, I'd open an unboxing YouTube channel! testing Playstation, threadripper, rayban, holographic kiosks etc hmm an Oculus, HoloLens , may be a 30TB ssd too an Steinway grand piano

Where are you from? it shouldn’t work that way if you’re purchasing through a licensed retailer, who a) should have their own return policy that supercede’s the manufacture and. B& primarily based on date of purchase. I’ve written zeros to dozens of disks to check their integrity, retuning those that failed, with no question.But maybe I’m wrong.

killed analysis about disks as s mrlddiun, but night not explain a circumstance.

@claes @lexluthermiester Could you two tone it down like five to seven notches? Disagreements are fine, but this is really unnecessary. Chill out. Getting into the weeds of 10-15k drives is entirely off-topic and irrelevant to the OP's questions.

Nah, not this time, (Appreciating that’s If you want to hold me accountable for explaining as if I

 

[Frick]

Return Policy doesn't work that way.
You can return if it was damaged during transport or didn't match what was advertised, but not if you don't like what you asked for.
Specially because hard disk is sealed and once tested, it internally keeps track of power-on count and...

That's how it works in civilized society, aka Sweden. 30 days return policy. It depends a bit on the store, some places don't allow it for harddrives though, but most do, afaik. Obviously the thing can't have signs of wear. Yes, this can be abused (buy gaming laptop on friday, use a weekend at a lan party, return on monday), but it's not common.

 

[Valantar]

Nah, not this time, (Appreciating that’s If you want to hold me accountable for explaining as if I

Given that you apparently forgot to finish this sentence I don't know what you were going to say, but unless the OP has experience with 10K+ rpm drives, using them as a point of reference is pointless here - this is a purchase advice thread, not a general HDD noise thread, and points of reference/comparison for highly subjective matters like noise are only useful if everyone has experience with them. Let's keep our focus on discussing things that are relevant to the OP, yes?

 

[Bill_Bright]

Nah. With respect, you’re part of the problem. If you can’t hear a car passing on your block, or two systems running in the room you’re in, what does that say about your ambient noise level and your hearing sensitivity?

It says and illustrates exactly my point! That ambient noise levels play a significant role here. And yes, hearing sensitivity does too. And yes, being nearly 70 and having worked next to a military flightline for 24+ definitely has affected my hearing - at certain frequencies.

But that does not change the facts. The differences in SPL with the two drives can be measured with test equipment. And the differences are insignificant when you factor in the fact the drive will be installed inside a computer case that has a CPU fan and likely at least two case fans, a PSU fan, and perhaps 1 or more graphics card fans too. Not to mention other ambient sounds in the computer room as well.

As the trolls seem to be setting in, I'm out.

I'll meet you down at the corner pub. I'll buy the first round.

 

[eidairaman1]

Your Raptor? The newest models were actually fairly quiet. The models from 150GB on up used a new type of motor/bearing combination that was much quieter.

In fairness they are still a bit more noisy than any of these new high capacity 7200rpm drives.

Mintes 1TB Velociraptor.

 

[Valantar]

But that does not change the facts. The differences in SPL with the two drives can be measured with test equipment. And the differences are insignificant when you factor in the fact the drive will be installed inside a computer case that has a CPU fan and likely at least two case fans, a PSU fan, and perhaps 1 or more graphics card fans too. Not to mention other ambient sounds in the computer room as well.

That depends on a lot of stuff. In the last builds where I still had HDDs, those were clearly audible above the rest of the system, at least when seeking. The drives in my NAS are very clearly audible as well, despite it having a ball bearing 140mm fan that's rather grindy + two 92mm fans and a PSU fan (though that rarely runs). Frequency, distribution (i.e. how spiky/smooth the frequency graph is), and predictability/evenness of sound all affect perceived loudness, and fans and HDDs are very different in all these aspects.

 

[freeagent]

Mine were just 150s, and they worked pretty good prior to SSDs taking over. But mine were loud, maybe because they were in raid and their movements were synchronized. But one by one they dropped off. Wait! I sold one, afaik it still lives.. the one that got away

Anyways, for me it was like a supercharged coffee machine. You know that sound..

 

[Lei]

Nope, I don't have cpu fan, gpu fan. my psu fan is always at zero mode. Only 2 fans on the radiator at 738rpm.
Soundmeter app 40cm from my chassis, first 2 mins pc is on, then off:


The first spike on left is notification sound, one the right is my monitor shell contraction (plastic chills)

But that does not change the facts. The differences in SPL with the two drives can be measured with test equipment. And the differences are insignificant when you factor in the fact the drive will be installed inside a computer case that has a CPU fan and likely at least two case fans, a PSU fan, and perhaps 1 or more graphics card fans too. Not to mention other ambient sounds in the computer room as well.

I'll meet you down at the corner pub. I'll buy the first round.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

Someone said earlier that helium is used in Tig/mig welding which is true its primary function is to aid penetration of the weld which led me to wonder, does helium not only reduce sound from the lack of friction but also helps in the actual writing process by making the current the head uses to write onto the platter less.

 

[Bill_Bright]

That depends on a lot of stuff.

Exactly illustrating the point I've been posing all along.

 

[Lei]

I put my sound meter inside the chassis very near the western digital blue 5400
the left half of this 5 minute graph shows the spined down to 0 rpm and right half shows the idle (the hum we hear most of the time)

26~27 at 0 rpm and 39~40 at 5400 rpm
I'll post the Heliostar 18tb results soon.

 

[Valantar]

I put my sound meter inside the chassis very near the western digital blue 5400
the left half of this 5 minute graph shows the spined down to 0 rpm and right half shows the idle (the hum we hear most of the time)

View attachment 228278

26~27 at 0 rpm and 39~40 at 5400 rpm
I'll post the Heliostar 18tb results soon.

This is interesting! Remember to ensure that the sound meter is positioned as identically as possible in relation to both drives when measuring. Even small changes can make a major difference.

 

[Lei]

I got my 2nd hand Ultrastar 18tb. It has worked 4442 hours and was only powered on 28 times!
It was manufactured on 18 June 2021 (175 days ago)
It can be formatted to16.4 terabytes

Uhm, 175x24 < 4442
I copied Forza Horizon from wd blue on it, and it works

 

[Bill_Bright]

It has worked 4442 hours
175 days ago

That's a pretty good trick considering 175 days times 24 hours equals 4,200 hours.

 

[Valantar]

... maybe it's been in operation on a plane or satellite circling earth against its direction of rotation at really high speeds?

 

[Lei]

I mounted the new hdd in the same place my old hard disk was, switched the pc on and...
PSU popped and room went dark.

Now PSU doesn't work.

Weird, I played Forza from this hdd last night. Don't know what happened.

PSU and monitor share the same cable by extension like always. Two hdds share the same power cable, like yesterday.

Idk what happened, all I did was to mount hdd in a new place, why psu popped?

 

[eidairaman1]

I mounted the new hdd in the same place my old hard disk was, switched the pc on and...
PSU popped and room went dark.

Now PSU doesn't work.

Weird, I played Forza from this hdd last night. Don't know what happened.

PSU and monitor share the same cable by extension like always. Two hdds share the same power cable, like yesterday.

Idk what happened, all I did was to mount hdd in a new place, why psu popped?

Shorted out,

 

[Lei]

Like how, can hard disk cause this issue?
There was no smoke, no noise from mobo. Seems like power never got to motherboard.
My mobo has a built-in led strip which lights up during boot. I don't recall seeing that. Just pop and darkness.

I ordered another PSU

Shorted out,

 

[Selaya]

maybe the additional power draw from the extra hdd finally kicked the psu into its red zone so it decided to go kaboom?
wouldn't be unheard of