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27 vs 36 decibel HDD

Lei

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What they measure at idle? Are they louder than 5400 at idle?
I have 4 of those helium filled hgst hdd's on one of my systems, and they are as loud as any other 7K drives. I measure around 38 DB's with my phone next to them...for what is worth.

 
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Yes. Seek noise is louder and higher pitched than the hum you normally get from HDDs. It also passes a lot more vibration to the chassis, depending on the mounting.

Also, Toshiba is not WD/Hitachi — they surely have different ways of measuring noise. I’d like to believe that WD and Hitachi use the same standards for measurement, since they’re both WD companies, but I’m not confident that they do.
 

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@Lei are you going to pick a drive or what?

If noise is a big concern you might just go SSD.
 
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Low quality post by eidairaman1

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4 pages and nothing acomplished...
 
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So.. if you guys have used some old Raptor ADFD’s in raid you guys are pretty much saying these big drives are just as loud? Ugh. Gross. I don’t know how loud they were but the were not quiet. Also for an enterprise drive like they were supposed to be I had 4 out of 4 die, but only one had the window.
 
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Maybe stating the obvious, but money usually is an object.
Exactly. There is a HUGE difference between $350 for 16TB and $3000 for 15TB. One of them the OP has already made to commitment to afford, but not the other.
Speak for yourself maybe?
What I don't understand is the saltiness...

So.. if you guys have used some old Raptor ADFD’s in raid you guys are pretty much saying these big drives are just as loud?
No one can say that with any degree of seriousness and expect to be taken seriously.
 

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Raptors are 10K rpm drives and are alot louder.

I still have around some old seagate cheetah15k rpm drives now that's loud
Odd, mine isnt loud.
 
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I don't think you, claes, have assessed the replies properly. Nobody suggested the noise is not there. Only that the differences mentioned are not likely to be that significant, if significant at all.


Not true at all. Noise is subjective and objective. Yes, it is a matter of opinion as to how annoying noise it. But noise can be measured (and calculable)with test equipment too. So therefore, subjective and objective.


I don't know about most. I for one, hate fan noise, for example. I really hate it. I am not a fan (no pun intended) of drive motor noise either - another reason to go SSD.
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?

Your feelings about fan and motor noise belie the truth — some people are more sensitive to some frequencies than others. I’m not saying your hearing is “bad” or whatever, I’m saying it’s different from other’s hearing.

OP has a < 30dB system, and there are users telling them they won’t notice a 36dB drive when they already notice a < 30dB drive. The very first response said they were full of shit for noticing at all, presumably because of a common 30dB noise floor in most homes. If you can’t appreciate that, then you are simply ignoring OP’s hearing.

Say what you will, but many users on this forum don’t care about noise at all, which is generally why I avoid these discussions (and fan noise discussions as well). Hell, a lot of users on this forum don’t notice Nidec GT motor noise, which is infamous on forums where users care. The same users will pretend that Arctic fans don’t have bearing noise, despite it being thoroughly documented.

If you don’t notice noise, like the two users above this post, that’s great, bully for you. But if you do, like OP has clearly stated, then that’s something any reasonable response will consider.

(In fairness to Lex, raptors are definitely louder than most modern high-capacity enterprise drives, especially two of them, IME)

 
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No, their raptor is is one of the loudest drives ever produced for consumer use. That they don’t hear something twice as noisy at most good fans should tell you all you need to know about their opinion. I know you’ve blocked me because I am a beautiful “snowflake,” but see above test results produced in an anechoic chamber by some of the most deliberate tech reviewers to ever be in the game.

I really hate know-it-all’s who can’t warrant an argument. “Yep, I say so, cause I am authority,” etc. Please warrant your arguments and explain with reason; thanks!
 
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3dB increase is perceived as twice the noise
Nope. 3dB is *technically* twice the noise; but in reality a 10dB increase is perceived as twice the noise. So 30dB is pretty quiet; 40dB is audible; and 50dB is so loud you'd want to put your fingers in your ears.
 
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5-10dB, depending on the subject/person and their sensitivity, but I “hear” you. The research used to come to these conclusions should tell you all you need to know about noise being subjective, nevermind that that research doesn’t bother to account for frequency and pitch changes, admitting that dBs can’t account for how that noise is perceived — the best they can do is attempt to produce consistent frequencies, which HDDs are currently incapable of due to all of the moving parts and seek noise (unlike, say, a perfectly calibrated fan, where the only noise is motor noise, which, AFAIK, also doesn’t exist)

Edit: dunno why y’all are trying to one-up me here — at best you’re saying that OP’s HDD choice is 160% louder than their current drive, which they find intrusive. Are you saying that they won’t find a 160% increase in a noise they already find intrusive as more intrusive?

edit 2: my bad, 27dB to 36dB, so 133% on a logarithmic scale, and a 9dB difference, which is ost shy of twice as loud, in your terms. Whoops.

 
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No, their raptor is is one of the loudest drives ever produced for consumer use.
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. And yes, I have owned or used examples of all those drives. I was a SCSI user BITD. 10krpm drives sounded like jet engines spooling up. So no, Raptors are NOT among the loudest consumer drives ever made. Even in that particular time frame there were 7200rpm drives louder than the Raptors.
 
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I’ve used them, too, by the dozens, in server racks and as single drives. The vast majority were a) not consumer drives marketed at gamers, like the raptors, and b) rated at less than 36dB, like the raptors. I’ve used 15,000rpm drives, too, and they were often not as bad, either. Please point to spec sheets, at least, knowing they’re unverifiable, to warrant your claim, and respond to my arguments about frequency changes, which dBs don’t account for.

aye, talking to a brick wall over here, eh? Imagine a raptor pressed against one of those! Like the name wasn’t ironic lol
 
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I haven't had a good record for Toshiba where I work their normal nas and consumer drives in a server that's on 24-7 doesn't hold up as long as WD RED, Purple and so on.

If anyone want a bit of noise test too check out Nada over at TechTesters she tested Toshiba, WD and Seagate like a year ago.

 
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Dampened, suspended, 35dB = inaudible. I miss SPCR. Wish VSG (no @ because this is a waste of time) had time for HDDs :laugh:

Thanks, though. Would love to know procedures.
 
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She says her 5400 WD red is making 35.4db at idle. measurements aside, but her access is 36.6
Also her 7200rpm drives are 1 or 2 decibels louder. That's not a very successful measurement
1634193112837.png

But here, she shows that a 7K helium-filled drive is quieter than a 5K air-filled drive. only louder during seek. That agrees with spec
WD Red Pro is helium filled from 12tb and above
Interesting is that non-Pro is quieter during seek, and still is 7K - specs agree with video (29 vs 36)
WD Red
WD Red Pro
I guess WD Red is my holy grail. however there are 2 caveats: it max at 14tb and costs 22% more than Ultrastar 18tb (prices were I live, but based on WD website prices, WD red is unquestionably the holy grail if you don't mind 4 less tb)

1634193171899.png


Listen to her at 7:38 , who says she's trolling?
Ironwolf is louder at idle and quieter at seek, according to spec. Different company, so we can't really compare. Her video shows that wolf wins Red-pro in seek, however wolf max at 16tb and wolf pro is 2db louder than wolf in specs of same company.
Ironwolf Pro
Ironwolf
I haven't had a good record for Toshiba where I work their normal nas and consumer drives in a server that's on 24-7 doesn't hold up as long as WD RED, Purple and so on.

If anyone want a bit of noise test too check out Nada over at TechTesters she tested Toshiba, WD and Seagate like a year ago.

 
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Buddy — you don’t know her noise floor, or the quality of her instruments. For all we know, her sound floor/ambient noise is 33dB, which would mean she is unable to measure any volume (in dB, which doesn’t account for all “noise”) below that.

This is why you can’t trust spec sheets. What is their noise-floor? How sensitive is their microphone? At what distance are they measuring?
 
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Yeah, sadly without knowledge of the test setup and equipment those numbers are only internally comparable, and neither comparable to spec sheets nor other measurements. Given that sound pressure drops by 6dB per doubling of distance, and sound can be hightly directional, the setup is very important. Still interesting data though!
 

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usually in my shirt
Processor 3900x - Bykski waterblock
Motherboard MSI b450m mortar max BIOS Date 27 Apr 2023
Cooling αcool 560 rad - 2xPhanteks F140XP
Memory Micron 32gb 3200mhz ddr4
Video Card(s) Colorful 3090 ADOC active backplate cooling
Storage WD SN850 2tb ,HP EX950 1tb, WD UltraStar Helioseal 18tb+18tb
Display(s) 24“ HUION pro 4k 10bit
Case aluminium extrusions copper panels, 60 deliveries for every piece down to screws
Audio Device(s) sony stereo mic, logitech c930, Gulikit pro 2 + xbox Series S controller, moded bt headphone 1200mAh
Power Supply Corsair RM1000x
Mouse pen display, no mouse no click
Keyboard Microsoft aio media embedded touchpad (moded lithium battery 1000mAh)
Software Win 11 23h2 build 22631
Benchmark Scores cine23 20000
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
Buddy — you don’t know her noise floor, or the quality of her instruments. For all we know, her sound floor/ambient noise is 33dB, which would mean she is unable to measure any volume (in dB, which doesn’t account for all “noise”) below that.

This is why you can’t trust spec sheets. What is their noise-floor? How sensitive is their microphone? At what distance are they measuring?
 
Joined
Aug 14, 2013
Messages
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System Name boomer--->zoomer not your typical millenial build
Processor i5-760 @ 3.8ghz + turbo ~goes wayyyyyyyyy fast cuz turboooooz~
Motherboard P55-GD80 ~best motherboard ever designed~
Cooling NH-D15 ~double stack thot twerk all day~
Memory 16GB Crucial Ballistix LP ~memory gone AWOL~
Video Card(s) MSI GTX 970 ~*~GOLDEN EDITION~*~ RAWRRRRRR
Storage 500GB Samsung 850 Evo (OS X, *nix), 128GB Samsung 840 Pro (W10 Pro), 1TB SpinPoint F3 ~best in class
Display(s) ASUS VW246H ~best 24" you've seen *FULL HD* *1O80PP* *SLAPS*~
Case FT02-W ~the W stands for white but it's brushed aluminum except for the disgusting ODD bays; *cries*
Audio Device(s) A LOT
Power Supply 850W EVGA SuperNova G2 ~hot fire like champagne~
Mouse CM Spawn ~cmcz R c00l seth mcfarlane darawss~
Keyboard CM QF Rapid - Browns ~fastrrr kees for fstr teens~
Software integrated into the chassis
Benchmark Scores 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
The problem is we don’t know WD’a noise-floor but, IME (emphasis on In My Experience), helium drives are pretty quiet at idle. If idle noise is your concern more than seek noise than you’ll probably be fine. If you’re worried, suspend that disk!

Double post: sub 30dB situations are uncommon, and sub 20dB even less so. Even in anechoic chambers, you’re still not reaching 0. What you are hearing, in the case of PC components that are that quieter than the nois-floor, are vibrations due to moving components being mounted in a chassis and their vibrations reverberating throughout the chassis, or resonance, which is impossible to account for unless you test the specified moving part in every chassis available on the market.
 
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