WD Raptor drives

[Abbadon]

Hi all,

I've been considering buying a 36mb WD Raptor hard drive (http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=65) and was wondering if anyone had some experience with this. Specificly, I'd like to know about the noise. 10000rpm is fast, so I'm guessing is will be a tad louder then normal ide-drives. It said 32-36 decibels on the site, but that doesn't say much to me. I looked on the maxtor site for comparison, but they don't list their decibels...

Any shared experiences welcomed :)

Abbadon

[PrntRhd]

You meant 36.7 GB, I would do search for SATA here on forums, more will comment also.

[jabarnutcase]

Hi Abbadon
I'm not familiar with that particular drive, but I have a Seagate 10,000 rpm (SCSI) Drive, and my Maxtor 7200 rpm (ide) is louder.

The only thing I could compare that 32-36db to is fan noise...Not the quietest I've heard, but then it won't be running non-stop either, and it's a different kind of "noise" too :p

Looks pretty cool to me....Again, I'm not familiar with that WD though.

(EDIT) I should also add that I'm a big fan of Western Digital Drives...I also have an older WD 5400RPM that's been great...And I've had Maxtor's quit on me prematurely, but who knows no matter what the brand.

Got to love the FIVE YEAR WARRANTY on that one you're looking at though! Something you don't see much these days.

[Paul Komski]

I have two of them (actually configured in a RAID-1 array as it happens) and I just love them. They are very quiet, fast and don't seem to heat up very much at all. The cables are so neat and easy to attach and then there's a great guarantee into the bargain.

These were "cutting edge" a year ago and I have no need for additional storage space right now (that's mostly on a pair of 120Gig IDE drives) though I would probably be on the look-out for larger SATA drives if I was starting over again right now.

I don't know much about benchmarking but with these drives (and 1GB DDR to be fair) I can create and restore partition image files at about 1GB/min from within windows - which really rocks IMHO.

PS The 74 gig looks even more impressive - but not so cheap - but there are some heat and noise stats to compare at http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200311/20031111WD740GD_6.html

PPS HE HE and Steve jumped in as well! I am a bit hazy on DBs or what DB/A refers to - other than that Decibels are relative and not absolute measurements from learning physics many years ago; I cant hear the drives hardly at all - but maybe I'm going deaf!! :D

[Steve]

Hi Abbadon,

Like Jabar, I only have fans to compare it to, but I have been testing several fans lately. 32-36 decibels is LOUD. I can't put up with it with fans. But like Jabar said, it wont be running all the time. Or will it? Maybe HDD do spin constantly. I know you can leave a computer sitting at idle for quite a while and if you check, the drive will be pretty warm.

EDIT: hehe...Paul jumped in there right before me. 32-36 decibels quiet?

[jabarnutcase]

I know what you're saying about the Fan noise Steve....I recently dumped some case fans in one of my Computers that were in that noise range and went with a couple of "Vantec Stealth Pro" that were only 21DB...What a difference!

Those and some of the the Panasonic "Panaflo" fans were around the quietest I could find that could still keep my Temps where I wanted them.

We must be missing something here in the comparison...As Paul said, his are quiet and I can't imagine a Hard Drive sounding quite like my old fans did! :p (I know my Seagate 10,000rpm is one heck of a lot quieter then my Fans were!) ;)

[Abbadon]

Thx for the feedback guys!

I'm gonna be using this new drive to install my os, games and programs on, so the 36.7Gb version will suffice. I've got 2 80Gb drives for storage which is adequate. One is a SATA-maxtor, and one is an IDE-seagate baracuda.

The barracuda is 100% silent (from where I sit), while the maxtor makes a kind of hissing noise. The hissing noise doesn't bother me, so if the WD Raptor isn't louder than that it's fine by me.

From you link Paul I gather that the 74Gb variant is a good bit more quiet. Too bad it's also twice as expensive :( Interesting site though, thx ;)

[malcore]

I have two of the 36gig raptors in a raid array and two of the 74gigs in a raid array. Both versions are louder than my regular WD 7200rpm PATA drives,(when accessing).

The noise is noticeable, but it is so shortlived because these drives are so bloody fast!! When Windows loads, I hear click click, and then boom, the welcome screen! Not constant at all.

Mine are in Lian-Li cases, not much sound dampening (as opposed to steel cases) and they are mounted vertically, which may account for my being able to hear the difference. Or maybe I am aurally gifted.

The 74 gig drives are superior in my opinion. If you can afford one, go that route.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Decibel chart (http://home.new.rr.com/trumpetb/audio/dBexamp.html) Vague but... best I could find just before leaving for work.

[Abbadon]

I have a steel case (http://www.antec-inc.com/us/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=91082) (I think so at least, is weighs enough :p ) and it'll be installed horizontally. That and the db-chart Ted came up with sort of put me at ease: I won't turn deaf :) Moreover: last weekend on a lan-party I saw someone who had noise-insulation built into the sidepanel of his case! Neat idea, provided it doens't mess with cooling of course...


The 74 gig drives are superior in my opinion. If you can afford one, go that route.

I agree, it's seems a bit quieter and a tad faster. However, it's twice the cost, so I'm afraid 74Gb won't be happening :( Also: since my mobo supports SATA-raid I will most likely purchase a second 36.4Gb raptor sometime in the future and gain some extra speed that way :D.