Velociraptor

GeneO said:

yikes! The 3 gb/s Blacks are loud enough when seeking that I took a hit in performance enabling the Auto Acoustics mode in the two I use for data!

Hehe I took a performance hit by replacing it with my older (32meg) drive. Peace of mind that move

I've got the 1st gen raptor and the 2nd gen raptor. Both are quiet. Although I wouldn't hear them anyway since my case fans are louder than those HDD's will ever be. They are definitely worth it for the speed.

sygnus21 said:

DeaconFrost said:

You might want to consider one of the WD Black drives instead. I've read some reviews that place them on par with the Raptors, yet they offer more capacity for a lower cost.

Actually the Rapter is faster, but I don't think it's that much ahead to consider giving up space in place of speed.

One thing I would say is to stay away from the Caviar Black SATA 6 drives (64mb cache) though they are slightly faster than their 32mb cousins, they are considerably louder. See my thread here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB

On the other hand I can't imagine the Rapter being any quieter since it runs at 10,000 RPMS!

I wish that I had seen that thread sooner, because I bought another hard drive just to have a place to store data that is on one of my FAEX drives. I had posted a thread about the noise that they make, and the responses that I got made me think that they were defective and needed to be RMAed. I even spoke to one WDC rep before that, asking whether they are naturally noisy, and he said that they weren't. I would have been quite disturbed had I got a replacement that acted the same way. I guess now that I will just let them clatter away.

pparks1 said:

GeneO said:

yikes! The 3 gb/s Blacks are loud enough when seeking that I took a hit in performance enabling the Auto Acoustics mode in the two I use for data!

Huh, my storage drive is a 1TB Caviar Black 3.0Gbps model and it's not loud at all. I was concerned a bit about noise when I was replacing my 1TB Seagate 7200.12 (moved to another machine), but was pleasantly surprised to discover the Caviar Black wasn't really much louder. My drives are isolated with rubber standoffs from my case, so that might help cut down the vibration noise.

Both of mine are isolated with rubber grommets as well and are loud. It isn't drive vibration, but head seek clatter that is loud. Perhaps your noise tolerance is lower than mine I even have soundproofing material in my case. My system drive is a WD 6Gb/s blue single platter 320 GB drive and it is silent, though not as performant as the black. Seeking on my crappy old Seagate 750 GB 7200.11 is also quiet compared to the blacks. I got the blacks mainly for the 5yr warranty.

seekermeister said:

I wish that I had seen that thread sooner, because I bought another hard drive just to have a place to store data that is on one of my FAEX drives. I had posted a thread about the noise that they make, and the responses that I got made me think that they were defective and needed to be RMAed. I even spoke to one WDC rep before that, asking whether they are naturally noisy, and he said that they weren't. I would have been quite disturbed had I got a replacement that acted the same way. I guess now that I will just let them clatter away.

Yeah I actually called WD's tech supprt and was told that If I wanted an quieter drive I should have gotten a "Blue"

Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.

Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB :)

sygnus21 said:

Yeah I actually called WD's tech supprt and was told that If I wanted an quieter drive I should have gotten a "Blue"

Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.

Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB :)

The drive that I just bought for RMAing the FAEXs is a WD20EARS, which is a green..not too clear on the difference between green and blue. But it is quiet and twice the size of the FAEX. While one of the FAEXs is internally mounted in my HTPC, the other two are in an external case, which sits directly ~ 2' from my ear, and is very disturbing, whether it is normal or not. Since these 2 drives are only being used to store video in, the EARS drive is quite adequate, so I will leave it in the external case. I haven't decided where to put the FAEX though.

I absolutely hate mines. Thankfully I've relegated it to a hot-swap drive when I went SSD. I love WD drives but knowing what I know now, I'm running the other way when I see one of those. Give me the old Caviar Blacks and I'm a happy camper.

Incidentally I don't see the FEAX's around too often - perhaps WD heard the complaints and dropped/limited them? They are loud... despite what WD says.