Barracuda 7200.7 sata 160gb noise.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Isn't that model a 2MB Cache one? If so, maybe that is the difference?

When I ordered my drive yesterday I noticed several sites were selling 2MB
cache drives for MORE money than 8MB cache drives.

When I bought my WD 120GB 2MB Cache HD a few weeks back the 8MB Cache
version was about £25 more but, again I noticed yesterday, the 2MB Cache
WDs
were generally more expensive than the 8MB ones.

I think this is simply because they are making and selling more of the 8MB
drives so they work out cheaper.

snip

No thats a sata one hence has 8mb cache,

Jaime

Well I fianlly brought this drive and now wish I hadnt. The idle noise is
nice and quiet, however its very noisy when seaking comapred with the cuda
4's I have which arnt exactly quiet either. Is there any way to make it
seak
quiter, is this normal.


Just to update, I have read several reviews and they do not refer to noisy
seeks so either my drive is a different version or I am being very noise
sensitive? Is it possible that my drive has soem kind of fault, or that some
drive where shiped with amm enabled which as far as I can tell this drive
doesnt support.

Thanks

Jaime

On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 19:10:10 +0100
"Jaime" wrote:

The problem in this kind of situation is do you know your drive
is
faulty
or is it supposed to be like that? I mean, you go to someone's
house in a week or a month, discover they have a silent PC and,
worse,
discover
they have the same drive you have - would that then make your
drive
faulty?

Go here and post your question on the storage forum -
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Dam stupid me, I had heard of this and as I though the cuda
4's where noisy I asumed they where in performance mode,
I think it seems that my impression of noise is a little different
and that my cuda 4's where already on quite seeks.

This is very anoying, I think I will contact the vendor (tekheads)
telling
them the whole story and asking what they will let me do about it.
Then depending on their reaction decide if I shope with them
again.

One approach would be to emphasise the fact that the pdf
says the drive can do acoustic management and in fact it cant.

My server doesn't seem to have the post of which the above is a part, so
I'll comment here. What leads you to believe that the drive cannot do
acoustic management? Being unable to perform a function is not the same
as having the function default to being turned off, and if it ends up in
court I suspect that Seagate's lawyers will eat your lunch on this one.

Legally the goods you were supplied with do not match the
description and legally they have to refund, even if you had
to use it to discover that it does not match the description.


Thanks, I shall make sure I try and get a refund out of them, although
I think I will have to wait until Monday to get it sorted. I guess the
next question is which SATA or PATA hard disk is as quiet as the cuda
4's (or nearly as quiet) yet provides high capacity ( =120gb) and who
in the UK still has stock.

From the forum linked a cuda 5 pata/sata 120gb drive would fit the
bill, however finding a supplier that stil stocks these rather than
the 7200.7 is difficult.

Regards

Jaime




--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 19:43:17 +0100
"John Smith" wrote:

So how does Joe Public gauge whether it exceeds the manufacturers
specs or not? Is everyone supposed to have a decibel meter at hand?

If you are going to court then yes, you should have such a meter,
calibrated, or results from same, with testing performed according
to whatever procedure the drive manufacturer defines for such tests.
The drives aren't rated for "Joe Public thinks it's quiet", they're
rated for a specific sound power level when tested in a particular
manner.

I just built two identical PCs for two friends of mine who work in the
same office. One cannot hear the WD 120GB with 8MB Cache drive in his
PC. The other guy can. Of course it is subjective if accurate
measuring devices aren't used and not many of us have those in our
homes.


J.


"J.Clarke" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 17:09:23 +0100
"John Smith" wrote:

The problem in this kind of situation is do you know your drive is
faulty or is it supposed to be like that? I mean, you go to
someone's house in a week or a month, discover they have a silent
PC and, worse, discover they have the same drive you have - would
that then make your drive faulty?

Go here and post your question on the storage forum -
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

If the noise level exceeds the manufacturers specs, then it would be
faulty, IMO. It's not a subjective matter.

Bye,


J.


"Jaime" wrote in message
...

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Don't you have to use a drive to discover it is faulty?

J.

But its not faulty, its just not as I wanted. Or is it faulty?
the thing
is
its nice and quiet idle and when the head isnt moving all over
the place,
so
thats not too bad. I cant see why though that it make sso much
more noise than the cuda4 when seaking so prehaps it is fauly.

Anyone else care to comment.

Jaime






--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)




--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

All possible. I would send it back.

J.

"Jaime" wrote in message
...
Well I fianlly brought this drive and now wish I hadnt. The idle noise
is
nice and quiet, however its very noisy when seaking comapred with the
cuda
4's I have which arnt exactly quiet either. Is there any way to make it
seak
quiter, is this normal.


Just to update, I have read several reviews and they do not refer to noisy
seeks so either my drive is a different version or I am being very noise
sensitive? Is it possible that my drive has soem kind of fault, or that
some
drive where shiped with amm enabled which as far as I can tell this drive
doesnt support.

Thanks

Jaime

All possible. I would send it back.


Thanks, I'll give them a ring Monday and get shot of it. Looks like the SATA
120GB cuda V is the way to go.

Thanks

Jaime

Well I fianlly brought this drive and now wish I hadnt. The idle noise
is
nice and quiet, however its very noisy when seaking comapred with the
cuda
4's I have which arnt exactly quiet either. Is there any way to make
it
seak
quiter, is this normal.


Just to update, I have read several reviews and they do not refer to
noisy
seeks so either my drive is a different version or I am being very noise
sensitive?

Probably the last, maybe compounded by a case that makes it more audible.

It is mounted almost identically to the baracuda 4's and I would say its 4
or 5 times as loud as them (of course thats a complete guess though)

Is it possible that my drive has soem kind of fault,

Nope.

Thanks, thats helpful to know, I did think that was probably the case
though.

or that some drive where shiped with amm enabled
which as far as I can tell this drive doesnt support.

That might have changed over time. The PATA version
does appear to allow the AMM to be changed, even tho
it doesnt report it as being supported for legal reasons.

Is this the 7200.7? Your not confusing it with the V?

Your problem is finding a ute than can change it with a SATA drive.

Hitatchi disk utility (boot disk thing) finds the drive and reports it as
not having AMM, so looks like it could change it if it though it had it.

Are there any previous discusions on the 7200.7 sata (or the pata) in
regards to AMM that I have missed?

Thanks

Jaime

Jaime wrote in message
...

Well I fianlly brought this drive and now wish I hadnt. The idle noise
is
nice and quiet, however its very noisy when seaking comapred with the
cuda
4's I have which arnt exactly quiet either. Is there any way to make
it
seak
quiter, is this normal.


Just to update, I have read several reviews and they do not refer to
noisy
seeks so either my drive is a different version or I am being very noise
sensitive?

Probably the last, maybe compounded by a case that makes it more audible.

It is mounted almost identically to the baracuda 4's and I would say its 4
or 5 times as loud as them (of course thats a complete guess though)

Is it possible that my drive has soem kind of fault,

Nope.

Thanks, thats helpful to know, I did think that was probably the case
though.

or that some drive where shiped with amm enabled
which as far as I can tell this drive doesnt support.

That might have changed over time. The PATA version
does appear to allow the AMM to be changed, even tho
it doesnt report it as being supported for legal reasons.

Is this the 7200.7? Your not confusing it with the V?

I'd expect that Seagate would most likely have disabled
AMM the same way with both of them, and thats just not
so obvious because Hitachi's Feature Tool doesnt see
the SATA drives, so it cant be used to enable it etc.

Your problem is finding a ute than can change it with a SATA drive.

Hitatchi disk utility (boot disk thing) finds the drive and reports it as
not having AMM, so looks like it could change it if it though it had it.

Yes, but clearly it can be changed in the PATA
drives, even if they report that they dont support it.

Checking what they report they can do is a separate issue
to what they do if the command is issued to the drive.

It wouldnt be surprising if Seagate chose the easy way
when purportedly disabling that in the drives once they
decided that there was a patent/royalty problem with it.

Are there any previous discusions on the 7200.7 sata
(or the pata) in regards to AMM that I have missed?

Yes, but that one John listed the link to is much better.

J.Clarke wrote in message ...
"John Smith" wrote:

So how does Joe Public gauge whether it exceeds the manufacturers
specs or not? Is everyone supposed to have a decibel meter at hand?

If you are going to court then yes, you should have such a meter,
calibrated, or results from same, with testing performed according
to whatever procedure the drive manufacturer defines for such tests.
The drives aren't rated for "Joe Public thinks it's quiet", they're rated
for a specific sound power level when tested in a particular manner.

Most of the first world doesnt run off to a court and line the
pockets of parasite lawyers in the process with something like that.

They have much more practical avenues for small consumer claims like that.

I just built two identical PCs for two friends of mine who work in the
same office. One cannot hear the WD 120GB with 8MB Cache drive in his
PC. The other guy can. Of course it is subjective if accurate
measuring devices aren't used and not many of us have those in our
homes.


J.


"J.Clarke" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 17:09:23 +0100
"John Smith" wrote:

The problem in this kind of situation is do you know your drive is
faulty or is it supposed to be like that? I mean, you go to
someone's house in a week or a month, discover they have a silent
PC and, worse, discover they have the same drive you have - would
that then make your drive faulty?

Go here and post your question on the storage forum -
http://www.silentpcreview.com/

If the noise level exceeds the manufacturers specs, then it would be
faulty, IMO. It's not a subjective matter.

Bye,


J.


"Jaime" wrote in message
...

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Don't you have to use a drive to discover it is faulty?

J.

But its not faulty, its just not as I wanted. Or is it faulty?
the thing
is
its nice and quiet idle and when the head isnt moving all over
the place,
so
thats not too bad. I cant see why though that it make sso much
more noise than the cuda4 when seaking so prehaps it is fauly.

Anyone else care to comment.

Jaime






--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)




--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

"J.Clarke" wrote in message ...
On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 19:48:10 +0100
"Jaime" wrote:

I did some research online before buying and quite a few people
were
saying
the 160GB plus VIIs were noisey so I opted for a 120GB which,
only been in for a couple of hours, is wonderfully quiet. Touch
wood.


Dam, I presumed that they would make the same amount of noise, I
should have prehaps gone for the 120GB version.

Thanks for the reply though

Always read the spec sheet. For the 7200.7 family it is at
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/data...rracuda_7200_7
_155 9002_2003_03.pdf

The data sheet indicates that seek noise in quiet mode is 2.8 Bels
for the 120 and 160 and 2.4 for the smaller drives. In performance
mode it is 3.4 and 3.1, a good deal louder.

I don't think Seagate has a utility for switching modes, but if you
can get hold of a bootable Linux distribution you should be able to
use HDPARM to change from performance mode to quiet mode and once
done the drive should remember the setting.



Thanks, however I tried the Hitatchi feature tool and it says that the
drive doenst support amm which I am lead to believe is the case for
all 7200.7 drives. Any idea if it is actually possible to make this
change?

Why would a utility from Hitachi provide correct
information about a competing manufacturer's drive?

Presumably because IBM chose to do it that way.

Its always been happy to allow it to be
used on other manufacturer's drives.