Noise from 10k Drives

sechs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
4,709
Location
Left Coast
In my inexorable march away from ATA and towards SCSI, I'm looking at replacing an ATA drive which serves media files with a 10k SCSI. My only concern for such a move is noise.

I've been looking at Atlas 10k IVs and Cheetah 10k.6s. Does anyone have any information on the kind of noise that these drives make when idle and when seeking?

If anyone has any better suggestions for drives, I'd be open to those as well.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
I'm not familiar with the Atlas but a Cheetah 10k.6 is plenty loud all on its own. Heard above CPU fans with bad-bearings loud.

Current generation X15s seem pretty OK to me, for SCSI drives.
 

sechs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
4,709
Location
Left Coast
If I could get the 74GB 15k.3 for cheap enough, I wouldn't even think about it.

Hadn't considered the older x15. I'm not sure that they'll have enough space for my needs.

I had initially thought that I could get a nice cool, quiet, large 7200RPM SCSI drive. Then I learned that such a beast does not exist.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,511
Location
Horsens, Denmark
sechs said:
I had initially thought that I could get a nice cool, quiet, large 7200RPM SCSI drive. Then I learned that such a beast does not exist.

No, that's what SATA is for. Even enterprises are going this direction. You seem to be going against the flow here. Why?
 

sechs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
4,709
Location
Left Coast
1. I don't trust ATA drives. I trust SCSI drives more.
2. I don't have serial ATA. I have parallel ATA and SCSI.
3. I'm not an enterprise. And I think they've got it wrong.
4. As a Pisces, I often feel the need to go against the flow.

Due to 1 and 2 above, I have these files on an ATA RAID 1. They share that space with some other files, which appear intent on growing quite quickly. This set of media files isn't going to get much bigger.

Now, I suppose that I could just get two bigger drives when necessary. Unfortunately, big drives aren't dropping in price very fast.

I thought about getting two more drives and setup another RAID 1 for this data. This poses cabling and space issues (as in, more cabling, and not enough space for the drives).

On the other hand, if the price is right, I can replace an smaller SCSI drive that I already have with a new one, add these media files to that drive, and generally be in a better place are far as storage is concerned.
 

timwhit

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 23, 2002
Messages
5,278
Location
Chicago, IL
I have a Cheetah 36ES 18GB, which is a little bit older than the 10k.6 and it is not loud at all. It is not louder than my CPU fan or my PS fan. I wouldn't worry about the noise, these new drives are fairly quiet.

Check the SR database on noise if you want to get a comparison.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,511
Location
Horsens, Denmark
I'm not meanign to be a thorn in your side, honest ;)

So you're saying you trust a single SCSI drive as much as a RAID-1 of ATA?

I just finished repairing a RAID-1 of SCSI an hour ago, after one of the drives failed (9 months old).
 

sechs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
4,709
Location
Left Coast
It's not so much the amount of noise (which I can get from the SR database), its the nature of it. Quality, not quantity.

ddrueding said:
So you're saying you trust a single SCSI drive as much as a RAID-1 of ATA?

No. But I running a RAID 1 isn't strictly necessary for me to feel comfortable.

Except for refurbished drives, which I've started scoping out.
 

timwhit

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 23, 2002
Messages
5,278
Location
Chicago, IL
Pradeep said:
I'll give you a special price on a very quiet IBM 15K drive :D

I installed a couple of those in RAID 1 when they were fairly new. Kind of sounded like a jet fighter taking off when you turned on the computer.
 

timwhit

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 23, 2002
Messages
5,278
Location
Chicago, IL
sechs said:
It's not so much the amount of noise (which I can get from the SR database), its the nature of it. Quality, not quantity.

Either way, the new Seagate 10K drives are not very loud. Idle noise is no worse than a few year old 7200 RPM ATA drive, and seeks aren't terrible either. It's not like a Barracuda 7200.7, but they aren't really that loud anymore.

If the rest of your computer is completely silent, then a 10K SCSI drive might seem loud, however, if you have a computer with a couple drives in it already and a few fans adding a 10K drive won't make that big of a difference.
 

sechs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
4,709
Location
Left Coast
Pradeep, I sold you that drive. There are two reasons that I got rid of it, and neither was performance 8)

Anyway, this drive would go into my external enclosure, which already has three 15k.3s in it. As long as there's no funky harmonics (whine, etc.), it sounds like I shouldn't hear a 10k6 idling over the whirring of the two fans in the enclosure and five in my case.

Merc's description has me worried, however. Is he into silent computing? Perhaps he's talking about seeks -- which I've seen described as "rumbling"; which doesn't make a lot of sense to me as a harddrive noise.

I take it that no one has experience with an Atlas 10k IV.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
Not silent as such (talk to NRG about that). I just want "quiet enough" - so when I'm listening to soft passages in music, I don't feel the need to turn up my stereo.

However, I did think a 10k6 was too loud for my taste. Spin up, idle, seeks... it's not a quiet drive IMO.
 

sechs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
4,709
Location
Left Coast
I like my musci loud -- nonetheless, I wouldn't be able to get high-enough quality silence to even try.

Given the existing din in the computer room, only something beyond low humming and whirring, and the gentle clicking and clacking of seeks might be unacceptable.

In fact, it's nice to know that your drives are working. If it they weren't hot and moving data, I might think that my ATA drives were dead.
 

zx

Learning Storage Performance
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
287
Location
Beauport, Québec, Canada
The Fujitsu 10K drives have an acceptable noise level (the MAN and MAP series). Subjectively, they are more quiet than a Maxtor D740X and all the contemporary WD drives I heard for idle noise. Seek noise is louder but acceptable. Of course, they are not whisper quiet like the latest Seagate ATA models.
 

sechs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
4,709
Location
Left Coast
I have Dell here with one of the older Fujitsu MAJ drives. Except for the whine, it is perfectly acceptable -- sonicly, at least.
 

e_dawg

Storage Freak
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
1,903
Location
Toronto-ish, Canada
I am into silent computing. Well, quiet computing, anyways. I have tamed a case full of 4 WD drives enough that I barely notice them. Ditto with an Atlas 10k3 (although there are limits to how much you can muffle coffee grinder seeks and a strong whine). You can always reduce the noise level of a drive by using isolation mouts, dampening the HD cage and enclosure with Dynamat, lining the enclosure with foam, etc. As long as you don't expect miracles, I think you will be pleased with what you can do to make your drives more tolerable.

http://www.directron.com/isolation.html
 

sechs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
4,709
Location
Left Coast
I find that a couple of rubberbands on each drive does all that I really need in the noise dampening department. Just want to try to keep it that way.
 
Top