Samsung F3 1TB and 500GB - 1 second hum or not ?

[Defenestration]

I was thinking of getting some Samsung F3 1TB drives (2 x 1TB in RAID 1 for storage/backup, and either a 1TB or 500GB (possibly 2 500GB in RAID0) for my system drive).

I had set my mind on these but just came across the following thread which mentions they have make a consistent 1 second humming noise:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...tent-vibration

I've also read a lot of reviews where people say they are quiet.

As I plan on buying from Scan, I was wondering if the ones they have in stock suffer from this 1 sec humming ?

[Glix]

My F3 drive is nice. It does make a spin up zip noise (that only occurs when waking the drive, not the click and awaken sound I get from my Maxtor), but not sure about the humming sound your talking about.

[Jonj1611]

Should add I noticed this hum today. Moved the computer upstairs and from the lounge I can hear the hum people have described in that other thread, sort of fades in and out.

Can't notice it while next to the computer though.

Jon

[sammorris]

All 7200rpm drives make that noise if they are positioned next to other drives, it's a result of the spindle vibration being passed through to the case. The vibration, if you notice, is 120Hz (120 per second x 60 seconds = 7200 per minute). Samsung drives have always been the worst for this, but it can be almost completely nullified by vibration dampening, either with the use of a good case, or suspending the drive using elastic.

[Jonj1611]

Cheers Sam,

I have a HAF 932 case and that has rubber inserts in the hard drive cage. To be honest I never really noticed it until last night, and its only when you sit in the lounge with everything dead quite you can hear the hum, not sure if it wouldn't drive you insane after a while though lol

Jon

[Tonka777]

I noticed this when i had tightened the screws on my Lian Li HDD cage too much. I find that having them just about finger tight, so that the rubber just about grips the frame is quiet. Any tighter and the rubber gets compressed too much and the resonance passes through it.

[sammorris]

I also have a HAF 932, the vibration dampening on it is appalling, it may as well not be there. The best tip I can advise is to separate the hard drives, i.e. if they're next to each other in slots 1 & 2, change that to 1 & 5, or 2 & 4, something like that. Keeping drives right next to each other makes resonance even worse. The low quality panelling on the HAF also means that the side panels don't fit very snugly, which makes things worse. The HAF932 is still a nice case, but you can clearly tell it's a Coolermaster, from shoddy work like that :S

[Jonj1611]

Lol, yeah I must agree, the side panels aren't the best in the world, my drives are in 2 & 4, but ones a Samsung F1 and the others a Samsung F3. Double Trouble lol

Jon

[sammorris]

Yeah, I'm using an F1 and a WD Caviar Black. Credit to the HAF it is very marginally better than the NZXT mid tower the F1 used to reside in. I resorted to using an external enclosure for the drive there. The F1 is not my primary drive so if I can get hold of a nice cheap eSATA box, and the eSATA port on the HAF actually works (the front USBs don't, another common fault with CM cases so I hear) then I may do that. Ultimately I'm hoping to get an SSD as the OS drive, but the Caviar Black at least will stay for capacity purposes
Ugh, SSD, redundancy for fileserver, DX11, so much to buy!

[Georgy291]

i got a 1gig F3......no humming noise here

[damncold]

I too have a couple of 1GB F3's and no humming noises. Mine are in a Lian Li tower with the drives suspended on rubber gromets tho...