Samsung Spinpoint P Series

[chrisg22]

OK folks,

I bought a 250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P120 from you guys a few weeks ago, and I only put the rest of the machine together the other night.

Now while everything is all well and good, I was just wondering how loud are they meant to be... I mean I have 3 x 120mm fans in my Baydream:

1 Scythe on the CPU.
1 Aercool on the front of the case.
1 Tagan in the PSU.

Now its REALLY quiet the whole thing and I was like wow when I first turned it on, but when the drive kicked in and was under abit of load it seemed like it was grinding and being rather loud.

I don't know if it is meant to sound that loud. I have no idea as I have never had a Samsung drive before.

So I was wondering if anyone here could describe or tell me how loud they truely are?

It might just be that my machine is just too quiet and I'm being paranoid.

I'll try and record the noise tonight when I get back from work.

[Lakeuk]

I was shocked at how loud my Western Digital HDisk was when booting into windows and at odd times when opening applications.

But when I'm putting 60mins of DV footage onto the HD I can't hear the disk working away as fast as it can. Strange

[amjedm]

The P80 I bought a few months ago was loud as well so I sold it.

What I didn't know at the time was you can enable AAM via the Samsung utility and this should reduce noise.

[chrisg22]

The P80 I bought a few months ago was loud as well so I sold it.

What I didn't know at the time was you can enable AAM via the Samsung utility and this should reduce noise.

Ohh didn't know that, I'll try that tonight.

Any more ideas guys?

[abeacock]

I have the same drive (SP2504C) bought also from Scan and mine is really quiet.

I've not played with the Samsung hutil (http://www.samsung.com/Products/Hard...ties/hutil.htm) but I can hardly hear mine.

Have you performed a defrag lately? If your files are fragmented all over your disk then it causes the heads to have to move more, hence more noise.

[chrisg22]

I have the same drive (SP2504C) bought also from Scan and mine is really quiet.

I've not played with the Samsung hutil (http://www.samsung.com/Products/Hard...ties/hutil.htm) but I can hardly hear mine.

Have you performed a defrag lately? If your files are fragmented all over your disk then it causes the heads to have to move more, hence more noise.

I only put the rig together Tuesday night, I doubt it would be fragmented, I have only installed XP and a few programs I use... but I'll give that a try tonight as well.

[FatalSaviour]

Am I right in thinking that your case (Aerocool Baydream Silver) doesn't have any HD anti-vibration grommets built in? It's not essential, but a good set (like the ones that came in my P180) can really cut down on any extraneous noise being transmitted and amplified through the case.

[chrisg22]

Am I right in thinking that your case (Aerocool Baydream Silver) doesn't have any HD anti-vibration grommets built in? It's not essential, but a good set (like the ones that came in my P180) can really cut down on any extraneous noise being transmitted and amplified through the case.

Hmn... None came with the case but I'll buy some at the tomorrow/weekend.

[Rack]

There are some drive silencers out there too, takes up a 5 1/4" bay, cools the hdd in a case that cuts noise down a lot.
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/pro...ns/quiet-drive

It's funny because the old Samsung Spinpoint were well known for being quiet.

[abeacock]

Good point FatalSaviour, I forgot that my case (Jeantech Phong II) has rubber grommets for the HD mountings.

chrisg22, did you play with that Samsung hutil tool at all? I'd be interested in your findings - please update this thread if you find a solution to your noise problem.

[chrisg22]

Well I wish I could have, but I forgot to take the USB Floppy drive home with me last night. And my new board wont boot from the USB drive for some reason. :|

Will try it tonight tho.

I did a defrag and that made things a little bit quieter.

[Oldjim]

Just to jump in.
I had exactly the same problem with a mATX case where I couldn't use insulation grommets. Everytime the drive was accessed there was a noticeable noise
Using the util to change it to quiet worked fine.
As a side issue I don't have a floppy drive so I used it from a bootable CD.

[amjedm]

Just to jump in.
I had exactly the same problem with a mATX case where I couldn't use insulation grommets. Everytime the drive was accessed there was a noticeable noise
Using the util to change it to quiet worked fine.
As a side issue I don't have a floppy drive so I used it from a bootable CD.

I'm thinking of buying another Samsung P80 and would be grateful if you could advise.

How quiet was it once you enabled AAM? Could you hear outside the case when near it?

Thanks.

[Rob_B]

Suspend your drive (if possible) in the drive bay with sewing elastic, no vibration at all & only a low sound when accessing the drive, voila!



(Its a spinpoint P120 200Gb BTW)

[amjedm]

Suspend your drive (if possible) in the drive bay with sewing elastic, no vibration at all & only a low sound when accessing the drive, voila!

(Its a spinpoint P120 200Gb BTW)

Rob, many thanks for the suggestion but it was seek noise I was trying to get rid of.

The other drives I have (Barracuda V in an Akasa Eclipse, Seagate 7200.7 in P180) are already suspended.

[Rob_B]

Mine is a bit 'crackly' thats the only word i could use to describe the seeking, i did notice a reduction in it though when i mounted it like this.
Let us know about using hutil, i downloaded it but couldnt be bothered to make a bootable cd! let us know how performance is affected!