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General discussion

hard drive speed vs. noise

Oct 26, 2004 3:42AM PDT

I am wondering whether the faster the hard drive spinning speed is the louder the hard drive noise is. Also, would the faster hard drive generate more heat, thereby setting off the fan more frequently?

Discussion is locked

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Re: hard drive speed vs. noise
Oct 26, 2004 4:18AM PDT

You can see at the Dell website where they have issued a software fix to help quiet the noise on the super fast Hitachi 7200rpm hard drives that are in use on the Dell 8600 as an option. These are much faster than a standard 4200 rpm hard drive or even faster than an upgrade 5400rpm hard drive but they are noisier.

So, yes, if you want the notebook to run quietly the standard 4200rpm hard drives will be the best in most cases.

The 5400rpm hard drive upgrade is a happy medium where you will get 50% better performance over the 4200 but still at a lower speed and noise in many cases over the 7200rpm.

As I said, however, adjusting the performance settings on the 7200 Hitachi can quite it down and this is also used as an upgrade in the HPZT3000 / Compaq X1000 notebook I have (see X1000forums.com) although people have ordered it and put it in themselves (not available as option on HP website -- only 5400 rpm is)

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Contrarian I.
Oct 26, 2004 2:16PM PDT

I changed my dull 11 GB 4200 RPM drive with a zippier roomy 40 GB 5400 RPM drive.

The bigger faster drive is quieter.

All this means is we can't make a snap judgement on this issue.

Bob

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Re: Contrarian I.
Oct 27, 2004 3:04AM PDT

Probably you are comparing 4200 rpm hard drive with old technology with 5400 rpm hard drive with new (quiet) technology. Hard drive these days are constructed to run quietly compared to older hard drive. My new notebook with 5400 rpm hard drive is much quieter than my old notebook with 4200 rpm hard drive, most likely due to the quiet technology.

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Re: Contrarian I.
Oct 27, 2004 4:45AM PDT

You will notice I stated in my post that the 5400rpm hard drives were a good compromise to get more speed than the 4200 but not have the possible noise issues with the 7200 hard drives (mostly Hitachi but Seagate is coming out with a 100gb model supposedly).

Dell set up the software fix to quite the hard drive as many people with the Dell 8600 were complaining.

Many people with HPZT3000's and Compaq X1000's put in this hard drive themselves and some had very quiet drives but they were still definitely more noisy than the 4200's.

Perhaps this is why HP/Compaq only offered the 5400rpm hard drive as an upgrade and not the 7200 Hitachi but for people who want the most raw performance they are willing to put it in anyway.

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Re: Contrarian I.
Oct 27, 2004 5:01AM PDT

I agree with you, KenSanramon. It was my reply to the post of R. Proffitt, who claims that 5400 rpm hard drive can be quieter can 4200 rpm hard drive. Of course, 4200 rpm hard drive will be quieter than 5400 rpm hard drive, if both of them are recent drives which take advantage of recent quiet technology. However, if the 4200 rpm drive were manufactured many years ago, then it will be much noisier than 5400 rpm hard drive.