Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mac Pro Seagate HDD very loud

M

macchrissli

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 31, 2008
22
0
Hi mac-addicts,

my new mac pro with 8800 arrived yesterday, it's a dream
crysis rocks on my 30" cinema display.

but there is one LOUD thing that anoyes me very much, its the 500gb seagate drive that came with my mac pro. it is very very loud when it is reading and writing. I read something about an winAAM tool, can I use this tool to make the drive silent?

Greets Chrissli
 
This has always bothered me about Seagate drives... my own 2008 Mac Pro came with a quiet 320GB Western Digital instead.

I had 2 Seagate barracudas (7200.10) ready to put in my new Mac Pro, and once I did, the noise level increased threefold (subjective guess). I couldn't stand it and took them out, replacing them with a couple of Western Digital WD10EACS drives. Now it's near-silence.

IMO it would be worth it to swap that Seagate out for an equivalent Samsung or WD drive. They're dirt cheap nowadays. Anandtech and StorageReview show that Seagates drives for the most part are the noisiest brand out there.
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3161&p=5
http://www.storagereview.com/1000.sr?page=0,6
 
I'm using the Seagate drive and it sounds fine to me. I'm in the IT industry, so I know the lovely sound of humming drives. I also purchased two barracudas (SD15) and they're also doing great.
 
ErikAndre said:
I'm using the Seagate drive and it sounds fine to me. I'm in the IT industry, so I know the lovely sound of humming drives. I also purchased two barracudas (SD15) and they're also doing great.
Click to expand...

I've been reading around a lot on this issue and some say
their Seagates are silent, or nearly so, and some say they're
incredibly noisy. I guess you could put that down to different
listening environments and different ears, but I'm inclined to
think it depends on whether you get a good drive or a not so
good one.

The Seagate here is annoyingly noisy. It sounds like tacks
falling on a metal surface. Now, I've no reason to suppose
the drive is broken, though it may be. But I'd rather not listen
to that. As soon as I get a second drive for comparison, I'll
better be able to decide whether to return the drive or not.
 
My experience runs contrary to yours. When I got it, it was whisper quiet, then I added a 2nd 500GB Western Digital and the fan has increased to compensate the extra heat. The WD is also a storage drive which spins up and down depending on its activity.

Infrared said:
I've been reading around a lot on this issue and some say
their Seagates are silent, or nearly so, and some say they're
incredibly noisy. I guess you could put that down to different
listening environments and different ears, but I'm inclined to
think it depends on whether you get a good drive or a not so
good one.

The Seagate here is annoyingly noisy. It sounds like tacks
falling on a metal surface. Now, I've no reason to suppose
the drive is broken, though it may be. But I'd rather not listen
to that. As soon as I get a second drive for comparison, I'll
better be able to decide whether to return the drive or not.
Click to expand...

Would you need to take the entire Mac Pro into Apple to get it replaced or looked at? That's pretty extreme.

Prior to the Mac Pro purchase, I only had one Seagate drive which I bought on the basis that the entire industry has always touted them to be silent and backed by their 5 year warranty, but my first was not a good one thus turning me away from Seagate. The one in the MP was not mine to make but I like WD personally.
 
Dang, so the 500GB is noisy?

I heard that the 320GB was very slow, though...

Barefeats showed the imac with the 500gb beating the mac pro with the 320gb HD on HD intensive stuff...
 
Every drive review I've seen from big name sites (tomshardware, ars, anandtech, etc) that tests acoustics using a db meter.. always finds Seagate drives to be the loudest. if anyone can find a review that says otherwise, please post it because i'd love to see it.

I bought seagate because there were better better deals out for them than WD... but I really regretted it. The Seagate drives have constant deep "pulsing" noises like reving up and down continuously... and the read/write access sounds like popcorn. the seagate 5 year warranty only ensures 5 years of torturous noise.
 
OK. So does the 320GB drive suck in comparison?

I ran xbench on my friends imac 2.8ghz @ our studio, and that has the (or at least it has 'a') 320gb drive in it. The xbench toastest my G5 Powermac in everything but the HD, where it was below even the average '100' mark...

A couple of years back, seagate barracuda's were supposed to be the mist silent drives out there, no? I guess that's changed...
 
Ordering with the 320GB OEM drive seems to be a crapshoot... you either get a Western Digital or a Seagate. Macworld called the Seagate model "sluggish", and I haven't heard any complaints on the WD version.
 
I have a 500 GB Seagate in my New Pro.

Personally, I'll take a 5 year warranty in exchange for a bit of noise. I remember full height MFM drives making a table shake, so relatively speaking these drives are quiet.
 
I will tell you one thing...

The boot time literally cut in half on my MP8800 when I put a 500GB 7200.11 barracuda (from newegg) in the drive as opposed to the stock seagate 320. I botted several times with the 320, then put the 500 and zoom, zoom...
 
back when seagate was just releasing the 7200.8, they had the quietest drives in the market. They were the first with the new ball-bearing system that's outdated now.

Back when a 200 GB hard drive was huge, seagate had the quietest, fastest drives on the market. I think Samsung is the seagate of today.
 
Hmm. Not sure what to do now. I was planning on getting the 500GB for audio recording, samples etc, and a Raptor 150GB for OS/apps

Along with the 8800, that sounds like a recipe for a very noisy machine :(

I don't want the 320gb if it's that slow, though...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back