Just FYI, you might want to check your firmware version. The latest, SD24, was just released last week, so I suspect you were shipped the previous (SD23) version.
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Momentus XT Noise & Quiet Hard Drives
- Thread starter runningman1228
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Just FYI, you might want to check your firmware version. The latest, SD24, was just released last week, so I suspect you were shipped the previous (SD23) version.
I live in a neighborhood that is really silent at night, you can literally hear the person nextdoor cough! Still I cannot hear my Hitachi 500GB 7,200 drive at all unless I put my ear on the computer over the HD area. The Seagate 500GB I had before that was just as quiet, but maybe 1-2 degrees hotter. Both are really silent, and fast enough for what I do.
Interested to hear what the 750GB Seagate is like - vibration and sound level, etc.
Sorry, was not aware that 24 is out. I do get beachballs sometimes, hopefully this will take care of that but getting an SSD on christmas anyway.
"loud" is very subjective. I used to have a 4200rpm hdd in my old Notebook. It was a very quite notebook in silent mode fans are mostly off. Still I could hear the difference when the drive shut down and the whole thing became completely inaudible. At night at home there is almost no background noise. It is not a annoyingly loud at usual noise but dead silent like a book (made of paper) is so much more peaceful.
When I switched to 5400rpm drive (for space not speed) that made my notebook suddenly loud for my subjective ears. It is still okay but I would never go the next step to 7200rpm in a notebook. Before doing that I wait for an SSD.
My MBP with 5400rpm drive is not nearly as quite as my old Notebook but still most people say it is very quite and compared to some crappy gaming notebooks it is very quite.
I'd say get a SSD that is quite. My plan is to go hybrid SSD + HDD but I am still waiting for some bigger sizes at reasonable prices.
This is fast and very quite. The HDD can shut off as it is rarely accessed and I can hold all the frequent data on the SSD. For this to really work I need to have enough space for 2 OS partitions and the mp3 library + a other folders which will keep working data on the SSD. Otherwise it just costs money and adds power consumption. 180 gigs is the absolut minimum for my uses. I would prefer 250+ though.
When I switched to 5400rpm drive (for space not speed) that made my notebook suddenly loud for my subjective ears. It is still okay but I would never go the next step to 7200rpm in a notebook. Before doing that I wait for an SSD.
My MBP with 5400rpm drive is not nearly as quite as my old Notebook but still most people say it is very quite and compared to some crappy gaming notebooks it is very quite.
I'd say get a SSD that is quite. My plan is to go hybrid SSD + HDD but I am still waiting for some bigger sizes at reasonable prices.
This is fast and very quite. The HDD can shut off as it is rarely accessed and I can hold all the frequent data on the SSD. For this to really work I need to have enough space for 2 OS partitions and the mp3 library + a other folders which will keep working data on the SSD. Otherwise it just costs money and adds power consumption. 180 gigs is the absolut minimum for my uses. I would prefer 250+ though.
Because of this noise 'problem,' I've decided that the first thing I do when I get my MBP 13" will be to replace the HDD with the 7,200 rpm one. That way I'll never get to witness the 'silent' stock HDD, and then the 7,200 rpm drive will be normal for me.
I switched to the XT after 9 months of using the stock hard drive, and within several hours I couldn't tell the difference in noise.
Thank you to the OP for this thread!
I've just dropped a Seagate 750GB 7200RPM drive into my HTPC Mac mini and thought I had broken the fan in the process. Popping the top off, I realised it was the new drive. As it's a HTPC, I have a simple solution though: crank the volume of the music and savour the snappiness...
I've just dropped a Seagate 750GB 7200RPM drive into my HTPC Mac mini and thought I had broken the fan in the process. Popping the top off, I realised it was the new drive. As it's a HTPC, I have a simple solution though: crank the volume of the music and savour the snappiness...
Thank you to the OP for this thread!
I've just dropped a Seagate 750GB 7200RPM drive into my HTPC Mac mini and thought I had broken the fan in the process. Popping the top off, I realised it was the new drive. As it's a HTPC, I have a simple solution though: crank the volume of the music and savour the snappiness...
Give it a few days, it will settle down.
I'd say the whirring noise is quite loud even for a 7200 rpm drive. I'm hoping the sound does die down as people here suggest as I find it difficult to work with the noise in the background.
Yup, my XT is slightly louder than my original 5400 RPM Hitachi, but very slightly and barely audible unless you put your head right next to the thing...
Just an update on everything. Even after installing the firmware update version 24 the noise hasn't really died down too much. I have gotten used to it for the most part. I tend to only notice it in very quiet rooms and even then its not very bad. I may have just gotten two louder drives, but if you're looking for something silent, I'd try a different drive, maybe a Toshiba or ideally an ssd... All in all I'd say the speed boost is probably worth the noise, but that's just my opinion... Best of luck!
Thank you to the OP for this thread!
I've just dropped a Seagate 750GB 7200RPM drive into my HTPC Mac mini and thought I had broken the fan in the process. Popping the top off, I realised it was the new drive. As it's a HTPC, I have a simple solution though: crank the volume of the music and savour the snappiness...
So is the drive itself nosier or just hotter?
Is this the one you're talking about? I just ordered one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148599