Seagate 7200RPM Drive A lot of Vibration?

[mklnz]

I just got a Seagate 7200.3 drive for my new aluminum macbook and what I've noticed is that the drive produces a significant amount of vibration (compared to the original 5400RPM) and it is quite annoying (as much vibration as a spinning DVD in the drive).

You can especially feel it on the palm rest since the drive is right underneath, but the vibration goes all around the laptop and you can even feel it on the screen.

Does anyone else have one of these drives please post your experience? Maybe my drive is faulty?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

That is strange... have exactly the same drive (assuming you have the 320gb model) and it actually vibrates less than the stock 250! I can say from experience that some can vibrate more than others within the same model, have had a severe with a 7200.10 3.5" that caused major harmonics in an iMac (acted like a baffle)... ended up RMA'ing that drive.

 

[MGLXP]

I just got a Seagate 7200.3 drive for my new aluminum macbook and what I've noticed is that the drive produces a significant amount of vibration (compared to the original 5400RPM) and it is quite annoying (as much vibration as a spinning DVD in the drive).

You can especially feel it on the palm rest since the drive is right underneath, but the vibration goes all around the laptop and you can even feel it on the screen.

Does anyone else have one of these drives please post your experience? Maybe my drive is faulty?

I'm not sure about the Seagate, but I had a Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200rpm Hard Drive and the vibration was so excessive compared to the stock 5400rpm hard drive that I had to return the hard drive. When I installed another larger 5400rpm hard drive, the vibration was the same as the stock hard drive.

 

[Philflow]

It seem to be a matter of luck. Some people get vibrations and noise while others have zero problems. This goes for Seagate, Hitachi and WD 320GB/7200rpm.

 

[mklnz]

Hmm... is this an legitimate reason to RMA it? Maybe another drive will have less vibrations?

 

[Philflow]

Maybe. If you'd take the WD5000BEVT you 'll be sure it's quiet. It's only slightly slower than the 320GB/7200rpm drives.

Or trying setting the AAM value.

In Win XP you can do that with HD Tune Pro or hdpaarm (or something like that). I don't know how to do it in OS X.