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Upgrading to 7200 drive...it makes noise and vibrates

skye12

skye12

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 11, 2006
1,211
2
Austin, Tx
put a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 250gb drive in my early 08 MB.
I have noticed no problem with power consumption or battery life.

BUT I can hear it if I put my ear within 6 inches of the keyboard (old 5400
was silent) and there is a very high freq vibration very noticeable on the
working surface of the unit. You just feel it through your fingertips. Not a huge deal, but I didn't expect it.
 
The speed (rpm) doesnt really matter, cheap manurfacturers dont put as much sound insulation into their hard drives so their louder.
 
i was also lookin to buy a 7200 HD, if i buy a good one i wont notice sound and an increased vibration? any good brands you suggest?
 
I've experienced vibration with 2 different drives. One was a WD scorpio black (this one was also loud), the other was a Hitachi 7k320 (quiet but still vibrated). I returned both and now use a WD scorpio blue (5400) and am very happy with it.
 
I recently installed a 7200rpm 320gb Seagate drive in my blackbook and haven't noticed any more noise or vibration than previous, perhaps the plastic absorbs it better than the aluminum?
 
skye12 said:
put a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 250gb drive in my early 08 MB.
I have noticed no problem with power consumption or battery life.

BUT I can hear it if I put my ear within 6 inches of the keyboard (old 5400
was silent) and there is a very high freq vibration very noticeable on the
working surface of the unit. You just feel it through your fingertips. Not a huge deal, but I didn't expect it.
Click to expand...

Seagate makes a noise...

acfusion29 said:
I had a 320GB Scorpio 7200RPM and it made my laptop vibrate. I couldn't stand it.
Click to expand...

WD Scorpio makes the notebook vibrate..

Well.. the other choices are Hitachi and Fujitsu. Unless anyone else can think of other manufacturers. Personally if you guys needs speed and don't mind splashing out! Then get yourself a 250Gb SSD. It's lightening fast and completely silent!!! :D
 
my seagate momentus vibrates a lot in my early 2008 MBP. I don't know how to fix this but i guess i can get used to it. it's not that bad anyway. i can barely hear it but i can feel it when i have my hands on the handrest.
 
UltraNEO* said:
Well.. the other choices are Hitachi and Fujitsu. Unless anyone else can think of other manufacturers. Personally if you guys needs speed and don't mind splashing out! Then get yourself a 250Gb SSD. It's lightening fast and completely silent!!! :D
Click to expand...

When the prices are reasonable, I will invest in them.
 
Are the Seagate drives running at 5400 also loud and causing vibration? Or is this just a problem at the higher speeds? It's probably a bad idea to put a 7200 on a notebook computer in general, especially a tiny unibody Macbook. Besides vibration and noise you could expect some extra heat build up, which will probably lower the life of your box. Anyhow, I'm thinking of getting a new drive, what are the best drives for the Macbook unibody then?
 
Unfortunately, I think we're all SOL until the price of SSD drops. Personally, I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy an SSD when Snow Leopard is released. That is going to amount to one HUGE performance increase overnight :D... and one very empty wallet the next morning :(
 
andiwm2003 said:
my seagate momentus vibrates a lot in my early 2008 MBP. I don't know how to fix this but i guess i can get used to it. it's not that bad anyway. i can barely hear it but i can feel it when i have my hands on the handrest.
Click to expand...

Your description of the vibration is perfect. But I can even feel it if I touch
the screen.

I had thought the Seagate's were among the best. My decision was between
that and a WD black scorpio. I can't hear it when sitting in my normal posture over the laptop, but the vibration is there most of the time when the hd is spun up.

My friend put one in his 2.2 SR MBP and doesn't feel anything. He speculated the drive is more dampened within his machine than mine, which just slides in from the battery compartment after attaching the the bracket.

By the way, mine is the early 08 or last revision of the plastic model MB. And these new 7200's use no more power of create no more heat than the oem 5400's.
 
skye12 said:
Your description of the vibration is perfect. But I can even feel it if I touch
the screen.

I had thought the Seagate's were among the best. My decision was between
that and a WD black scorpio. I can't hear it when sitting in my normal posture over the laptop, but the vibration is there most of the time when the hd is spun up.

My friend put one in his 2.2 SR MBP and doesn't feel anything. He speculated the drive is more dampened within his machine than mine, which just slides in from the battery compartment after attaching the the bracket.

By the way, mine is the early 08 or last revision of the plastic model MB. And these new 7200's use no more power of create no more heat than the oem 5400's.
Click to expand...

That's strange, I can't feel any vibration at all from the same drive as you in my Blackbook.
 
Sadly, I think drives can be quite hit-and-miss when it comes to vibrations. I have a mere 320GB 5400rpm WD, yet I can feeling the thing vibrating through the BlackBook's palmrest.

Anyone tried anything like sticking a piece of foam or padding to the drive bay to help ease the vibrations?
 
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