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What HDD should I get to replace noisy Western Digital Scorpio Blue?

H

hldomster

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2009
70
0
Hi,

I bought a WD Scorpio Blue and found that the noise was just too loud (not the drive head parking, used HDAPM to stop that, the general noise all the time). I found that if I applied pressure to the right side of the MacBook Pro then the noise would be diminished, but obviously this is not a workable solution.

So I am returning that drive and I am looking to get a new one. But what should I get? I've heard that the Seagate drives are generally noisier than the Western Digitals, so I'm unsure about those. I'm wondering if whatever drive I get this noise will be there, has anyone had experience with other drives? I believe Apple uses Hitachi drives, so I've been looking at this one.

Please let me know your experience with HDD's and which one I should get. The quieter the drive the better. N.B. cannot afford SSD. I am prepared to get a 320GB drive instead of 500GB if it will be quieter.
 
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WD Scorpio Blue is to noisey

hldomster said:
Hi,

I bought a WD Scorpio Blue and found that the noise was just too loud (not the drive head parking, used HDAPM to stop that, the general noise all the time). I found that if I applied pressure to the right side of the MacBook Pro then the noise would be diminished, but obviously this is not a workable solution.

So I am returning that drive and I am looking to get a new one. But what should I get? I've heard that the Seagate drives are generally noisier than the Western Digitals, so I'm unsure about those. I'm wondering if whatever drive I get this noise will be there, has anyone had experience with other drives? I believe Apple uses Hitachi drives, so I've been looking at this one.

Please let me know your experience with HDD's and which one I should get. The quieter the drive the better. N.B. cannot afford SSD. I am prepared to get a 320GB drive instead of 500GB if it will be quieter.
Click to expand...

I also pulled the WD Scorpio out of my MBP because it was just too noisey, mine sounded like soft fan noise. I went back to the OEM drive that came from Apple which is a 320gb Fujutsu and by comparison to the WD is much quieter. I also tried a Seagate 7200.3 but it had a slight vibration and was not as quiet as the Fujitsu. Good luck!
 
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hldomster said:
Hi,

I bought a WD Scorpio Blue and found that the noise was just too loud (not the drive head parking, used HDAPM to stop that, the general noise all the time). I found that if I applied pressure to the right side of the MacBook Pro then the noise would be diminished, but obviously this is not a workable solution.

So I am returning that drive and I am looking to get a new one. But what should I get? I've heard that the Seagate drives are generally noisier than the Western Digitals, so I'm unsure about those. I'm wondering if whatever drive I get this noise will be there, has anyone had experience with other drives? I believe Apple uses Hitachi drives, so I've been looking at this one.

Please let me know your experience with HDD's and which one I should get. The quieter the drive the better. N.B. cannot afford SSD. I am prepared to get a 320GB drive instead of 500GB if it will be quieter.
Click to expand...

...Another Western Digital Scorpio Blue. If you look in the forum, the consensus is that the WD is better than the Seagate in terms of sound and vibration. The WD should be on par with the stock Apple HDD. You can try the Seagate, but I feel you'll end up getting one that has the vibration (there are probably more people who have problems than those who don't). What's weird is that you have a WD HDD that behaves like the Seagate where you have to press down on it to eliminate the distraction and given it's a 5400 HDD I feel it's highly awkward and might be defective.
 
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I bought a Seagate 7200.4 (just sent it back yesterday) for my MBP and couldn't stand it, because of the vibration. It could be felt through the whole case. The other thing that sucked is that the drive was slower than I expected -- using xbench scores to form that opinion.

I ended up replacing it with a Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB, which made no noise and no vibration. Just to confirm my speed results, I ran xbench on it and it performed higher than the Seagate every time. The Seagate averaged in the low to mid 40's overall on just the hard drive test. The Western Digital never went below 50 and achieved high 50's regularly (the highest I've gotten was 59). Keep in mind, these scores were achieved on a clean OS X installation -- nothing else installed.

Even if the Western Digital had been slower, I would have sent the Seagate back because the vibration was annoying me that much. It might not bother you. I'd say, if you can, try exchanging the Western Digital for another and see if you get the same results.
 
iLog.Genius said:
...Another Western Digital Scorpio Blue. If you look in the forum, the consensus is that the WD is better than the Seagate in terms of sound and vibration. The WD should be on par with the stock Apple HDD. You can try the Seagate, but I feel you'll end up getting one that has the vibration (there are probably more people who have problems than those who don't). What's weird is that you have a WD HDD that behaves like the Seagate where you have to press down on it to eliminate the distraction and given it's a 5400 HDD I feel it's highly awkward and might be defective.
Click to expand...

Disagree competely.
 
Mine is absolutely silent. So are 3 of my friends'. I'd get another one, but that's just me. They ARE NOT normally loud. I've NEVER seen one that's clicked or been loud - ever.
 
Get another Scorpio Blue .... and install it correctly.


If I look at all the WD Blue threads and all the Seagate threads it appears as if a higher percentage of Seagate buyers have problems.

I did have the opportunity to 'fix' a noisy WD Scorpio Blue for my brother-in-law, I removed the drive checked all 4 mount studs for proper tightness and reinstalled the drive into the MBP. At this time he thinks the Scorpio Blue is the quietest drive he has ever used.

Good luck !!!
 
you guys must either have a faulty drive or extraodinary hearing, cause mine is only barely noticeable if there is absolute silence. :confused:
 
hldomster said:
Hi,

I bought a WD Scorpio Blue and found that the noise was just too loud (not the drive head parking, used HDAPM to stop that, the general noise all the time). I found that if I applied pressure to the right side of the MacBook Pro then the noise would be diminished, but obviously this is not a workable solution.

So I am returning that drive and I am looking to get a new one. But what should I get? I've heard that the Seagate drives are generally noisier than the Western Digitals, so I'm unsure about those. I'm wondering if whatever drive I get this noise will be there, has anyone had experience with other drives? I believe Apple uses Hitachi drives, so I've been looking at this one.

Please let me know your experience with HDD's and which one I should get. The quieter the drive the better. N.B. cannot afford SSD. I am prepared to get a 320GB drive instead of 500GB if it will be quieter.
Click to expand...

are you using the June 2009 MBP?
 
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Hah, maybe I didn't look hard enough in the forums but this has to be the first time where I've read people having the problems with the WD. There was a whole thread just on the problems of the vibrating Seagate drive and not one WD user stated that their drive was noisy. In this forum, the Scorpio Blue is generally the ideal replacement for the Seagate as the vibration/noise was a huge difference. I really think you got a bad drive, I'd say try another WD HDD.
 
I'll be replacing my stock 160 gb with an Intel X25-M Gen 2. Either a 80 Gb or a 160 Gb.
 
using the hitatchi drive

FWIW I'm using the hitatchi drive (I think it is the same one that you provided a link for) I got it instead of WD mostly because I heard it was more power efficient. It's really hard to judge as I've never used another 500gb drive and this is my first macbook so not really sure what to expect there either. But the drive while not absolutely silent (you do hear some head parking) doesn't have any humming or vibration. I would say it is comparable to the stock drive in terms of noise. Your experiences may vary but hope that helps!

(oops forgot to add using it in the 13inch MBP)
 
I just got the Hitachi 500 GB myself (I have not installed it yet). I've heard that it is more energy efficient, but cannot confirm this. Apple also uses the drive in their computers, so I figure they picked them for a reason.
 
xc runner said:
I just got the Hitachi 500 GB myself (I have not installed it yet). I've heard that it is more energy efficient, but cannot confirm this. Apple also uses the drive in their computers, so I figure they picked them for a reason.
Click to expand...

The reason is price :)
 
Totally hit or miss on HDD's. You could get another WD that is silent but vibrates.

Best bet for no noise or vibration & super fast, re-release of the Intel X25M 160GB 34nm at around $440.
 
iLog.Genius said:
Hah, maybe I didn't look hard enough in the forums but this has to be the first time where I've read people having the problems with the WD.
Click to expand...

Here's a few threads to check out....

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/748635/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/762210/https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/74469/
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7326977/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/748990/

iLog.Genius said:
In this forum, the Scorpio Blue is generally the ideal replacement for the Seagate as the vibration/noise was a huge difference. I really think you got a bad drive, I'd say try another WD HDD.
Click to expand...

I disagree. If your looking for a quiet HDD for your '09 MBP, IMO your best bet is Hitachi or Fujitsu.
 
I just installed the 500GB scorpio blue in my 13" macbook pro. I believe you may have gotten a bad drive or perhaps didn't replace all the HDD bracket screws? The scorpio is very quiet in my macbook, louder than the stock drive by literally a whisper and almost no perceptible vibration. My GF has the scorpio blue installed in her 13" macbook pro as well, however only two of the bracket screws could be removed from the stock drive so the scorpio is held in place by 2 instead of 4 screws - and there is a tangible level increase in both volume and vibration in her macbook.
 
Davidkoh said:
I'll be replacing my stock 160 gb with an Intel X25-M Gen 2. Either a 80 Gb or a 160 Gb.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I may end up doing the same thing. I don't "need" anything bigger than 160GD in my laptop...everything else is stored on my WD My Book.

I'd like to see the SSD's WD and Seagate are coming out with (wtf is taking them so long? haha) and prices to drop
 
I always wonder why the WD Scorpio Blue seems to be about the only 5400RPM drive talked about here.

Apple uses Hitachi (and Fujitsu) drives and they are as quiet/vibration-free/fast/inexpensive as anything out there. I also personally think that they are more reliable than the WD drives as well based on what I've read.

You want a drive with a 250GB platter for optimal speed due to the increased density. A 250GB drive with a single platter is faster than a 160GB drive for example, due to the higher data density. The Hitachi 5K500.b models that Apple uses are based on 250GB platters. Also, the current 250GB-based 5400RPM drives are typically as fast or faster than last year's 7200RPM drives (i.e. Seagate 7200.3) since they were all based on 160GB/platter densities.

I have the stock Hitachi 160GB 5k500.b in my MBP and it's plenty quiet & fast. If/when I want to upgrade my storage space, I'll go with a 250GB or 500GB version of the same model and it'll be even quicker with the increased data density. I'm very happy with the stock drive - it's quieter than any notebook drive I've ever had.
 
zw-gator said:
To be honest, I may end up doing the same thing. I don't "need" anything bigger than 160GD in my laptop...everything else is stored on my WD My Book.

I'd like to see the SSD's WD and Seagate are coming out with (wtf is taking them so long? haha) and prices to drop
Click to expand...

I might even go for the 80 Gb. Since I could store most movies/music and such on my external drive I don't need much more. I would rather like the 160 Gb but here in Sweden they want 620 USD for that, kind of much still :/
 
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