My HDD problems

[Hunlight]

Hello,

I got a terrible life with my HDD's , my first HDD was working like an airplane, but I were a kid and thought that it should work like that, now mine WD blue 7200 again releasing noises like some little kittens dying, and I'm enough of all those problems. I'm not that reach and I can't afford SSD with like 500GB+, So now got 2 options:

Got suggestion to use 2,5" HDD instead, it should give mu less noise but not sure if that is true. Or an SSHD, little bit faster and also less noise. Please help me find out a best solution, price must be less than 70eurs (at least in my country shops, HDD 2,5" with 1TB is 68 eurs)

[DHelios]

High-performance drives will generally sacrifice any combination of price, energy efficiency, heat- and noise production to increase performance. 2.5" drives will usually produce less noise, fewer vibrations, and use less energy. But their performance is not up to par with their 3.5" counterparts.

 

If your budget has room for an SSHD, that may be a good choice. The hard drive component will usually not be as fast as the performance HDD, but it's offset by the SSD component in your most commonly used software.

 

If not, you could look at WD Green or WD Red drives. Their performance is not up to par with the WD Blue 7200rpm of WD Black drives, but they are usually a lot more quiet.

 

On a separate note: are your hard drives mechanically decoupled from the case? As in, are they fastened to the chassis directly with screws, or do they have rubber grommets? You may be able to reduce the noise of a (properly functioning) hard disk by quite a bit if you strap your drive in a 5.25" bay using elastics, if your case does not have mechanical decoupling options built-in.

[Naeaes]

THe small HDDs aren't any more silent. Neither are SSHDs. Just like your current drive wasn't loud at the beginning, your new drive will develop some sort of noises over time. That's how it goes with all mechanical devices. If you need it to be silent, you need to dampen the noise.

Here's one great option for noise dampening: http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/hdd-cooler/himuro.html

[Hunlight]

10 minutes ago, DHelios said:

High-performance drives will generally sacrifice any combination of price, energy efficiency, heat- and noise production to increase performance. 2.5" drives will usually produce less noise, fewer vibrations, and use less energy. But their performance is not up to par with their 3.5" counterparts.

 

If your budget has room for an SSHD, that may be a good choice. The hard drive component will usually not be as fast as the performance HDD, but it's offset by the SSD component in your most commonly used software.

 

If not, you could look at WD Green or WD Red drives. Their performance is not up to par with the WD Blue 7200rpm of WD Black drives, but they are usually a lot more quiet.

 

On a separate note: are your hard drives mechanically decoupled from the case? As in, are they fastened to the chassis directly with screws, or do they have rubber grommets? You may be able to reduce the noise of a (properly functioning) hard disk by quite a bit if you strap your drive in a 5.25" bay using elastics, if your case does not have mechanical decoupling options built-in.

 

My case is Fractal design R5, so yes I used all screws and everything to make it, like there would be glues used  to stick it in place.

[DHelios]

3 minutes ago, Hunlight said:

My case is Fractal design R5, so yes I used all screws and everything to make it, like there would be glues used  to stick it in place.

The R5 has excellent HDD dampening options, so if you're using the special screws and rubber grommets that come with its sliding HDD trays, mounting shouldn't be the cause of your HDD noise.

 

Maybe you've just been really unlucky with your HDDs so far, but they are mechanical devices and they will wear over time and become more noisy.

 

Personally I'm a fan of an SSD combined with a low-noise HDD like a Green or Red. But if that's not in your budget, an SSHD will be a good compromise.

 

@Naeaes: SSHDs are not more silent than similarly specced HDDs, but they are usually more silent than high-performance HDDs. The SSD component counters the performance loss in most consumer use cases. So it can be considered a higher performing, more quiet alternative to a high-performance HDD.

[Hunlight]

4 minutes ago, DHelios said:

The R5 has excellent HDD dampening options, so if you're using the special screws and rubber grommets that come with its sliding HDD trays, mounting shouldn't be the cause of your HDD noise.

 

Maybe you've just been really unlucky with your HDDs so far, but they are mechanical devices and they will wear over time and become more noisy.

 

Personally I'm a fan of an SSD combined with a low-noise HDD like a Green or Red. But if that's not in your budget, an SSHD will be a good compromise.

 

@Naeaes: SSHDs are not more silent than similarly specced HDDs, but they are usually more silent than high-performance HDDs. The SSD component counters the performance loss in most consumer use cases. So it can be considered a higher performing, more quiet alternative to a high-performance HDD.

 

Hmm I will check if I mount it correctly, but I doubt that would be the problem I got my Rį only a few days ago, same problems was in my old case, and yeah I thinking about SSHD, just heard from a friend of mine that it is silent (using it more than a year now), and better speeds in loading time. Maybe can you suggest any worth looking for SSHD?

[Naeaes]

1 hour ago, DHelios said:

 

@Naeaes: SSHDs are not more silent than similarly specced HDDs, but they are usually more silent than high-performance HDDs. The SSD component counters the performance loss in most consumer use cases. So it can be considered a higher performing, more quiet alternative to a high-performance HDD.

Yup. But you're thinking about the first few weeks/months of use. So long as there is mechanics in there, it'll start making noise over the years. As I said, OP's WD Blue probably started off as relatively silent too and here we are.

[Hunlight]

5 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

Yup. But you're thinking about the first few weeks/months of use. So long as there is mechanics in there, it'll start making noise over the years. As I said, OP's WD Blue probably started off as relatively silent too and here we are.

 

hmm maybe you're right, but I really can't sit near my computer when HDD start working, and there is just no SSD for that price range only like 120GB what is definitely too low, I using at least 300-400 GB and Im not saving any movies or something.

[Naeaes]

3 minutes ago, Hunlight said:

hmm maybe you're right, but I really can't sit near my computer when HDD start working, and there is just no SSD for that price range only like 120GB what is definitely too low, I using at least 300-400 GB and Im not saving any movies or something.

It's a pickle. Do you have another computer? You could store your data in a shared folder in another room. The Scythe Himuro is a bit of an oldschool solution but it really works. It dampens the rattle of the drive head as well as the hum of the platter spinning. In my opinion the whole thing is too heavy to be a viable source or resonance but even still it has the rubber mounts. Himuro's not the cheapest box you can mount your HDD in but it's hands down the best I've seen. I used to work for a company that sold that crap so I've actually heard a pretty vast variation of HDD dampeners.

[Hunlight]

Just now, Naeaes said:

It's a pickle. Do you have another computer? You could store your data in a shared folder in another room. The Scythe Himuro is a bit of an oldschool solution but it really works. It dampens the rattle of the drive head as well as the hum of the platter spinning. In my opinion the whole thing is too heavy to be a viable source or resonance but even still it has the rubber mounts. Himuro's not the cheapest box you can mount your HDD in but it's hands down the best I've seen. I used to work for a company that sold that crap so I've actually heard a pretty vast variation of HDD dampeners.

 

I don't have another computer, and there is no shops in my country that are selling those Scythe Himuro, it will took ages to get them, and I better safe for a SSHD or smth. Still dont know what models are good what not.

[Naeaes]

7 minutes ago, Hunlight said:

I don't have another computer, and there is no shops in my country that are selling those Scythe Himuro, it will took ages to get them, and I better safe for a SSHD or smth. Still dont know what models are good what not.

It's just another point of failure in my books so I've never been a huge fan of them but I believe Seagate has been in the SSHD game the longest. At least the Firecuda drives are second generation so they might be reliable.

[DHelios]

6 minutes ago, Hunlight said:

I don't have another computer, and there is no shops in my country that are selling those Scythe Himuro, it will took ages to get them, and I better safe for a SSHD or smth. Still dont know what models are good what not.

It looks like there aren't too many players in the SSHD space -- then again, there aren't that many players left in the HDD space to begin with. Seagate and WD seem to be your options. And while I'd normally prefer WD I can only find a 4TB model from them at around € 190. Seagate's Desktop SSHDs start at 1TB and at around € 80. As Naeaes said there are the second generation Firecuda drives. Since they're barely more expensive (€ 90-ish), those would be your best bet.

 

Of course these are the prices over here, they might be different over in Lithuania...

[Hunlight]

8 minutes ago, DHelios said:

It looks like there aren't too many players in the SSHD space -- then again, there aren't that many players left in the HDD space to begin with. Seagate and WD seem to be your options. And while I'd normally prefer WD I can only find a 4TB model from them at around € 190. Seagate's Desktop SSHDs start at 1TB and at around € 80. As Naeaes said there are the second generation Firecuda drives. Since they're barely more expensive (€ 90-ish), those would be your best bet.

 

Of course these are the prices over here, they might be different over in Lithuania...

 

Okay firstly, I dnt need 1TB ą TB more than enough even mby 500GB is enough but in some cases 1TB is my choose.

Can you maybe give few a few good SSHD examples. 

[DHelios]

http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/firecuda/#3-5-inch-specs
There you go, Seagate FireCuda Desktop drives, available in 1TB or 2TB