Hard Drive Upgrades

Sata/500

[pageoneresults]

So I decided to do some upgrading to a Sony VAIO VA11G that I use as my primary Desktop. In stock form, I was sitting here with not a whole lot of RAM or Storage Space. So, I added a couple Gigs of RAM and dropped two SATA/500 16MB Cache drives in place of the 160 Gig drives that were from the factory. I was starting to get a bit close to the available drive space limit and it was time.

I never realized that when I told my network admin I wanted performance drives that I was going to get a Stage III exhaust note with them! Man, these things can be a bit vocal when you have 5, 10, 15 different applications running. And, with a real time defrag utility in place, I'm now surrounded by the sound of drive activity. I've been spoiled on whisper quite drives for years. this is the first time I've really noticed how much activity is taking place. I'm used to looking at lights because there was zero sound. Hehehe, I better not accelerate too quickly now, my freakin exhaust note is going to get me busted. :)

Tell me, what type of noises are coming from your system throughout the day?

[martinibuster]

I use:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

Thirty two megabyte Cache, baby. :) Very quiet drive. I love it.

The biggest noisemaker in my box is a Thermaltake A2029 120mm Case Fan that I bought to augment the four other fans in the case. It comes with a fan control you dial up or down from the back of the computer. Turn it all the way up and it turns the inside of the case into a mini-fridge, but sounds like a model airplane propeller. Turned down to the lowest setting it's still the loudest fan in the box. So I'm going to buy a Scythe S-FLEX SFF21D 120mm Case Fan that's supposed to be "whisper quiet".

My CPU never goes above 39C under heavy load, so it's pretty well cooled at the moment. But I'm going to stick a second graphics card in the case so I want to be sure everything will be comfy cool (8800GT w/Zalman fan overclocked to 700mhz).

[lammert]

The sound coming from my current desktop (HP dx6120) is mainly caused by the fan which tries to pull new fresh air. Especially with temperatures of 35 centigrades and above which are common here in summertime it has a hard time to keep up.

The most lovely sound I have heard in the past came however from a HP model 9000 unix workstation with an external harddisk box. It seemed that the bits on that 4GB (yes, those were the largest that time) Seagate Barracuda where literally hammered in the platter surface and there was a continuous rhytmic vibration in the table top because of this.

[jtara]

I don't hear much of anything. My computers are a few feet away in an enclosed rack cabinet. Three 120mm fans mounted on a panel in the back with a hole cut in the back for them.

Side vent holes currently covered with blue tape to force airflow from bottom to top.

One of these days I will get around to the noise-reduction project. I guess when I get tired of looking at the rolls of noise-absorption material. That will get rid of the blue tape, as the material will cover the side vents from the inside.

Oh, and a baking pan with one side cut out and lined with noise-absorbing material to baffle the fan exit.

But I really don't hear much of anything as it is. Certainly not the drives - Seagate Barracuda 15K SCSI models.