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Western Digital or Seagate?

D

DaLurker

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 23, 2000
Messages
1,681
Planning to build a new box, and I was wondering which one of these brands are better?
It's either a Western Digital S-ATA 200gb (8mb cache?? Are they all? or not cuz the store I'm looking at doesn't specify) or a Seagate S-ATA 200gb 8mb. I know the Seagate has the 5 year warranty vs. WD's 3 years, however I know WD has the option of them sending you a new drive before you send in the defective one. Anyways, what do u guys think?
 
I like Seagates a lot more, they are much more quiet than WD/Maxtor.
 
I currently have a Seagate 120Gb and have no problem with it. It's quiet as well.


Maxtor make 250Gb with 16Mb cache too. ;)
 
Most of the industry analysts say WD uses the best drive internals. I have a few Seagate drives and about 10 WD drives. There is no difference in noise, as I'm not sure where people get that. Both make good drives, so decide on price.
 
djnes said:
There is no difference in noise, as I'm not sure where people get that.
Click to expand...
I used WD drives for years, until I started getting into silent components. When you can barely hear your fans, you start hearing other components. My 2 160gb Seagates are in fact much more silent than the 2 120gb WD SE drives they replaced. There is very little whine and clicking is almost non existant. Check the reviews on Newegg and silentpcreview.com, everyone is saying that the Seagates and Samsungs are quieter. ;)
 
saturnine2 said:
I used WD drives for years, until I started getting into silent components. When you can barely hear your fans, you start hearing other components. My 2 160gb Seagates are in fact much more silent than the 2 120gb WD SE drives they replaced. There is very little whine and clicking is almost non existant. Check the reviews on Newegg and silentpcreview.com, everyone is saying that the Seagates and Samsungs are quieter. ;)
Click to expand...


I run some of the drives externally with a USB to IDE converter (from Compgeeks)....and I do not notice any difference in noise. This is on top of my desk in my own office, which is very quiet. I use this adapter to ghost and clone drives.
 
djnes said:
I run some of the drives externally with a USB to IDE converter (from Compgeeks)....and I do not notice any difference in noise. This is on top of my desk in my own office, which is very quiet. I use this adapter to ghost and clone drives.
Click to expand...
Hmm..I dunno then. I know its not placebo because my girlfriend noticed it too. :confused:
 
saturnine2 said:
Hmm..I dunno then. I know its not placebo because my girlfriend noticed it too. :confused:
Click to expand...

I've said this on many other threads, but no one ever seems to admit it can be part of the problem. A quiet hard drive, that's mounted in a case a certain way, will make a lot more noise than a loud drive, mounted correctly. I don't mean noise at the drive...just ambient noise in the case/room etc. I picked up a bag of rubber grommets at a computer show, and I mount all of my drives (regardless of brand) and they are all very very quiet. In my opinion, it's more important how you mount the drives (and how they are cooled) than which brand you buy.
 
Yeah, I've used rubber grommets for the past year. They really do make a difference. Right now theres a 120mm 30something cfm fan blowing over my Seagates. Cant hear hardly anything :) I still stand behind my belief that Seagate is more quiet though, just IMO. ;)
 
people have different hearing too. Some folks pick up different things.

Try telling an audiophile that pair of dynaudio sounds the same as the jensens. They may too you but to others they sure as hell don't.

I personally dont notice too much difference in HDD noise myself either, but its not too say everyones this way. When everyone was whiing back when raptors came out about their noise I couldnt work it out. My Raptors barely louder than any other drive I've owned.
 
SKiTLz said:
people have different hearing too. Some folks pick up different things.

Try telling an audiophile that pair of dynaudio sounds the same as the jensens. They may too you but to others they sure as hell don't.

I personally dont notice too much difference in HDD noise myself either, but its not too say everyones this way. When everyone was whiing back when raptors came out about their noise I couldnt work it out. My Raptors barely louder than any other drive I've owned.
Click to expand...

I've got two 36 GB Raptors, and I've always said they were very quiet. Nice to see someone else who feels the same.
 
SKiTLz said:
When everyone was whiing back when raptors came out about their noise I couldnt work it out. My Raptors barely louder than any other drive I've owned.
Click to expand...
I was running 2 raptors, and they were driving me insane! Guess I am just more sensitive to noise...
 
saturnine2 said:
I was running 2 raptors, and they were driving me insane! Guess I am just more sensitive to noise...
Click to expand...

Or its like djnes said. Theres alot more play in dBA than the drive itself. Accoustics, ambiet noise, different surfaces.. All has a play on noise.

Back to the audiophile comparisson. Ever notice the accoustic treatments on the walls at your local cinema? It aint there too look pretty. Different materials, surafaces, shapes etc redirect sound in different ways.
 
Im usually a western digital person, have about 8. But that 5 year warranty on the seagate made me choose there 200GB for my file server. Picked up 4 at newegg for about $120 a piece.
 
If I can find the testing from work I can show you that the segate and samsung are about the same but are way quieter then maxtor or WD. I can assure you this.

My job is to do thermal and compatibility testing of hards for external enclosures. The guy that does the sound testing is the next office


Some what related I just got finished testing the seagate 15k.4 and they are insane fast pulling over 100 mb/s. A fair bit quieter then the previous gen. Next on to seagate 10k.7, after that some WD 250gb sata drives.
 
Seagate 20 gig and a Western Digital 80 and 120 gig here, and the Seagate is much, much quiter. If you have loud fans, they'll drown out most of the WD's noise, so no problem there. If you have a super quiet case, a Seagate is REALLY quiet also.
 
dandragonrage said:
WDs make a high pitched noise that drive me and my roommate from last year insane.
Click to expand...

I've noticed that too. All WD drives I've had make an annoying high pitched noise... Thankfully, though, if you have several case fans, they drown it out and you won't notice it. Doesn't make them bad drives though.

Personally, WD and Seagate are the only HD brands I buy.

For a system without many case fans, I get Seagate simply because the noise WD drives make drives me insane. If it has several fans, I usually get WD (unless Seagate's cheaper).

All other factors the same, I'd have to say Seagate++
 
dandragonrage said:
WDs make a high pitched noise that drive me and my roommate from last year insane.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my WD now has that high pitched whine if I turn down all my fans on my fan bus, so I was hoping the Seagate doesn't have that :) I think I'm sold though, sounds like Seagate sthe quieter drive to get! And longer warranty :)
 
I use them both. Seagate has the 5 yr warranty now, but so do the WD raptors..

As for performance between similar drives and dissimilar brands, they're close to the same.

-scoob8000
 
djnes said:
I've said this on many other threads, but no one ever seems to admit it can be part of the problem. A quiet hard drive, that's mounted in a case a certain way, will make a lot more noise than a loud drive, mounted correctly. I don't mean noise at the drive...just ambient noise in the case/room etc. I picked up a bag of rubber grommets at a computer show, and I mount all of my drives (regardless of brand) and they are all very very quiet. In my opinion, it's more important how you mount the drives (and how they are cooled) than which brand you buy.
Click to expand...


Hmm...How bout 2 HD's (One W/D and one Seagate) mounted the same way in the same case and I can hear a huge differance. I have had W/d's for 4 years and never noticed the sound until I built and SFF and man the clicking on seak drove me crazy. Went to a seagate in the same Shuttle encosure and the machine went silent. Can't blame the mounting or grommets on this one. :)

Bric
 
BricRoth said:
Hmm...How bout 2 HD's (One W/D and one Seagate) mounted the same way in the same case and I can hear a huge differance. I have had W/d's for 4 years and never noticed the sound until I built and SFF and man the clicking on seak drove me crazy. Went to a seagate in the same Shuttle encosure and the machine went silent. Can't blame the mounting or grommets on this one. :)

Bric
Click to expand...

No you can't, but if your drive is clicking wildly, and doesn't have the word Maxtor on it...I'd be worried. None of my WD drives making clicking sounds. Might be a good time to backup your data just in case. I am posting this from a Shuttle computer right now.....running a 80 GB WD drive....and I do not at all hear the drive over the rear fan in the Shuttle.

How much longer are you guys going to play this game of arguing opinions? These rididuclous games of pissing contests are ruining these forums. I have my opinions, based on my own testing and results. You have yours. Your not going to convince me to stop using WD...I am not going to convince you to start. To each is own. Seagate and WD both make nice, reliable drives, so who gives a fuck what brand an individual uses? Really! The level of maturity around here is saddening.

Goddamn I miss the way the forums used to be.
 
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