🚀 go-pugleaf

 There was some discussion on here a while back regarding the noise level of
Western Digital harddrives.  These messages were mainly in reference to
the Caviar 2200 drives, but I just thought I would comment here.

 We just received a shipment in our lab yesterday of 4 more computers.
We now have 7 computers which are all configured as 486DX-50's with 340 Meg
IDE drives, 16 Megs RAM, etc.
 The first 2 we received had Maxtor 340 Meg IDE drives, and AT desktop case
style A(for lack of better description).
 These drives were made a slight buzzing noise, but the noise was certainly
acceptable.  Transfer speed reported by Norton SI and Checkit was around
700-900 KB/s.

 The next computer we got had a Western Digital Caviar 340 Meg drive and AT
desktop case style A.
 This setup had a slightly louder buzzing noise, but was still acceptable.
Transfer speed was reported as 1100-1200 KB/s.

 The last 4 computers we received had WD Caviar 340 Meg drives and AT
desktop case style B.  (different case)
 This setup had absolute no drive noise.  Transfer speed is still reported
as 1100-1200 KB/s.

 By buzzing noise, I'm referring to normal drive access.  It's not a klunk,
it's not a kerplunk, it's just the drive head moving back and forth, and the
platter spinning.  Perfectly normal, IMO.  The drives(RZ55 & RZ58) in our
DECstation 5000/200 make a klunking noise, and are quite loud in comparison.

 In conclusion: I find from this that drive noise is directly related to
case style, and location of the drive within the case.  Certain cases and
drive positions will dampen the vibrations and noise made by a HD, others
will reverberate with certain drives and make noise levels worse.

 Without testing different drives and different case styles it is going to
be difficult to identify beforehand whether a drive/case combination is
going to be "noisy" or "quiet".  Usually this experimentation can only
affordably be performed by OEM's.

 On a side note we have one case where if the 3.5" drive is installed in one
drive bay it's quiet, if installed in another drive bay it's very noisy.

-- 
sheldon@iastate.edu                Steve Sheldon
Project Vincent                    ICSS Resource Unit
SCO ODT, Arc/Info, Atlas GIS       2142 Agronomy Hall
                                   Iowa State University