Noise level of Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9...

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KILOWATT

Hi everyones...thanks to read. I just want to know if some of you have
noticed that the larger drives of this series have higher noise level when
the actuator move the heads. I have a 80GB Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 bought
two years ago and is very silent. I can't hear the spindle motor (except at
startup) and the actuator is almost inaudible. Get the same great results
with another identical drive (same capacity) i've installed on my
girlfriend's machine. Notheless i've instaled a 160GB this summer, so did a
friend of mine this fall. I noticed that the drive's actuator is about twice
noisy than my 80GB. It's well acceptable compared to drives from 5~6 years
ago, but i can't understand the noise level difference. My friend's 160 GB
drive is also a bit noisy. He exchanged it for another identical and got the
same results. Please note that both the 80Gb and the 160GB drives are
partitioned the same way: a 10 GB primary partition (C:) and an extended
partition containing a volume wich holds the rest of the drive's capacity
(D:). The amount of data is the same since i've copied the partitions from
the 80Gb.
Maybe the larger ones have more platters wich then produce more noise...i'm
not shure.
TIA to share your experience or for any useful comments.

--
Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
Montréal Québec
PS: 1000 excuses for errors or omissions,
i'm a "pure" french canadian! :-)
Come to visit me at: http://kilowatt.camarades.com
(If replying also by e-mail, remove
"no spam" from the adress.)
 
Hi everyones...thanks to read. I just want to know if some of you have
noticed that the larger drives of this series have higher noise level when
the actuator move the heads. I have a 80GB Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 bought
two years ago and is very silent. I can't hear the spindle motor (except at
startup) and the actuator is almost inaudible. Get the same great results
with another identical drive (same capacity) i've installed on my
girlfriend's machine. Notheless i've instaled a 160GB this summer, so did a
friend of mine this fall. I noticed that the drive's actuator is about twice
noisy than my 80GB. It's well acceptable compared to drives from 5~6 years
ago, but i can't understand the noise level difference.
Click to expand...

1) The arm has more mass because there's an entire second
support to read from the 2nd platter. That requires more
energy to move it, and dissipates more energy when it stops.

2) Possibly they are using a different accoustic management
level. That level can be adjusted with the Maxtor
(AMSET.EXE?) utility in DOS. It can be downloaded from them
if not on media that came with the drive.
My friend's 160 GB
drive is also a bit noisy. He exchanged it for another identical and got the
same results. Please note that both the 80Gb and the 160GB drives are
partitioned the same way: a 10 GB primary partition (C:) and an extended
partition containing a volume wich holds the rest of the drive's capacity
(D:). The amount of data is the same since i've copied the partitions from
the 80Gb.
Maybe the larger ones have more platters wich then produce more noise...i'm
not shure.
TIA to share your experience or for any useful comments.
Click to expand...

I don't know what the current maximum platter density is for
shipping drives, but I believe it's around 120GB, maybe
125Gb in some cases, for the largest new drives. Anything
else is/was 100GB/platter or lower, so any non-new model >
100GB capacity will tend to have 2 platters, and so on for
higher capacity. Even so, AFAIK none of the Maxtors ship
with accoustic management set to "quietest" mode, so there
should be more noise reduction possible if that's important.
 
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