What's up with the Caviar Black?

[rogerthatman]

50% of the time I hear the Caviar Black is really noisy, and the 50% of the other time I hear the Caviar Black is the best HDD and not that noisy. Is there anyone here who actually has that model and can give a good explanation about the situation? I want to buy today the Caviar Black 1TB but after three hours of research across the web, I'm not sure whether it's a must-buy or not.

 

[frombehind]

The caviar black is "supposedly" faster then the non-black version (damn racist Western Digital =P )

I do have several (2.5" flavor) and they don't seem to be any noisier then a regular hard drive.

I have several machines that run all together on a shelf - and all of them emit a collective hum that I am pretty used to by now. But I suppose if you have really sensitive hearing, run the PC right next to you, or are in a REALLY quiet room you MIGHT be able to hear it.... None of these ever applied to me, so this is not an issue for me.

 

[geekapproved]

I've used WD Blacks exclusively for about 6 yrs now because of the 5yr warranty.

I can hear it sometimes, but I wouldn't call it a bother.

Honestly, the prices are so high now, I'd go with a Blue if I were you.

 

[rogerthatman]

Well, actually the PC is really next to me. I mean, it's on my desk lol
The thing is, I'm with a 2TB EcoGreen 5400RPM Samsung HDD and I'm not fully satisfied with the speed, Moreover the OS is installed on it.
So I was looking for a massive improvement speed, and I thought I'd switch to the Black WD series. I did considered switch to SSD, but the price, the bugs, the fact its in development stage, made me changed my mind.

GEEKAPPROVED - The truth is that the price is irrelevant for me, right now. It's a one-time cost. and it's not THAT high.


Is it possible there are couple of models of the Caviar black? So there are loud ones and quite ones?

 

[frombehind]

If you are looking for a "massive improvement in speed" you should reconsider the SSD... most 64gig models are at 1$/gigabyte and with sales on some websites you can find them a little cheaper then that even. I dont know of any HDD below 15k RPM that can whip a modern SSD in terms of an OS boot drive.

 

[jitpublisher]

New SSD's, no worry. Most of the issues have been solved and they are just as, if not even more so, dependable as any mechanical drive. They are fast, amazingly fast. If you do get one and install Windows on it, you will be glad you did.

 

[eXistenZ]

New SSD's, no worry. Most of the issues have been solved and they are just as, if not even more so, dependable as any mechanical drive. They are fast, amazingly fast. If you do get one and install Windows on it, you will be glad you did.

I second that. Actually, a 2TB green with a 128GB SSD sounds like a good combination. There are a few SSDs with excellent track records. I would go with one of them.

I gave the super-low entry level Petrol a try. Fast! Then it failed. Then found Samsung 830 on sale ! No problems. You sound like an SSD is a "must have" kind of user.

Re OP, can't get any quieter.

 

[scout_03]

i got one caviar black fan made more sound then he does and is temp is only 31 celcius

 

[atikkur]

i have 1TB caviar black sata2 and it's not noisy, it's normal, non-issue to me. just go SSD if you seek for performance, i think HDD has hit wall on performance.

 

[socialstealth]

I have 4 3gb/s 500gb WD blacks in a raid 0. I've never noticed noise from them.

From researching SSDs, I'd say if you don't use much HDD space, then an SSD would be a great solution. If you're looking to house your music/movie/game collection, go with a RAID of HDDs. Friends of mine that have the SSD + huge HDD combo often complain that they can't stand waiting for the HDD to respond.

But if you're just looking for something thats quiet and boots up quick, you can't beat an SSD! I've heard a lot of horror stories about the 'other brands', but I've heard nothing but good things about the upper end Intel SSDs.

 

[rogerthatman]

I don't know guys
The SSD is tricky - it's really in the development stage and I hear a lot of complaints and problems of firmware and controllers, etc. Moreover(!), if you fill up SSD with data, it becomes slower and slower, just like iPhone and iPad which is a disaster for me.
I can't decide which one I should get - the Caviar black or SSD...

 

[pdxalex]

I want to buy today the Caviar Black 1TB but after three hours of research across the web, I'm not sure whether it's a must-buy or not.

The SSD is the must buy, not the Caviar Black

 

[Pinhedd]

I have 6 Caviar Blacks, 2 RaptorX and 2 Mushkin Chronos Deluxe SSDs in my PC. 4 of the Blacks are 2TB and in an external RAID enclosure, 2 are 1TB and inside the PC. The blacks have an audible hum when under load but they are absolutely dwarfed by the racket caused by the ageing RaptorXs and are not very audible above the fans. On the plus side, the performance of the Blacks is extremely good.

 

[dj_crossbones]

I have a caviar black 1tb x2 and in my old gigabyte case they were rather audible but didn't bother me, I recently upgraded my case to an IN Win dragon rider and it did quiet them down a bit (by half) at least that's what my ears hear and it's only when the drives are being accessed that I notice anything at all. I wouldn't say that they are any louder than any other hard drive that I have heard. the 5 year warranty is would sold my on these. I must also say that if for some reason you are very sensitive to hard drive sound that I picked up a 1tb caviar green and it is dead silent, I didn't even think it was working at first.

 

[eXistenZ]

You know WHY everybody uses an SSD even though the industry is plagued with horror stories?

Because they are THAT good !


And those top of the line SSDs don't really have horror stories. Oh, and you don't put "data" on the SSD. That's why you want a big HDD. There's a whole system for keeping your SSD from filling up.

 

[rogerthatman]

You know WHY everybody uses an SSD even though the industry is plagued with horror stories?

Because they are THAT good !


And those top of the line SSDs don't really have horror stories. Oh, and you don't put "data" on the SSD. That's why you want a big HDD. There's a whole system for keeping your SSD from filling up.

By data I mean - Windows OS, 3 Adobe software, one game (Diablo 3) and another 5-6 tiny programs.
And all of that will take at least 90GB and will make the SSD slower.

 

[pdxalex]

By data I mean - Windows OS, 3 Adobe software, one game (Diablo 3) and another 5-6 tiny programs.
And all of that will take at least 90GB and will make the SSD slower.

I'm running:

Win XP Pro 64bit
MS Office 2010 (Excel, Word, Powerpoint)
MS Outlook 2010
MS Expression Web
Photoshop CS5 32bit + 64bit
Vegas 11 64bit
Norton IS 2012

Add a few bigger plugins and filters for PS and Vegas, some small stuff... if I were to add Diablo 3 (12 Gigs according to their site) that would still put me at only 65 GB.

I haven't seen any performance decreases on this or two other SDDs, but if there is one it'll still blow a HDD out of the water. No reliability issues yet either, unlike the three dead HDDs sitting in my drawer. How my SSDs compare over time remains to be seen, of course. However, should I happen to lose an SSD, all I'm faced with is reinstalling windows and some software.

 

[KNO3]

I have to agree with the SSD mob. They really are THAT good. I have an m4 and it blows any mechanical drive out of the water. I've also never had the slightest problem with it. It just worked.

 

[proxy711]

I don't know guys
The SSD is tricky - it's really in the development stage and I hear a lot of complaints and problems of firmware and controllers, etc. Moreover(!), if you fill up SSD with data, it becomes slower and slower, just like iPhone and iPad which is a disaster for me.
I can't decide which one I should get - the Caviar black or SSD...

SSD problems are overblown, You always hear more from the people having issues then the happy customers.

I own a OCZ agility 3 120GB SSD and a Crucial M4 64GB SSD. Zero issues. I'm sure I'm not the only one with perfectly working SSDs.

HDDs slow down when they get full as well, Its just harder to fill a 1TB drive then a 120GB SSD =P.

 

[darkguset]

Black Caviar here too. No more noisy than any of the other hard drives...

Got some bad sectors years ago, but after it automatically fixed itself, never had an issue since. Of course I do not have unbacked or important data on it, but it still works like a dog. Pretty good if you ask me!...

 

[jaguarskx]

I can't really complain about WD Black noise from my experience. I try to make my PCs run as quietly as possible.

 

[orlando1974]

WD now sells their Caviar Black drives "locked" in performance mode which makes it impossible to play with the AAM in those utilities. So now, all we can do is put pressure on WD to release a firmware update that will allow us to enable AAM (quiet seek mode) again. Go to their community forum and be a voice. Cheers!

 

[darkguset]

WD now sells their Caviar Black drives "locked" in performance mode which makes it impossible to play with the AAM in those utilities. So now, all we can do is put pressure on WD to release a firmware update that will allow us to enable AAM (quiet seek mode) again. Go to their community forum and be a voice. Cheers!

Why would you want to do that? The Black series is a performance based drive. If you want quiet go with the Blue or Green.

 

[jerry6]

Have 3 WD black drives , all are silent .

 

[velani]

Can you update firmware on WD Black 1TB? I have searched and cannot find a utility or a way to do so.

These are the 3GB/s speed 1TB WD Black drives that I purchased couple of 3years back.
Model #: WD1001FALS-00J7B1 with current firmware: 05.00K05

Please advise if I should or need to update firmware. I cannot even find the latest F/W available. TIA