NOISY!

[dhlucke]

I've been running WD JB drives for a few years now but happened to have a costco gift card so I picked up a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 160GB drive. It's noisy. Real noisy. Sounds like a bunch of marbles going down the drain.

Is this normal? Yes I'm overexagerating a bit, but compared to the JB drives it's very noisy and I can hear the drive working all the damn time.

 

[mrmonsoon]

No two ways about it, Maxtor drives are loud and WD tend to be very quite. On the positive side, my brother-in-law, who builds editing systems, says Maxtors outlast all other drives.

 

[dhlucke]

This one isn't going to outlast anything. I'm gonna return it. I just noticed it only has a 1 year warranty so that is the final straw. I thought all the 8MB cache drives were at 3 years.

I can use my costco gift card to buy a 60lb bag of salt instead.

 

[blah]

Oh, poor Advocate (I think I'll change my nic before I get to that "Title" you are so upset, don't feel that bad, just do what is best for ya and get a nice sleep time. My dad was always telling me "if you have a bad time, lay down, sleep a while, you'll get up and everything will be gone"

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[Vapor]

I've never had a Maxtor last more than six months. Most died within 2 months....none of them were quiet.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[mrmonsoon]

Sorry to hear that, I never had one die on me. I traded them as I upgraded to larger drives.

 

[khha4113]

I thought all the 8MB cache drives were at 3 years.

They're no longer have 3 yr warranty even with WD.
Correction, Hitachi still has 3 yr warranty for its 8mb cache HDs.

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by khha4113 on 05/24/04 05:22 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[sjonnie]

The correct warranty information can be found on the respective websites. OEM drives and retail kits have only 1 years warranty (2 in Europe), almost all other 8mb, 7200rpm drives have 3 year warranty.

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[sjonnie]

No two ways about it, Maxtor drives are loud and WD tend to be very quite.

There are plenty of ways to go about it, heresay, rumour or malicious gossip. <A HREF="http://www.storagereview.com" target="_new">Storage review</A> chose to go about it by measuring the noise.

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 (40 GB ATA-133) - 41.8
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 [8MB, 60GB/plat] (160 GB ATA-133) - 42.1
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD (74 GB SATA) - 42.3
Western Digital Raptor WD360GD (36 GB SATA) - 43.1
Western Digital Caviar WD800AB (80 GB ATA-100) - 43.7
Maxtor MaXLine Plus II (250 GB SATA) - 43.8
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 [8MB, 68GB/plat] (160 GB ATA-133) - 44.5
Western Digital Caviar WD2500JB (250 GB ATA-100) - 44.7
Western Digital Caviar WD800JB (80.0GB ATA-100) - 45.0
Maxtor DiamondMax D540X (160 GB ATA-133) - 45.5
Western Digital Caviar WD2000JB (200 GB ATA-100) - 45.5
Western Digital Caviar WD2500JD (250 GB SATA) - 46.1
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X (80 GB ATA-133) - 46.3
Western Digital Caviar WD2000BB (200 GB ATA-100) - 46.7
Western Digital Caviar WD1000BB (100 GB ATA-100) - 47.1
Western Digital Caviar WD1200BB (120 GB ATA-100) - 47.1
Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB (120 GB ATA-100) - 47.3
Western Digital Caviar WD1000BB-SE (100 GB ATA-100) - 47.4

Based on their objective measurements I'd say that your conclusion is false. Unless of course Maxtor drives just happen to make some peculiar noise that you happen to be much more sensitive to.

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[dhlucke]

Based on that table, my WD drive should be noiser than the Maxtor, but I can barely hear TWO JB drives in my system yet the Maxtor sounds horrible. It's constantly moving the head across the platters with a very annoying sound.

 

[dhlucke]

I would equate it to the sound my old deathstar made.

 

[mrmonsoon]

Well, all I can tell you is my personal experience and the personal experience of frineds and relitives. Based on that, Maxtors tend to be loud and WD tend not to be (don't personally know anyone w/raptor drive-I would suspect it might be louder than 7200RPM drives.

 

[flamethrower205]

Das not right, my Maxtor 120Gb is quieter than my 250GB WD. Hmm, get a return and see if the otehr is like that- also make sure ya screwed it in alright!

SEX is like math. Add the bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs, and hope you dont multiply

 

[sjonnie]

Storage review measured idle noise only; maybe the Maxtor actuator is particularly noisy. Personally I never heard actuator noise above the background humm but I guess in a quieter system it might be significant.

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[sjonnie]

The WD740GD is extremely quiet although users have complained that the pitch of the noise from the WD360GD is rather high and irritating. I suppose that kind of thing is hard to measure.

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[khha4113]

I bought WD 120GB 8mb cache (<b><font color=red>Retail</b></font color=red>) 2 months ago, and it has only 1 yr warranty (written down on its label; and when I registered it on WD's website, it also showed the same). However, Hitachi 8mb cache Hds all have 3 yr warranties.

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[mrmonsoon]

I would like to get one or two and test that.
Anyone want to buy me acouple of rapters so I can test the sound level?

-

 

[Crashman]

I've been refurbishing systems for 7 years, most of my dead drives have been WD. Early on, most of my dead drives were from Quantum, but Quantum got somewhat better after 1995!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[silverpig]

Both Maxtor drives I've bought have been crap. They're both dead. My old Quantum Fireball AS was a good drive for a while until it died too. I've still got an ancient 2 GB Seagate drive still going, and I've loved every WD drive I've ever bought.

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