How loud is your Raptor?

Tob3z said:
I'm going to have to chuck my raptor somewhere where it wont be used as often. Because I know I have had it for 2 years but now with ADSL installed I want to leave my pc.

Could you sleep hearing this?

www.tob3z.com/stuff/hdd.ogg
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I'm playing that file back at 125dB, so no I don't think I could sleep with that going.

You need to measure how loud the raptors are in dB, then we can playback the file, adjust volume with sound pressure meter until it's the same dB as your reading.
 
squiffy said:
I'm playing that file back at 125dB, so no I don't think I could sleep with that going.

You need to measure how loud the raptors are in dB, then we can playback the file, adjust volume with sound pressure meter until it's the same dB as your reading.
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Eh? My mic sucks so I had to up the the volume slightly. But that's not as loud as it really is
 
You didn't understand what I said. How can we make sure our listening levels are identical to the noise from your hard drive? I could set my amp volume to a really low level, or blast it out on a concert PA system. Both wrong levels.

First off you need to measure noise levels of the HD from a set distance ie 1" measure the noise during seek test, say 79dB with a sound pressure meter. Then record the sound.

Then on our end get a sound pressure meter out and from our position adjust volume on the amp and playback the video clip until the sound pressure meter reads 79dB. That way what we're hearing is close to the levels you have.

For both recording/playback also have to make sure ambiant noise is as low as possible, so no noisy PC/TV on in the background. Close windows to shut out traffic noise.
 
squiffy said:
You didn't understand what I said. How can we make sure our listening levels are identical to the noise from your hard drive? I could set my amp volume to a really low level, or blast it out on a concert PA system. Both wrong levels.

First off you need to measure noise levels of the HD from a set distance ie 1" measure the noise during seek test, say 79dB with a sound pressure meter. Then record the sound.

Then on our end get a sound pressure meter out and from our position adjust volume on the amp and playback the video clip until the sound pressure meter reads 79dB. That way what we're hearing is close to the levels you have.

For both recording/playback also have to make sure ambiant noise is as low as possible, so no noisy PC/TV on in the background. Close windows to shut out traffic noise.
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Yeh too much effort.
My amps set to -25DB and all windows volume bars are maxed out.
 
What are your speakers sensitivity? What voltage is the line out at your levels? (need to measure voltage during pink noise) What is the internal gain of your amplifier?

dB reading on your amp is useless, unless you've calibrated the tone with a pressure meter to the same levels I would (ie 75dB on the pressure meter when playing back pink noise, with the amp at 00dB) so when it's at -20dB playing music, it would be exactly the same as my setup even though I would have different gear, different sized room, and different position to the speakers.
 
I'm guessing that perhaps you have the older raptor like me? The newer ones have 16mb of cache instead of 8mb.

Mine's not too bad - but it can be a real bugger if e.g. it's being defragmented or something.
 
I got a 74gb Raptor 8mb as a system drive, I got 2 74gb in RAID 0, I got a 320gb WD, 180gb WD, 120gb WD and a 300gb Maxtor 10 and a 160gb Samsung in my rig and I manage to sleep pretty well with the rig on 24/7 in my room. I would say the raptors are no louder than any other drive really...

I got an older 120gb WD kicking about somewhere that is deafening! Got the drives housed in an Antec Sonata and in various external enclosures!

G
 
I was surprised just how loud a 74 gig raptor was in my case. (Lian Li PC60)

It makes like a grinding sound when working, but this is on a system with 2 gigs of ram, so it's not doing much working as such.

Go here and listen to Western Digital Raptor WD740GD (Idle: 21 / AAM: 24-26 / Seek: 25-26 dBA/1m).
I'm sure it will be familiar.
 
My Raptor is the 74GB, 8MB cache version and it sounds exactly the same as yours.

I can just about sleep through it, but the Raptor constantly seeks every few seconds unless I quit all applications and all background tasks, in which case there's no point leaving the PC on.

My housemate has the 150GB, 16MB version and I haven't measured either with a dB meter (don't shoot me!), but I reckon his is just as noisy. Although it's a lot less noticeable in his rig, and he'd be the type of person to come in here and post MY RAPTOR IS MUCH QUIETER LOL, he has twice as many fans in his PC and they're mostly 80mm instead of my slow, quiet 120mm's.

Tobez, have you thought of trying some noise-dampening products? Such as rubber grommets etc.? They don't cut out all the noise but they do help.
 
Have you got your pageflie on the raptor or on a seperate hard drive.
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I haven't.
I just accepted the fact they seem noisy to MY ears in that case.
I use other western digital drives (always have) such as the Western Digital Caviar Special Edition (both IDE and SATA) and they are much quieter.

I ended up sticking mine in a Scythe Internal Hard Drive Silencing Box.
That made it quiet, but they are very long and a pain to get in.
 
I still find access noise on 2500KS to be a bit loud in a SS TJ-8 in the solid drive bay as it seems to reverbate the case, fitting a length of bike tyre tubing down the width of the drive helped reduce noise considerbly. Wish I could fit Coolermaster 3 in 1 module in there as it offers double wall of steel to reduce noise plus the inner section is mounted through rubber grommits, and has a fan on the front.
 
I dont have any big drive bays spare so I can't do that :(

I might get some rubber washers and try that out.

But like people said some people say they can hardly hear them. My only guess is that there rigs are very noisy and it drowns out the sound.

I have always stuck with WD though. I have never had any problems with them. Shame about the raptor sound though. Cause they are so nippy.
 
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