How loud is your PowerBook's hard drive?
It seems that my new 12" PowerBook's hard drive is a bit nosier than it should be. By no means is it distracting, but it feels like it should be quieter. How loud is yours compared to other notebook Macs you have owned? Is there a way of telling that something might be wrong?
Comments
TOSHIBA MK4021GAS
there is virtually no noise.
you dont mention what sort of noise you are hearing from yrs.
if it is a clicking sound every few seconds, it would mean that something is seeking and not seating itself. this sound happened to my 12' right after i installed panther, but it went away after i did the update to 10.3.1 and repaired permissions, etc.
15" 1.25GHz 4200 RPM.
in my office, i don't hear a sound.
however, at 1 in the morning when it's dead quiet, i can hear it churning away.
Originally posted by shatteringglass
It seems that my new 12" PowerBook's hard drive is a bit nosier than it should be. By no means is it distracting, but it feels like it should be quieter. How loud is yours compared to other notebook Macs you have owned? Is there a way of telling that something might be wrong?
I think my Al PBG5 15 does not have a harddrive at all the 5400 rpm drive is just so silent ...
I think you're right alcimedes. During the daytime with my window open in my house, and with some slight background noise, I can hear it slightly. But at 1 AM, it's very noticeable, tho not distracting. The whines and clicks are the most noticeable.
The hard drive OEM is a Toshiba.
Also, please make a note of which kind of environment you are working in. (noisy office, etc.)
If I wasn't gonna replace this machine within the next year, I'd consider swapping out the drive for a larger drive with liquid bearings.
In my experience, Toshiba's are the loudest, Hitachi/IBM come in second with occasional loudness and steady access noise, but Fujitsu HDs are practically silent all of the time. Luckily, Apple uses Fujitsu HDs in many PowerBooks.
I'd take HD silence over added performance any day. With the huge areal densities and 8MB caches in today's 80GB notebook drives, they are very good performers despite the now 'meager' 4200rpm speed.
Fujitsu has announced a 5400rpm 80GB HD, so I wonder if they've managed to keep this drive practically inaudible as well.