[Tomac]

The Seagate that came with my Dual 1.25GHz does not sound as if it's in the boundaries of correct acoustics. It has a pronounced "ratta-tat-tat" noise when it's reading/writing that's quite loud. Many have said that Seagate makes the "quietest drives on the market" and even Seagate says this on their site about the Seagate Barracuda V:

Quietest acoustics on any desktop drive

Any other "normal" hard drive I've heard would make a normal "ticking/clicking" noise and none of this machine gun fire. Should be a "clipping fingernail" sound instead -- no RATTLES. I've heard the drive with the door open and it's loud -- can't blame the casing on this.

Can anyone tell me -- who has a Seagate Barracuda -- what it sounds like? Rattle?

ALSO: The machine has a stupid DRONE/HUM that I can hear throughout my house. Many people have said on the boards that they've been lucky and have received "whisper quiet" FW800s, with only the faint hissing of the fans. I sure ain't one of 'em. Oh and just recently I've heard what the first gen MDDs sound like. I'm stunned that the first generation MDDs could make it into the marketplace. Shop-Vac anyone, right in your face? That's what they sound like, truth. The MOST EMBARRASSING APPLE PRODUCT I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!. Nice to use/look otherwise.

Starting to really get fed up with the crappy acoustics of Power Macs -- it's really distracting. I've paid my $3500+ dollars (CDN) and it's time that I get the full value of my "slave" dollars.

These -- my -- second gen MDD(s) are a harassment.

Anyone remember this -- pure BS:

"We worked really hard and went over the systems to find every possible way to make the system quieter," said Tom Boger, Director, Power Mac Product Marketing. "I'm happy to tell you that we've done that -- when the systems get out in the marketplace, I'm sure our customers are going to be delighted at how quiet these systems are."

About the FW800s:

"They are significantly quieter -- these will answer the critics," added Joswiak.

C'mon Apple, shove some dual procs into a Cube and start sellin' it. I'd be first in line.

Love this forum. Gonna stop lurkin' and start postin'.

[The Placid Casual]

** BACK EVERYTHING UP NOW**

I used to swear by Seagate Barracuda Drives... not these days. I have had 3 new drives fail on me in the last 8 months.

(Although in their defence I have also lost 2 IBMs!)

So far the only drives I have had, that have a 100% reliability record are Maxtor...

I have a dual 867 MDD that came with an IBM 'deathstar' (or a cousin thereof!)... it too clunks and rattles all the time. I have checked it out and despite my better judgement I have been assured that it is OK... But I take no chances at all. Ever.

I'm keeping an hourly back up, but it seems so far to be a characteristic of the drive as I have used it this way for 8 months!

As for the acoustics of the machine... it is a bit of a joke...

I can hear the machine on another floor of my house through 2 thick closed doors... I am in my spare time a musician, and it really doesn't help in recordings at all. I have a small home studio and have really had to just about give up with it. I dread to thinl how Pros have coped... I suspect that that is where all the used cubes have gone.

I am just hoping that the Power Supply Exchange will sort things out...

After 12 Macs, it must be the one I have had the most issues with. But I can't get rid of it as yet... as some of my work (Graphic Design) and Music Apps are still classic Mac OS only. And what other options do I have?

Heres hoping for a quiet Powermac soon...

Peace,

Marc

P.S. Welcome to the forum!

[BrunoBruin]

There's a sort of quiet rattle in my new dual-1.25 as well, but I don't think it's the hard drive. I can BARELY hear the drive when I put my ear to the side of the case. My rattle is more constant, so I don't think it's the same issue. Your hard drive should not be that loud, I have a Seagate in my Cube and it's dead quiet.

I'm a little leery of this vertical positioning of the drives in the back carrier. You might try moving the drive to the front (horizontal) carrier and see if it makes a difference.

This machine is hardly "whisper-quiet" but it is MILES quieter than the dual-867 it replaced. That Mac is getting its new power supply today.

FWIW, I doubt you'd see a silent Cube with dual G4s. Even the single-processor upgrades come with a fan. Maybe the (so far mythical) next-generation G4 on a smaller process would be cool enough, though.

[JB72]

Originally posted by BrunoBruin:
There's a sort of quiet rattle in my new dual-1.25 as well, but I don't think it's the hard drive. I can BARELY hear the drive when I put my ear to the side of the case. My rattle is more constant, so I don't think it's the same issue.

This might be due to a 120mm fan oddity that some have experienced.

[Tomac]

The DRONE in the FW800 is coming from the power supply fan/unit. The cpu fan (Delta -120mm) is somewhat quiet. Again the ratta-tat-tat is during the seeking/writing of the Seagate HD; it spins silently.

My Power Mac is simlar to the the one in this video http://www2.mac-tv.de/Downloads/S105...htest_free.mov
but with a TAD lower pitch.

It's just stupid that Apple designs their products this way. The casing is stupid -- looks good externally but internally it's not optimized enough. I've used 100s of PCs in the past and NONE have been this loud/harassing. DDDDDRRRRRROOOOOONNNNNEEEEE.

I should mention that I've taken it into a local Apple service provider and they couldn't do much. "Yeah, the hard drive is a little louder than normal, but it's within specs." "Oh, as for the noise/drone, it's above normal but within specs."

I think I should have a normal machine, yes? In Apple's and the dealer's perspective, it seems normal means having a hairdryer blowing right in your face. Constantly.

Funny. Stupid. My machine was compared to a freakin' first gen Dual 1GHz MDD with the "leafblower". Apple made their promises and I bought it because of them. I trusted that these FW800s would be QUIET -- little bit of hissing/smidge of whirring but nothing annoying like I'm experiencing now. The dude checked the sound of my machine while it was in a room full of other machines that were on. There was no QUITE room to test it, no microphone to see if it was ACTUALLY within specs. He wouldn't budge on getting a replacement HD or power supply without Apple's authorization. When I phoned Apple, they wouldn't do anything unless I got it checked out by a service provider. It's a run-a-round! Tra-la-da-dum-de-dee. Why should I have a machine that was not "normal" straight out of the box?

I want a "whisper quiet" FW800 1.25GHz Power Mac like others are have and are experiencing. Apple and the dealers are treating me like a "second class citizen." Ain't right. The bottom line -- I'm not going to give up. I slaved -- SLAVED -- for the money to buy the rig and am not "delighted" by the noise emitted from it. So Apple, you gonna stand up and deal with the fact that your FW800s are not all that they're cracked up to be in terms of noise?

Hope so. Still an Apple user for life however this turns out.

[gtuck@mac.com]

I'm not sure the drive is a Barracuda V at all. I couldn't find the drive (ST380024A) on the Seagate site and inquired. They said:

Hello,

This drive is an OEM drive to Apple. Seagate manufactures drives for
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to use in their systems. To suit
an OEM's needs, design changes are sometimes made that cause the drive to
operate differently than standard distribution drives. Since our OEM
customers consider these design changes proprietary information, drives
that were manufactured for specific OEM customers will be supported only
by that OEM. Seagate retains no information on drives manufactured
specifically for OEM customers.


Danny M.
Seagate Technical Support

[Tomac]

Sure is a Seagate Barracuda ATA V -- says so on the drive itself. Is the same model number as you mentioned -- ST380024A. Again, if anyone has this particular drive that came with the FW800, does it make a distinct loud rattling sound when it's being accessed?

I could not in ANY way see this as being a feature or good design change move by Apple. Noise cannot be good and is a problem. The people at Apple and Seagate are insane if they in any way think this is what the HD should sound like.

Thanks for the info gtuck.

[The Placid Casual]

The more I think of it, it could be something to do with the vertical mounting...

They had loads of issues with Cube HDs because of this feature... I was quite surpised they brought it back.

You could try putting it in one of the horizontal mounting bracket and seeing what happens...

Marc

[digi-j]

I have a Dual 1.25 Ghz firewire 800 and it also has a noisy hard drive. it didn't make as much when I first got it, but now that the hard drive is half full and it clicks a lot. I suspect it's because it has to jump around more to access the data. It shipping with OS 10.2.3 and when it would boot up, the fan would get REALLY loud at first, then settle down. Now with 10.2.4 it's much quieter.

[Tomac]

Day ONE of ownership= HD goes ratta-tat-tat-rattle + DRONE
Present= HD goes ratta-tat-tat-rattle + DRONE

[Meadowfield]

I didn't have the drone until last night when I installed a second drive in the upper bay. An occasional rattle, yes, but from the front - especially when the unit really warms up. I suspect that this is actually the empty lower bay. It isn't really secure and the idle cables and connectors could benefit from the use of some extra fasteners. But what do I know? That really doesn't bother me all that much. But, the drone, with about 1.5 sec intervals, is driving me nuts!

The only real variable, as far as I can tell, is the new Western Digital Caviar - and the fact that now maybe things are a little warmer inside. But, I am quite certain I hear it even after cold starts too.

Booting from the original Seagate does not resolve. Not even dismounting (ie: trash can) the new drive. I may have to disconnect the power to see if that helps. If that doesn't work I might swap their positions.

Anybody have any other suggestions?

[Link]

And this is a problem?

I have a seagate barracuda 4 80gb in my g4.. they replaced the stock WD (which died!) with it..

While it works perfect and is relatively quiet, sometimes when the fans get quiet I CAN hear the HD noise and I *HATE* it because it's not normal clicking at all.

It sounds more like what you're describing.. it's a funky vibrating sound that is just.. plain.> ANNOYING!

it makes the seek sound seem 3x louder then it really is *sihg* butt yeah.. otherwise everything's been fine for about a year now.

It actually sounds like a 'crunching' sound now that I think of it.. but.. yeah.

It annoys me. I'm jealous of my bro who has the exact model of HD but 60gb in his imac.. his sounds perfectly normal.

Now.. I'm suspicious.. too bad apple won't do anything about it >

As for dieseling.. be lucky.. whenever I start using the CPU on my quicksilver the fans start revving up.. and that gets annoying, it sounds like I'm weaving on a highway on your average day.. it's like...

I'll sit there.. turn on the machine.. 747 noise (all fans running full blast)....

It quiets down.. extremely quiet... then OS X is loaded and as soon as I start loading ichat and safari I can hear the fans cranking up...

And then uh.. yeah.. it's almost like the dieseling except a little slower and much higher pitched when it gets hot >

[gtuck@mac.com]

Have a FW800 with the Baracuda V and it is quite a bit noisier than the WD1200 I put in later. It clicks when accessing the disk but I don't notice a rattling. I know drives placed in the rear (ATA100) bay sound louder than when they are in the front (ATA66) bay. I just installed the Verax fan system. Not cheap--$310--but cut the noise by a huge amount and now I think I'll be able to live with this machine til my daughter is out of college and I have a few pennies to spend again.

[Kenneth]

It's time for getting a SuperDrive. I have 3 HDs inside my FW800... will move to SuperDrive very soon.

[BrettOZ]

Originally posted by Tomac:
Day ONE of ownership= HD goes ratta-tat-tat-rattle + DRONE
Present= HD goes ratta-tat-tat-rattle + DRONE

Dual 1.25 G4 here,
Day 1 = HD goes ratta-tat-tat-rattle + DRONE (Then I initialised the drive and re-installed OS X.
Present = DRONE

Not sure what the initialise did - but the ratta-tat-tat-rattle seems to have gone

[Cipher13]

Back up your data, and have the drive replaced immediately.

All of my Seagate Barracudas are dead silent. I can't hear them even when reading/writing.

[Meadowfield]

I am happy to report, I'm good to go!

If you are interested you can find my thread here

Good luck, everyone.

Paul

[Link]

*rattlerattlerattle* that's my HD

it's weird but annoying. I dunno.. I think it just has a heavier sound then most do.. :shrug:

[MilkmanDan]

I have a beige G3 tower with 4 Hds on it.

1) 200 GIG Western Digital Special Edition HD
2) Seagate 80 GIG
3) Seagate 80 GIG
4) 120 GIG Maxstar

Its so weird, cuz it occasionally makes some really weird sounds.... I don't know why, but sometimes, I think its trying to kill me.

That and I have another beige G3 with a 40 GIG western digital HD next to it. But anyhow, HDs do make weird sounds.

Than again, my parents Rev a iMac was like a leaf blower. Its CD drive would buzz and buzz and buzz, you could hear it all over the house. It was especially bad when I played Myth II, for some reason that CD made a lot of noise.

Anyhow, living with 5 other guys, and about 12 computers, we some of them just make the weirdest sounds.

[Cipher13]

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
I have a beige G3 tower with 4 Hds on it.

1) 200 GIG Western Digital Special Edition HD
2) Seagate 80 GIG
3) Seagate 80 GIG
4) 120 GIG Maxstar

Its so weird, cuz it occasionally makes some really weird sounds.... I don't know why, but sometimes, I think its trying to kill me.

That and I have another beige G3 with a 40 GIG western digital HD next to it. But anyhow, HDs do make weird sounds.

Than again, my parents Rev a iMac was like a leaf blower. Its CD drive would buzz and buzz and buzz, you could hear it all over the house. It was especially bad when I played Myth II, for some reason that CD made a lot of noise.

Anyhow, living with 5 other guys, and about 12 computers, we some of them just make the weirdest sounds.

Strange noises are a sure sign that something isn't quite right... whether the issue is insignificant is another matter entirely, but better safe than sorry.

The Myth CD was probably loud due to its label being unevenly printed, or having certain parts printed with more layers than other parts, etc.

Either way... a noisy computer is not a healthy computer.

[Link]

Actually I'll agree with him on this.. my old 486 laptop makes some very strange noises (the HD at least)

sometimes it'll be sitting there

*whirrr*
*clunk*
*whirrrr*

something happens on pc speaker

*higher pitched whirr*
few seconds later...
*whirrr*
*clunk*

that 'clunk' is actually existent on my xbox too. Weird :shrug: