WD drives used to be known for being fast, quiet, and reliable.
It seems WD is removing AAM from some of it’s later HD’s (including green drives?). Perhaps this is due to a patents issue (?) but it would be better to allow the user to set a ‘Quiet Seek Option’ programmed in by WD rather than remove the ability entirely. The quiet or fast mode could be set via a small software utility downloadable from WD’s support site.
We have recently bought three WD1502FAEX drives. We bought them for reliability rather than speed (5-year warranty implies more reliability). But they are as noisy as heck when seeking (or even when doing seeks during idling) - they sound like a coffee percolator next to you all day long - and apparently they do not have AAM in their feature set so we can’t set them to ‘quiet’.
For all of your customers who are already affected by noisy WD drives (search this forum), please bring out a firmware upgrade to enable AAM (or some sort of quiet seek) so we can set them to quiet - otherwise we have another 5 years of listening to coffee percolators all day long.
You might also make it clear in your product specifications which drives have/do not have AAM (or quiet mode) available - I can find no mention on your website, so at present it’s a case of buying the drive(s) and then finding out.
Pixxel has made a great suggestion! And I would like to add some ideas to it.
Currently, according to the Caviar WD Blue and WD Black specs sheets, the acoustic specs are \ *the same * for both the Black and Blue lines, on the 1TB and 500 GB models (1TB at 28 dBA idle, 33 dBA Seek; 500 GB at 29 dBA idle, 30 dBA Seek). Both are 7200 rpm drives.
What I/we would like to see, given the WD Caviar lines (Green, Blue, Black) is, make the WD BLUE drives quieter then the WD BLACKs. Thus Western Digital would have this Caviar line-up:
WD BLACKs are the: high-performance, high-power, noisier drives
WD BLUES are the: mid-performance, high-power, *quiet drives (right now they are just as noisy as the BLACK drive)
WD GREENS are the: eco-performance, low-power, quiet drives
This may be sort-of what Western Digital is striving for, but WD is failing with the WD BLUE line’s noise levels (at least according to user feedback and the WD Spec Sheets).
It would be great if the seek speeds (and noise levels) of the Blue drives were reduced (maybe using FIXED Acoustic Managment settings, so to speak).
Additionally, a ‘firmware’ release for all your drives, that could at least be used once, to make a change to the “AAM” setting of the drive to a quieter level would be much appreciated!
This would allow the end-user to do update their drive’s AAM (or FAM (fixed AM) setting) setting if they can’t handle the noise levels of the WD BLACK drives
Personally I would easily accept a performance sacrifice for a quieter drive - ESPECIALLY since I want to, if I can handle the noise, have more then 1 WD BLUE/BLACK drives in my PC. This method should not run-afoul of any [Convolve] patent issues.
I bought a Black to use in my music studio - I bought it for performance to install in a custom built quiet PC (Fractal Design R3 case). My PC was completely silent until I started using the Black. I researched forums to find out that those who bought their Blacks a year or so ago were fortunate enough to be able to enable AAM and reduce the noise to a satisfactory level without affecting performance too much - but the one I bought was recently manufactured and has been “locked” into performance mode at the factory.
Dear WD, I was a customer that had left you for Seagate years ago and had decided to come back and try out your product. I am VERY dissappointed that you have not yet taken action to release a firmware update that will re-enable AAM. The noise issue is getting lots of negative attention to WD on Newegg. You guys should really fix it.
Personally, if its resolved with a firmware update, I’ll be buying again from WD. Otherwise, Im going back to Seagate.
Listen to your customers, WD. I just replaced a 500 GB SATA 2 WD Black drive that is 4 years old with a 1 TB SATA 3 WD Velociraptor in a new build. While I’m satisfied with the drive otherwise, I am so very sorry I poinied up the big bucks for this drive. I haven’t had to deal with this level of noise since my old 2004 OEM computer. Surely there is a way to balance performance and noise!
I’d also like to see this feature return to hard drives, enabling the customer to choose a compromise between performance and quiet is a very nice feature and makes your product that much more versatile. On a side note I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks some of these nosier drives sound just like coffee percolating.
