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Does the spec sheet have inaccurate decibel and watts information provided, such that the drive being purchased has inappropriate noise (decibels) and thermal (

Does the spec sheet have inaccurate decibel and watts information provided, such that the drive being purchased has inappropriate noise (decibels) and thermal (watts used) properties when compared to the specifications printed for those specific properties? Or has everyone been taking for granted that '5400 rpm' is a shortcut for 'cool and quiet' and is just now realizing that they should have been reading the actual 'cool' and 'quiet' specifications instead of using search keyword '5400' to stand in for that diligence? I think Western Digital just made a year's worth of profits off of people who don't read spec sheets, and they have a plausible interpretation that would unfortunately will probably survive a court challenge. Western Digital has clearly taken the position that '5400 RPM' has always been a statement of disk I/O performance, never a statement about other characteristics, and so by saying '5400 RPM Class' they only mean the drive's I/O performance, not any of those other secondary characteristics that led to the uproar we're discussing. Western Digital is in the wrong here — not for repricing 'cool and quiet' drives, but for communication — and should have just openly said: "We're ending production of quiet-cool 5400 RPM drives in our consumer product lines. If cost is of most concern to your installation, our consumer products will continue to meet your needs. If heat and noise are of most concern to your installation, our professional products with WhisperDrive(tm) will continue to meet your needs." EDIT: I also think WD should be publishing thermal characteristics, not just "watts used".

aidenn0 6y ago
decibels isn't the main advantage of 5400 over 7200. The lower frequency makes it both less loud to the human ear and subjectively less "annoying"
- acqq 6y ago
  > The lower frequency makes it both less loud to the human ear and subjectively less "annoying" Exactly. The difference can be huge, even if the number of "dB" measured are the same, to the point that one would not recognize the noise of one running HD, whereas another could be extremely irritating. There is an exact reason why: the curve of perception limits of our ears is not a horizontal line but a curve, where the higher power of the tone is needed when moving to the lower frequencies. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour Knowing that: 5400RPM == 90Hz; 7200RPM == 120Hz The proper reporting of the noise levels would therefore be a noise histogram, or at least should include the frequency of the peak level and not be just a single number if one'd want to compare how irritating the noise is. And even a single histogram can miss the time component, as the noise with the main peak level at some frequency can also come in the waves, making it even more irritating, basically, the histogram of the histogram could also be needed to tell you what's going on. Moreover, the said "equal-loudness contour" is not exactly the same for different listeners, and as a result different listeners could hear the same noise sources differently. E.g. my girlfriend and I hear the same noise sources (emitting different levels of noise over different frequencies) completely different. In short, not having precise histograms and analysis simple "is it 5400 RPM" was a really useful information to know the expected noise characteristic of a HD. It's not an accident that these two became two different speeds with the expected use in different environments. I've intentionally bought 5400RPM disks whenever it wasn't for some servers locked in the server rooms. Edit (answering "floatingatoll"'s comment below): All the above should be an argument that: "“are they essentially silent from a few feet away”, which is often simple to answer given a drive to test" is not something that has the same answer for everybody. If I'm hearing the lower frequencies better than you, what is "essentially silent" for you can be very annoying for me, and that's why I'd need 5400RPM where you could tolerate 7200RPM. It's also an argument that the proper measurement could indeed be made to know what will be irritating for which person, but it's not common to be present even in the reviews, even less in the specs of the manufacturer. Which is again not surprising, as the frequency histograms sadly aren't common even in the reviews of the music equipment. Common consumers indeed prefer some simple "yes/no" verdicts ("is it quiet" enough), like the one "floatingatoll" below proposes. But such statements just aren't the answer usable for everyone -- that's anyway why the number for noise level is reported. But it's not enough. I know it firsthand, as I personally do hear better low level sounds than many people around me. What's "quiet" for them is "irritating noise" for me.
  - floatingatoll 6y ago
    These are definitely the right questions to be asking about the sounds of hard drives, regardless of their RPM. My most important question is subjective: “are they essentially silent from a few feet away”, which is often simple to answer given a drive to test — but difficult to learn from specs and frequency charts alone.
    - acqq 6y ago
      > regardless of their RPM. It's not regardless: 5400RPM == 90Hz 7200RPM == 120Hz The human perception curve shows that the humans hear much better the sounds at 120Hz than at 90Hz, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour That means that for the same reported noise level of e.g. 30dB a 5400RPM drive is much more quiet for humans than a 7200RPM drive. That is how the people recognized that these HDs aren't 5400RPM -- they sounded "too loud" so they took the sample of the noise and drawing the histogram they proved that the peak was at 120Hz. As far as I know, nobody managed to produce a 7200RPM drive which does not have a peak at 120Hz. If you know some that doesn't have such characteristic, please write, everybody will celebrate that achievement.
      - aidenn0 6y ago
        I made such a drive. I just took a stock 7200 rpm drive and added a 90Hz buzzer.
        acqq 6y ago
        > I just took a stock 7200 rpm drive and added a 90Hz buzzer. Congratulations: Your idea is both technically possible and completely useless in practice.

aidenn0 6y ago

decibels isn't the main advantage of 5400 over 7200. The lower frequency makes it both less loud to the human ear and subjectively less "annoying"

acqq 6y ago
> The lower frequency makes it both less loud to the human ear and subjectively less "annoying" Exactly. The difference can be huge, even if the number of "dB" measured are the same, to the point that one would not recognize the noise of one running HD, whereas another could be extremely irritating. There is an exact reason why: the curve of perception limits of our ears is not a horizontal line but a curve, where the higher power of the tone is needed when moving to the lower frequencies. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour Knowing that: 5400RPM == 90Hz; 7200RPM == 120Hz The proper reporting of the noise levels would therefore be a noise histogram, or at least should include the frequency of the peak level and not be just a single number if one'd want to compare how irritating the noise is. And even a single histogram can miss the time component, as the noise with the main peak level at some frequency can also come in the waves, making it even more irritating, basically, the histogram of the histogram could also be needed to tell you what's going on. Moreover, the said "equal-loudness contour" is not exactly the same for different listeners, and as a result different listeners could hear the same noise sources differently. E.g. my girlfriend and I hear the same noise sources (emitting different levels of noise over different frequencies) completely different. In short, not having precise histograms and analysis simple "is it 5400 RPM" was a really useful information to know the expected noise characteristic of a HD. It's not an accident that these two became two different speeds with the expected use in different environments. I've intentionally bought 5400RPM disks whenever it wasn't for some servers locked in the server rooms. Edit (answering "floatingatoll"'s comment below): All the above should be an argument that: "“are they essentially silent from a few feet away”, which is often simple to answer given a drive to test" is not something that has the same answer for everybody. If I'm hearing the lower frequencies better than you, what is "essentially silent" for you can be very annoying for me, and that's why I'd need 5400RPM where you could tolerate 7200RPM. It's also an argument that the proper measurement could indeed be made to know what will be irritating for which person, but it's not common to be present even in the reviews, even less in the specs of the manufacturer. Which is again not surprising, as the frequency histograms sadly aren't common even in the reviews of the music equipment. Common consumers indeed prefer some simple "yes/no" verdicts ("is it quiet" enough), like the one "floatingatoll" below proposes. But such statements just aren't the answer usable for everyone -- that's anyway why the number for noise level is reported. But it's not enough. I know it firsthand, as I personally do hear better low level sounds than many people around me. What's "quiet" for them is "irritating noise" for me.
- floatingatoll 6y ago
  These are definitely the right questions to be asking about the sounds of hard drives, regardless of their RPM. My most important question is subjective: “are they essentially silent from a few feet away”, which is often simple to answer given a drive to test — but difficult to learn from specs and frequency charts alone.
  - acqq 6y ago
    > regardless of their RPM. It's not regardless: 5400RPM == 90Hz 7200RPM == 120Hz The human perception curve shows that the humans hear much better the sounds at 120Hz than at 90Hz, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour That means that for the same reported noise level of e.g. 30dB a 5400RPM drive is much more quiet for humans than a 7200RPM drive. That is how the people recognized that these HDs aren't 5400RPM -- they sounded "too loud" so they took the sample of the noise and drawing the histogram they proved that the peak was at 120Hz. As far as I know, nobody managed to produce a 7200RPM drive which does not have a peak at 120Hz. If you know some that doesn't have such characteristic, please write, everybody will celebrate that achievement.
    - aidenn0 6y ago
      I made such a drive. I just took a stock 7200 rpm drive and added a 90Hz buzzer.
      - acqq 6y ago
        > I just took a stock 7200 rpm drive and added a 90Hz buzzer. Congratulations: Your idea is both technically possible and completely useless in practice.