HDDs Automatic Acoustic Management

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:09 pm

I'm gonna try some test about this feature on my HDDs using Hitachi F-tool.

What's best for you guys, soft clicking or lower seek times?

Post by **garyb** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:37 pm

isolating the pc makes a lot more sense than trying to make it silent......

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:40 pm

How can I isolate it acoustically only and not thermally?

PS: need your advise also in my other recent thread here, garyb (outbursts and jokes apart)

Post by **garyb** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:40 pm

well, you'll have to ventilate it....a truly silent pc is expensive, no more than a vented iso booth or, even better, putting the pc in another room. there are extensions using cat5 cable for kvm,usb and midi which are very cost efficient, and 100% silent. in a real studio, noisy things are just put in another room, but then again, wiring is a way of life there....

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 7:58 am

Are you talking about something like a Matrioska or better a Chinese boxes PC?

I never seen yet something similar.

As for the different room scenario: I operate in my bedroom at now, no way for that; but I always dream about a little studio.
Just read somewhere that SATA cables can reach 5 meters length; I think also monitors cables can draw up to that. I've to search for SATA optical disk units..

Just... this solution needs two air conditioning units for summer, one for the DAW room, the other for the operative room (or a big central one of course).
Computers neither men can correctly work around 30° C.
(Men adapt better, however, but it's hard)

Cochise · Post by **Cochise** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:25 am

After some benchmark (HD tune) I can say IMHO AAM worths to be enabled at 128 with Raptors:
only 0.4 ms of seek time difference, with a perceptible heads noise reduction.

Not the same for my Diamondmax: little noise vs lot of ms difference.

Here the benchmarks

RAPTOR

HD Tune: WDC WD740ADFD-00NLR4 Benchmark (AAM=128)

Transfer Rate Minimum : 49.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 82.4 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 71.0 MB/sec
Access Time : 8.6 ms
Burst Rate : 102.9 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 8.4%

HD Tune: WDC WD740ADFD-00NLR4 Benchmark (AAM=256)

Transfer Rate Minimum : 44.3 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 82.3 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 71.0 MB/sec
Access Time : 8.2 ms
Burst Rate : 104.0 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 8.3%

DIAMONDMAX PLUS 9 SATA 80 GB

HD Tune: Intel Raid 0 Volume Benchmark (AAM=192)

Transfer Rate Minimum : 72.1 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 96.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 91.7 MB/sec
Access Time : 16.7 ms
Burst Rate : 89.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 8.4%

HD Tune: Intel Raid 0 Volume Benchmark (AAM=256)

Transfer Rate Minimum : 71.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 96.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 92.0 MB/sec
Access Time : 12.4 ms
Burst Rate : 89.9 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 8.3%

(Hyperthreading enabled)