# Seagate 300GB 16MB cache... more quiet?



## jshorr (Mar 29, 2005)

Hello All,

Wondering if anyone has any experience with this drive for TiVo....I've used the 8mb version, and found it to be pretty loud during seeks. Wondering if this drive is any different other than the cache size, if it is perhaps more quiet? Thanks.

Jake


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## slaponte (Apr 6, 2005)

No exp, but the idea is that it will seek less often since it brings more on each read. If the disk is very fragmented, it won't help, but in this case it should help some.


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## mehm (Jun 11, 2004)

jshorr said:


> Hello All,
> 
> Wondering if anyone has any experience with this drive for TiVo....I've used the 8mb version, and found it to be pretty loud during seeks. Wondering if this drive is any different other than the cache size, if it is perhaps more quiet? Thanks.
> 
> Jake


I have upgraded with both Maxtor and Samsung drives, if you use the Acoustical management program to put the drive in quiet mode, they all run almost silently. Check to see if an acoustic management program exists for Seagate, that would probably solve your noise problem.

-MEHM


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## jshorr (Mar 29, 2005)

mehm said:


> I have upgraded with both Maxtor and Samsung drives, if you use the Acoustical management program to put the drive in quiet mode, they all run almost silently. Check to see if an acoustic management program exists for Seagate, that would probably solve your noise problem.
> 
> -MEHM


The new Seagate drives don't support accoustic management  thanks though.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

jshorr said:


> Wondering if anyone has any experience with this drive for TiVo....I've used the 8mb version, and found it to be pretty loud during seeks. Wondering if this drive is any different other than the cache size, if it is perhaps more quiet? Thanks.


If the model is a 7200.7 or 7200.8 family, I doubt it's quieter. I do remember having heard some people report the 7200.9's were a lot quieter, but haven't had first hand experience to know if that's true or not.


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## dagap (Dec 5, 2003)

Does AAM only quiet the seek noise? Or does it also reduce the hum, perhaps by lowering the RPM?

TIA.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

dagap said:


> Does AAM only quiet the seek noise? Or does it also reduce the hum, perhaps by lowering the RPM?


These low noise capabilities affect only seek noise by changing how the heads are moved into position -- dampening the movement a bit by better controlling the speed so there's not sudden starts/stops which make more noise. (Thus they slow down seek operations a bit.)


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## JasonD (Mar 30, 2003)

dagap said:


> Does AAM only quiet the seek noise? Or does it also reduce the hum, perhaps by lowering the RPM?
> 
> TIA.


It's kind of interesting but I put a 400GB Seagate in my Living Room Tivo along with a 120GB Maxtor that was already in it. But now the Tivo hums a little bit like one of those science fiction B movie force field. Oh well its in the living room so who cares.

jason


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## Pauli (Mar 1, 2004)

16MB cache won't likely affect seek noise at all. Cache is used for frequently used data -- since streaming video is always new data, I doubt the cache would be effectively used at all. The drive is a different model, so perhaps it's just a quieter drive to begin with.


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