Differences between HDD brands in the new iMac? (eg Hitachi vs Seagate)

Question

Level 1

13 points

Differences between HDD brands in the new iMac? (eg Hitachi vs Seagate)

Are there any general view on which HDD brand/model in the new iMac that is considered to be the most quiet and trouble-free? I have a Hitachi HDD and I know that a lot of iMac's are shipped with Seagate discs. It's also possible that Apple include discs from Maxtor and/or WD.

Anyway, my iMac came with a 500GB Hitachi HDT721050SLA360 disc that is extremely quiet both during idle and activity. Are for example the Seagate disc also this quiet? The downside of my Hitachi disc is that I have heard a clicking noise during disc activity. The click has only appeared two times (the same day) and no freezing issue followed the noise.

Since a whole bunch of iMac buyers have returned their new iMac due to for example flickering or yellow screen issues, there must be many of you who have owned and used two or more iMac's with different HDD brands/models.

What's your general opinion about the differences?

iMac 21.5", Mac OS X (10.6.2), C2D 3.06GHz, GF9400, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD (week 46 batch)

Posted on Jan 6, 2010 3:12 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 6, 2010 7:11 PM in response to Mattias_N

The disk drive manufacturers will disagree with me, but there are no significant differences.

There are very few drive manufacturers.
For the most part, their factories are next door to each other.
All are chasing the more-capacity, lower-cost unicorn.

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Answer 2

Jan 7, 2010 2:18 AM in response to Mattias_N

Out of all the Aluminium iMac's i've had experience of they have come with either WD Caviar Blue or Hitachi's. The Hitachi ones are a lot noisier than the WD drives, particular in terms of 'hum' when there spinning.

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Answer 3

Mattias_N Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 7, 2010 2:56 AM in response to Mattias_N

Interesting posts, thanks! I'm looking forward to more experiences from iMac owners.

My previous Hitachi discs have also made some strange low noises several times each day, I have read that they appear due to some kind of calibration activity. However, I have not heard these noises on my new iMac Hitachi HDD.

For the record I have heard from an iMac 27" owner that his returned iMac's Western Digital HDD was more quiet than his new iMac's Seagate HDD.

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Answer 4

Jan 7, 2010 10:51 AM in response to Mattias_N

i have a western digital drive which is silent!!!

apparently their rarer but i dont know if thats fact

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Answer 5

Damien

Level 6

13,103 points

Jan 7, 2010 4:09 PM in response to Mattias_N

The Maxtor is the only one I would be concerned about. Their quality has dropped way off these past few years.

I have a WD in mine.

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Answer 6

MeBeMac

Level 1

15 points

Jan 7, 2010 6:04 PM in response to Mattias_N

Hi Mattias_N:

I've got one of the Seagate 1T drives, and it grumbles (sounds like a growling stomach when the drive is reading or writing). Initially, the sound wasn't annoying or even frequent, but with usage, it's both.

I'm a switcher, moving from a PC tower that sat on the desktop, about 20" to my right. The oversized desk in my office faces away from the wall, and the iMac faces me, and is actually further away than the old tower. While the hard drive grumbles away, the fans on this machine are smooth and quiet; the display is great. too. There is some faint yellowing on the lower right hand corner of the display--but for the posts in these discussions, I'd not have known there was a color difference between the top and bottom of the screen.

You mentioned that your Hitachi drive had made a clicking noise twice in one day. What is your experienced after several days? -mbm

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Answer 7

Ziatron

Level 5

4,220 points

Jan 7, 2010 6:07 PM in response to Mattias_N

Don't let the "Green" marketing of this drive discourage you from buying it.

I've had good results from it.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Intellipower-Desktop-WD20EADS/dp/B001RB1TI S/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258862242&sr=8-1

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Answer 8

Mattias_N Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 8, 2010 12:28 AM in response to MeBeMac

MeBeMac: My Hitachi drive hasn't made any clicking noise since the day I heard the clicking noise twice, 4-5 days ago. I have talked to Apple Support here in Sweden and the guy there said that he hasn't heard about any clicking noise issue on the new iMac. However some HDD's on previous iMac models have had some clicking noises but according to him the clicks does not have to mean a coming failure.

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