About this XPS 1530 loud Hard Drive thing...

I'm looking at getting a laptop very soon and one of my 2 finalists is a XPS 1530. I've seen in a few reviews and forums that the hard drive can be quite loud at times. How many of you out there have this problem and is it really annoyingly loud or just loud enough to be noticable? Also, is it just a particular speed or sized hard drive that's causing the problem? I'd be interested to find out.

 

Have the seagate and it is very quiet even on performance mode...boots very fast ...go for the 7200 if you want performance for gaming etc...

 

Totally agree. I have the Seagate 200 GB 7200.

 

Yep. I hear... nothing most of the time. Usually because I'm pwning n00bs.
Haha! Not really, I'm usually getting my ass handed to me.

 

I've had 3 Dell XPS 1530's all I can say is that they sound like Jet engines. First 2 had SEAGATE 160GB 7200 RPM hardrives. The third one had a FUJITSU 160GB 7200RPM hardrive.

They have been so loud its not funny. I'm waiting on my 4th computer mainly due to the previous 3 having shoddy workmanship. I pray that the hardrive will be quieter, to be honest the 2nd one wansn't too bad but my sisters inspiron is silent.

 

I have the 250 gig I think Fujitsu drive and it is silent as can be.

 

I have the 200GB 7200rpm and it is sooo quiet it is like it's not even in the same room... oh wait it isn't in the same room cuz it hasn't been delivered yet *sigh*. Oh well here's to hoping for a quiet drive when it gets here!

 

my suggestion is that buy the least amount of ram and HD and upgrade yourself...
its not the same quality when yo buy it through dell or through manufacture..
my fujitsu is pretty fast but not as quiet, it doesn't bother though...

 

I have a 250GB Western Digital and it's silent. You can only hear it if you put your ear straight up against the casing. And even then, it's quiet.

 

Be aware that the Dell XPS 1530 has several serious problems that have come up with some users besides loud drives. Some of the problems are poor build quality, grainy screens, and some users have been actually getting shocked by them. You may want to consider another brand of notebook.

 

I have the FUJITSU 160GB 7200RPM hardrive, and its silent.

Only thing that may be a little bit loud is the cooling fan when playing video games. But what do you expect, a silent gaming rig? Good luck with that.

 

The hard drives are not actually silent...it's usually that people can't hear that well or just mentally ignore them. For sensitive hearers like me, there's no such thing as "silent" hard drive (unless solid-state). I have a 120GB 7200rpm Fujitsu, and I can hear it when it's seeking and writing, and I KNOW that it's NORMAL.

 

When my fans aren't running I can hear the HD just fine but it isn't what I would consider "loud" by a long shot.

 

So is it the difference between the 5400rpm and the 7200rpm then? Would the slower spinning disk be making the more noise?

 

That's correct. The faster the hard drive the more noise it's going to be making. I have a 200 GB 7200 rpm, it's a Seagate and it's pretty loud in a dead silent room. It's loud but the noise, it's making is perfectly normal hdd noise. If you want a quiet hdd go with the 5400 rpm hdd.

 

I've also got a Fujitsu 160GB 7200 drive and it's as silent as silent is.....

 

Keep in mind: Everyone's ears are filled with different levels of wax, so what may be loud to one person, may be very quiet to someone else

 

So its actually not the issue with a manufacturer since same hard drive type has been quoted as silent and noisy by many....

Best may be to put a poll to see which may be the best hard drive available for 1530

 

If my drive is working hard I can hear a bit of "crunching" but honestly before I got my 1530 and reading these threads I thought it was going to be loud. I am thoroughly impressed how not loud it is. In a room with the TV on I can't really hear it. Also, the slot DVD is WAY quieter than my desktop optical drive.