For 7200rpm owners, how often is your fan on?

All I'm doing is surfing the internet, and my fan keeps going. Combine that with the increased noise of the 7200rpm, and I'm pissed off.

 

Well, what is your power scheme? If you have it set to maximum performance or a power level that will increase the system temperature, the fan will probably be going for awhile even on idle. This happens with me. Do you check your system temperatures? If so, what are they?

 

I don't really hear my Seagate 100GB 7200 rpm at all.
The right palm rest can get warm to the touch while downloading files, but it cools down to barely warm when browsing (70-75 ambient temps)

 

48 degrees CPu, 40 degrees HD (all Celsius)

 

I have a T60 from work with 7200rpm in the smaller size, and its fan is on most of the time. But the drive itself is quiet and cool... i didn't even suspect it was 7200rpm. Maybe it's the new drive? I will trade you ... Oh, i have spare 7200rpm hitachi travelstars 60gb in the basement, I'll trade you 3 of those 3*60 > 160. What a deal!

 

On most power settings, I'm finding the fan to be almost always on.

Only way to keep the fan to a minimum seems to be to set the processor to low or lowest setting but the performance reduction is noticeable.

I'm assuming running on Vista with the Aero configuration taxes the processor heavily and keeps the fan running most of the time. Haven't tested it with lower visual settings though.

 

Is that drive aftermarket or what shipped with yours? (I'm trying to figure whether they're using the seagate or hitachi mostly now, i think maybe they've switched to mostly (or all?) seagate)

 

My system shipped with Seagate 100GB.
Seems to be the "default" drive if you opt for 7200 rpm.

 

Got the seagate aswell, never hear it, fans never on...

 

yeah i think so too... I wonder what the 160gb is... I created another thread to ask, but either ppl haven't received any 160gb to reply about, or i'm not popular enough to receive a reply

As for the OP, not only does my 7200rpm machine's fan run constantly, but so does my older one with 4200rpm. I just checked its drive now and it's hot!

 

I have a T61 with 2 GB, 120 GB 5400 rpm and the Quadro, and the fan is nearby always running.

Where can you set the CPU speed to low/lowest? I already use the "best battery life" powerprofile, but the fan is still running. I can fohn my hair with the hot output air

 

I have a T60p, same problem, fan is always on. My system has a Hitachi 7200 RPM 100GB drive. I had to use acoustic management tool in order to reduce the seek noise from the hard drive, it is much better now. It is 15.4 WSXGA.

 

If your T60 is a Yonah core in 14" form factor, it'll have major heat problems from the FireGL. The HD is just a small log on that fire. Your fan will always have to work hard due to your GPU and small form factor.

Whereas Mr Johnny has X3100 so the fact his fan might be attributable to his dreamy new 72K 160GB

 

Jonny i thought your laptop was perfect




--- = -- - - - - ..-

 

Hahahaha....

.....you've gotta be kidding me.

Ummmmmm....first of all, I never said it was perfect, I highlighted a few minor issues with the build in several posts and my agenda has always been to respond to stupid opinions, not concoct some squeaky-clean reputation for the T61. Second, I was satisfied before I put in the 7200 rpm drive, which I did not order with the T61. I'm sorry this wasn't all clear to you.

 

Ah...

Well from my experience with 7200rpm... I wouldn't order anymore laptops with them.

The 160GB 5200RPM is marginally slower but consume almost 1/2 the power. (the reason is it has more data density)

The noise and heat that the 7.2k generates is just not worth it. They are most likely less reliable too.

Can't wait till SSD will become mainstream.

 

Nah, I'd say the 160GB 5400 rpm (with perpendicular recording) is marginally slower than 7200 rpm drives that don't have perpendicular recording. However, 7200 rpm drives with perpendicular recording will blow 5400 rpms away. Check StorageReview.com and tomshardware.com for benchmarks that will back me up.

Although the 7200 rpms consume more power, it is not nearly half (again, check those sites for power consumption data) and even if it was half, the hard drive's power consumption is really a tiny fraction of the overall laptop power consumption. The effect on battery life is very minimal, maybe 6-10 minutes at best if you do the math.

I agree that the 7200 rpm drives are noisier, but I found that the fan starts up frequently regardless of what drive I use (I plopped my 5400 rpm drive back in to test). In terms of warmth, it only is warmer IF you continuously do HD intensive tasks. If not, the difference isn't enough for you to feel.

How do you know that 7200 rpm drives will be less reliable? Unless you have real-word testing data to back up that claim, you'll probably claim that the faster spinning will somehow equate to lesser reliability. I'd refute that by saying that 1950's clunkers, while WAY slower (engines spin slower, etc.), were never as reliable as today's cars are.

 

I think the Seagage 7.2k must be reliable - enough for them to warrant it 5 yrs.

And my hitachi 7200rpm drive has been quiet and cool, at least by my standards.

But many ppl have had problems with the Hitachi 5400rpm 80gb drives, including me. I have a whole stash of crashed ones (for sale, lol).

 

Link Please

 

The phrase "most likely" hints that the idea was formulated by his best estimation. Unfortunately, a inversely proportional relationship between rpms and reliability is completely disproven in many different technologies that use rpms, like engines, motors, etc.

 

I recall from memory that the 7200.1 uses about 2 watts more than 5400.3, which equates to about 10% difference.

Given that there's a lot of Seagate 7200rpm drives in thinkpads, and I've not heard complaints about their reliablity, I feel pretty good about its reliability.

 

I would agreee that a non moving HD (desktop) would probablly not suffer much in reliability. But with a laptop you have have some movement. the forces on the ball bearing is much higher than the slower HD.

Jhonny - why do car engines have a rev line ? why do you have to break-in a car when it's new? obviously higher revs mean more tear and wear.

How is it completely disproven ? (now i want a link !!)

Btw this is a nice performance chart for laptop HD's http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/storage/charts25.html



----

 

Thank God (or Science, whatever you believe) for the Active Protection System. This debate is over.

 

As far as i recall ... active protection only parks the head. the platters are still spinning at 7.2k



-

 

Really? If that is true, then I absolutely stand corrected! But speculation from our ends aside, are there good or bad reports on the reliability of 7200 rpm drives we can look to?

 

Sorry, this statement obviously has nothing to do with reality.

 

How can you prove that a 7200RPM drive is less reliable than a 5400RPM drive? do you have solid info?

Explain how a 15000RPM SCSI drive can run for 10 years while a 5400RPM IDE drive can fail in less than 6 months.

The speed from the 7200RPM Seagate is fast enough to negate the heat. Power usage is a bit higher but since it's able to finish tasks quicker it can be idle quicker and get spun down.

 

Make no mistake, I support 7200RPM drives, but not everything you're saying is correct. Lowspeed distinguishes between laptop and desktop drives by saying laptop drives are moved around more often and as a result, more stress is placed on the ball bearings of the drive, so you talking about SCSI technically isn't responsive. I don't know whether or not the ball bearings issue really does have that big an impact on HD reliability though. The point I'm trying to make is that you weren't responsive.

Hard drives don't spin down unless they are powered off. They power off only if you leave you computer alone for whatever time Power Management is set to turn off hard disks. And when I say alone, I really do mean alone. Otherwise, hard drives continuously spin at full speed and increased power draw occurs even at idle.

 

I'm sorry all you did was prove you don't know what you're talking about. Since you don't seem to be in the know about computers. In the last 5 years or so all Harddrives have switched to using fluid dynamic bearings which is pretty much suspending in fluid instead of using ball bearings. Take a physics lesson then realize the stress that you should worry about are on the platters themselves.

You're wrong about the idle timer. If you set it to 1 min it'll spin down in 1 min. The marble dropping noise with the seagates indicate the head has parked and the platters will be spinning down soon.

Also the MTBF for 7200 is the same if not better than 5400 counterparts. There has been no proof that 7200RPM drives are less reliable. If anything they are more reliable, because they like SCSI drives are premium drives and are therefore made to a higher spec.

 

Listen, again if it was a desktop HD i would kinda agree, there's more to it as well (like how hot the environment etc)

But on a laptop, a shock on the spinning discs is more destructive the faster they go.

MTBF's are measured with them stationary.

 

No disrespect lowspeed, but your statement above is just a baseless assumption.
As baseless as your previous ridiculous reference to the car engine where your proclaim it as an axiom that obviously (to you I guess) higher revs mean more tear and wear.

 

Hey buddy you need to calm down. I never said that was my opinion. I was clarifying lowspeed's because you weren't correctly responding to his. If he distinguishes between desktop and laptop HD's, you can't respond to him by saying, "Oh well, speed differences in desktop HD's don't indicate any differences in reliability." Either you tell him that desktop and laptop HD's are not any different or you straight up tell him that laptop HD's don't suffer from reliability for X reasons. I'm not saying your ideas are bad, but your method of argumentation was.

Yea, but once you touch your computer it will spin back up. Who cares about the power savings you get when you aren't even using your computer?

Cool. Like I said, I like 7200 rpm drives. Lowspeed doesn't. You're picking fights with the wrong person.

 

Johnny I appologize, I do seem to be picking a fight with the wrong person. My intention is not to pick a fight anyway but to stop someone who knows nothing on the topic from spreading false info, in this case lowspeed.

Think about it lowspeed you're saying 5400RPM drives would be able to survive a head crash better than a 7200RPM drive. You realize the second a head crashes it doesn't matter if you're doing 500RPMs or 10000RPMs you're screwed either way. The second that head touchs a platter the platter is done. A nice long gouge.

It's like saying you won't die(or more likely to survive) if you hit a wall from a rocket going mach 1 while a rocket at mach 2 will kill you. You're gonna die either way once you hit the wall.

 

Who's fighting ? everyone can voice thier opinions.

I think you're wrong


BTW we're only comparing here the 100gb 7.2k and the 160GB 5.4k.

If it was a 160GB 7.2K it wouldn't be a good ocmparison.

Speedwise they are about the same.

 

Nice of you to discreetly conceal the fact that you realize you are wrong about 7200 rpm perpendicular drives. When you first listed your negatives for the 7200 rpms, you refered to all 7200 rpms in general. Now you realize 7200 rpm + perpendicular recording has much more potential? Admit it instead of just trying to redefine the discussion and save face.

This sounds like pretty contentious language to me:

 

Right... I would prefer buying a 5.4k drive with similar performance. But lenovo only offers the 100GB and the 160 5.4


Last post on this matter.

 

This thread seems to have gone off the deep end - the conversation going on does not even relate to the original topic and it seems to be getting hostile. Before this gets personal I'm closing this thread.