this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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Hello,
I do not understand. The 12 TB and 14 TB are 7200 rpm, the 6 TB is 5400 rpm. Doesn't the noise level depend on the rpm?

According to the WD documentation:

12 TB (WD120EFBX) or 14 TB

Iddle: 20 dB SeeK: 29 dB

6 TB (WD60EFZX)

Iddle: 25 dB SeeK: 30 dB

https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/internal-drives/wd-red-plus-hdd/product-brief-western-digital-wd-red-plus-hdd.pdf

So far, I didn't want to buy a 2 bay, 2 x 12 TB HDD because I thought it would be noisier than a 4 bay, 4 x 6 TB HDD.

What is the truth?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

There are a lot of factors. Manufacturing process, head, lubrication, insulation, material thickness.

Nobody can give you a specific answer without a forensic teardown. I would say it's probably the casing, refinements in head size, and noise canceling insulation inside the drive.

Drive noise measurement is always a frustrating thing to keep track of. It's much easier to just find a solution to isolate the drive noise completely and not worry about it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I have a similar experience, but with Seagate's Exos drives. I have several months old pair of Exos x16 16tb and they seem a lot quieter than my older pair of Exos 7E8 8tb drives. I didn't look at any spec sheets though, just a feeling.