Question Two identical drives, very different noise profiles. Return the louder one?

[jonnyz2]

I have been testing and “burning in” two new identical enterprise NAS drives which will be used for storing many years of photography work (large photoshop/photography files).

Both drives have tested fine in multiple tests (e.g. short and long smart tests, surface tests, etc.).

I am currently running a butterfly test on both drives and have noticed that one drive is so quiet it cannot be heard over the quiet fans on the workstation while the other drive is noticeable and sometimes can be heard across the small room when the place is quiet.

For the nosier drive, the sounds are similar to seek sounds on noisier drives from 10 years ago. The are soft movement sounds and not hard clicks, scrapes, scratching, etc. So, I don't think what I hear indicates imminent failure. In fact, if the quiet drive was about the same sound level as the louder drive, I'd probably accept them as noisier than average drives and move one. However, since one is nearly inaudible and the other noticeably louder, I'm wondering whether the noisy one is not "up to spec" and may fail faster.

Another data point, the noisy drive temperature runs 44-46C while the quiet drive runs 39-41C.

I’d appreciate advice on this!

 

[kschendel]

If it's returnable without a lot of hassle, I'd return it. It's probably fine but why take the chance?

 

[Seba]

First swap them in that case. Could be the case resonating when a drive is mounted in that ("noisy") bay.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

These issues had always been at the forefront of my computer-building efforts. I became fanatic about totally isolating drives from the computer case in the matter of metal-to-metal contact. I took the same effort with regard to the use of cooling fans.

With "shock-absorbers" or other means of insuring this isolation of the drives, you WILL notice a difference in noise, and in fact -- it should be eliminated.

 

[jonnyz2]

So, after a bit more time, I did remove both drives and compared them with the same butterfly test while resting on a soft surface. Here's what I found:

1. Both were quieter; so, case/rack sympathetic resonance is definitely part of the problem
2. When not attached to the case, both were about the same volume
3. As before, each one has a different frequency mix in the sound. With one putting out lower tones and the other higher. Previously, the higher tone one sounded louder which may have been driven by the frequency being better matched to the case's resonance frequencies and/or the rack position
4. The lower tone one actually has more side to side vibration than the higher toned one. It is more than a small difference.