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?

  • iterationseven@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    You’re worrying over nothing. The difference between 20 and 30db is the difference between leaves rustling and someone whispering.

  • EasyRhino75@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    I would suspect the quieter at idle is because of helium.

    I have both drives and can confirm the old bruisers are pretty loud.

    Drives are going to be a little louder doing a random workload than when idle or doing sequential work

  • Lojcs@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Perhaps the higher rpm drive produces a higher frequency sound, and since energy scales with frequency^2, the amplitude comes down?

    • IlTossico@alien.topB
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      11 months ago

      You need to be deaf to not hear an HDD, and Helium one are generally very noisy.

  • tonato70@alien.topB
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    11 months ago

    db is also not a totally objective value of how you will “feel” about the noise. Higher pitched sound might be 5db lower, but feel more disturbing. The regularity of it is also important, as irregular sound will feel more disturbing too.