Hard Drive noise and Processor score question

[thebigdintx]

Hi all. I just recently updated my desktop in my signature. I was getting a lot of lag/hesitations playing COD Black Ops multiplayer with an Intel Pentium Dual Core @ 2.8GHz, so I replaced it with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 @ 3GHz. Also, the day before upgrading my CPU, my HDD began throwing up SMART failure warnings in Windows, and failed diagnostic tests with Seagate's DOS utility. I replaced my HDD from the old Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 500GB drive with the WD Caviar Black one listed below.

Two questions...I'm seeing a slight improvement in COD Black ops, but not what I had hoped. Also, by windows score for CPU didn't change from 5.9. Seem normal? Also, about the HDD,,,,seems to be louder than the barracuda one was....noticeable geiger counter type noise whenever accessing the drive. Anyone else have this HDD....is this normal? Is there a WD acoustic tool to quite the drive? (ok,,,three questions). Thanks.

 

[Indigo]

Your CPU score in Windows won't change much because of how it scores CPUs. It's odd that a Pentium Dual Core wouldn't beat out a Core 2 Quad, just make sure you refresh the rating and let it run through all of the tests again.

There are tons of noisy WD and Seagate drives. I've got some 250's at home, you would swear a squirrel lived inside of them - but you sound like you know your way around the diagnostic tools from each vendor, so as long as each tool says that the drive is ok, I wouldn't worry about it. Some of the newer WD drives have acoustic management, but the drop in speed for (most users) just isn't worth the tradeoff.

Platter based drives are still slow compared to SSDs, so there's little variation between families (500GB-1TB) unless you bump it up to RAID 0, to really see a performance difference, especially as you fill those drives up.