Samsung SpinPoint P120S 2504C
Current Price: $85.00+ S&H
Stephen Cooper, April 16th, 2006

     The Samsung SP2504C drive features three of Samsung’s impressive technologies, NoiseGuard, SilentSeek, and ImpacGuard. As today’s drives quickly become faster and more technologically advanced, noise can tend to be one of the more irritating byproducts. In fact, Samsung is currently working on a noiseless drive motor, the Fluid Dynamic Motor (FDB). Think Samsung takes drive noise seriously? Well, here’s a look at their test setup that should confirm your thoughts.

     Although the image is small, as you can see, the drive is surrounded by a whopping 10, yes 10 microphones in order to detect sound from all directions. Sound was formerly measured using sound pressure, however this method is far more accurate as sound pressure was measured directly above the hard drive, not all around. Samsung’s NoiseGuard technology was developed in a rather unique way. The human ear can detect frequencies that range from 20Hz to 20KHz, the most sensitive frequencies being between 1KHz and 3KHz. Samsung has designed their hard drives to specifically avoid this frequency range, thus avoiding the most sensitive frequencies to us humans. Pretty interesting the way these things work eh? Here is some information taken from Samsung’s website about their implementation of the NoiseGuard technology.

     Most HDD noise is generated from mechanical vibrations of the rotating spindle motor and read/write sensor positioner. During the rotation process, the spindle motor's internal ball-bearings generate a considerable amount of noise. During the positioning process, high frequency magneto-electric interactions, head stack vibrations, and actuator also contribute to HDD acoustic noise.

     The vibrations are also transmitted to the HDA (Head-Assembly). When HDA resonance frequencies are similar to the excitation frequencies, vibrations are furtheramplified, worsening overall HDD noise. In reducing HDD noise, controlling or suppressing energy transmission in the HDA structure can be as effective as minimizing the noise sources.

     Through acoustic noise intensity distribution analysis, Samsung researchers identified specific noise sources, and set out to fix these problems with NoiseGuard™ technology. After thoroughly analyzing the acoustic noise loss and absorption rate of various materials, the optimal combination of vibration-absorbing materials was selected.

     The shape of the HDD cover was also designed to reinforce the overall structure of the most vibration-susceptible areas, further reducing acoustic noise. Samsung's NoiseGuard™ technology incorporates these design improvements and significantly reduces overall acoustic noise levels, especially those that humans are most sensitive to. At Samsung, we strive to provide our customers with products that are as comfortable as they are reliable.

     Samsung’s SilentSeek technology has been implemented for the same reason as NoiseGuard. Hard drive seek times are generally a benchmark to how fast a drive is, the faster the head can be positioned over the correct track, the faster the hard drive may be. In the past years, manufacturers have been gunning for faster and faster seek times, sometimes overlooking the fact that more noise will be created. Unlike NoiseGuard however, SilentSeek attempts to lessen the noise made by the actuator movement, not total noise emission. Here is what Samsung has to say about SilentSeek.

     As described in the previous paragraphs, SilentSeek™ technology is designed to minimize the mechanical excitation generated by any resonance, virtually eliminating the source of seek acoustic noise.

     To accomplish this, SilentSeek™ technology incorporates a performance optimized sinusoidal seek trajectory, as opposed to traditional "Bang-Bang" seek profile. This prevents excitation by high frequency harmonics, while still providing minimal positioning and head settling times. The position trajectory and velocity trajectory required to achieve the sinusoidal acceleration are calculated by a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) using a recursive sine wave generation algorithm.

     Samsung's internal measurements have demonstrated that by incorporating SilentSeek™ technology, approximately 4dBA reduction of seek acoustic noise (sound pressure level) is achieved. Figure 1 illustrates the snapshot comparison, before and after SilentSeek™ technology implementation.

     The ImpacGuard Technology can be easily summed up in a few words. As we all know, when hard drives are manufactured and shipped around, they can be placed under high levels of shock from being bumped around. They can also face these same problems as soon as the user throws some extra abuse in there when installing and transporting their PC. This shock can cause small particles to form on the surface of the disk itself, and although unbelievably small, can bring disaster. These particles can add friction to the drive, which in turn adds heat, which leads to bad sectors and data loss. Here’s a little snip from Samsung about how ImpacGuard works.

     “ImpacGuard™, another Samsung innovation, prevents an HDD disc from vibrating when not assisted by the helping head media, which is parked in the landing zone. SSB™ minimizes the impact of external shocks while ImpacGuard™ strengthens an HDD's internal resistance to shock by reinforcing the disc and minimizing its susceptibility to shock.”