Query about BIOS setting "IDE Hard Drive Accoustics Mode"

Well the "noise" element I think will vary dependent on what particular hard drive you have - you can go to the MFG's website and look up the specs which include the acustics of its dB statements relative to idle and busy etc. That would be your first step. Then the next is performance - we have our SATA's set on performance, in part because we do a lot of CD burning and a lot of publishing/graphics stuff (no gaming). A good way to see if there is difference is set the HDD in one of the choices and then run some of your applications that are disk read/write intensive like CD disk burning - or copying a massive directory or lot of files all at one time. Or try running say AdaWare or PestPatrol or Norton AV - these three are all VERY disk intensive. You might notice differences in how quickly/slowly they complete their scanning or you might not from one setting to the other. Or if you really want raw numbers, use some of those benchmarking programs (not have any suggestions).

But does it have a detrimental effect? That is purely subjective (until it breaks). I not think it harms the HDD. But like any mechanical/electrical device things eventually wear and break. I not think that if it were a detrimental effect that the option would be present.

Message Edited by Seventy on 02-13-2004 09:04 AM

I did some cursory speed tests with acoustic mode on and off. Maybe a 10% performance hit. I think it really depends on how much seeking the drive has to do. A badly fragmented drive, I suspect, would suffer more performance degradation with acoustic mode on because basically, that mode "softens" the seeks of the heads making the drive quieter and thus lengthens seek times. With a thrashing drive, the noise difference between the modes is quite noticable. close to 2 to 1 I'd guess. But for a well defragged drive, it's probably a non-issue.

Depends on what's more important: quiet, or speed.

I suggest installing Intel's Application Accelerator. It allows full control of that mode as well as transfer mode. Dell's lame BIOS setting doesn't cover all possible modes. Actually, their wording makes little sense. Bypassing acoustics mode IS the performance setting.

Dave

EDIT: I used the Intel Application Acccelerator when testing as my Dell BIOS at the time did not support that setting.

Message Edited by Sneighke on 02-14-2004 10:35 PM