Samsung SP8004H 80G & SP4002H 40G HD's Review

Published By: Paul Machado
Review Date: September 13/2002
Product Supplied By: Samsung Canada

Samsung Noise Guard 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 Silent Seek Technology:

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.

(c) Samsung HDD

S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology):

For consumers using a PC, one of the most important things is the confidence in HDD since the users store most of their substantial data in HDD. In other words, HDD is a final method to preserve data for consumers. For this reason, users have commonly seen or experienced many damages of intellectual property caused by the faults of the drive. To protect this problem, a few companies such as Ontrack in the U.S. and Myung Information System in Korea provide a data restoration service; the restorable data is limited and even if it is restored, the cost is much more than the price of HDD.

Samsung is aware of the importance of data preservation in HDD and tries to improve the confidence in products in many ways. SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a product which warns users of the product's defects and informs the users to transfer data to other places. Therefore, this product results in improving the confidence in data preservation and the product itself.

How can a product that alerts you to the defects of HDD prevent data loss before your HDD crashes? This product will provide epoch-making and safe PC configuration and prevent the tremendous damages caused by data loss.

This is how Samsung SMART's performs and processes the problem. Samsung SMART will allow the consumers to detect Samsung HDD's defects in advance.