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Foolishly I bought 2 x ST16000NM002H Exos Enterprise (X24) 16TB SATA Hard Drives for this player. They work fine, but during playback there is a loud clunk every 2 or 3 seconds. Both drives are exactly the same. The noise is very audible from my seating position but still audible from the other side of the room, during quiet passages. It is very distracting when trying to watch a movie.
I can't hear any other noises from the drives. No whirring or clicking for example.
Are there drives of a good size I can replace these with that won't have these audible clunks like this.
I would really appreciate your advice.
Kind regards
Steve
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The clunking noise you're hearing could be related to the drive's internal mechanisms, such as the heads seeking data or other movements that might be more noticeable during playback. While it's possible that the Exos drives are not ideal for your use case (given that they're enterprise-class and not necessarily optimized for quieter consumer environments), there are alternatives that may offer a quieter experience.
For a home media player setup like your Zidoo UHD 8000, I would recommend considering consumer-grade NAS or desktop hard drives. Here are a few options that tend to be quieter:
WD Red Plus or Pro: These are specifically designed for NAS environments and are optimized for quieter operation, making them a good choice for media playback.
Seagate IronWolf: Like the WD Red, these are designed for NAS systems and often come with noise-reduction features.
Seagate Barracuda: If you're looking for something more affordable, Seagate's Barracuda series offers a good balance of performance and quieter operation for desktop setups.
Additionally, when choosing the right drives, you might want to ensure they have vibration-reducing features, which help cut down on noise during operation.
Given your budget, you could replace your two 16TB Exos drives with two 18TB or 20TB WD Red Plus or Seagate IronWolf drives. These would still give you the storage capacity you need while likely being much quieter during playback.
