Now that the Media Recorders are getting more and more common on the market, it is vital for the companies to come up with reliable, high transfer speed (due to HD) and most of all quiet solutions!
This is exactly what Samsung is doing with a new version of SATA 7.200rpm HDD, 8MB buffer and a capacity of 80 or 160GB (so far). Known as the SpinPoint S166 their main advantage is the silence.

Seoul, Korea – April 4, 2007 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced its new SpinPoint S166 Series of ultra silent and high-speed hard disk drives. The 3.5” SpinPoint S166 hard drives are currently shipping in 80GB and 160GB capacities and will be available worldwide in April.
The new SpinPoint S Series of hard drives offer upgraded versions of Samsung’s proprietary SilentSeekTM and NoiseGuardTM technologies to accelerate operational speed while reducing noise. Benchmarking tests on sound power have shown that competing hard drives (80GB and 160GB models) generate on average 2.8 bel (1 bel = 10 decibels) in idle mode and 3.2 bel in seek mode, while Samsung’s S166 series generate just 2.4 bel and 2.75 bel respectively. This significant fifteen percent noise-level reduction makes the drives ideal for use in office computers, as well as in home consumer electronics such as DVR/ PVRs, or any other hard drive equipped products intended for use in a quiet environment.
In addition, three breakthrough technologies are implemented in the new S Series to enhance performance and reliability. An improved fly-height control technology ensures better read and write sensitivity by dynamically lowering the fly height in read or write mode while maintaining a consistent and high fly-height across the disc in standard mode; an optimized actuator assembly for single-disk mechanism reinforces the reliability of the disk’s mechanical functions and improves the non operating and operating shock characteristics of the drive; and an upgraded system-on-chip (SoC) controller provides significant thermal, disk data transfer speed, and power consumption enhancements.
“Samsung is constantly pushing the technology envelope with the introduction of new and innovative products that meet the computing needs of today’s most demanding customers and operating environments,” states TJ Lee, vice president of sales & marketing at Samsung Electronics’ Storage System Division. “This latest technology development by Samsung in the new SpinPoint S166 Series makes our high-end, award-winning hard drive products attractive to a wider audience by even further reducing acoustic noise and improving disk data transfer speed.”
The S166 Series has a spin speed of 7,200rpm and provides an 8MB buffer. The Series features the SATA 3.0Gbps interface and includes Native Command Queuing (NCQ). The drives are also available with a PATA interface for customers who require this application.
With the new SpinPoint S166 series and recently introduced 2.5” hybrid hard disk drives and 1.8” hard drives, Samsung continues to expand its portfolio of advanced hard drives and technologies.