SSDs are known for their silent functioning. If you are fed up with that annoying sound of your HDD when it rotates at higher RPMs, SSD is just like a gift for you. Because there is no moving parts, there is no sound as well.
But, lots of people have admitted this thing in various forums online. They say that whenever they do any data read/write task, they hear “grinding”, “cracking”, and other low or high-frequency noises.
After reading all those forums questions on different websites, I thought why don’t I write an article covering all these things.
For your information, I would like to tell you that all the Integrated Circuits including processors make noises and this happens when heavy current flows through the circuitry. But, these noises are of very high or low frequency that no human ears can hear them. In the case of SSDs, you will see lots of IC’s places on the main PCB. So, definitely, they can make noise but it is impossible to hear them.
Now, if you are curious to know why this noise is happening and what else can cause this noise, keep reading this article till the end.
How much sound can an SSD make?
Practically, there should be no sound you should be hearing from any SSD available in the market. We are not considering the SSHD or Hybrid Drives consideration. But, in general, if any SSD is producing sound, it can never go beyond 5 to 10Hz. Now, this sound is so minimal that no human can hear that. This sound will be less than 0 dB and that is impossible to hear.
How much sound can human ears hear?
According to NCBI, humans can hear any sound within 20 Hz to 20 kHz. So, any SSD which is producing way less frequency than 20 Hz can never cause a sound that you can hear.
SSDs are just like any other PCB with some SMDs
If you look at an SSD, you will find nothing which can actually produce any kind of sound. All the chips are mounted perfectly and they will stop working if they are away from the main PCB surface. Now, if nothing is moving on that chip, how can it produce sound.
What are the cases when you can hear sound from your SSD?
Within those SSD chips, there is always a lot of stuff going on.
The storing and reading of electrons within the NAND cells can be so much that your SSD starts to make a little bit of noise. This thing is very hard to see in normal usages. But, this can actually happen because the electrons are getting stored in and retrieved from their cells at a very fast rate. But, that’s something that might cause some problems for your SSD and the system as well.
The most common reason why we hear sound from your SSD is when it is not attached to the motherboard properly. Because there could be one or multiple fans running on your system, they are going to produce some vibrations. Now, if your M.2 or 2.5″ SATA SSD is not properly connected, it can start to vibrate and produce sound. So, it will be good if you have a look at the connection and check whether the connections are fine.
Lots of people may be using HDD+SSD combo and they can hear the sound of spinning disk from an HDD.
One of the main things people estimate as a sound from their SSD is actually the sound from their cooling fans. So, keep all those things in mind before you try to seek help from a professional in this matter.
If its an SSHD, then you can expect some noise
SSHDs can be called a combination of both SSD and HDD. These drives use rotating discs for data storage purposes and SSD just as their cache memory. So, its obvious that when you give huge workloads to those drive, you will hear some sound from the rotating disk.
Most of the time, users are unaware that their systems are equipped with an SSHD and not the SSDs. So, whenever they hear that sound from the spinning disc, they started thinking why their SSD is making noise.
Conclusion
With this article, we have concluded that no SSD either SATA or M.2 can produce any kind of sound. However, if you are sure this is happening, make sure to check the connections properly. If you think that your SSD is attached properly to the main system, consider getting in touch with an expert. It might be that your SSD is going to break down very soon.
Thanks for reading!