Topic: Disc constantly spinning while a game (PGR4) is running

It's weird how the disc drive is constantly working if Project Gotham Racing 4 is in a menu, loading a track, and in the middle of a race. I fixed it by installing the game to the HDD and now the system is whisper quiet. Has anyone else noticed this, or in any other disc games? I have played another disc based game (The Bourne Conspiracy) today and it didn't make the system as loud at all.

When you say it's constantly working, do you mean you can hear the laser assembly shifting around?
It's been a while since I've played on a 360 specifically, but some games in general are designed in a way that causes the laser to shift around rapidly, even during gameplay. It's especially noticeable on the Dreamcast, because of how loud that one is!

From my understanding, this is caused by assets/files being scattered around on the disc: if the files for a single level are all packed together in one place, then the game can read everything sequentially, which is faster and quieter. Similarly, if all it has to do during gameplay is play music, then that's also sequential- and quiet. But not all games work that way, either because they can't (e.g., they have to stream in new environments while music is playing), or because they're not as optimized.