Help me choose the quietest 18Tb HDD

[robgmun]

Hello All!

So I've always had WD Red Pros in my desktop PC and I've always loved how I barely heard them at all. They're very quiet and I've had a pair of 8Tb and then upgraded to a pair of 12Tb Red Pros, they all have been quiet with the very occasional click every few nights. (and I'm constantly accessing them)

Unfortunately one of my 12Tb are completely full and I need another upgrade. At the moment i'd love to go for another 18Tb Red Pro but they're unavailable to me right now, could be months before I get one. So I'm looking at an alternative. So far my list is as follows:

WD GOLD Enterprise Class WD180EDGZ 18TB
WD Ultrastar DC HC550 18TB
Toshiba MG09ACA18TE 18TB
Seagate Ironwolf Pro 20TB

The only reason I'm not jumping on the two WD as I've heard a few people say they're quiet but others say they're noisy. Seagate Ironwolf Pro is apparently a good performer but quite noisy. Any advice would be welcome, but the absolute priority is the noise level.

 

[Grimley]

Is it possible to bungee mod the hard drives in the case you have?

 

[John24]

It's hard to base a decicion on others opinion of noise levels. The same drive can be loud or quiet depending on what it's mounted in/on. One of my 12TB reds vibrates a lot but with some acoustifeet on my case which sits on a wooden desk you can't hear the vibrasion at all, either in the room or downstairs in the room bellow.

The general rule of thumb is WD have a more noticable hum from the platters spinning and quieter seek noise and seagate is the reverse. Which suits you depends on your preferece. Both can be considerable silenced with some damping though.

 

[Murphy]

but the absolute priority is the noise level.

I understand but i get the impression most people, and the manufactures, just think if you want quiet you'd buy an SSD or use a NAS.

It's not something i agree with but i suspect there's not much demand for quiet large capacity locally attached storage these days.

 

[robgmun]

I understand but i get the impression most people, and the manufactures, just think if you want quiet you'd buy an SSD or use a NAS.

When they start making 16Tb SSD's under £200-£300 i'd be all over it, until then......

 

[HighlandeR]

Its hit and miss with hard drives imo, there are some guys that get the WD Red pros and some click and others say no click. The WD gold are meant to be very special and good quality though but never tested them myself.

This is gonna sound OT, but fix the long term issue see if you can move your nas or PC of server etc to the other end of the house ie in a cupboard or downstairs living room or attic and run fibre optical cables for display and ugreen usb 10-15m extension cables to an wall plug powered usb hub something good quality like Startech usb docks (with power). You can get cheap fibre optic thin cables 15m like £40-60, ugreen usb 3 extension leads for I think £25-35.

This way your file box is far away from you and tucked or hidden under a cupboard and you just don't have to endure any noise what so ever, yes it may take more money and time to do the cabling or get a cable guy in to do the wiring but once its done you don't need to worry about spinners or fans or any noise.

 

[FredFlint]

When they start making 16Tb SSD's under £200-£300 i'd be all over it, until then......

I have been thinking of getting an enterprise 7.68TB SSD 2.5" U.2 PCIE NVME off the bay as prices have come down. A converter card (u.2 to m.2) or u.2 to pcie card is also needed which adds a bit but it’s still cheaper than an 8TB SATA/M.2 drive. Might be worth a look.