Quiet 12~14TB HDD?

[SpellowHouse]

Thread bump. Auditing my HTPC HDDs, the Exos is criminally loud so need to replace it. Don't think you can hear the other 3 drives in the HTPC:

• Seagate 16TB ST16000NM001G Exos X16 SATA 6Gb/s 7.2K RPM
• Western Digital WD100EZAZ 10TB
• Seagate BarraCuda, 8 TB, 5400 RPM
• Seagate BarraCuda 3 TB 7200 RPM

@SpellowHouse, still happy with your WD RED 12TB?

Yes. I have three mechanical WD Red Plus drives and they are all great. Very quiet indeed.

 

[Vexr]

Thread bump. Auditing my HTPC HDDs, the Exos is criminally loud so need to replace it. Don't think you can hear the other 3 drives in the HTPC:

• Seagate 16TB ST16000NM001G Exos X16 SATA 6Gb/s 7.2K RPM
• Western Digital WD100EZAZ 10TB
• Seagate BarraCuda, 8 TB, 5400 RPM
• Seagate BarraCuda 3 TB 7200 RPM

@SpellowHouse, still happy with your WD RED 12TB?

To quote myself from another thread:

The largest true 5,400 rpm drives are 8TB. Larger ones where the manufacturer has claimed they're 5,400 rpm have universally turned out to be 7,200 rpm IIRC, hence a lot louder.

8TB 5,400 rpm are therefore the only drives I personally consider and I would pay a premium for if necessary, as I love the silence. I've got a 7,200 rpm drive as well, but I have to keep it in an external caddy and switched off when not using - PITA.

Relying on a drive larger than 8TB (and therefore running faster than 5,400 rpm) to be quiet, and by quiet I mean basically silent, seems to me to be a shot in the dark at best.

I have a random WD Purple 8TB 'surveillance' drive in my PC, and it's running silent and normally for my general PC use case.

On the other hand, my nasty 4TB Hitachi 7,200 rpm drive has to live in an external enclosure and spends its life powered down unless I need it for something.