Quiet hard drives??

cokebottles · 22 Jul 2007 at 22:53

Hi guys, am in the process of putting together a list of components to go into my upcoming HTPC.

Is there a general consensus as to which manufacturer produces the quietest hard drives???

If it matters, im looking for: sata, no preference on speed or size, but general something cheap, as going to be running majority of storage through external and ethernet drives.

Cheers

squiffy · 22 Jul 2007 at 23:17

Samsung. I'm using a 500GB Samsung and you can't hear it. My Wd 2500KS and 3200KS are far louder (seek)
Samsungs do suffer from a fair bit of vibration though, elastic mounting is advisable. Vibration was transmitted to the case, in fact overall louder than the WD (more vibration) however once suspended they're virtually silent.

Frame352 · 23 Jul 2007 at 00:43

Yep, have a SpinPoint here and it's great

SilverTongue · 23 Jul 2007 at 00:49

never yet heard any noise from my diamondmax except when it's being detected on first boot after that it's silent

Kingy1968 · 23 Jul 2007 at 20:52

Yes Samsung seem to be the quietest drives....

M8s got one and ya cant hear it..

Thebug · 24 Jul 2007 at 10:49

samsung for noise , western digital for speed / noise

Conman · 24 Jul 2007 at 14:28

Another vote for Samsung as well... however it seems to produce more vibration than others...

jbloggs · 24 Jul 2007 at 14:42

If it is a silent HDD you want (as top priority), Samsung Spinpoint is for you.

The new WD AAKS series is also on the quiet side...and fast.

wallis2 · 24 Jul 2007 at 21:34

How noisy are Western dig. Raptors?
My mate keeps sayin they might be annoying.. though hes never heard one.

Are they noisey?

div0 · 25 Jul 2007 at 09:19

If you are interested in a quiet drive then a Raptor is definately NOT for you

I've had mine for a while now - it's pretty quiet until you start doing anything with it

but when it has to seek, then it is far from quiet! Do something like a defrag or virus scan and you begin to wish you'd bought something quieter!

My problem is, is they are very fast drives and it's nice to have the extra performance. But if you are at all interested in having a quiet pc - then I'd say Raptors are definately NOT worth considering.

split · 25 Jul 2007 at 13:36

div0 said:
If you are interested in a quiet drive then a Raptor is definately NOT for you

I've had mine for a while now - it's pretty quiet until you start doing anything with it but when it has to seek, then it is far from quiet! Do something like a defrag or virus scan and you begin to wish you'd bought something quieter!

My problem is, is they are very fast drives and it's nice to have the extra performance. But if you are at all interested in having a quiet pc - then I'd say Raptors are definately NOT worth considering.

I'd second that.
Mne sounds like sizzling bacon the minute it does anything.

Cycrow · 25 Jul 2007 at 23:35

i have a 150gb Raptor and some 500gb Samsung spinpoints, and i cant hear them at all.

althou my raptor is in a Sythe QuietDrive

rpstewart · 26 Jul 2007 at 08:36

If the drive just has to hold the OS etc then why not look into 2.5" laptop drives? They're plenty quick enough these days and a fair bit quieter than desktop drives.