Quietest 500GB HDD

Amp34 · 18 May 2007 at 15:28

I'm looking to replace one of my 250GB hard drives in the next couple of weeks. I want as quiet a one as possible but still fast. So which of the 500Gb crop is most suitable? I am a bit of a Hitachi fanboy so is their 500GB drive as quiet as the 250GB ones?

Thanks

jbloggs · 18 May 2007 at 16:11

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS - the WD AAKS series of HDDs is the fastest 7200rpm HDD around at the moment, and also quite quiet, maybe not quite as quiet as the Samsung Spinpoint, but certainly very little difference between them.

You might also consider the 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, another very good HDD, but just not quite as fast as the AAKS, or as quiet.

Nelly · 19 May 2007 at 20:16

H'mm dont Western Digital usually do 5 years guarantee? the Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS only states 3 years.

jbloggs · 19 May 2007 at 21:25

The Western Digital Caviar RE2 500GB 5000YS - (Raid Edition) does, but the AAKS series has 3 years.

The Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 series also has a 5 year warranty.

Amp34 · 19 May 2007 at 21:27

Hmm ok, what about the Hitachi, what is that like? And how much faster is the WD to the samsung?

jbloggs · 20 May 2007 at 11:58

Amp34:

Not too sure about the performance of the Hitachi 500GB HDD, but you may find a performance graph Here for that particular HDD.

In HDTune for the 500GB AAKS I get an Avereage read of 68.3MB/s, HDTach gives a figure of 71.6MB/s (the difference being due to binary/decimal measurement I would think).

I would doubt if the Hitachi will outperform the WD 500GB AAKS HDD.