Quite Hard Disk needed

PhilGQ

PhilGQ

PhilGQ

Associate
Joined
10 Sep 2007
Posts
683
Hi Guys

I have just moved my system into a new case with a much quiteter PSU which is good. The downside is that my Hard disk is now very audiable.

Its a Hitachi SATA 500GB of a few years old haven't got the exact model number, as I am away from home, but is a drive with both the normal and the SATA power connectors. It doesn't just hum gently. The nosie it makes when it active is like a loud tapping noise.

Anway the question is what should I replace it with, I checked what space I am using on it earlier, 55GB so I could probably get away with a 128GB solid state.

Its also been a long term plan to digitise my DVD collection for streaming to the PS3 in the living room. So for this I will probably need more space. With this in mind maybe a hard disk would be better. I have heard Samsungs are quiet and good performers.

I am not decided on either solid state or disk yet so any opions or suggetions would be appricated.
 
I've found the new Seagate 7200.12 drives using the 500GB per platter are silent - I've got 5 of them here and none of them makes the slightest noise - but your mileage may vary.

I'm not a big fan of SSD at this moment in time - they take far too much maintenance to keep them running at peak performance and write life span can be a factor depending on your useage. Although it would almost guarantee quiet operation.
 
Its seems they are on the this week only offer too. Although the 1TB is less than the cost of 2x 500GB.

You have 5. Have got them in a RAID? I was thinking I might do a stripe or a Raid 5 setup. Especially if they are quiet.
 
I have 2 of them in RAID stripped for performance:

http://aten-hosted.com/images/hdtune3.jpg

The others are now RAID'd for backup purposes and then mirrored at the OS level to an external HDD - bit slow (~40MB/s) but gives me a decent level of foolproofing.

Even when formatting the entire array I didn't hear a single noise out of them.
 
WD green drives are quite and do not warm up much (got one in my server now) the other Segate and WD Blue drives are Quite warm to hot and they are not even in an case

the corsair S128 is £171 if you want complete silence, and an WD green for storage (or samsung F1 as they seem to run quite but do not own one, i put segate last in noise my self as i can just about pick up noise from 2-3 meters away)

as i just went onto my server i had an peek at my Green WD drive and it just woke up (lag when opening the drive on my network) and i could not even tell if it had spun up or not (it did the lag is norm as the my disk is set to spin down after 15 mins of none use) i could not pick up any sound from it even when looking into folders with stuff in them

the Green drives are not very fast, think it was 85MB/s start to 65MB/s end for Both Read and Write, as they are Around 5200-5800 RPM drives (set when thay are made but do not tell you what it is), but random read and Writes on the Green drives are quite good as it has good queing on the drive (can do 2 reads or 2 Writes in 1 Spin sometimes if there are more then 1-2 read and Writes going on just make sure mobo is in AHCI mode to let it use NCQ, using RAID mode works as well even if the Disks are not in raid) just make sure you install the up to date Intel matrix software from Intel web site, the Green drive is ok thought, but sam sung is likey to be as Quite just be an little warmer thats all
 
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Oh one of the other benefits of the seagate 7200.12 - you can easily set AAM from the device manager if you do find them too noisey - and they will still run fairly decent speeds when wound back a bit for silence.
 
Both of my drives are silent. Vetex ssd, and 500gb WD Green powered(which are more quiet than other WD's). Do yourself a favor, go ssd if you can afford it, just make sure you get a good one.
 
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I would love to go SSD, my wife thinks I should because the current hard disk is driving her nuts she is worried the next on will be as bad.

Its misbehaving worse than ever today, I think my system has got cluttered although I am not sure what with, so am going to wipe it and install the 64bit version of 7RC as soon as I can.

SSD wise I have been eyeing both the Corsair 128GB and the Kingston 128GB. I could probably get away with a 64GB but it wouldn't give much head room. Price wise though....
 
Go with the corsair imo (given the 2 choices). I'm assuming your reffering to the kingston ssdnow's? If so, go corsair.

It probably wouldn't hurt to get a new WD green powered drive as a second drive either. I mention the green powered one because noise is a concern of yours. I'm not sure how much room you will need but it's not a bad idea and they should be quite affordable.

If you buy an ssd based on the fact they are silent, I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the speed they have. They will make you hate other computers that do not have one.
 
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Ninja Please! said:
Go with the corsair imo (given the 2 choices). I'm assuming your reffering to the kingston ssdnow's? If so, go corsair.

It probably wouldn't hurt to get a new WD green powered drive as a second drive either. I mention the green powered one because noise is a concern of yours. I'm not sure how much room you will need but it's not a bad idea and they should be quite affordable.

If you buy an ssd based on the fact they are silent, I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the speed they have. They will make you hate other computers that do not have one.
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You are talking me into it, not so sure about having the hard disk as well. I have may just get a caddy for my existing disk to use as external backup.
My case is the Silverstone Fortress which comes with a HotSwap connection, which may be the solution.
 
If you really don't need more than the 128gb, than yeah it would be unnecessary. I would ditch your current hd if the sound is driving you bonkers, or put it in an enclosure, otherwise you will still hear it churning even when not being accessed.
 
Ninja Please! said:
If you really don't need more than the 128gb, than yeah it would be unnecessary. I would ditch your current hd if the sound is driving you bonkers, or put it in an enclosure, otherwise you will still hear it churning even when not being accessed.
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I was thinking if it was either hotswap or in a caddie I would just take it out once my backup was done.
 
PhilGQ said:
I was thinking if it was either hotswap or in a caddie I would just take it out once my backup was done.
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Gotcha. As far as converters. These things are so small and lightweight that you can literally mount them anywhere using double sided velcro tape or something. I know of quite a few people who use it. I have an old psp stand and just rest mine on top of that in my case.
 
You can combine them - at least, I have two (different) adaptors combined to fit a 2.5" in a 5.25" bay. If you think about it, they have to work, because the holes of the small end of the large one are normal 3.5" holes, which the large end of the small one is designed to fit into.
 
Thats good to know, sounds like I won't have any problems. I was going to get a CPU and motherboard as mine a few years old.

If I get the SSD I will have to hold out on the other bits. Maybe I can persuade my wife to pay for the SSD as she is so keen on it.
 
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