The absolute quietest Hard drives

easyrider · 28 Mar 2006 at 13:56

Having got my raptor and its now in a silentmaxx i want to get some new hard drives.

What are the quietest?

must have 16mb caches and not be audible whn idle.I mean quiet when spinning.

nightwish · 28 Mar 2006 at 14:35

Samsung Spinpoint are the quietest drives. Not 16meg cache tho...

basmic · 28 Mar 2006 at 14:58

I have an 18 month old Hitachi 250gb drive, which is still as quiet as the da I bought it.

Ok, so it has 8mb cache - but I believe the ones out now, have 16mb of cache. Not that I think there'll be much difference between 8mb and 16mb, TBH.

You tend to find most drives become noisier with age.

easyrider · 28 Mar 2006 at 17:37

I have been looking ta the Samsung spinpoints 250 GB.I notice they are sata II.

Its just a shame they don't do a model with 16mb cache as these would be the ones I would get.

Its been a while since I have had a seagate drive.

Are the new seagate models quieter than the maxtors?

Cuchulain · 28 Mar 2006 at 17:40

easyrider said:
I have been looking ta the Samsung spinpoints 250 GB.I notice they are sata II.

Its just a shame they don't do a model with 16mb cache as these would be the ones I would get.

Its been a while since I have had a seagate drive.

Are the new seagate models quieter than the maxtors?

The seagates are slightly quieter than the maxtors, not by much though, you can still hear it accessing.

_PD_ · 28 Mar 2006 at 17:41

I've had a Maxtor and a Seagate, both 80Gb 7200RPM. The Maxtor was audible, the Seagate wasn't.
Also, after a while, the Maxtor died on me.

thor · 29 Mar 2006 at 10:43

Another shout for Samsung Spinpoints - they are extremely quiet. I'm using Seagate Barracudas at the moment, simply because I couldn't find any Samsungs when I last upgraded, and they are very quiet too.

I've used a WD 250GB ATA133 drive and it turned out to be the loudest thing in my system, and the 300GB Maxtor I have in my Xbox is also reasonably loud.

If you really need a 16MB cache I would recommend Seagate, if not, Samsung.

Skilldibop · 29 Mar 2006 at 10:56

Of my drives, the 200GB Barracuda 7200 is a fair bit quieter than the 120 gig spinpoint. The spinpoint was quiet to begin with but as it fills up it dpes more work and get's louder. The seagate i can't even hear read in that PC, My Spinpoint can be heard faintly in a far louder PC (i.e 5x80mm fans @ 2500RPM).

If you want quiet but big. I'd probably look at some smaller 5400RPM disks and Raid them.

easyrider · 29 Mar 2006 at 11:21

Skilldibop said:
Of my drives, the 200GB Barracuda 7200 is a fair bit quieter than the 120 gig spinpoint. The spinpoint was quiet to begin with but as it fills up it dpes more work and get's louder. The seagate i can't even hear read in that PC, My Spinpoint can be heard faintly in a far louder PC (i.e 5x80mm fans @ 2500RPM).

If you want quiet but big. I'd probably look at some smaller 5400RPM disks and Raid them.

I'm not so much bothered about the seek rumble really.
Its the high pitched whine of drives

My maxtors are quiet but I'm am very close to having a silent system now and the ringing of the drives can just about be heard.

Its between the seagates and the spin points

Skilldibop · 29 Mar 2006 at 11:31

The high pitched whines is the drive spinning. 5400 drives spin slower and would be quieter in that respect...The sound will also be lower frequency.

most laptop drives are silent. They're nion all 5400 rpm.

The drives in our new Dell SX280s are 40gig barracuda 7200.8s and are completely silent.

welshtom · 29 Mar 2006 at 11:59

I have a 320gb SATA western digital

And boy is it quiet. I cant hear it when it random accesses!!!

my raptor and my maxtor crunch away like hell on accessing. but the WD is virtually inaudible.

Tom

easyrider · 29 Mar 2006 at 12:03

welshtom said:
I have a 320gb SATA western digital

And boy is it quiet. I cant hear it when it random accesses!!!

my raptor and my maxtor crunch away like hell on accessing. but the WD is virtually inaudible.

Tom

what about the ringing?

The bells the bells they deafen me the bells(quasimodo)

welshtom · 29 Mar 2006 at 12:05

literally cant tell its on. i was really impressed with it.
I used to watercool and wanted the silence and this drive was very quiet.

Tom

lumocolor · 29 Mar 2006 at 12:11

Seagate >> Samsung ....period

welshtom · 29 Mar 2006 at 12:16

my old seagate was a noisy monster.

200gb sata one

TooNice · 29 Mar 2006 at 12:51

In the 250GB area, it seems that it goes:
Samsung > Seagate > Maxtor > Hitachi > WD

Source: http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200601/250_7.html

That said, I have heard that some of the WD models are quieter. But I am inclined to believe the order of the first two.

Skilldibop · 29 Mar 2006 at 12:53

200gig sata
i have one, so does my mate i recommended it to. First thing he said was "**** me that's quiet" As he ran a spyware and virus scan.

kimandsally · 29 Mar 2006 at 22:10

I've got 2 Hitachi 250GB drives one is average noisy and the others now permanently silent it's failed tonight and doesn't spin up at all that's 2 failed out of 4 so I'm now looking for reliable drives.

basmic · 29 Mar 2006 at 22:31

kimandsally said:
I've got 2 Hitachi 250GB drives one is average noisy and the others now permanently silent it's failed tonight and doesn't spin up at all that's 2 failed out of 4 so I'm now looking for reliable drives.

How old were the 2 failed drives?

Just I have a 250gb drive which is 18 months old, and I'm looking for an excuse to upgrade.

raja · 29 Mar 2006 at 22:37

I have 2 wd2500ks in raid 0, they are pretty quiet, drowned out by the fans in my case, I have to put my head near the case to hear them at work.