Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

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Kimi15
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Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by Kimi15 » Tue Aug 30, 2016 5:35 am

Hello everyone.

I'm looking for the most silent HDD to use for storage. I would prefer a 2.5" one since I'm planning to move to a SFF case and (if worth it) put it in a Scythe Himuro Mini. And here comes my question about the himuro: is it worth it? Or the 3.5" are generally more silent so there is no more need of a himuro on a 2.5"?

Also I saw that the Caviar Greens are the most recommended on spcr but I can't find any of them to buy.

Thank you.

Fire-Flare
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by Fire-Flare » Tue Aug 30, 2016 10:42 am

I assume that solid state drives aren't an option?

quest_for_silence
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Aug 30, 2016 2:00 pm

Kimi15 wrote:And here comes my question about the himuro: is it worth it? Or the 3.5" are generally more silent so there is no more need of a himuro on a 2.5"?

It's less effective than the SQD but IME a good 2.5" drive with the Himuro is quieter than any 3.5" drive.

Kimi15 wrote:Also I saw that the Caviar Greens are the most recommended on spcr but I can't find any of them to buy.

They are called "Blue" nowadays (check WDC site): BTW Red and Purple are widely regarded as about the same.

Kimi15
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by Kimi15 » Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:40 am

So it seems the himuro mini is almost impossible to find. So I will go for either a 2.5" or 3.5" HDD, no himuro. 500GB or 1TB. Any particular recommendations?
Fire-Flare wrote:I assume that solid state drives aren't an option?
Not really since I'm on a really tight budget.

Abula
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by Abula » Fri Sep 02, 2016 7:40 am

Kimi15 wrote:So it seems the himuro mini is almost impossible to find. So I will go for either a 2.5" or 3.5" HDD, no himuro. 500GB or 1TB. Any particular recommendations?
SPCR found favorable the Hitachi Travelstar 5K500b, i bought 3 of them for laptops and external drives, and never had any issues with them, as storage drive, they were fairly quiet (not silent) and working temps were decent for having very little ventilation. i leave the review of spcr, More 500GB notebook drives: Seagate 7200.4 & Hitachi 5K500.B

Since the space was so limited, my laptop and external drives have been moved to Seagate/Samsung M9T, which to me is a good drive, almost as quiet as my 5k500b, it had a little more vibration though. SPCR did review it in case you are interested, Samsung M9T 2TB (2.5-inch) & Seagate SSHD 2TB. Some poeple did find the seeking to be noticeable, on my 3 samples, i couldn't hear it inside my laptop/pc, that said its more a warning in terms that we all are different, and we all have different expectations of what quiet or tolerable operation for a hdd is.

On 3.5 hdds, around 1tb look into WD Red 1TB WD10EFRX, or you could go with a WD Green, now rebranded to blue, WD Blue 1TB WD10EZRZ.

Even though you expressed you are on a budget, its the lower end of ssds, like Crucial BX200 or MX300 and Samsung 750Evo 500gb reatail around $120-130. Remember that all the drives above are quiet, but not silent, there is a price to pay for that, weather you find it worth it or not its up to you.

Kimi15
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by Kimi15 » Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:12 am

Thanks to everyone. In the end it will be a 2.5" drive, not sure weather an HDD or SSD, depends on the pricing since I don't really need much storage.

Not to start a new topic, I am also looking for a dead silent PSU. The build will not draw more than 150W but since I'm planning to move to a small case I do need the PSU to be fully modular. I know there are some units that have their fan spinning at ~300rpm when there's not much load but I don't recall which. Any help on this?

Thanks.

Abula
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by Abula » Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:55 am

Kimi15 wrote:Not to start a new topic, I am also looking for a dead silent PSU. The build will not draw more than 150W but since I'm planning to move to a small case I do need the PSU to be fully modular. I know there are some units that have their fan spinning at ~300rpm when there's not much load but I don't recall which. Any help on this?
My first suggestion is to go with picoPSU, a pico150XT with 150W PSU would be a good combo, i run my camera server with that setup with i7 with usual load around 50% peaking to 100% and the PSU has been solid for more than couple of years now, if it ever dies ill replace with the same. A picoPSU would be the most efficient solution in terms of consumption, specially at idle conditions over a standard atx psu.

Now if you are not into having a brick external like the picopsu, you need to check what you can mount, Seasonic had some decent sff 300W psu in the past, Silverstone and Corsair has some, SPCR has review some of them check the PSU section. If you want a standard ATX PSU, Seasonic X400 platinum would be my pick, worth saying that some people have had issues with coil whine, i haven't experience any on my HTPC. Personally i prefer the picoPSU route because of its efficiency and allows in some cases that a small factor case to fit a big CPU cooler allowing very low rpms and quiet operation.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Sep 03, 2016 11:59 am

Kimi15 wrote:I know there are some units that have their fan spinning at ~300rpm when there's not much load but I don't recall which. Any help on this?

Enermax Platimax 500/600 (NOT the freshly released Platimax D.F.). Another brand which use low spinning fans is Be Quiet.

But for a SFF with a 150W power target, probably I'd look at something smaller, like a Silverstone ST-30SF, if a semi-fanless SFX PSU is an option.

Kimi15
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by Kimi15 » Thu Sep 15, 2016 3:28 am

So my mITX plan went completely south due to costs.

I will keep my Fractal arc mini r2, get a seasonic fanless PSU, keep the CPU and the GPU (if I get a dedicated one) fanless and use only an SSD since I can't stand HDD noise anymore.
Here comes the ever lasting question: what fans? I need two of them to run at 600 rpm max. Noctua, slipstream or something else? Or should I keep the Fractal silent series R3?

lodestar
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by lodestar » Thu Sep 15, 2016 4:18 am

The R3 120mm fan has a max speed of 1200 rpm, so most motherboards would not get it down to less than around 700 to 800 rpm under idle conditions. If you have an Asus motherboard with the BIOS Silent Profile this will run a PWM fan from 20% duty cycle upwards. With the Noctua NF-P12 PWM this will mean idle speeds in a running system of around 300 rpm, and depending on factors such as the CPU cooler being used and ambient temperatures load speeds potentially in the 500 to 600 rpm range.

Kimi15
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by Kimi15 » Thu Sep 15, 2016 9:42 am

My fractal case has a built in fan controller which can be set to 5v.

lodestar
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Re: Dead silent 2.5"/3.5" HDD ? + Scythe Himuro question

Post by lodestar » Thu Sep 15, 2016 12:53 pm

5V would give you around 700 rpm as measured by SPCR.

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