Can't find current recommendations on quiet drives.
Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2019 1:46 pm
Hi.
I moved to build a silent as possible PC a while back with a Fractal R4, and choosing the right components I got it to be effectively silent for my needs (as in, hard to distinguish from ambient noise in the middle of the night).
Thing is, of course, the case is kind of warm, and really, the PC is pretty much dead silent even if I open it up entirely. So I'd like to just go for an airflow case, mostly likely a Meshify S2 (I'm still torn between the Meshify and the Define, because I don't really know just how much of a difference in temperatures there is when using proper fans, but ideally would be the Meshify), since it'll be silent at idle anyway, and will probably be less noisy at load from the fans not having to spin up so much.
Now, you know where this is all going: PC is dead silent... except for the damn hard drives. When they're accessed, they're very quiet, but the vibrations added to the spinning is enough that I can barely hear them if I open up the case (hence why I haven't pulled the trigger on a Meshify yet, the padding does reduce the noise enough to make it not audible say a meter or so away).
Now the drives on the R4 are directly behind the front intake fans, while on the S2 would be on the right, on the "backside" of the case, which may take the noise a bit down, but on the Meshify there would be no padding.
Now after all this halfway pointless story, my question is if there is a current list of the quietest drives out there, and a recommendation.
For comparison, my 2 hard drives are two 2TB WD green WD20EARX, and I just don't know how they're rated in terms of noise.
I'd be perfectly happy to change them for a single 4TB slow drive, these are only used for long term storage. And yes, when they spin down they go completely silent, but they're still accessed relatively frequently, so I'd like to know if there's a drive that's less noisy even while spinning so I can really go for an airflow case.
Thanks.
I moved to build a silent as possible PC a while back with a Fractal R4, and choosing the right components I got it to be effectively silent for my needs (as in, hard to distinguish from ambient noise in the middle of the night).
Thing is, of course, the case is kind of warm, and really, the PC is pretty much dead silent even if I open it up entirely. So I'd like to just go for an airflow case, mostly likely a Meshify S2 (I'm still torn between the Meshify and the Define, because I don't really know just how much of a difference in temperatures there is when using proper fans, but ideally would be the Meshify), since it'll be silent at idle anyway, and will probably be less noisy at load from the fans not having to spin up so much.
Now, you know where this is all going: PC is dead silent... except for the damn hard drives. When they're accessed, they're very quiet, but the vibrations added to the spinning is enough that I can barely hear them if I open up the case (hence why I haven't pulled the trigger on a Meshify yet, the padding does reduce the noise enough to make it not audible say a meter or so away).
Now the drives on the R4 are directly behind the front intake fans, while on the S2 would be on the right, on the "backside" of the case, which may take the noise a bit down, but on the Meshify there would be no padding.
Now after all this halfway pointless story, my question is if there is a current list of the quietest drives out there, and a recommendation.
For comparison, my 2 hard drives are two 2TB WD green WD20EARX, and I just don't know how they're rated in terms of noise.
I'd be perfectly happy to change them for a single 4TB slow drive, these are only used for long term storage. And yes, when they spin down they go completely silent, but they're still accessed relatively frequently, so I'd like to know if there's a drive that's less noisy even while spinning so I can really go for an airflow case.
Thanks.