Recommended, readily available and IN PRODUCTION hard drive?

Daijoubu · Post by **Daijoubu** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 5:05 am

I know the Samsung P80 is the recommended reference and even though it's somehow discontinued, I think I managed to locate down one store who still have these left, priced at 65 for the SP0842N (newer?) and 75 for the SP0802N (older?)
I'm not in the mood to do ebay hunting, buy a second hand drive with perhaps little or no warranty left and/or have it getting damaged during shipping (however, I would most likely still have it shipped, even with a current drive)

Now... that drive is pretty small, kind of old and expensive for its capacity, at a whopping 80 and 94 cents per GB respectively

For around the same price ($65), I could get double capacity at 160GB, with those single platter drives, which equals to 44 cents/GB
Or even pay slighty more for those hotter and multi platter 250GB and even 320GB beats, priced ridicously low at 31 cents/GB (rougly $100)

I don't need the absolute silent drive, in fact that's pratically impossible (?) with desktop 3.5", perhaps 2.5" or SSD...i'm just seeking for a compromise between price, capacity, relative noise level and something readily avalaible. Like, walk in walk out process

This drive is going to be used in a small (file?) server at home and the dumpter drive i'm using at the moment for my linux experimentations is driving me nuts (an old whining 10 ish GB HDD, louder than all my 3 others PCs combined)

Someone please help me before I go insane, and before that drive dies on me

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 5:34 am

Right now, Western Digital has THE quietest drives around for most of the SPCR community. Among them are the WD2500KS, WD3200KS, and the WD5000KS (250GB, 320GB, and 500GB, respectively). However, both of those drives are SATA and if the previous drive was only 10GB, I'm guessing you're looking for PATA drives. I think there are PATA equivalents of those drives (I know I've seen the 320GB PATA at BestBuy), but I can't say as to whether or not they are identical in every other aspect to their SATA brothers.

Either way, for newer drives, go with WD or Samsung. Stay away from Seagate. I also have 3 DiamondMax 9's (one 200GB and two 80GB) which are pretty quiet too, but nowhere near as good as my WD5000KS.

The best way to go is to search you're local ads for a drive that fits your size requirements and is on sale, get the part number and run a search for it on this site. Chances are that someone has that drive already, and if they don't it's because it's brand new (probably wouldn't be on sale then) or it's so loud no one in their right mind would consider it.

Daijoubu · Post by **Daijoubu** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 5:38 am

I have a Seagate 7200.9 here and bough one for my buddy and I can assure you I won't buy another one again

Excessive vibrations, loud seeks and had to RMA them both due to motor noise?!

Anyhow, I will most likely order from NCIX.com or DirectCanada.com (Canada's newegg's?)

Edit: As for the SATA issue, that's not a problem, I can alway buy a $10 PCI card

paramthegreat · Post by **paramthegreat** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:17 am

I concur, I have a seagate barracude 7200.10 Sata drive. It has quite a bit of hum associated with it. Seeks are loud, but still tolerable as long as the drive is suspended. The only reason I like them is for their 5 year warranty.

BTW, whats the word on reliability of the Western Digital Drives, I was checking them on Newegg and a lot of reviews show problem with the drives, like arriving DOA or dying out a year.

Daijoubu wrote:I have a Seagate 7200.9 here and bough one for my buddy and I can assure you I won't buy another one again

Excessive vibrations, loud seeks and had to RMA them both due to motor noise?!

Anyhow, I will most likely order from NCIX.com or DirectCanada.com (Canada's newegg's?)

Edit: As for the SATA issue, that's not a problem, I can alway buy a $10 PCI card

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:40 am

I have a Western Digital, specifically WD2500KS-00MJB0, and it's the quietest drive currently around IMO. It replaces a Seagate Barracuda IV 40-gig drive the long-reigning quiet-king, to which it compares very well.

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:59 am

If you want a Samsung, the T series 400GB (and probably the 500GB model, spec'd the same) we reviewed last year is very quiet. Better than the 120P series, in general. It will probably replace the P series. It's on par with the WD SE16.

EsaT · Post by **EsaT** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:14 am

jhhoffma wrote:Among them are the WD2500KS, WD3200KS, and the WD5000KS (250GB, 320GB, and 500GB, respectively). However, both of those drives are SATA and if the previous drive was only 10GB, I'm guessing you're looking for PATA drives. I think there are PATA equivalents of those drives (I know I've seen the 320GB PATA at BestBuy),

For new 167GB platter WDs codes of PATA models end to AAKB and AAJB.

MikeC wrote:If you want a Samsung, the T series 400GB (and probably the 500GB model, spec'd the same) we reviewed last year is very quiet...
It's on par with the WD SE16.

Except in vibration where it (three platter disk) looses to four platter WD...

Only comment I know from user who has compared both 500GB T166 and WD5000AAKS is quite clear, WD has much less vibration and more pleasant seek noise.

MC FLMJIG · Post by **MC FLMJIG** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:51 am

I had a WD 250 and it wasn't all that quiet. I heard it over my Raptor in idle. Even seek was only slightly quieter than the Rappy on seek.

I have a Seagate 400GB .10 and it is MUCH quieter than that WD.

Drives are in suspension btw.

high5 · Post by **high5** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:45 pm

vincentfox wrote:I have a Western Digital, specifically WD2500KS-00MJB0, and it's the quietest drive currently around IMO.

Same drive, same opinion here.

I had opportunity to see 250GB Hitachi/Samsung P/WD SE16 (multiple samples) in action before pulling the trigger and it wasn't even close. WD all the way.

So IMHO it should come down to either WD SE16 or Samsung T-series.

rseiler · Post by **rseiler** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:10 am

paramthegreat wrote:I concur, I have a seagate barracude 7200.10 Sata drive. It has quite a bit of hum associated with it. Seeks are loud, but still tolerable as long as the drive is suspended. The only reason I like them is for their 5 year warranty.

Might this vary by size/model? I was reading the comments at the link below about the 320GB 7200.10, and the word "quiet" permeates it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductRe ... 6822148139

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:26 am

rseiler wrote:
paramthegreat wrote:I concur, I have a seagate barracude 7200.10 Sata drive. It has quite a bit of hum associated with it. Seeks are loud, but still tolerable as long as the drive is suspended. The only reason I like them is for their 5 year warranty.
Might this vary by size/model? I was reading the comments at the link below about the 320GB 7200.10, and the word "quiet" permeates it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductRe ... 6822148139

Not really. In the past 1-2 years, we have not seen/heard any quiet 3.5" drives from Seagate. Period.

Newegg's audience is not the same as SPCR's. We bring together people who tend to have higher sound sensitivity, and perhaps lower tolerance of noise.

rseiler · Post by **rseiler** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:13 am

MikeC wrote:
rseiler wrote:
paramthegreat wrote:I concur, I have a seagate barracude 7200.10 Sata drive. It has quite a bit of hum associated with it. Seeks are loud, but still tolerable as long as the drive is suspended. The only reason I like them is for their 5 year warranty.
Might this vary by size/model? I was reading the comments at the link below about the 320GB 7200.10, and the word "quiet" permeates it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductRe ... 6822148139
Not really. In the past 1-2 years, we have not seen/heard any quiet 3.5" drives from Seagate. Period.

Newegg's audience is not the same as SPCR's. We bring together people who tend to have higher sound sensitivity, and perhaps lower tolerance of noise.

OK, good to know. And just so I can put all this into perspective with the drives I have, where would you say 2003-era Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB/200GB drives fall relative to the 7200.10?

MC FLMJIG · Post by **MC FLMJIG** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:33 am

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/479974 ... IN_RSLT_PG

I bought this on sale and I have to say it is quieter than the WD 250Gb. I do have the drives suspended, along a Raptor, and they are very silent. Barely hear the seeks on the Rap btw.

The Wd at idle had a humming sound. Was the loudest thing in my system. Not tremendously loud but I didn't like it.