I already have two OWC Mercury elite Pro al (Firewire 400/800, USB 2.0) fanless metal enclosures, one which already has a Samsung HD-400LD (400 GB ATA) drive mounted. which I bought last year.
![Image](http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9121/untitled4400vo3.th.jpg)
I have to say that I had high expectations towards the Samsung drive after having been recommended it here and read countless reviews where it's been praised for being such a "silent" drive.
I don't know how many people define silent, but it vibrates like crazy, causing a loud "hum" sound throughout the enclosure and wooden desk which it is placed upon. Certainly not "silent" in my book. Maybe it's "silent" if you manage to mount it in a way that vibrations aren't carried along the enclosure and the desk etc. It's hard to find methods for that in an external enclosure with limited space, but I imagine that screws with rubber "isolators" in between might help, though I don't know where to buy them.
Anyway, I'm not about to make the same mistake, but wondering if there really are "quiet" or "silent" drives to be bought?
Well, I can live with that drive being noisy because it'll be used as a backup drive. However, the one I'm looking to buy now will be used for video and audio editing, and I can't work in an environment with noise like that, so what do you recommend? I would like at least 400GB, but seeing that 500GB drives are available at a good price I think I'll go for that.
I've read countless reviews of Western digital drives which are supposed to be quiet, most notably the Caviar SE-16 (500 GB). I'd like to hear from anyone who's got this drive.
Unfortunately I noticed that it's a SATA drive, and my drive enclosure is made for ATA/IDE drives. It did however seem like the drive is backwards compatible with the ATA connector. Is this correct, or do I need to look at another drive?