Which is the most quiet of the fast (7200rpm) hard drives?

[BlueSwan]

I'm looking to buy TWO fast 7200rpm hard drives for my new DAW setup, but I need them to be as quiet as possible.

I plan on buying two Scythe Quiet Drives to place them in, and also do an elastic suspension for them (if that can even be done with the big Scythe Quiet drives??? Anyone?). I plan on getting a Antec P183 case.

I was looking at the Samsung spinpoint F3 1TB drives which are supposedly the fastest, but I hear very differing opinions on their noise levels.

Alternatively I've been looking at the WD Caviar blacks and the Seagate's. Seagate used to have a reputation for making quiet drives but as I understand it that is no longer the case??

Anyone have any experience to share here?

I know the easy option is to get a quiet 5400rpm drive, but that is my last option. I want to see if I can possibly build a quiet setup with fast 7200rpm drives.

[QuietOC]

I know the easy option is to get a quiet 5400rpm drive, but that is my last option. I want to see if I can possibly build a quiet setup with fast 7200rpm drives.

Not my experience. The 1TB 5400rpm Caviar Green I got was the loudest drive I've had in a long time. Both my 7200rpm Samsung F3s are quieter than the WD6400AAKS I have which was much quieter than the Caviar Green. The Green was also unacceptably slow for use as a system drive. I'm sure not all the Green drives are noisy, but YMMV.

I highly recommend getting a small SSD as a system drive and using a hard drive for data. This really cuts down on seek noise. You can use a 5400rpm 2.5" drive for storage like a Scorpio Blue (the Scorpio Blue is like 5x greener than the Caviar "Green" too), but the Samsung 3.5" drives are much cheaper.

[SebRad]

Hi, I have a Sansung F3 1TB in a SQD. It's about the same as the F1 1TB I had previously. (bad sectors and security incident was reason for
change)
My SQD is decoupled and I find it does a good job of keeping the HDD noise down to bearly noticable level even when room is very quiet.
I think you'd need very quiet PC and room before Samsung F1 / F3 in SQD was too loud.
WD 1TB Black was significantly louder and not really noticably faster.
Regards, Seb

[BlueSwan]

Hi, I have a Sansung F3 1TB in a SQD. It's about the same as the F1 1TB I had previously. (bad sectors and security incident was reason for
change)
My SQD is decoupled and I find it does a good job of keeping the HDD noise down to bearly noticable level even when room is very quiet.
I think you'd need very quiet PC and room before Samsung F1 / F3 in SQD was too loud.
WD 1TB Black was significantly louder and not really noticably faster.
Regards, Seb

Good info, thanks Seb. I want to ask you one question though: When mounted in a SQD, is it possible to do the elastic suspension thing or is it too big?

[SebRad]

HI, the SQD is quite large but I think you could mount it in a 5 1/4 bay with elastic etc. By default it has rubber blocks that screw to the sides but they aren't very soft at all. I have it sitting on it's side on packing foam.
See my gallery thread[, specifically this pic.
The advantage of my placement is the HDD is in the main air intake path so it keeps it cooler. Although the reported temps from the SMART are ok even with no airflow.
Regards, Seb

[bozar]

HI, the SQD is quite large but I think you could mount it in a 5 1/4 bay with elastic etc. By default it has rubber blocks that screw to the sides but they aren't very soft at all. I have it sitting on it's side on packing foam.
See my gallery thread[, specifically this pic.
The advantage of my placement is the HDD is in the main air intake path so it keeps it cooler. Although the reported temps from the SMART are ok even with no airflow.
Regards, Seb

Is there anyone who've actually accomplished this? I tried to elastically suspend my Himuro mounted drive in my 5.25 cage (in a p182) but I realized that it would be almost impossible for the drive to have no contact what so ever with the rest of the case because or the size.