SPCR

I want my new rig to be a wall-less test bench setup because I often tinker with new components and the easy access will be helpful. It will be sitting on top of my desk right next to the monitor so inaudibility of the components is important.

I'm aware of decouplers and muffling enclosures, but I would highly prefer a bare drive that can't be heard.

Hi,
SSD is your only choice. No "regular" hard drive is dead quiet. If you're ready to accept a little bit of noise and put the drive on a piece of foam, buy whichever drive is at the top of the recommended list. Good luck !

frenchie wrote:Hi,
SSD is your only choice. No "regular" hard drive is dead quiet. If you're ready to accept a little bit of noise and put the drive on a piece of foam, buy whichever drive is at the top of the recommended list. Good luck !

The foam is hidden inside the case of my current build. the new one will be exposed and I want it to look nice.

Also the recomended drives are beyond my capacity needs, and there's no guarantee that the reviewed ones will match the accousitics of their lower-priced brethren.

What's your budget ? What capacity do you need ?
You could get a small laptop drive if you want capacity on a budget (40$ for 120Go for a WD scorpio blue). Those laptop drives are quiet (not silent if you put your ear on them).
Get an SSD if you have a bigger budget.

You can get a 2.5" laptop drive and double enclose it in Scythe Quiet Drives, which in turn should be resting on foam. That'll be about as quiet as any harddrive that isn't an SSD can get.

Plus the Quiet Drive looks nice and shiny!

If it's just an OS/applications (no media storage) drive you need, you should definitely get an OCZ Vertex 2 SSD. They're the best SSD's around, other than the higher-priced Intels, they've got really fast access and write speeds (equal to the intels), TRIM to prevent slowdown over time, and best of all, you can pick one up at 40 gigs for just over a hundred bucks at newegg right now.

Just don't store media locally; dump it on a remote server or NAS, and keep nothing but OS and applications on your (admittedly small, but entirely silent) local drive on the desk.

I second Strid's idea.

Get 2 cheap 500 GB 2.5 drives and use a fancy hd silencer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227515

or you can buy that and be quieter.

SSD = DUMB

If the OP stated that the drives on the recommended list were 'beyond his capacity needs' why would he want to get two 500GB notebook drives for $60 each and two scythe quiet drives for $40 each, when he's only going to use a small fraction of the available space? :|

Seriously. Very low capacity needs and absolute silence in an open air test bench? SSD. The only option. Everything else will disappoint. If you don't like the price then that's just too bad. A quiet 2.5" laptop drive double enclosed isn't going to be very cheap either. Probably be close in price to a low capacity SSD.

Low capacity SSD is the only way to go for absolute silence. Depending on capacity required, there are a goodly number of options.