Recommendations for silent / quiet HDs 1 Tb size

[loninappleton]

After getting a WD Black 1 Tb I beleatedly read SPCR to find out they are known to be noisy.

Without a lot of explanation, the WD Black 1 Tb 3FZEX I have runs bare outside a case as a bench setup (on a piece of foam) in a room I sleep in. It has become noticeable for this reason with no daytime sounds. I'll not try to return it since I the unit is working and its duty is 24/7.

What is the SPCR suggestion to upgrade to 1Tbs which are very quiet?
Right now I'm going back into my backups to find one that runs more quietly from before the recent purchase.

Everybody warns against Seagate but those seem to have less noise. However I know little about other brands which you might have reviewed.

I will also look at your methods to quiet vibrations though I think these will be
for drives in enclosures.

[edh]

If silence is everything then a 1TB SSD is the best but I'm assuming the price puts you off.

One question though: why do you have a hard disk running 24 hours a day in your bedroom? Can't it be powered down when not in use?

[loninappleton]

Simply put: a matter of logistics and space. I have more than one setup on a small homenet.
And the tic tic of the previous HD was intermittent and tolerable.

If I could get by with something in the 750Gb range would an M2 or other format
be less expensive?

[xan_user]

if it has to be in the bedroom, and has to be on 24/7,



-sell everything you can to afford ssd upgrade .





(besides... who really needs both kidneys?)

[loninappleton]

Have you done any comparative tests for continuous operation noise-- motors running
etc or is this even a sign of bad manufacture? Where you mention the WD Blacks you say
pretty much that it is a characteristic of the units regardless of purchase or exchange.

That leaves Seagate Hitachi and Samsung and Toshiba that I recall.

Yes, I'd like to go SSD and may get a small one. But my ongoing job accesses
a large data file. At some point I may get a place with an extra bedroom to use as a workroom.

[SebRad]

Hi, do you have any performance requirements for the drive?
If not needing high performance then go for a 5400rpm drive, e.g. WD Green or Red (not Pro it's 7200rpm)

You might also look into 2.5" HDDs as these come in 1TB size, again in 5400rpm speed. I'm not sure how the noise of these matches up to the 3.5" 5k4 drives.
Check the drive reviews here on SPCR to get an idea.

I have a 2TB WD Green in a Scythe Quiet Drive and it really is pretty much inaudible, even in a very quiet room.
Sadly the Quiet Drive isn't available anymore but you could try Scythe Himuro which I believe is quite effective.
This might bring the level of your existing drive down to tolerable levels.

Before Christmas in the sales I saw a 960GB SSD for £150, there are ones on eBay around that now too. Or you might be lucky and get a used one a little cheaper.

Hope this helps,
Seb

[loninappleton]

I will look into the Scythe products. I use Scythe fans now on both my rigs and have adapted them to use with CPU cooling.

Also appreciate your tips on selecting for quiet performance rather than speed. Speed is only needed for cloning backup.

In the meantime I have opted for running a box fan on low as a noise buffer. That kind of
sound does not 'get to me.' as much.

I'd still avoid the WD Green as they are poorly rated.

Maybe others have opinions on other brands.

Finally, How do I do a search for reviews just on HD's at SPCR? Most searches for me are
going through piles of haystack to find a needle (relevant info.) . That's why I ask the question directly.

[loninappleton]

Just a followup for anyone interested.

I looked at the Himuro and it appears to be nothing more than a metal box with
some 'cooling fins.'

From earlier projects this gave me the idea of housing the loud HD in an old removable drive tray that has a sliding metal lid. I had more of these but couldn't give them away so I dumped a number of them since the trays had old style IDE plugs etc.

Haven't completed any sort of changeover yet. Another idea I had for size and shape was an old style metal recipe box for 3x5 cards. It would allow some air space in height and heat dissipation to the metal.

These are all get-by measures just to get some use out of a noisy HD.

The only recipe box I have is plastic-- one gotten for 1,44 floppies.

[Fei]

Everybody warns against Seagate

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6028/ ... index.html

How do I do a search for reviews just on HD's at SPCR?

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page2.html

[loninappleton]

Yes this is what I wanted to see.

Thanks for finding it. I was at a loss as to where to start.

[Mattuz]

I'm stuck with the same decision as you. I saw the new WD blue 5400rpm, anyone has some feedback about them, are they as Silent as the previous green, and did they solve the greens' issues?

[loninappleton]

I'm stuck with the same decision as you. I saw the new WD blue 5400rpm, anyone has some feedback about them, are they as Silent as the previous green, and did they solve the greens' issues?

What were the WD Green issues? Lots of returns on bad product? So called energy saving? In this regard if energy saving meant going into sleep mode or low performance mode then that would be a problem.

[Mattuz]

I know that lots of people do not like them because of the fail rate due to their idle mode every 8 seconds (don't know how to explain it, I'm not English, is a little bit difficult)

[quest_for_silence]

I know that lots of people do not like them because of the fail rate due to their idle mode every 8 seconds (don't know how to explain it, I'm not English, is a little bit difficult)

Two incorrect information: they do not have an abnormal failure rate, and the auto parking feature may easily be disabled by the WD utility wdidle3.

[loninappleton]

I'm just now ready to set up a Seagate 1tb 7200 which was on deal at Newegg. I have Seagate barracudas in service from other purchases and they do seem noticeably more quiet than any WD. I have not heard a Green yet. Was going to try one from Ebay just to see if 5400 rpm is really the key to getting the scratchy noise down. I use a bench style setup and my disks run in what the hobbyist audio speaker builders call 'free air.'

(The failure rate of the Seagates has been debunked from reading I have seen on it.)