Quiet 400gb drive. Suggestions?

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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Baloubic
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2005 2:31 pm

Quiet 400gb drive. Suggestions?

Post by Baloubic » Wed Jul 20, 2005 2:49 pm

Okay, I've silenced my computer. I can't hear it any more, so I guess it's quiter than ambient noise =)

Problem is, I've suspended my 200gb Samsung Spinpoint, but realised that there's no room for my other 3 drives(1 maxtor, 2 wd). Besides, I guess their combined strength would make my computer quite audible again.

So I'm going to sell them and buy myself a 400 gb drive instead, that I can put on the accoustifoam lined case floor.

I haven't got an idea on which drive to chose though - samsung doesn't go higher than 250.

Options:

Western Digital 400GB SATA 7200.
Hitachi 7K400 400GB 7200 SATA
Hitachi 7K400 400GB 7200 ATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB SATA
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 400GB IDE ATA

So, which one is my new drive? Or any other? As it'll sit on foam, vibration noise isn't an issue...

Please help me, almighty forum =)

// Baloubic

jackylman
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Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Post by jackylman » Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:41 pm

You could get 10 40GB scorpios :D Or not...

Lots of members here have been complaining about WD hit or miss sample quality, but that drive probably has the best potential. I've always liked WD's quiet seeks.

merovingian
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:56 am

Post by merovingian » Wed Jul 20, 2005 5:33 pm

I'm not sure, but I'm running a seagate and it seems quiet. It's also cheap and seagate as a solid rep as a reliable drive maker. NCQ helps too.

Compare

Baloubic
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Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2005 2:31 pm

Post by Baloubic » Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:12 am

According to that test, it'd seem that the Hitachi 400gb is more quiet than the barracuda. I've always considered Hitachi drives to be "fast, efficient and loud", but perhaps I was wrong.

It's low idle noise that's most important, as it'll be more of a storage drive(for obvious reasons), while low seek is more of a bonus.

My general opinion of ATA WD drives has been "loud and slow", but I've heard some good things about their new fluid bearing, etc, so I'm not so sure about them anymore.

So, after that sound measurment test you've linked to, I'm leaning towards the Hitachi 7K400 over the Seagate Barracuda. Am I right or wrong in doing so? 8-)
How about the Western Digital drives... Are they silent nowadays, and, if so, how is the quality of the line(i.e does noise levels currently differ much between samples, as I've heard other people complain about)?

Thanks,

Baloubic

merovingian
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:56 am

Post by merovingian » Thu Jul 21, 2005 2:36 am

Well I can see you value sound above all else. I would say that while the hitachi sounds more quiet, is 3 decibles really that much of a diff? I dunno. If so, maybe the best thing to do is to create a storage server and put it some place else.

Eitherway, I thought seagate was one of the most quiet, how things change! :shock:

Maybe we need to let other people post some more results, ideas and experiances. :D

Thomas
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Location: Denmark

Post by Thomas » Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:13 am

Have you seen this? http://www.silentpcreview.com/article256-page1.html

I have a Hitachi 160 GB 7K250 SATA disk. It require serious decoupling. However, when it's decoupled properly, it's very, very quit.

kesv
Posts: 300
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2003 8:44 am

Post by kesv » Thu Jul 21, 2005 3:59 am

merovingian wrote:I would say that while the hitachi sounds more quiet, is 3 decibles really that much of a diff?
The following can shed some light on things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel

About half way down the article it says the following:
A 3 dB increase in the level of continuous noise doubles the sound power, however experimentation has determined that the frequency response of the human ear results in a perceived doubling of loudness with every 10 dB increase; a 5 dB increase is a readily noticeable change, while a 3 dB increase is barely noticeable to most people.
I'd take the sound measurements made by Anandtech with a grain of salt. So while those charts might tell us something of the relative sound power given out by the different drives, I'd work from the assumption that they have a pretty big margin of error.

Baloubic
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2005 2:31 pm

Post by Baloubic » Thu Jul 21, 2005 7:23 am

Cool, acctually, I've read it but forgot about it =)


In any case... After reading that review, and then checking up on the Barracuda on storagereview, I've got to say that 3 platters sounds way more promising than 5 no matter what anandtech thinks... =)

By going with 3 instead of 5, the sound levels cannt be higher(at least no by much) and I get way more performance for my buck... I guess the WD is a 4 platter design, in which case I'd opt for the seagate for the same resons. Besides, I haven't yet seen a WD score low in a noise measurment contest.

So, my vote has changed. I'm back with the barracuda. Am I wrong?

erikt
*Lifetime Patron*
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Post by erikt » Thu Jul 21, 2005 7:29 am

Here's another idea, build a cheap server machine and put all of your HDDs
in there. Then put a 2.5" notebook drive in your HTPC. Hook the two up
over a network, get the HTPC to automatically wake/suspend the server,
and life's good and silent! I bet you could build a server for less than the
price of a 400GB drive...

I know, this isn't a new/original idea, just thought it was worth mentioning.

erikt

Baloubic
Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2005 2:31 pm

Post by Baloubic » Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:00 am

I'm sure that'd be the most silent solution, but I'm all about portability =)

400 gig drives are not _that_ expensive, perhaps $100-120 after getting rid of the old drives.

merovingian
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:56 am

Post by merovingian » Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:09 am

Interesting stuff Kesv. Thank you! :D

JazzJackRabbit
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Post by JazzJackRabbit » Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:20 am

merovingian wrote:I'm not sure, but I'm running a seagate and it seems quiet. It's also cheap and seagate as a solid rep as a reliable drive maker. NCQ helps too.

Compare
lol, that is wicked, Hitachi 7K400 takes at least 17 seconds to spin up and you can't really tell if it did because the sample is only 17 seconds... :shock:

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