Which is the most quiet hard drive around?

mist · Post by **mist** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:13 am

Hi! :-)

Which hard drive is the most quiet one?

The size of the disk is not the most important thing.

I'm going to use it in a living room divx pc so at least 20GB.

I've been thinking about an old 11GB 2,5" drive I've got lying around but
it's a bit small...

How big is the noise difference to 3.5" drives? Infinate?

I think the price points towards 3.5" though...

Thanks a million! :-)

/Sofia

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 5:10 am

Read this.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.p ... =82&page=1

The newer seagate 7200.7 has great performance and silence, though not quite as silent as the drives in the article.

pingu666 · Post by **pingu666** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 5:37 am

WD 120gig is the most quiet drive
honest!

ya im joking ;P. a single platter seagate i think is best safe bet

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 5:43 am

Dude...That was wrong.

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 5:47 am

Suspend a Barracuda IV 40GB single platter, that should be more than enough. However if you want silence get the same drive and put it in a SmartDrive 2002 enclosure and then suspend the whole enclosure for pure bliss.

This is cheaper than any 40GB laptop drive and probably much quieter too.

pingu666 · Post by **pingu666** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 6:09 am

faster too i would imagine

Zhentar · Post by **Zhentar** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 6:46 am

I use the Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Plus 120GB, its pretty quiet with acoustic management enabled using the Hitachi drive tool.

Modern FDB drives will be inaudible at any reasonable distance from the TV, even if you happen to be watching something thats muted.

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 8:13 am

Somebody else posted this URL in one of the other threads:

http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchm ... h_sort.php

Select IdleNoise from the list box.

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 10:18 am

The 7200.7 does not come with the Acoustic Management enabled, but it is still ultra silent - even though it has two platters.

If 40GB is enough for you, go for the IV
If you need more room, to 120GB, go with the V.
If you need 80-160GB along with best Seagate performance, go with the 7200.7

Oysterman · Post by **Oysterman** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 12:26 pm

I wonder if the Seagate 5400.1 could be even quieter than the 7200.7? Seeing as it spins slower, it would vibrate less?

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 12:49 pm

Probably...but it's an older drive and is 5400 RPM. Are you looking for performance or just plain storage.

I don't use any 5400 RPM drives since they just don't cut it (and the 7200 RPM Barracuda IV is quieter anyway).

Oysterman · Post by **Oysterman** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:03 pm

Well, the Barracuda IV pretty much seems to be unbeatable (so glad I just happened to choose them before I knew of their 1337-ness). But I think we only have the 7200.7 and 5400.1 to choose from, from browsing Swedish webstores. If you use it to play DivX movies, the harddrive isn't the bottleneck anyway, am I right (at least not with plenty of RAM, a good OS (i.e. not Win98) and a defragmented drive)? Then 5400.1 might be a better choice if you're cheap and/or eager to hunt down that very last dB(A). It would run cooler too.

I've seen you dissing the performance of 5400 RPM drives a lot... What do you do really that makes you think a 5400 RPM drive doesn't cut it? Running a server? Just curious.

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:17 pm

Video/Music Editing
Photoshop
A bit of Gaming
Windows XP
Folding @ Home (doesn't need a fast drive, but I do it)

al bundy · Post by **al bundy** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:47 pm

Oysterman wrote:...If you use it to play DivX movies, the harddrive isn't the bottleneck anyway, am I right (at least not with plenty of RAM, a good OS (i.e. not Win98) and a defragmented drive)? Then 5400.1 might be a better choice if you're cheap and/or eager to hunt down that very last dB(A). It would run cooler too...

That's good advice. Also, you can put any current fluid-bearing 5400rpm drive in a SilentDrive enclosure and you've got the quietest hard drive solution available right now IMO.

Also, it's not like current 5400rpm drives are all that bad for performance either. They're fine. Lots of folks won't even notice a performance difference. It's important not to become obsessed with two things at once (i.e. silence and performance), especially when they are so often mutually exclusive! Focus on silence more than performance, and beware of advice from that guy above with a tampon in his mouth.

(Sorry couldn't help it

)

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 7:08 pm

Your mom's tampon.

al bundy · Post by **al bundy** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 10:34 pm

POLIST8 wrote:Your mom's tampon.

Hehehe, I just knew you'd have to reply to that!

I hope I didn't hurt your feelings bro, I don't usually comment like that when it looks like somebody is smoking a tampon...

Maybe you should change the slogan under your picture to "Suckin-on Tampax"