So Ive suspended my Samsung Spinpoint T HD401LG, swapped out my Slipstream 1600's for 1200's and now, after doing a little bit of ear work... I find that the noisest part of my PC is now my HDD once again.
Im on the lookout for a reasonably priced drive for a gaming PC, which is quieter than my current Samsung and is at least 300 gig in size.
SSD, whilst a lovely technology for us all is beyond the scope of my budget. I would class a Velociraptor beyond my budget also.
Is there much/anything I can do?
Needing something quieter than a Spinpoint T HD401LJ
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Hi, as a I see it there are two ways for you to get very quiet storage.
One, buy a laptop drive, 250GB WD here is £54 and 320GB here for £70; while that would buy 500-750GB in 3.5" format it's not £200 Velociraptor money either. Yes they're also slower than desktop drive but probably still quite tolerable, also bigger laptop drives of 500GB coming soon. For faster performance the WD Scorpio black 7200rpm is £90/£110 for 250/320GB, not sure how quiet these would be.
The other option is a drive enclosure, I have a Scythe Quiet Drive and I find it to be very effective at reducing the drives noise. You can get one here for £30. There are other good silencing enclosures but many that are just aluminium shells and not really effective for silencing. You can then use which ever desktop drive you like and reuse it when you upgrade the drive in future. (until all HDDs go 2.5" or SSD)
Seb
One, buy a laptop drive, 250GB WD here is £54 and 320GB here for £70; while that would buy 500-750GB in 3.5" format it's not £200 Velociraptor money either. Yes they're also slower than desktop drive but probably still quite tolerable, also bigger laptop drives of 500GB coming soon. For faster performance the WD Scorpio black 7200rpm is £90/£110 for 250/320GB, not sure how quiet these would be.
The other option is a drive enclosure, I have a Scythe Quiet Drive and I find it to be very effective at reducing the drives noise. You can get one here for £30. There are other good silencing enclosures but many that are just aluminium shells and not really effective for silencing. You can then use which ever desktop drive you like and reuse it when you upgrade the drive in future. (until all HDDs go 2.5" or SSD)
Seb
Quieter than the 400GB? Not hard, sadly. I got taken by that, too, before reading 
. I doubt the Silent Drive will help enough. The noise just eats through any barrier (mine's a HD403LJ, IIRC). I can heartily recommend a WD GP, if the performance hit would be OK. Otherwise, a 500GB Samsung would not be bad, either (and both would be competitively priced, though sometimes the HD50x Samsungs can be hard to find for a week or two at a time).
A notebook drive's seeks will make it not feel slow, until you start copying 100+MB files.
. I doubt the Silent Drive will help enough. The noise just eats through any barrier (mine's a HD403LJ, IIRC). I can heartily recommend a WD GP, if the performance hit would be OK. Otherwise, a 500GB Samsung would not be bad, either (and both would be competitively priced, though sometimes the HD50x Samsungs can be hard to find for a week or two at a time).A notebook drive's seeks will make it not feel slow, until you start copying 100+MB files.
Apologies for the delay in replying.
I decided I couldnt wait and jumped on 2 WD Green Power 500 Gb drives. 2 Drives, twice as noisy etc. but I wanted to separate programs/games from the OS drive etc. try to balance out the slight losses in response from a single drive to go to a double offering. In any case, they came to approx. the same price as a single 1 TB drive.
One drive was DOA. Fantastic but Im getting a courier dropping the replacement up at the same time he picks up my DOA drive.
Second drive, got everything sorted eventually, resting on top of two blocks of AcoustiPack Deluxe 5 1/4" pieces from my old set. Very quiet drive.
Fixed myself up with a neat little suspension for it. Im embarrassed to post pictures in all honesty but it does a fantastic job.
So much quieter than the Samsung HD401LJ its untrue.
I decided I couldnt wait and jumped on 2 WD Green Power 500 Gb drives. 2 Drives, twice as noisy etc. but I wanted to separate programs/games from the OS drive etc. try to balance out the slight losses in response from a single drive to go to a double offering. In any case, they came to approx. the same price as a single 1 TB drive.
One drive was DOA. Fantastic but Im getting a courier dropping the replacement up at the same time he picks up my DOA drive.
Second drive, got everything sorted eventually, resting on top of two blocks of AcoustiPack Deluxe 5 1/4" pieces from my old set. Very quiet drive.
Fixed myself up with a neat little suspension for it. Im embarrassed to post pictures in all honesty but it does a fantastic job.
So much quieter than the Samsung HD401LJ its untrue.