Quietest non-SSD drive on the market?
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Quietest non-SSD drive on the market?
Title says it all. I was thinking a 2.5" Laptop drive, but I don't know. In your opinions what is the quietest non-SSD drive on the market today?
To be honest I have no clue. I mean I have looked at the reccomended lists and some sticky threads but they are all very old, none being from 2008 or 09, so I just wanted to know what is the quietest CURRENT drive, I was thinking of maybe the Western Digital Black Scorpio, they look nice, but I don't know.
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jessekopelman
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Ugh now you're really screwing me.zodaex wrote:My 4gb 3600rpm Seagate Microdrive is quieter than my WD Green power.
Let me rephrase my original question again, what is the quietest hard drive that has moving parts and uses magnetic disks and not a laser, and has a form factor of either 2.5" or 3.5".
I'd say a single platter 5400rpm 2.5" hard drive should be the quietest. Probably the 250GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD2500BEVT or smaller drive in the same line.thepwner wrote:Let me rephrase my original question again, what is the quietest hard drive that has moving parts and uses magnetic disks and not a laser, and has a form factor of either 2.5" or 3.5".
FWIW: my 320GB Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT is plenty quiet, and pretty fast, but I only have 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.4 and 5400.5 to compare it to. Definitely avoid the Seagates.
Couple questions.QuietOC wrote:I'd say a single platter 5400rpm 2.5" hard drive should be the quietest. Probably the 250GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD2500BEVT or smaller drive in the same line.thepwner wrote:Let me rephrase my original question again, what is the quietest hard drive that has moving parts and uses magnetic disks and not a laser, and has a form factor of either 2.5" or 3.5".
FWIW: my 320GB Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT is plenty quiet, and pretty fast, but I only have 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.4 and 5400.5 to compare it to. Definitely avoid the Seagates.
How do I KNOW I'll get a single platter one? Are they all single platter is it luck of the draw? Also, my current hard drive in HD Tune (a fast test not an accurate one) does an average read speed of 47.4MB/sec and the access time is 13.8ms.
I certainly do not want a performance decrease when buying a new hard drive. Do you think I'll see an increase and if so how much?
I am happy with my refurbished WD3200BEKT. It is small, fast, and quiet, and it didn't cost me too much. Maybe someone else can help you with more information about WD2500BEVT. I notice that it is not even available at Newegg (though other places list it). It might be a better choice, or it may not be.thepwner wrote:I certainly do not want a performance decrease when buying a new hard drive. Do you think I'll see an increase and if so how much?
SPCR tested the 2-platter 500GB WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT recently. But they haven't tested the WD2500BEVT or the 2-platter 3.5" Caviar Green WD6400AACS--which is another likely contender for quietest drive.
Dependsthepwner wrote:See I don't want that much storage. Like I am surviving on an 80GB right now and it is fine. I mean I don't need a 500GB or a TB drive or anything. So are the lower capacity drives just as quiet as the higher capacity drives?
As far as I know, you are looking for high information density and only one platter. The former because the head has to move less, and the second because you will have less moving mass (thus less vibrations/less motor noise).
If you just buy any low-capacity drive on the market, it is quite likely that it will be a drive that was high-capacity one or two years ago, and thus will have neither high density nor just one platter.
So you do need a modern low-capacity drive
An example would be the 320 GB WD3200AAKS. You can find a review on the main site.Hmmmmm, very good point, never thought of it like that. I'll go look for that review right now.K.Murx wrote:Dependsthepwner wrote:See I don't want that much storage. Like I am surviving on an 80GB right now and it is fine. I mean I don't need a 500GB or a TB drive or anything. So are the lower capacity drives just as quiet as the higher capacity drives?
As far as I know, you are looking for high information density and only one platter. The former because the head has to move less, and the second because you will have less moving mass (thus less vibrations/less motor noise).
If you just buy any low-capacity drive on the market, it is quite likely that it will be a drive that was high-capacity one or two years ago, and thus will have neither high density nor just one platter.
So you do need a modern low-capacity drive
The WD3200AAKS has several possiblle issues. Some are older design 2-platter drives (I had one, and they were decent), some of the newer single platters are missing parts which makes them noisier. My 24" iMac came with a single platter WD3200AAJS which seems to be quite quiet.K.Murx wrote:So you do need a modern low-capacity drive
Regardless, the 2 platter Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS seems to be quieter and faster than the best version of the WD3200AAKS. The Caviar Green WD6400AACS has the same housing as the WD6400AAKS but with slower spindle speed. So it should be quieter than the 7200rpm drive. WD hasn't made a single platter 3.5" 5400rpm drive (such as a hypothetical WD3200AACS).
Maybe SPCR will round these all up in a comparison, before the small capacity 3.5" 500GB/platter drives are released.
So what I'm hearing from you is that the Caviar Green 640GB (WD6400AACS) is the quietest drive in your opinion?QuietOC wrote:The WD3200AAKS has several possiblle issues. Some are older design 2-platter drives (I had one, and they were decent), some of the newer single platters are missing parts which makes them noisier. My 24" iMac came with a single platter WD3200AAJS which seems to be quite quiet.K.Murx wrote:So you do need a modern low-capacity drive
Regardless, the 2 platter Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS seems to be quieter and faster than the best version of the WD3200AAKS. The Caviar Green WD6400AACS has the same housing as the WD6400AAKS but with slower spindle speed. So it should be quieter than the 7200rpm drive. WD hasn't made a single platter 3.5" 5400rpm drive (such as a hypothetical WD3200AACS).
How does the Caviar Green 640GB spin slower than the Caviar Blue 640GB? I checked and their both 7200RPM
Maybe SPCR will round these all up in a comparison, before the small capacity 3.5" 500GB/platter drives are released.
No, I am pretty certain the "C" = 5400 rpm. Western Digital is calling this Intellipower or some such nonsense. Several people have posted HD Tune/HDTach results for the WD6400AACS showing it to be a 5400 rpm drive.thepwner wrote:How does the Caviar Green 640GB spin slower than the Caviar Blue 640GB? I checked and their both 7200RPM
So what I'm hearing from you is that the Caviar Green 640GB (WD6400AACS) is the quietest drive in your opinion?
Like this one:
As in the 640GB Green looks to be about 75% of the speed of the 7200 rpm drives of the same capacity.
I haven't seen evidence that the WD6400AACS certainly is the quietest drive, and I don't own one (I favor the speed of the fairly quiet WD6400AAKS). The quietest drive I've used is my 2-platter Scorpio Black. If you want something cheap I can also recommend the Hitachi P7K500s, but I know those aren't the quietest (but they are quieter than the AAKS)!
Last edited by QuietOC on Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
Which are detailed in the review on the main siteQuietOC wrote: The WD3200AAKS has several possible issues. (...)
I do not know anything about the AAJS, and it has not been reviewed by SPCR. Most retailers do not seem to have it in stock. And besides, how do you know that it does not suffer from the same issues as the AAKS, and you got lucky?
Besides, as thepwner mentioned several times that he does not need a lot of capacity, I would not recommend for him to buy a 640 GB HDD.
Albeit it is only a 50% premium for 100% more capacity, why pay it if you don't need it?
I am pretty sure there was never a 2-platter WD3200AAJS. If so, at least one issue would be avoided. Plus the AAJS is a little cheaper than the AAKS.K.Murx wrote:I do not know anything about the AAJS, and it has not been reviewed by SPCR. Most retailers do not seem to have it in stock. And besides, how do you know that it does not suffer from the same issues as the AAKS, and you got lucky?
The best odds for quietest drive are still on the 250GB single platter Scorpio Blue and the 640GB 2 platter Caviar Green until someone enlightens us.
OK, sounds good, but is are there any comparisons on the performance of the 2? I would love to hear of someone who owns both drives and could post some performance charts and give an opinion on which one is quieter.QuietOC wrote:I am pretty sure there was never a 2-platter WD3200AAJS. If so, at least one issue would be avoided. Plus the AAJS is a little cheaper than the AAKS.K.Murx wrote:I do not know anything about the AAJS, and it has not been reviewed by SPCR. Most retailers do not seem to have it in stock. And besides, how do you know that it does not suffer from the same issues as the AAKS, and you got lucky?
The best odds for quietest drive are still on the 250GB single platter Scorpio Blue and the 640GB 2 platter Caviar Green until someone enlightens us.
The Caviar Green should be a little faster than the Scorpio Blue. At least the 1TB Green is faster than the 500GB Scorpio Blue:thepwner wrote:OK, sounds good, but is are there any comparisons on the performance of the 2? I would love to hear of someone who owns both drives and could post some performance charts and give an opinion on which one is quieter.
Jeez, the Caviar Green 1TB is 100 dollars! I don't need ANYWHERE close to that much. But as has been said earlier if I go with a lower capacity drive I might get more platters or what have you and it would end up being louder. Man, paying for capacity I don't need to get silence. The 640GB WD Caviar Green is 70 dollars, would that have any difference than the 1TB except for the 16MB cache when the 1TB has a 32mb cache? Would it have any difference in noise level? Does anyone own both? (I would assume no)
Well, you always have the option to go to a store and have a look at the WD3200AAKS (~$55) - bring the pictures from the article with you and use them to determine if it's the silent version. Or try that 3200AAJS ($50).thepwner wrote:Jeez, the Caviar Green 1TB is 100 dollars! I don't need ANYWHERE close to that much. But as has been said earlier if I go with a lower capacity drive I might get more platters or what have you and it would end up being louder. Man, paying for capacity I don't need to get silence. The 640GB WD Caviar Green is 70 dollars, would that have any difference than the 1TB except for the 16MB cache when the 1TB has a 32mb cache? Would it have any difference in noise level? Does anyone own both? (I would assume no)
In Germany you could always order a bunch of them online and send those back that are the wrong model, but with those "restocking" fees they charge over here, I would advise against it
Why? The Hitachi P7K500s are quieter than any of the AAKS drives, and the entire line from 250GB to 500GB is available for $50 or less.K.Murx wrote:Well, you always have the option to go to a store and have a look at the WD3200AAKS (~$55) - bring the pictures from the article with you and use them to determine if it's the silent version. Or try that 3200AAJS ($50).