Most quiet P-ATA drive?

[Powersupply]

Hello everybody!
Do you know which P-ATA HDD is most quiet? My best bet so far is a Seagate Barracuda...but what model? And is there any difference between drives (like WD with/withoud fluid bearings).

Thanks for the help
/ PowerSupply

 

[Bobthelost]

The older seagates are the quietest, 7200.4s i think, up to 7200.7 they were still fairly quiet but the 7200.8 and .9 weren't for the most part due to a "feature" that seagate added to the firmware.

Samsung also do very quiet HDs, or if you want really dead quiet then you could go for a 2.5" laptop drive.

 

[Matthias99]

Silent PC Review has some hard drive noise reviews. I recommend checking them out.

The new Samsung Spinpoints appear to be pretty much the quietest 3.5" drives currently being manufactured (the old Seagate Barracuda IVs from a few generations back were marginally better, but they're low-capacity and new ones aren't being made). I have some of the SATA ones, and they are VERY quiet; you can barely hear them seeking. FDB + AAM = teh win.

If you want something quieter than that, you'll either have to go with acoustic isolation (elastic mounting and/or sound baffling), or use 2.5" laptop drives (also preferably in an elastic mount). They're slower and smaller than 3.5" drives, though.

 

[w00t]

samsung is makes some quiet hardrives same with seagate.

edit:

my 7200.7 series is quiet.

 

[Powersupply]

Ok, thanks for the replies everybody!

Looks like I will go with a Barracude of some sort since they are quiet and very reliable from what I have heard.

Thanks for the help!
/ PowerSupply

 

[Bobthelost]

ONLY THE OLDER ONES THOUGH!

Good luck

 

[ribbon13]

Yeah because a 250GB 7200.9 is so much more noisier than a Spinpoint

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Yeah because a 250GB 7200.9 is so much more noisier than a Spinpoint

There is a "feature" on some, if not all the .8 and later drives that makes them spin up at regular intervals. As such they aren't much louder thant the spinpoints but they are a lot more annoying.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Yeah because a 250GB 7200.9 is so much more noisier than a Spinpoint

Silent PC Review (where they actually know how to test noise levels on things well) basically disagrees. In particular, it seems to have some weird tonal characteristics:

The noise character of the 7200.9 was a bit of a disappointment. The mysterious whine-at-a-distance that only showed up with the drive in certain positions was highly irritating for me, although Mike did not seem to mind it so much. That said, we have only looked at one sample, and it is impossible to know whether this flaw affects just our sample, other high capacity models, or the whole 7200.9 line. Based on the limited anecdotal evidence that I have read about in the SPCR forums, at least one other person has had this problem.

However, the acoustic problems of this 500 GB Barracuda 7200.9 sample do not stop here. The seek noise is also sharp and is significantly louder than the idle noise. This contradicts Seagate's claim that the "difference between idle and seek can hardly be detected by human ear".

Whereas about the Samsungs:

The Spinpoint P120 continues the legacy of the P80 by increasing the maximum capacity of Samsung's offering while keeping the noise level unchanged: The best in the industry.

...

All in all, the P120 should help Samsung maintain its reputation as the manufacturer of the quietest desktop drives on the market.

The P120s are a little worse than the P80s, but still probably the best option out there.

Of course, they're not 500GB drives, either, and it is possible the smaller-capacity Seagates fare better in terms of noise.