Need a silent hard drive

[randomlinh]

seagate has the edge w/ a 5yr warranty though. altho, 3yrs isn't bad either.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: brentw

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Operandi
For any drive to "near-silent" it will have to be soft mounted. As far as the drives themselves all of them are near silent idle. I have modern Maxtor, WD, and Seagate drives in my system all soft mounted and personally I think the WD and Maxtor have the softest seeks.

What do you mean by soft mounted? Like with rubber grommets?

Right, basically the idea is to physically isolate the drive from the case. One way is to use grommets like these E-A-R mounts, which is what I'm currently using in my Lian-Li after some modifications to the HD cage.
.

Did you notice a major difference by using those in your lian-li case? My PC is near-silent except for the high-pitched whine of my hdd.

Yes, it made a pretty big difference, seek noise cut down significantly, idle noise was less significant but that would vary with case design and the drive used.

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Operandi
Right, basically the idea is to physically isolate the drive from the case. One way is to use grommets like these E-A-R mounts, which is what I'm currently using in my Lian-Li after some modifications to the HD cage.

Not to jack the thread too badly, but I was looking at getting some mounts/grommets like these for the card cage in my Lian-Li PC60, and I was worried about fit... what kind of 'modifications' did you need to do? Or were you trying to isolate the whole card cage?

I isolated each driver separately. Basically there are two things that have to be done for the Lian Li PC-6x case. You have to make room for the rubber EAR mount itself since they have to sit between the drive and the side walls of the cage. To make room you'll have to use the extra side wall that allows you to mount the drives flat, not on their side. You'll have to drill new holes to mount the side wall further out so that there is extra space (I used about 1/4") for the EAR mounts between the drive and both sides of the cage. The last modification you'll have to make is drilling out new screw holes for drives themselves since the EAR mounts use special bolts that won't pass through the spaces in the Lian Li cage.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Kaido
No problem, I don't mind going off on tangents

I want to keep the drive size at 120gb because of the Mac's limit. There are software workarounds, but I'd rather just get an external Firewire drive for storage. Hmm, Seagate or Samsung. Do the quiet Samsungs come in 120gb? I'm searching around Newegg and google right now without much luck...

Yes, they come in 120GB, but Newegg doesn't have them (they seem to be very lacking in Samsung drives all of a sudden). Model number is SP1213N for the P80 120GB PATA drive with 8MB cache. Searching on that seems to turn up a number of stores. ZZF has them, but they're OOS right now. ExcaliberPC seems to have them in stock.

The SP1614N is the 160GB version; shouldn't be any problems with just using 120GB of a 160GB drive (except that you're wasting 40GB of space...).

Yeah, I'd rather just get the 120gb. I'm glad they have a 120gb model; I appreciate the info, Matthias99. It's now on my list to get when I can find it in stock!

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Kaido
No problem, I don't mind going off on tangents

I want to keep the drive size at 120gb because of the Mac's limit. There are software workarounds, but I'd rather just get an external Firewire drive for storage. Hmm, Seagate or Samsung. Do the quiet Samsungs come in 120gb? I'm searching around Newegg and google right now without much luck...

Yes, they come in 120GB, but Newegg doesn't have them (they seem to be very lacking in Samsung drives all of a sudden). Model number is SP1213N for the P80 120GB PATA drive with 8MB cache. Searching on that seems to turn up a number of stores. ZZF has them, but they're OOS right now. ExcaliberPC seems to have them in stock.

The SP1614N is the 160GB version; shouldn't be any problems with just using 120GB of a 160GB drive (except that you're wasting 40GB of space...).

Yeah, I'd rather just get the 120gb. I'm glad they have a 120gb model; I appreciate the info, Matthias99. It's now on my list to get when I can find it in stock!

Did you consider the laptop drive option?

 

[Kaido]

Okay, I've decided on the Samsung SP1213N 120gb ATA hard drive for it's "quiet" reputation over the Seagate 7200.9. Are there any software tools I need to use to enable the "quietness"? Remember, I will be using this on a Mac, so I can't use any Windows-specific software. Or...does it just come quiet?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Kaido
No problem, I don't mind going off on tangents

I want to keep the drive size at 120gb because of the Mac's limit. There are software workarounds, but I'd rather just get an external Firewire drive for storage. Hmm, Seagate or Samsung. Do the quiet Samsungs come in 120gb? I'm searching around Newegg and google right now without much luck...

Yes, they come in 120GB, but Newegg doesn't have them (they seem to be very lacking in Samsung drives all of a sudden). Model number is SP1213N for the P80 120GB PATA drive with 8MB cache. Searching on that seems to turn up a number of stores. ZZF has them, but they're OOS right now. ExcaliberPC seems to have them in stock.

The SP1614N is the 160GB version; shouldn't be any problems with just using 120GB of a 160GB drive (except that you're wasting 40GB of space...).

Yeah, I'd rather just get the 120gb. I'm glad they have a 120gb model; I appreciate the info, Matthias99. It's now on my list to get when I can find it in stock!

Did you consider the laptop drive option?

Yeah, but I can get a drop-in solution with the Samsung. I'd have to get a 2.5" adapter cable plus enclosure adapter to fit it in. It's a good idea, but the Samsung wins in this case. I appreciate the input, however - thanks!

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Kaido
No problem, I don't mind going off on tangents

I want to keep the drive size at 120gb because of the Mac's limit. There are software workarounds, but I'd rather just get an external Firewire drive for storage. Hmm, Seagate or Samsung. Do the quiet Samsungs come in 120gb? I'm searching around Newegg and google right now without much luck...

Yes, they come in 120GB, but Newegg doesn't have them (they seem to be very lacking in Samsung drives all of a sudden). Model number is SP1213N for the P80 120GB PATA drive with 8MB cache. Searching on that seems to turn up a number of stores. ZZF has them, but they're OOS right now. ExcaliberPC seems to have them in stock.

The SP1614N is the 160GB version; shouldn't be any problems with just using 120GB of a 160GB drive (except that you're wasting 40GB of space...).

Yeah, I'd rather just get the 120gb. I'm glad they have a 120gb model; I appreciate the info, Matthias99. It's now on my list to get when I can find it in stock!

Did you consider the laptop drive option?

Yeah, but I can get a drop-in solution with the Samsung. I'd have to get a 2.5" adapter cable plus enclosure adapter to fit it in. It's a good idea, but the Samsung wins in this case. I appreciate the input, however - thanks!

Well you would need the adapter cable but as far as mounting goes what most do is suspend the drive like in the Antec P150 with some bungee cord or similar. Since the drive is so much small there is plenty of room, head over to the SPCR forums if want to check it out further.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Kaido
No problem, I don't mind going off on tangents

I want to keep the drive size at 120gb because of the Mac's limit. There are software workarounds, but I'd rather just get an external Firewire drive for storage. Hmm, Seagate or Samsung. Do the quiet Samsungs come in 120gb? I'm searching around Newegg and google right now without much luck...

Yes, they come in 120GB, but Newegg doesn't have them (they seem to be very lacking in Samsung drives all of a sudden). Model number is SP1213N for the P80 120GB PATA drive with 8MB cache. Searching on that seems to turn up a number of stores. ZZF has them, but they're OOS right now. ExcaliberPC seems to have them in stock.

The SP1614N is the 160GB version; shouldn't be any problems with just using 120GB of a 160GB drive (except that you're wasting 40GB of space...).

Yeah, I'd rather just get the 120gb. I'm glad they have a 120gb model; I appreciate the info, Matthias99. It's now on my list to get when I can find it in stock!

Did you consider the laptop drive option?

Yeah, but I can get a drop-in solution with the Samsung. I'd have to get a 2.5" adapter cable plus enclosure adapter to fit it in. It's a good idea, but the Samsung wins in this case. I appreciate the input, however - thanks!

Well you would need the adapter cable but as far as mounting goes what most do is suspend the drive like in the Antec P150 with some bungee cord or similar. Since the drive is so much small there is plenty of room, head over to the SPCR forums if want to check it out further.

Hmm...the other issue is cost. Oh, and speed. A 60gb 7200rpm Hitachi is still ~$150, while I can get the Samsung for $85 AND double the capacity for probably similar noise levels, if not less. I'll be doing video editing and stuff with this machine and I definately don't want to go with a 4200 or 5400rpm hard drive. The bungee thing sound cool though

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Kaido
No problem, I don't mind going off on tangents

I want to keep the drive size at 120gb because of the Mac's limit. There are software workarounds, but I'd rather just get an external Firewire drive for storage. Hmm, Seagate or Samsung. Do the quiet Samsungs come in 120gb? I'm searching around Newegg and google right now without much luck...

Yes, they come in 120GB, but Newegg doesn't have them (they seem to be very lacking in Samsung drives all of a sudden). Model number is SP1213N for the P80 120GB PATA drive with 8MB cache. Searching on that seems to turn up a number of stores. ZZF has them, but they're OOS right now. ExcaliberPC seems to have them in stock.

The SP1614N is the 160GB version; shouldn't be any problems with just using 120GB of a 160GB drive (except that you're wasting 40GB of space...).

Yeah, I'd rather just get the 120gb. I'm glad they have a 120gb model; I appreciate the info, Matthias99. It's now on my list to get when I can find it in stock!

Did you consider the laptop drive option?

Yeah, but I can get a drop-in solution with the Samsung. I'd have to get a 2.5" adapter cable plus enclosure adapter to fit it in. It's a good idea, but the Samsung wins in this case. I appreciate the input, however - thanks!

Well you would need the adapter cable but as far as mounting goes what most do is suspend the drive like in the Antec P150 with some bungee cord or similar. Since the drive is so much small there is plenty of room, head over to the SPCR forums if want to check it out further.

Hmm...the other issue is cost. Oh, and speed. A 60gb 7200rpm Hitachi is still ~$150, while I can get the Samsung for $85 AND double the capacity for probably similar noise levels, if not less. I'll be doing video editing and stuff with this machine and I definately don't want to go with a 4200 or 5400rpm hard drive. The bungee thing sound cool though

Well you're dealing with a machine that is about 4 years old. I think at this point laptop drives are probably fast enough to not be the bottle neck in a machine like that. You have to keep in mind areal density is just as important as drive RPM. I have a 2.5 Samsung in an external enclosure hooked up via Firewire and it seems pretty quick, maybe somebody else has some more info here. What I can say for certain however is the 2.5 drive will be much much quieter then any desktop drive you'll ever find. Really the only downside is price which you already noticed .

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Kaido
No problem, I don't mind going off on tangents

I want to keep the drive size at 120gb because of the Mac's limit. There are software workarounds, but I'd rather just get an external Firewire drive for storage. Hmm, Seagate or Samsung. Do the quiet Samsungs come in 120gb? I'm searching around Newegg and google right now without much luck...

Yes, they come in 120GB, but Newegg doesn't have them (they seem to be very lacking in Samsung drives all of a sudden). Model number is SP1213N for the P80 120GB PATA drive with 8MB cache. Searching on that seems to turn up a number of stores. ZZF has them, but they're OOS right now. ExcaliberPC seems to have them in stock.

The SP1614N is the 160GB version; shouldn't be any problems with just using 120GB of a 160GB drive (except that you're wasting 40GB of space...).

Yeah, I'd rather just get the 120gb. I'm glad they have a 120gb model; I appreciate the info, Matthias99. It's now on my list to get when I can find it in stock!

Did you consider the laptop drive option?

Yeah, but I can get a drop-in solution with the Samsung. I'd have to get a 2.5" adapter cable plus enclosure adapter to fit it in. It's a good idea, but the Samsung wins in this case. I appreciate the input, however - thanks!

Well you would need the adapter cable but as far as mounting goes what most do is suspend the drive like in the Antec P150 with some bungee cord or similar. Since the drive is so much small there is plenty of room, head over to the SPCR forums if want to check it out further.

Hmm...the other issue is cost. Oh, and speed. A 60gb 7200rpm Hitachi is still ~$150, while I can get the Samsung for $85 AND double the capacity for probably similar noise levels, if not less. I'll be doing video editing and stuff with this machine and I definately don't want to go with a 4200 or 5400rpm hard drive. The bungee thing sound cool though

Well you're dealing with a machine that is about 4 years old. I think at this point laptop drives are probably fast enough to not be the bottle neck in a machine like that. You have to keep in mind areal density is just as important as drive RPM. I have a 2.5 Samsung in an external enclosure hooked up via Firewire and it seems pretty quick, maybe somebody else has some more info here. What I can say for certain however is the 2.5 drive will be much much quieter then any desktop drive you'll ever find. Really the only downside is price which you already noticed .

Hmm, that's true. I think the bus is limited to ATA/66. Heat issues are another concern, so that would be a plus in the 2.5" drive's direction. I'm going to be adding dual 1.7ghz processors, 1.5gb pc133 ram, and an agp 256mb Nvidia 5200 video card in the coming year. On their own, they're supposed to be compatible, non-issue upgrades for the Cube, but we'll see once I hook everything together. But still, if I'm going to blow $150 on a 7200rpm laptop drive, I'd prefer to put it in my laptop

 

[Operandi]

Yeah, I forgot about the heat issue, that is a big plus. Whichever way you go, good luck.

 

[pukemon]

AFAIK, the quietest drive was probably the Seagate Barracuda ATA IV - which is around 4 years old - those had a foam padding on the bottom of the drive to isolate idle and seek noise. I still have 2x in my old Athlon XP box.

I have two Seagate Barracuda 7200.7's and one 7200.8 (all Parallel ATA) and frankly they aren't that quiet compared to the old Barracuda IV's - the new ones run self tests every so often and the whine can be a bit annoying.

I think I'd look at Samsung Spinpoint 120's for quiet drives today.

Most people buy Seagates (myself included) mainly for the 5-year warranty, relative quietness, and generally middle of the road performance.

 

[DanDaMan315]

I have a 160gb Spinpoint with a p180 case and I can still hear my hard drive when it's active. Your computer is never going to be silent if you have a hard drive onsite.

 

[w00t]

samsung would be your best bet after that i'd say seagate.

 

[cubby1223]

Seagate has seemingly had many problems with their sata drives. There were some issues in some threads here recently about the 300gb 7800.8's, and Newegg product reviews have had more bad reviews than other brands, and even I had gotten a funky 160gb sata Seagate a couple months ago from Newegg. And I was looking at a Dell machine last week that had a 160gb sata Seagate, and it was the dang loudest drive I've heard since the days when 20gb was max!

Samsung has been my favorite in hard drives for a quite a while, even though I do have a 200gb pata Seagate in my own system ('cause back when I bought it, Samsung's largest drive was 160gb).

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Seagate has seemingly had many problems with their sata drives. There were some issues in some threads here recently about the 300gb 7800.8's, and Newegg product reviews have had more bad reviews than other brands, and even I had gotten a funky 160gb sata Seagate a couple months ago from Newegg. And I was looking at a Dell machine last week that had a 160gb sata Seagate, and it was the dang loudest drive I've heard since the days when 20gb was max!

Samsung has been my favorite in hard drives for a quite a while, even though I do have a 200gb pata Seagate in my own system ('cause back when I bought it, Samsung's largest drive was 160gb).

Well, I'm sold. The Seagates will stay in my PCs; my Mac will get the 120gb Samsung. Dude, those 20 gigs drives...that's what my Mac has right now...holy wake the living dead loudness batman :\

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: chilled
The seagates are very quiet. The samsung drives are very, very quiet.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What he said. Samsungs are VERY quiet.

 

[Kaido]

I managed to snag a 120gb Samsung SP1213N (P80 series) hard drive here for only $78:

http://www.komusa.com/sasppse12at7.html

Thanks for all the input! My Mac gets it's first mod in a week

 

[cryptonomicon]

Originally posted by: Operandi
For any drive to "near-silent" it will have to be soft mounted. As far as the drives themselves all of them are near silent idle. I have modern Maxtor, WD, and Seagate drives in my system all soft mounted and personally I think the WD and Maxtor have the softest seeks.

Correct.

(Suspension is actually the superior silencing technique, tutorials at silentpcreview.com)


Most hard drive sound is not from the drive itself but from the reverberations it causes onto the frame of your metal case. Any drive would almost be silent if silenced by means of suspension.

Therefore it doesn't matter which brand you use. However if you get a seagate drive, you may have to deal with the diagnostic buzzing it makes for the first month of use (7200.7's at least).

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Kaido
I managed to snag a 120gb Samsung SP1213N (P80 series) hard drive here for only $78:

http://www.komusa.com/sasppse12at7.html

Thanks for all the input! My Mac gets it's first mod in a week

KomUSA just called me today to say that the Samsung was discontinued and no longer available. Bummer, I placed the order for it on the 23rd. They offered to replace it with a WD, but I opted for a Seagate instead. They were nice enough to match the Samsung's price. Oh well, I like Seagate. A 7200.9 isn't such a bad alternative...