Need a silent hard drive

[Kaido]

Are the Seagate Barracuda's pretty much the most quiet 3.5" hard drives on the market right now? I'm looking at picking up a 7200.9 (120gb/7200rpm) for an older system. I just need a dead silent or really-near-silent hard drive.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Seagates are very quiet, but Samsungs are silent as well... If I had to choose between those two, I would go with the Seagates however...

 

[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.

 

[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?

 

[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.

The second way is to totally suspend the drive such as in the Antec P150. The downside being the drive isn't totally secure and in most cases you'll have to use you're 5 1/4 bays.

 

[chilled]

The seagates are very quiet. The samsung drives are very, very quiet.

 

[Kaido]

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.

The second way is to totally suspend the drive such as in the Antec P150. The downside being the drive isn't totally secure and in most cases you'll have to use you're 5 1/4 bays.

That might work. I just got a Mac Cube, the compact Apple computers from 2000/2001. Not a lot of room for modifications, but when I tear it apart after Chrismas I'll see if I can go with isolators. Right now the only thing - and I mean the only thing that makes noise is the hard drive. When the drive spins down or is in sleep mode, this box makes zero noise; it's awesome! It's got a very loud 20 gig in there right now. So the more noise reduction, the better. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Kaido]

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

How is Samsung in terms of reliability? I trust Seagate, but if Samsung has a quieter drive, I may make a leap of faith

 

[Trey22]

Samsung w/ acoustic management = quietest drive.

Good balance between quietness and performance = Seagate.

 

[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.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Trey22
Samsung w/ acoustic management = quietest drive.

Good balance between quietness and performance = Seagate.

How is the acoustic management operated? I'm putting this in a Mac Cube

 

[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 also agree (along with SPCR) that the Samsung P80 and P120 drives are about the quietest you can get right now (haven't personally used the Seagates, but the newer Samsungs are the quietest drives I've ever owned). According to SPCR, the quietest (desktop) drive is still the old Barracuda IV (I think that's the model; you can check at www.silentpcreview.com for the actual reviews), but those are slower and don't have as much capacity as newer drives, and they're hard to find now. Some people are also using laptop drives (which are VERY quiet) in suspension mounts, but again there are performance issues and capacity limits.

 

[Kaido]

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 also agree (along with SPCR) that the Samsung P80 and P120 drives are about the quietest you can get right now (haven't personally used the Seagates, but the newer Samsungs are the quietest drives I've ever owned). According to SPCR, the quietest (desktop) drive is still the old Barracuda IV (I think that's the model; you can check at www.silentpcreview.com for the actual reviews), but those are slower and don't have as much capacity as newer drives, and they're hard to find now. Some people are also using laptop drives (which are VERY quiet) in suspension mounts, but again there are performance issues and capacity limits.

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...

 

[TraumaRN]

*cough* http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152020 *cough*

Not bad for 81 bucks....unless you dont need SATA...

As just an idea on quietness...I hear my drive for about 2 seconds when I hit the power button on my PC...otherwise I never hear it...ever

 

[otispunkmeyer]

samsung

that should be the end of the thread

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
samsung

that should be the end of the thread

Please recommend a 120gb quiet Samsung model, I'm not too familiar with their hard drive line.

 

[TraumaRN]

Can you manage with a 160GB?? Like my link?? Or are you on that much of a budget? Or whats the reasoning for 120GB?

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
Can you manage with a 160GB?? Like my link?? Or are you on that much of a budget? Or whats the reasoning for 120GB?

Mostly for compatibility. Yes, I can handle a 160gb, no, I'm not on that much of a budget. The Cube only supports a max of 120gb, although there are software hacks around it. I can format the 160gb and it will only turn up as 120gb, so that may be fine. Is the p120 only available in SATA (I have to have ATA for this system)?

 

[chilled]

Originally posted by: Kaido

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

How is Samsung in terms of reliability? I trust Seagate, but if Samsung has a quieter drive, I may make a leap of faith

Much the same as any other manufacturer. They give a standard 3yr warranty.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
*cough* http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152020 *cough*

Not bad for 81 bucks....unless you dont need SATA...

As just an idea on quietness...I hear my drive for about 2 seconds when I hit the power button on my PC...otherwise I never hear it...ever

Sorry, I missed this post earlier. Well, I'm game. The reviews say it's almost as quiet as a P120, and since I can't use SATA, this looks good.

On a seperate note, are there any performance/reliability/other issues if you only format 120gb of a 160gb hard drive?

 

[TraumaRN]

Well that one is SATA however.....they have the Ultra ATA ones as well on Newegg

 

[Kaido]

Is the Samsung significantly quieter than the Seagate?

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Kaido

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.

The second way is to totally suspend the drive such as in the Antec P150. The downside being the drive isn't totally secure and in most cases you'll have to use you're 5 1/4 bays.

That might work. I just got a Mac Cube, the compact Apple computers from 2000/2001. Not a lot of room for modifications, but when I tear it apart after Chrismas I'll see if I can go with isolators. Right now the only thing - and I mean the only thing that makes noise is the hard drive. When the drive spins down or is in sleep mode, this box makes zero noise; it's awesome! It's got a very loud 20 gig in there right now. So the more noise reduction, the better. Thanks for the tip!

If you really want the closest to 0dBA possible you should look into getting a 2.5" laptop drive, they far quieter then any desktop drive.

 

[bwnv]

Tom's hardware had a review of the samsung's new drives yesterday. It includes acoustic measurements of most brands of newer drives.Linky

Personally, I have an Antec case with the plastic rails and a WD drive and can't hear a thing.

 

[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...).