Recommended hard drive? Speed & noise main priority

[cubby1223]

I need a new hard drive, the one I have is getting on my nerves. I've tried a few and they have all been loud and slow. I currently have a 500gb Western Digital WD5000AAKS. If I access just one file then this WD drive is fast. But if there are even just two simultaneous file accesses, the drive grinds to a screeching halt. For example, once Windows reaches the desktop on startup (~10 seconds), it takes about 45 seconds for Kaspersky to load, and the system is about as unresponsive as it gets in that time. I have an A64 4000+ system, and it loads slower than a P!!! 1ghz machine here (FYI, the P!!! machine also has Kaspersky, the hard drive on that machine allows it to load in ~10 seconds)



500gb drive is fine for me size-wise, if a few more $$ can get me a faster & quieter drive I'll go for it. Newegg's product reviews are just not helping me find a good buy.

Thanks in advance, any advice / experience on a good drive is much appreciated Noise and speed are my priorities.

 

[JaYp146]

WD's AAKS drives are some of the quietest you can buy.

Supposedly Velociraptors are VERY quiet ... quiet enough that Mike Chin at SPCR added them to his "preferred" list of quiet hard drives. And obviously they're pretty fast ...

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: JaYp146
Supposedly Velociraptors are VERY quiet ... quiet enough that Mike Chin at SPCR added them to his "preferred" list of quiet hard drives.

They produce very little of the spinning/rumbling type noise, but they have a noticeable seek noise at times (sounds like metallic chirping).

 

[Yellowbeard]

SSD anyone?

 

[VaultDweller]

Originally posted by: JaYp146
WD's AAKS drives are some of the quietest you can buy.

Supposedly Velociraptors are VERY quiet ... quiet enough that Mike Chin at SPCR added them to his "preferred" list of quiet hard drives. And obviously they're pretty fast ...

Depends on the drive - the 320 and 640 GB AAKS drives are very quiet, I don't think the 500 is nearly as good.

Also, Mike Chin includes the VR drive on his recommended list only if you mount it without the Icepack (or whatever WD calls the heatsink enclosure).

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: JaYp146
Supposedly Velociraptors are VERY quiet ... quiet enough that Mike Chin at SPCR added them to his "preferred" list of quiet hard drives.

They produce very little of the spinning/rumbling type noise, but they have a noticeable seek noise at times (sounds like metallic chirping).

If the AAKS drive I have is idle, it is silent. If it is access just a single file, it is silent. But if it is accessing two or more files, it becomes very loud and very slow. This is the trouble with finding good reviews, they mainly focus solely on idle noise, when I also want to eliminate seeking noises. I know there are silent drives out there, just haven't found one yet.

Velociraptors are a bit out of my price range, and don't really need *that* much speed, though it would be nice I used to have a 320gb Western Digital pata drive which was great, but I moved that to another computer without sata ports, and have had bad luck with drives ever since

 

[Binky]

Seagate 7200.12 500GB.

 

[soflawill]

the wd green line? pretty quiet for what I've heard about them. course they're a tad slow.