SATA hard drives

[clarnibass]

Going to start building my new computer soon and I'm undecided between Seagate or WD SATA hard drvies (I'm getting two hard drvies).
The Seagate is slightly more expensive, but has NCQ. What is NCQ? Would I need it?
Most important thing is they are quiet.
Thanks for any help
Nitai

 

[SynthDude2001]

NCQ = Native Command Queueing...basically allows the drive to fulfill requests out of order, in a way that's most speed efficient (without having to necessarily jump back and forth on the drive, etc). Sounds cool, but most benchmarks have shown that it doesn't really do much for performance in a desktop environment.

 

[Gerbil333]

NCQ is pointless for desktop use.

WD is typically the loudest, especially regarding seek noise. However, my Seagate 120 GB PATA drive has an extremely irritating high pitched sound that can only be heard at certain angles, and its seek noise is audible when it gets really busy. My Seagate 40 GB PATA drives is quiet; I can hear only minor seek noise.

If you want quietness, Samsung makes the quietest hard drives on the market. I can't hear them at all.

 

[clarnibass]

In case the size matters, I'll get one 80GB drive, and one 120GB drive.
Are the bigger hard drvies also louder?
Is Samsung as good as Seagate and WD?
Thanks.

 

[Gerbil333]

Bigger hard drives aren't necessarily louder unless they have more platters. That's dependent upon the model.

Samsung has been very reliable for me. Performance isn't as good as WD or Seagate, but it's close enough. Besides, if you want a quiet drive, Samsung is the way to go. Check out the forums at http://www.silentpcreview.com/.

 

[Bar81]

samsung

 

[otispunkmeyer]

samsung

i have 2 spinpoint drives

they are basically silent in operation. cant hear them spin up, cant hear them spinning, cant hear them accessing platters, the HDD light comes on, but i dont hear nothing.

the performance isnt as good as some of the other drives, infact i saw a test where they were last to load a level of farcry....but only 10 seconds slower than the WD raptor drives, id wait the extra 10 seconds to have a inaudiable Hard Drive anyday

 

[Gerbil333]

Here's a good comparison: WD, Seagate, and Samsung audio clips are at the bottom of the page.

The Samsung I've used has a Nidec motor. I don't like the sound of that JVC :disgust:

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Bar81
samsung

 

[SVT Cobra]

wyhile im a WD fanboy lol....seagate and more so samsung are the quitest..