Silent harddrives

[beatle]

As my WTB thread in FS/T has not gathered much attention, I'll ask here for advice on what to look for in the way of a silent harddrive. Size does not matter. In fact, I'd prefer it to be smaller to save money. Cost is a big issue, and it could be a very slow drive for all I care, since its only duties will be booting the OS and possibly loading winamp or a DVD program. I'll be streaming all my media from another source. I lost a bid war on a 20 gig 'Cuda IV on ebay. I did not want to spend more than around $30 shipped for this drive. I see a few older Seagates on ebay that start $15 or so and are 5400 rpm. They also have FDB motors, so I'm inclined to think they're quiet. Any suggestions?

 

[sharkeeper]

You're on the right track.

I set up a few worksatans with 'cuda 7200.7's (40GB) and those drives are QUIET and FLY. (for IDE) I believe the 7200.7's are 80GB per platter, the 40GB only reads one side of the platter so (mechanically) it's doing very little.

-DAK-

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Seagate anything, pretty much.

If you care little about performance and want ultimate silence only, the Seagate U6 5400rpm drive series is for you. Idling at 19dB, they're even quieter than the Cuda IVs.

Of course, any Cuda IV/V/7200.7 will handle the aural things nicely. And if you're really a silence junkie, you could always look at a laptop drive and convertor. Or HD suspension (you "hang" the drive from rubber material, essentially) - that kills all vibration. Awesome solution to NP.

- M4H

 

[karmasalad]

Seagates or Samsungs are the way to go.

If Seagate, remember that 7200.7 > V > IV in terms of noise. The 7200.7 lack acoustic management.

The new Samsung SpinPoint P80 series are also very quiet. I have a couple myself. Not silent (no drive is), but the whine is so low that it can only be heard in the middle of the night. They also carry 3 year warranties standard, which is rare nowadays, unfortunately. They're also pretty cheap.

SilentPCReview has a round-up that includes the IV and Samsung. The author notes that the Samsung is on par, if only slightly noisier than the 'Cuda, while boasting far better performance.

I'd recommend browsing around the forums at SPCR to find more info as the Seagates and Samsungs have been discussed at length in several threads.

Good luck. 🙂

 

[woodie1]

I have two 80 gig Seagate drives. The older one is a ST-380021A and cannot be heard except for when you dump the cache. The newer ST-380011A is, according to Seagate, the replacement for my xxx21A but it is not near as quiet. When you look at the spec sheet the -21A has 4 heads vs 2 and 2 discs vs 1. I'm beginning to think getting a silent drive is a crap shoot.

 

[Ionizer86]

I had (have) a Maxtor VL40 drive (40gb 5400rpm, deliberately slower seek than mainstream 5400 drives), and I never heard a seek in two years except when my case was open and when I shoved my ear into the drive.

Very quiet 🙂