I've heard rumor that
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16822148140 is really close to being silent. It does have pops on start up, but unless you have some sort of mouse infestation that only attack you upon noise, I think you'll be fine. ;-)
I, too, have heard Samsung have some -fantastic- quietness to them; however if you are planning on writing, re-writing, deleting, corrupting, and doing all those wonderful things that everyone else does to their files the performance downfall may just be too great of a factor. However,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822152052 is a good choice if you do opt for Samsung. I actually haven't heard too many bad reviews at all on this hard drive. As a matter of fact, I don't even see (from just googling it, and reading Newegg) any, if there are any!, complaints regarding slowness, etc.
I bet anything at 7200RPMs and higher will be fine... I mean, come on...that's so fast, how -could- it be loud or lack performance? XD
I hope I helped, more than I hurt! ;-D