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What's a good, quiet Harddrive?

Z

Zincq

Senior member
The comp I have now is loud as a chicken being raped by a donkey. And I think the main culprit are my harddrives. I currently have two Quantam Fireball harddrives, one a 40 gig, and one a 30 gig. For my next computer, I'm looking to build one that is near to, if not completly quiet. I'm guessing that Quantams are out of the picture for me, so what harddrives are reliable and produce little noise?
 
I've had good luck with Western Digitals....It seems some maxtors are quite loud so I'd try and avoid those...
 
Another vote for Barracuda IV. However, having a very quiet system in a very quiet room, I can hear mine seeking when my system boots. Still it's a very soft noise that is inaudible in most conditions.
 
I also like western digitals, however you might consider Maxtor drives with the "L" for liquid bearings. I have one very very quiet.
 
I've installed five Seagate Barracuda IV's in the last four months, and they are the quietest drives I've heard (or not heard). I've installed a couple of the Maxtor L drives, and IMO they're quiet, but no where near the Seagates. I literally can't hear my BIV, and my system sits on a stand just to my right.
 
The Barracuda IV single platter drives (the 40 and 20GB models) are probably the quietest in the world right now, even 13 months after they were originally launched! That too with AAM disabled...!!!

If you want an extremely quiet drive, get a 40GB Barracuda and enable AAM. The only drive that may beat it, that too in the future, may be the Barracuda V 🙂 However you may also buy my dead 75GXP that's extremely quiet 😀
 
I have a pair of 80GB Cuda IV's in my other rig and they are extremely quiet, and toss up some respectable benchmarks.
 
The Samsung Spin Point drives are the BEST mix of quiet and performance. They trounce the 'Cudas and Maxtors in seek and burst speed(I have a Cuda and 740dx maxtor). I was skeptical at first but newegg has the Samsung drives for a great price so I bit the bullet and bought one. I've never been so happy with a drive. The 'Cudas do make a bit less noise though, I mean they are almost inaudible, but I really dont like the added seek times that come with the silence.
 
Haha that's cool! So much praise for the Barracuda IVs. I might just have to go grab one myself. How much does a 60 gigger cost?
 
My 13GB and 15GB WD Caviar 5400rpm ATA/66 drives - very loud seeks.
My 20GB Maxtor 5400rpm ATA/100 drive - almost inaudible seeks, but a baseline whining noise (which I originally thought was the CPU fan until I unplugged it today).

I'll have to look into the Seagata 'Cuda IV drives too.
 
Hold the bandwagon, i'm getting on! I've been using Seagate 'Cuda drives for months now, it seriously has been the quietest HD i've ever owned.


-VTrider
 
Originally posted by: Zincq
Haha that's cool! So much praise for the Barracuda IVs. I might just have to go grab one myself. How much does a 60 gigger cost?
Click to expand...

The Barracuda definitely deserves all the praise it can get. It's a great drive! Personally I'd recommend u to buy the single platter 40GB model, unless u need the extra space then u may go for the 60 and 80GB models that have 2 platters.
 
Zincq, how much space do you need? I've read a couple replies that recommend the 40GB single platter. That's good advice, if it meets your storage needs, as it's reportedly the quietest of the quietest. I did a PriceWatch search, and the cheapest place I'd buy from is Newegg.com. They have the ST340016A 40GB for $77. The ST360021A 60GB is $92.
 
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