<< I think I read somewhere that WD has some kind of technology that dampens noise in their drives. The only thing I hear coming out of my comp is my CPU fan and my case fan. >>
You can't compare an old 6GB Maxtor to a new WD. The new Maxtors are generally regarded as some of the quietest drives around. My 46GB 7200RPM drive makes absolutely no noise when busy (unlike my old ridiculously loud IBM 14GXP)--only the sound of the platters spinning, which is very quiet. They also have SilentStore(?) technology, which you can disable for slightly better performance. But overall, most new hard drives are very quiet. I have a friend with a IBM 75GXP, and it's about the same noise-wise as my Maxtor--very quiet.
As far as reliablity goes, supposedly the DiamondMax Plus series has been very reliable. Maxtor had problems in the past, but supposedly these newer drives are very reliable. Google.com bought thousands of them to use in its servers. As far as the whining noise that some drives experienced, I don't know if it has anything to do with reliability--it's just noise. It seems as if lately, IBM is the one having reliability problems with its 75GXP series. Dell even stopped using them in its systems and started using Maxtors instead. IBM is generally great, but that particular series has been having a disproportional amount of problems.