Quiet 1TB HDDs: My experience.

[Cattykit]

In recent years, I've dealt with 4 Samsung F1, 2 Samsung F3, 1 WD Caviar Black, and 1 Seagate 7200.12 drives. Here's my summary for those who are looking for quite 1TB drives.

The quietest drive is Samsung F1. This drive is a lot quiter than all the others including recent F3 version; in fact, I bought F3 1TB to use it as an OS drive but ended up keeping F1 for its noise level is very close to unnoticable.

The 2nd is WD Caviar 1001FALS Caviar Black and Samsung F3 drive. Though they're second in the place, they're a lot louder and produces high freq. noise than Samsung F1. If I were to choose a quieter one in between those two, I'd say it's Samsung F3 although the difference isn't that big.

The worst is the Seagate one. Very loud and freaking annoying. This thing is an attention whore. My friend who bought it againt my advice ended up buying Samsung F1 only to use Seagate HDD as a backup drive.

 

[notposting]

WD Green is quiet in my experience.

 

[lsv]

That's exactly what I have and the WD Green is very quiet compared to the other components in my system.

 

[nobb]

The WD Green is quiet when spinning, but it parks its heads ALOT which makes a loud tick each time.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I have a 7200.12 500GB and a 1TB in my system, and I can never hear my hard drives. My box is on the floor under my desk but it's in direct line of sight in my normal sitting position. I am always up late, with a toddler sleeping not 15 feet away (next room, but doors open), so I don't play loud music or anything to mask the noise. I think I'd notice if they were loud.

Do you have your computer next to your ear? Or are you doing audio testing with equipment to measure decibel levels and then saying, oh these are too loud?

 

[Voo]

The WD Green is quiet when spinning, but it parks its heads ALOT which makes a loud tick each time.

Easy to disable in the OS - also spares you the time you have to wait when it spins up again.

 

[Rifter]

I have a 7200.12 500GB and a 1TB in my system, and I can never hear my hard drives. My box is on the floor under my desk but it's in direct line of sight in my normal sitting position. I am always up late, with a toddler sleeping not 15 feet away (next room, but doors open), so I don't play loud music or anything to mask the noise. I think I'd notice if they were loud.

Do you have your computer next to your ear? Or are you doing audio testing with equipment to measure decibel levels and then saying, oh these are too loud?

Thats funny i also have a 7200.12 500GB and 1 TB and they are not loud and my case is on my desk about 16" from my head, the 1.5TB Seagate LP's i have in my server are alot quiter though.