QUIETEST hard drive?

[Liquidity]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for the QUIETEST hard drive out there for my computer. Does anyone have any data (I'd rather have real data than opinions, but if I can't have data I'll take opinions. ) regarding which drives are super quiet?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jeff7181]

My opinion is that Seagate makes the quietest drives =)

 

[HiTek21]

Seagate Barracuda. My Western Digital JB drive is pretty darn quiet too.

 

[pillage2001]

Seagate Barracuda V

 

[Ionizer86]

Supposedly, the Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB (single platter) is quieter than all the others, including the Barracuda 5. Of course, look into 5400RPM drives too.

 

[John]

Yes, I have (2) 80GB Seagate Barracuda IV's and they are the quietest hard drives I have used thus far.

 

[wetcat007]

Seagate's are by far the quietest

 

[cmdrdredd]

IBM Ultrastar Ultra360 SCSI! 15k RPM!

QUIETEST!!! YES!

...or not

 

[Arcanedeath]

The subjectivly and objectivly meaused most quiet 7200 rpm drive is Seagates Barracuda IV w/ the single platter (eg 40 gig drive), check out www.storagereview.com for noise measurments and comments on how the drives perform

 

[LongN]

how loud are the WD Raptor hds?

 

[Budman]

Seagate

 

[Tab]

Seagate > All

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Tabb
Seagate > All

Since we're talking about noise levels, wouldn't that be

Seagate < All

?

- M4H

 

[HokieESM]

The Seagate Barracuda IV is generally acknowledged as the quietest drive available (in single platter = 40GB version, preferably).

One "newcomer" that appears to have a good handle on silence/heat/performance is the Samsung SP series. I have an SP1213N (which is the 120GB, 8MB cache version), and I've been very happy with it... performance and silence-wise.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: LongN
how loud are the WD Raptor hds?

Not unbearably loud. Mine's pretty quiet, and the seeks are quieter and shorter than my Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9, albeit a tad more annoying.

 

[Lyfer]

Originally posted by: wetcat007
Seagate's are by far the quietest

:beer:

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: LongN
how loud are the WD Raptor hds?

mine makes a high pitched whistle constantly, not even when its reading or writing

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Tabb
Seagate > All

Since we're talking about noise levels, wouldn't that be

Seagate < All

?

- M4H

LOL!

 

[BG4533]

Originally posted by: LongN
how loud are the WD Raptor hds?

They are quieter than many 7200RPM drives I have heard. The accesses are similar to 7200RPM drives, maybe a bit more defined. The overall sound is a bit higher pitched. My case is foam lined and it blocks all the whine from the drives. I have a WD 20GB 7200RPM drive that could be heard inside the same case.

 

[beefkake]

Well, I'll put it this way: I just got a new Seagate 7200.7 120GB drive (w/ 8MB cache), and with the case cover off, I couldn't even hear it over my relatively quiet system during a full disk defragment. You will have no complaints if you buy this drive- guaranteed.

 

[sharkeeper]

mine makes a high pitched whistle constantly, not even when its reading or writing

Ditto. I've handled a total of 7 disks (RAPTORS) from different lots and they all go "WHOOOO WHOOOO!!!".

Kind of annoying, but that's the nature of the beast! The newest 15k drives are far quieter by comparison. It's kind of pathetic actually.

As far as the quietest HD, you know EVERY SINGLE drive out there is dead SILENT when powered off!

I have a Cuda V (80GB w/two platters) and can hear it spin up. Idle is VERY quiet. (ear needs to be NEXT to the drive to hear anything and that's just a peep!) Out of the box, seeks were nearly muted however they were 18 mS! Disabling drive acoustic control brought them down to the normal 13 mS range but made them audible. Not annoyingly so. Seeks never really bothered me anyways. (for the exception of the "marbles in the blender sound" of the original cheetah and "bombs in baghdad" rumble of the crappy 40MB MFM drives by Seagate our government purchased back in '91.)

-DAK-

 

[BFG10K]

The Seagate Barracuda IV or V series are probably the quietest drives you can get.

 

[x3m]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
The Seagate Barracuda IV or V series are probably the quietest drives you can get.

If you still can get it? Are Seagate still manufactring the Barracuda V series?

My Cuda 7200.7 is a little bit noise, I think I'll hang it up in some rubber wires or something though.

 

[Firebond]

So what's the downside to Seagate Barracudas and why aren't they as popular as WD's?

 

[BFG10K]

Are Seagate still manufactring the Barracuda V series?

The V series is only a year old or so I don't imagine there'd be any problems getting them. I think the .7 is exactly the same - except it has lower seek times - so it should be just as quiet.

So what's the downside to Seagate Barracudas

Nothing. Overall they're the finest HDs around IMO.