QUIETEST hard drive?

[x3m]

Originally posted by: Firebond
So what's the downside to Seagate Barracudas and why aren't they as popular as WD's?

They are slower.

 

[cockeyed]

My Seagate IV is exceptionally quiet and from everything I read, the V is also very quiet. It is my understanding that SG uses a fluid bearing along with accoustic mgmt. (causes slower seek time) that keeps the noise down. Performance wise, the SG does not bench out as the fastest, partly because of the accoustic management, which can be turned off using the IBM AccMgmt software. I did this with mine and it is still very quiet with a faster seek time. As I recall, storeagereview.com mentions this in their reviews.

 

[skriefal]

The newer Maxtor drives are also quiet. Not quite so quiet as the Seagate Barracuda IV/V series, but they're the next closest thing I've found. Certainly vastly quieter than any WD drive I've ever used...

 

[Yourself]

I'll be the lone dissenting opinion when it comes to Seagates. I have an 80 gb SATA Seagate Cuda 7200.7 and it is pretty damn quiet when it's idle. However, when it's reading or writing, it is one of the loudest drives I've ever owned. In reality, I may have received a dud, but I was shocked by the noise.

Self

 

[yhelothar]

not western digital for sure...
the amount of noise a hard drive puts out never hit me until I unplugged a bunch of fans from my computer... and then I noticed that half the noise from my computer was a high pitched whine from my western digital 80GB 7200RPM hard drive. This is a very noisy drive!

 

[wetcat007]

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

I dun know, but the 7200 RPM ones were too loud as it is...

Seagate for silence all the way

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: Yourself
I'll be the lone dissenting opinion when it comes to Seagates. I have an 80 gb SATA Seagate Cuda 7200.7 and it is pretty damn quiet when it's idle. However, when it's reading or writing, it is one of the loudest drives I've ever owned. In reality, I may have received a dud, but I was shocked by the noise.

Self

It may have come set with seek times on the highest setting which is loud, search the forum for a way to enable quietseeking

 

[Meldryn]

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

If you suspend them, they are almost quiet... not...
They put out a high pitched whine, and have loud seeks :disgust:

 

[LongN]

dang... I was going for a silent PC but really wanted to have a raptor as my only hard drive.

 

[VTEC01EX]

My 80GB WDC 7200RPM is loud as hell. I had an 80GB Maxtor 7200RPM as well, and ran both of them for a few weeks... wow. I ended up getting rid of the Max because both of them running together resulted in too much lost sleep.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: VTEC01EX
My 80GB WDC 7200RPM is loud as hell. I had an 80GB Maxtor 7200RPM as well, and ran both of them for a few weeks... wow. I ended up getting rid of the Max because both of them running together resulted in too much lost sleep.

i used to leave my rig on thru the night, it has dual Tornado fans rated at 55 db a piece. helped me sleep. hard to think what you would do if mear hard drive sound bothered you.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Meldryn

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

If you suspend them, they are almost quiet... not...
They put out a high pitched whine, and have loud seeks :disgust:

Not all of them. Mine is almost dead silent. The early versions were noisy.

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: Firebond
So what's the downside to Seagate Barracudas and why aren't they as popular as WD's?

several large OEM such as Dell use them, so I wouldn be too surprised if they ended up more popular than WD's. Around enthusiast sites like these WD are more popular because theyre faster.

I've a 40gb barracuda iv. i can just hear it when i stick my ear practically onto it.

40gb isnt much space but I've only actually used 15gig of it, and 2/3 of that is games. plenty space if you dont use kazaa, rip DVD's, video or photoshop editing etc.

 

[LongN]

wait I thouht the early raptors were more quiet

 

[Auric]

I concur on the 'Cuda IV. As for the SATA 7200.7, they lack the ability for AAM so they may be quiet idlers but cannot be as quiet seekers. I recently got a Maxtor FDB and am impressed because it can be almost as quiet but performs much better due to the doubled density (80GB) and also 8MB cache. I almost settled for a 60GB platter Cuda V just so I could have AAM and am glad I didn't. Seagate has dropped the ball in not continuing with AAM (for whatever rea$on). I also recently had a IV go tits up on me after a month or so, so that was not exactly reassuring.

 

[clicknext]

Western Digital Caviar SE and slightly older IBM Deskstar drives are definately not quietest. I have one of each and they're pretty much the loudest thing in both of my systems. (My WD SE system is very quiet, so i imagine a lot of drives would be loud in it, but my IBM deskstar system is loud, and the drive is even louder)

 

[ssanches]

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

I recently posted the specs of various recent generation Barracuda ATA single platter HDD's in this thread. Here's it:

Sound power (bels):
1. Barracuda IV Family (ST340016A, ST320011A)
Idle, Quiet seek, Performance seek
2.1 (typ), 2.4 (typ), 3.0 (typ)
2.3 (max) , 2.6 (max), 3.4 (max)

2. Barracuda V Family (ST360015A,ST340017A andST330013A)
Idle, Quiet seek, Performance seek
2.1 bels (typ), 2.45 bels (typ), 3.1 bels (typ)
2.3 bels (max), 2.65 bels (max), 3.5 bels (max)

3. Barracuda 7200.7 Family (ST340014A)
Idle, Quiet seek, Performance seek
2.2 bels (typ), 2.5 bels (typ), 3.1 bels (typ)
2.4 bels (max), 2.7 bels (max), 3.5 bels (max)

Definitely the Barracuda IV single platter is the quietest one of them. Actually even the 7200.7 series would be quiet, but they lack the Seashield that marginally helps absorb noise.

 

[Tol]

I just got a Raptor to replace my Maxtor 160GB/8MB drive that replaced my 80GB Barracuda IV.

Each of the harrddrives has been the loudest component in my systems when I was using them, and I've noticed very little difference between the three of them. The Raptor is definitely louder when seeking, but not annoyingly so. The Seagate had acoustic management software that's able to make seeks completely unnoticable at the cost of speed.

 

[DaTT]

I have a Maxtor 120GB 7200 RPM drive that I have never heard....its either very quiet....or the 13 fans I have running are drowning it out

 

[ronnn]

I have a seagate IV 80gb drive and an antec sonota case. My system is quite quiet, but I can hear a low thumping sound when the drive is seeking. When I have the fans on full speed I can not hear it. Is this normal?

 

[VTrider]

I've been using Seagate Cuddas for years upon years, never really knew just how quiet they were until I started using other brands - not that other brands are noisy, but I would have to say you won't be dissapointed with Seagate.

For reference, I'm running 120x2 GB RAID 0 w/Western Digital drives and the high pitched whine that is produced by these babies make dogs whine a mile away! My next drive upgrade might be Seagate again.

 

[brunswickite]

Originally posted by: pillage2001
Seagate Barracuda V

 

[Paulson]

you guys and your quietness.. my workmachine downstairs is right by a dehumidifier.. so good luck having it quiet down here...

also, my main rig upstairs is loud as hell, but it's nice... I love to hear whirring noises for some reason.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: Paulson

I love to hear whirring noises for some reason.

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