Need help picking out the quietest Hard Drive for HTPC

Spacy9

Spacy9

Scotch is my Lord and Savior
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I have a HTPC running MyMovies2 hooked up to my downstairs TV - it is in a closet so I have never noticed the HD clicking. I just built a new HTPC for the upstairs TV so my kids can watch all of the movies stored on the downstairs HTPC. This new upstairs HTPC is sitting on a shelf in the open with the rest of the equipment - DVD, SAT, WII, etc... It works great using the MyMovies2 Client and is whisper quiet, EXCEPT when the HD is accessed. The clicking is rather annoying with everything else being so quiet.

I threw in an 80GB HD that I had laying around since I just needed the OS on it with all of the movies streaming from the downstairs HTPC. I've read that Samsung makes quiet Hard Drives, but I want to know if there is something better.

Cliffs:

What is the quietest Hard Drive (size doesn't matter) I can buy?

Thanks!
 
the WD greenpower drives are nice, i have a 500gb and it is quite...


also samsung spinpoint drives are quite

checkout Silent PC reviews
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page1.html


also if size isnt an issue, look into a SATA notebook drive or SAS, maybe even a USB flash drive????

there are so many options for a client PC
 
The WD greenpower 3.5'' HDD's are pretty quiet as mentioned. If you're looking for something else, you can also get a 2.5'' laptop drive and throw it in there with an adapter. But to make your hard drives quiet, mount them with rubber shock mounts, or suspend them with rubber bands or elastic.
 
Definitely check Silent PC Review's articles. They're a great source of info for this (and other similar questions).

I have several Samsung SATA drives and they've all been very quiet. The WD one mentioned is also apparently quite good though I've never used one myself.
 
Logan321 said:
Quite what? I know you don't mean *quiet* because it's a 10k rpm drive. :rolleyes:

Best drive to get for quiet is SSD. $$$ though. Second best is to have a case with rubber HD mounts so at worst you just hear the HD seeking, and not the vibrations throughout the whole case.
Click to expand...



the VR series is a SSD... not a 10,000 RPM drive....

thanks for the SP correction.... quiet is a word i never get right for some reason...

you can spell, and i know my hardware :)
 
yeah its just normal sata and sata power.

btw looking at the drive, i'd get a 7200 rpm drive, 5400 is a little slow for me
 
Adidas4275 said:
the VR series is a SSD... not a 10,000 RPM drive....

thanks for the SP correction.... quiet is a word i never get right for some reason...

you can spell, and i know my hardware :)
Click to expand...

Did you look at that link you posted?

Did you see the disk platter? How about where it says "10000 RPM"?

This is the part where my smilie rolls its eyes
 
alriht i was wrong, i thought it was ssd....

that $30 notebook drive looks nice, might be a little slow but for the price its nice
 
Don't even look at Seagate drives for this application. My 500GB ES SATA II's are pretty damn loud, I wouldn't use them for a HTPC. I only bought them because I need the reliabilty they offer. I would look at Hitachi drives they are nice and quiet, though I havn't owned any Samsung drives.
 
Spacy9 said:
One possibly stupid question though, even though its a 2.5" drive, it says its SATA. Will it hook up to the SATA on a desktop motherboard without an adapter?
Click to expand...

Yes, and notebook drives are an excellent solution if you don't need a lot of storage and want quiet/low power.
 
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