Quietest HardDrive?

S

ST|FFY

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
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what is the quietest harddrive out right now?

im looking at the 120GB+ range and a good price/GB ratio would be preferred
 
Seagate Barracuda V (I believe it is V now)

and 120GB can be had for $70-80 after rebates from a chain store. I actually think I saw a 160GB for around $90 in last week's CompUSA flyer. I wound up picking up a Western Digital drive instead, though. I think it is reasonably quiet, although not as quiet as me Barracuda IVs are.
 
Samsung SpinPoints are very quiet and offer good performance. However, the quietest hard drives are probably the Seagate Barracuda IVs, if you can still find one. It's slower than the SpinPoints though. Both of those options will be quieter than the Barracuda Vs.
 
does that 8 MB cache that the western Digital make a difference?
cuz i dont wanna screw up performance for noise level
 
The 8MB cache is a nice performance improvement. I wouldn't sacrifice going to a 2MB cache drive for less noise. However all the bigger name HDD mfr's (seagate, maxtor, western digital, etc.) make HDD's with 8MB cache as an option. So you can still get a Seagate with 8MB cache and get the quiet too. The only thing is that IIRC the seagate has worse seek times then the western digital drives.
 
The seagate drives are much quieter. I believe it is about 10db less compared to the western digital. Definately look at the seagate drivers if you are looking for something quiet.
 
Originally posted by ST|FFY
wow, 10 dbA, isnt that like 1/2 the noise?
Click to expand...

I mean the seagate is about 10db less than the western digital. On the western digital site, it claims that it is about 35db on idle while the seagate is about 25-26db on idle.
 
argh I hate Seagate..loudest POS ever, prolly because it was an old 6.4Gb....anyways you can't go wrong with WD
 
...except in this thread. Western Digital probably makes the loudest 7200 RPM hard drives.
 
WD still doesnt use Fluid Dynamic Bearings AFAIK, which is part of the reason why their drives are relatively loud.

For reference, my Seagate Barracuda IV idles at around the same noise level as my Samsung Spin Point SP1614N (160/8), but it significantly louder during seeks (both use AAM) despite the fact that they are both two-platter models. The newer Samsung is obviously much faster.
 
Originally posted by ycchan
argh I hate Seagate..loudest POS ever, prolly because it was an old 6.4Gb....anyways you can't go wrong with WD
Click to expand...

yeah

its not really fair to compare a 6.4 gig 5 year old drive to a brand new sata wd drive.
 
Originally posted by leukotriene
WD still doesnt use Fluid Dynamic Bearings AFAIK, which is part of the reason why their drives are relatively loud.
Click to expand...
Some models have the fluid dynamic bearings, including the WD740GD, the -PB series, and I think the -JD series. Most are still pretty loud, according to the Silent PC Review people.
 
Originally posted by ycchan
argh I hate Seagate..loudest POS ever, prolly because it was an old 6.4Gb....anyways you can't go wrong with WD
Click to expand...

Yeah, I hate Intel cuz my celeron 300A won't let me play Battlefield 1942:rolleyes:
 
No, I'd say Samsung does overall, in all phases of operation. Hitachi is very close too.
 
I have two maxtors, and I never can hear them. At all. I have a fan right in front of them, so that might help, But I never heard my maxtors.
 
hmm...i was looking at the websites of the individual hard drives that i am interested in, and the Seagate is rated at 25dbA while the next quietest one is at 27
i think ima get a seagate :)
 
The published numbers say that the Seagates are quieter than Samsung but I have been reading www.silentpcreview.com alot lately and it seems like everyone is saying the Samsungs are actually quieter.

I just picked up a Samsung SP1213N (120gb 8mb cache) drive but I have only been using it for a couple minutes so I haven't really noticed if it is better than my Seagate Barracuda V....
 
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