new hard drive?

[starbuck]

rebuilding my parents pc. Wasn't going to replace their hard drive as their 80gig hitatchi deskstar drive was enough for them. Put it into an icy box to backup some files to my pc before I formatted their drive. Their drive was noisy.

1: Am I right in thinking if it's noisy when it never used to be that it is a sign it could be on it's way out?

2: If I have to replace it, am thinking of getting a 250gb drive for them(as the diff in price between a 160gb and 250gb is so negligable that it would make no sense not to go for a 250gb.
Anyway, when looking at different drives, they normally come with either 8mb or 16mb cache, does the extra 8mb make a big difference. Also which is the fastest/quietest drive to go for? was looking at the samsung spinpoints as have heard good things about them but what about the maxtors/western digital/hitachi deskstar etc.

[staffsMike]

I wouldn't touch maxtor with a barge pole personally but some do.

A mate has the spinpoint and it seems OK but I don't have any hands on expereince.

I'm very biased in this area I'm affraid as I've only ever bought western digital. They have never let me down though so I'll buy them until they do.

The AAKS models of western digital are amazing for sound. They are totally silent in my P182 and near as makes no difference to silent in the Silverstone TJ-08 which is not a particularly "quiet" case.

I've used 2x 500Gb a 400GB and a 320GB.. all perfect.

[MSIC]

Samsung spinpoints, seagate '10' series and western dig 'aaks' range are all the best.
Go for the 250GB (make sure you get either IDE PATA or SATA as appropriate).

As for the current noise, it's hard to say as old drives are all comparatively noisey.
Make sure that SMART is turned on in the BIOS and run a utility like Speedfan, it will tell you about the number of errors you are getting and if it's significant or not

[peterb]

Depends on how old the drive is - the older Deskstars did tend to be a bit noisy - I would guess that is about 3 years old or so - and you would be hard pushed to find a new 3.5" 80GB IDE drive now.

I used to use Hitachi - but I switched to Samsung - they are much quieter - but as others have said - it comes down to personal preference/prejudice. I could mention Seagate, but someone may well come up with a Seagate horror story. Similarly I expect someone will do the same with Samsung. With drives being made in their millions, a few rogue ones are bound to get out at some point!

[EarlGrey]

atm the samsung spinpoints appear to be the quietest, which is always a good thing.

and yes, if your hard drive is making funny noises it is a sign that it is dying a slow painful death. Better to replace it early on, rather than wait for it to destroy itself

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It really depends on how old the drive is! I have a WD800 80gb hard disk which was made in 2002 which I still use in a backup desktop and it is never been exceptionally quiet. It seems to have a characteristic high pitch sound unlike any of the newer drives which seem almost silent in comparison. It has always been this way as far as I remember.

[Andaho]

Another vote for WD, I have 2x 250GB AAKS in my system atm.

All hard drives today are quiet compared to a few years ago.

I have a very quiet system with an ATI 1950pro with a passive cooler on it, and 12cm 1000RPM 'golf' sharkoon case fans with a seasonic S12II PSU. I can hear the power buzz of my speakers over the sound of the PC because it's so quiet....

Anyway, in saying how quiet my PC is... I can never hear the hard drives.

The only noisey drives these days are the 10,000RPM - but they still cost too much for the average joe to consider.

I've been a home computer engineer for the last couple years and I've come across dozens and dozens of corrupt hard drives... most commonly maxtor, least of all; I think I've only come across 1 corrupt WD and it was ancient. I've always used and recommended nothing but WD for their long history with a good reputation - also, I think all their higher end drives (ones with 16MB cache) have a 5 year warranty... not that I've ever had to use it.

[stroberaver]

A vote for Samsung Spinpoints for me. I used one in my parents' build (Antec Sonata case) and was impressed by the lack of clicking and whirring. Now I'm using one as my primary drive in my Antec P182, and it's quite noticeably quieter than either of the Seagate 7200.7 drives that sit alongside it.

[The Codfather]

Another +1 for the Samsung Spinpoint drives. I used one in my previous machine and have two in my current, quiet as anything.

Good value too, I think the 500GB models are still just about £60.

[Andaho]

May be of interest to you... literally just got a newsletter from ebuyer: WD 500GB External Hard Drive only £59.99 @ ebuyer.com

[staffsMike]

A vote for Samsung Spinpoints for me. I used one in my parents' build (Antec Sonata case) and was impressed by the lack of clicking and whirring. Now I'm using one as my primary drive in my Antec P182, and it's quite noticeably quieter than either of the Seagate 7200.7 drives that sit alongside it.

If you can hear it in the P182 at all then it can't be as quiet as the AAKS

Honestly can't hear mine at all.

[stroberaver]

Occasionally I hear something and wonder if the hard drive is doing something, and I look down and yes, the light is on. Apart from that it's effectively silent, compared to the general hum of the rest of the system. I don't need to look down to see if one of the Seagate drives is doing something though.

Currently one of the Seagate 7200.7s is the drive being used for My Docs and My Pictures, and it's already half full (mostly with last year's pictures). Looks like I might have to check out an AAKS drive to add to the roster when I need a bigger drive to transfer the contents of the Seagate onto.