Quiet HDD choice

[watercooled]

What would you suggest getting for a fairly quiet PC - a standard 7200 desktop drive such as the single-platter Sammy HD322HJ (the cheapest ), a 5400 desktop drive such as the Sammy HD502HI, or a 7200 laptop drive such as the 160GB single-platter WD 1600BEKT?
Ideally, the lower the price the better as I'm working to a budget. I'd also like to point out the PC wont be that quiet - there will be case/CPU fans. What is the performance of 7200 2.5" drives like as I hear access time can be quite bad but the BEKT apparently can manage 14.2ms. Also, if the 2.5" is the way to go, how can it be mounted in a 3.5" bay?
Thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The 5400rpm drives will be quieter and run cooler too. However they will be much slower than the 7200RPM drives. It depends if you value quietness or speed TBH.

Perhaps one of those WD drives which can vary their rotational speeds between 5400rpm and 7200rpm would do the trick??

[TooNice]

A good 3.5" 5400RPM drive is likely faster than a good 2.5" 7200RPM drive for a single user application. And quieter. (Keep in mind that a drive's application performance goes beyond sequential read/write or even access).

5400RPM drive tend to suffer in terms of access time compared to 7200RPM drives, but 'much slower' is probably overstating the differences. I went for a 5400RPM drive for a new build while I wait for SSD prices to drop, and it's not bad (I also have Raptors and 7200 RPM drives on other builds).

The Green Power do not vary their rotational speed. They are plain 5400RPM drives marketed to imply that they vary because 5400RPM is not a marketable idea, and, again are not unbearably slower than the average 7200RPM drives.

You can get 2.5" -> 3.5" caddy if you want off the shelf-solutions for mounting an 2.5" drive. There are probably other ways you can mount them (I've not tried it but see no reason why you can't suspend them as you could with a 3.5" drive).

In my opinion though, you should pick the best deal you can find between the Western Digital Green Power, and the Samsung F2. I believe that a 500GB GP could be found for £38 at Scan on a Today Only offer just recently, a and Samsung F2 tends to be priced attractively.

[s3ds]

i have used an f1 in the past and set to quiet with the hard drives utilities disk

http://www.samsung.com/global/busine...ort_HUTIL.html

i found a 120mm with a 7 volt mod made the most noise ( that and a vx450 )

very quiet thats more than can be said about the DVD drive !

[watercooled]

Thanks for all the tips! I just wanted to make sure - would any of the drives overheat in a small micro-ATX case such as the Antec Minuet 350?
Thanks Again!

[peterb]

Thanks for all the tips! I just wanted to make sure - would any of the drives overheat in a small micro-ATX case such as the Antec Minuet 350?
Thanks Again!

Unlikely. I'm using 2 2.5" drives mounted flat in a small itx form factor case without problems 9at least so far ) they are mounted above the CPU passive heat sink - the csase cooling fan keeps the whole lot at about 45C.

[funke_munke]

I'd honestly just get a single platter F1 and be done with it. Speedy, cheap and quiet too. Because it has one platter it should be a little cooler than larger drives. I'm getting one soon myself, with a slower F2 for storage.

[TooNice]

The F1 is considered quiet, but not not outstandingly so nowadays: http://www.storagereview.com/php/ben...bench_sort.php (sort by idle noise from the combo box). They are not the only single platter options either. If you are willing to go with the F1 level of noise/performance, than I suggest also looking into the Caviar Blue. If you have no brand loyalty, you can more or less treat them as equals and shop for the best deal.

[watercooled]

Thanks again everyone. Just one last question - you know the Caviar Green drives had that load/unload count problem (feature) that was a problem when used as a desktop drive, especially with Linux? Does the laptop drive or the F2 have anything similar?

[TooNice]

The F2 does not seem to have that issue. There's a review here if you would like: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article951-page4.html (also compares it with the GP)

[peterb]

That issue seems to have been more of a problem in RAID setups.

[shbris]

Thanks for all the tips! I just wanted to make sure - would any of the drives overheat in a small micro-ATX case such as the Antec Minuet 350?
Thanks Again!

if ur using 2.5" drives, suspend them in 3.5" bays using rubber. completely reduces vibrations to the case, so only noise left is airborne.

ah la: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums...ic.php?t=11674

or similar, check out spcr forums

[Sputnik]

How do you find out how many platters a drive has ?

[watercooled]

I decided to get a HD322HJ which seems quiet enough.
To find out how many platters a drive has, I find the best way is to just google 'drivename platter'. For example, google 'HD322HJ platter' and you will find plenty of results showing platter number.