quiet hard drive for shuttle?

[cybrarian]

Hi folks - first post, so be nice

I'm looking at replacing one of the HDD in my SN41G2 and would like to go for a reasonably quiet drive. I'm thinking of getting one of the two below - anyone got any thoughts or alternative suggestions?

Seagate Barracuda® VII 7200RPM 160GB ATA 100 8MB Cache
Samsung 160gig 7200RPM ATA/133 2MB Cache SP1604N

Am I likely to notice any difference between these? or even between these and any other hard drive, especially while the rest of the machine isn't exactly silent yet...

Also, what kind of performance difference can I expect between the 8MB and the 2MB drive? I'm looking at mostly just using the drive for storing media files.

cheers,

Cyb

[Howard]

Seagate drives are virtually silent in use. Go for that

[scottxxx]

I've got a Seagate Barracuda 160Gb 7200rpm 8mb cache ATA133 hard drive in my Shuttle SN45G and can't hear it unless its moving an ISO or film, thats with a silent graphics card as well, so I can't recommend the Seagate hard drives highly enough. Certainly a lot quieter than my Western Digital one!

The Seagate drives usually perform pretty well, and it should have the edge over the Samsung as it only has 2mb cache - even if you can't tell the difference in noise between them, if you get a quieten it down you might regret not having bought the Seagate. (I haven't read a review of the samsung, thats just based on my seagate compared to my WD and IBM drives).

[^^Gord^^]

Yup, agree with the above. As well as being very quiet the Seagate runs pretty cool as well.

Take a look here for more info....

http://storagereview.com/articles/20...120023A_6.html

[Paul Adams]

Both my main Shuttle rigs have the 120Gb Barracuda with the 8Mb cache and they are unbelievably quiet and VERY fast - SiSoft's SANDRA reports that it performs better than the benchmark hard drive with identical stats too, which is nice

[Huddy]

Seagate! Seagate!

[thelonecrouton]

Seagate - almost silent.

[Gunbuster]

Happy with my samsung 160gb 8mb, though I haven't tried the new Seagates.

[drp]

The Samsung SpinPoint drives are excellent! Even when under full load they are still completely silent

[5cupa]

i have had both in the past and would probably plump for another spinpoint due to there warranty length. both are excellent drives....