The quest for the quiet hard drive.

[Kef9]

Hi

My old hard drive is the loudest componet in my media pc and it needs replacing due to the irritating whine it makes. Who make the quietest hard drives and can anyone give me some suggestions. It has to be a PATA drive.

I heard seagate are the best, is this true?

[noah]

seagate and samsung.

seagate are a little quieter when idle and samsung are a little quieter when seeking.

not much to pick from really, personally i use samsung at the min cos the seagates seek noise annoys me.

[mike_w]

I always use Seagate - they are fairly quiet (don't normally notice if they make noise), but I buy them for their decent reliability and five year warranty.

[SilentDeath]

All of the FDB drives are about the same.

Overall I would say samsung give the best all round reliability/quietness/performance.

Seagate used to make the quietest drives when they were the only ones using FDB, and that seems to have stuck. Theres not really any noticable difference with recent FDB drives.

The only issue with samsungs is they are not sold by nearly as many shops. Luckly ebuyer sell them so your not forced to buy them from OCUK which is one of the few other retailers in the UK with them. I havent checked many retailers for them however...

[oshta]

personally i use samsung at the min cos the seagates seek noise annoys me.

Wheras I like a bit of seek noise, and cant stand whine, so i opted for the seagate.
- Although i've never heard a samsung, so its not i direct comparisen.

Its up to your personal likes (dislikes) as i see it

[Kef9]

Sounds like seagate are the way to go.

Thanks for the info

[alexander]

No, my Samsung Spinpoints are totally silent when idle or seeking.

They are suspended very badly which improoved noise alot.

[noah]

They are suspended very badly which improoved noise alot.

just out of interest mate (not meant to hijack) as ive always been tempted to do this but never got round to it........does it really make a difference? even to an antec sonata like mine with rubber drive mounts?

cheers

[alexander]

Yeah, my computer was bought for silence using all the silent components like VF-700Cu and all the fans undervolted to 5volts + a Nexus 350 Watt.

While they were in the HD cage (identicle to a Sonata one, I had the SLK300B Antec), and I could hear them definately while seeking, now that I have suspended them they are silent, I didn't think it would make a huge difference but it definately did.

I am using the space where the HD Cage used to be, hanging from the floppy drive holder.

If you want any pics, just ask.

[Kef9]

I will not be able to suspend my drive as it will be in a shuttle. are the samsungs only quiet then when suspended?

Im still edging towards seagate.

[Grey M@a]

I would go for a Western Digital HardDrive as they are also silent, and personally I've never had a samsung or seagate hard drive last past 6 months.

[SilentDeath]

I will not be able to suspend my drive as it will be in a shuttle. are the samsungs only quiet then when suspended?

Im still edging towards seagate.

All drives are niosy if they are mounted the standard way directly to case.

All drives create vibration, mostly from the 7200RPM spindle motor.

If you have aluminuim HDD screwed to a steel or alu drive cage which is then fixed solidly to the rest fo the case - you will hear it becuase there is nothing to absorb the vibrations.
You need to isolate the HDD or the HDD cage from the rest of the case - not easy for a shuttle.

All FDB type drives are almost compleatly silent when it is mounted in a way that doesnt make vibrations and suspending is one of the best ways.

FDB will not affect niose from seeking.

I'd get a samsung.

[alexander]

I doubt you would be able to hear either a Samsung or Seagate over the shuttle's own fan tbh.

[Millennium]

FWIW I have Maxtor and WD and i find the maxtors quieter but still not silent. I'd go seagate as I have an old samsung which was pretty loud also (but then, it's old)....

You can set acoustic management on most modern hard drives also to change this but the difference this makes is probably not a lot. Still its free so try it on your old drive first? It can be set with any good SMART utility or some drive manufacturer DOS/bootdisk tools.

Pick a SATA drive (quicker, really, i found) and try for NCQ and big buffers for SCSI-like features (yes even if u cant use em).

[Kef9]

Some info.

My old hard drive is loudest component in my media pc. The rest of the pc is really quiet as I have a passive gpu and the ICE fan only spins half the time really slowly as the old athlon cpu doesnt put alot of stress on the system. I have to go pata cos this shuttle model doesnt support sata.

I think ill still go seagate - seem to have a good reputation for quiet drives plus a five year guarantee.

[eldren]

Samsungs SP1614N's (160GB) have the quietest seek noise; you can bearly hear it. Their idle noise is also low, but is mostly in a higher freqency range, so is more annoying for me personally.

Hitachi 14R9249's (HDS722525VLAT80, 250GB) have a decidedly more noticable seek noise, but seem to dull it, such that the noise is more bassy than that of the other drives. Their idle noise is slightly more than the Samsung's, but in a lower frequency range.

Maxtor 6B300S0's (300GB) without acoustic management enabled have a relatively loud seek noise, being louder than any of the other drives here. The idle noise, however, is surprisingly quiet, being roughly comparable to the Hitachi.

Seagate ST3200822A's (200GB) without acoustic management enabled have a seek noise slightly less than that of the Hitachi, but definately more tinny. The idle noise is also comparable to the Hitachi.

Notes: The Samsungs and Maxtor are mounted in the grommeted harddrive cages of a CMStacker, the Hitachi in a removable harddrive bay, and the Seagate in a seperate machine. So the above shouldn't be taken as precision measurements or anything.