Silent PSU and hard drive

[Platinum]

So it looks like I nearly have my silent running rig, I have the passive Thermalright HSF on my X1959XTX, yes thats a X1950 XTX running passive, and temps are lower than the stock heatsink , I have the silvestone MATX Chassis with Silent running Panaflo 120mm fans in the front and rear and a silent 80mm Sharkoon fan on the side.

Now I can still hear fan noise so I did a really stupid thing and used a screwdriver to stop the fan on the PSU! , this cut out the rest of the fan noise but I was still left with what I can only imagine is noise from the hard drive spinning? Seems to also make a little noise when idle.

So im looking to silence off these two , now for the PSU im looking for around 550 watts, I think that even when I go DX10 a 550 watt PSU will be fine, (Core 2 duo overclocked, stock volts and a 8800GTX wont stress it to much, not going SLI or anything).
Main requirement of the PSU is that it has to be modular and it has to be silent, so im guessing 120mm fan will be needed, oh and it has to be efficient 80+ (Bit of a save the planet freak )

Now for the hdd all I need is silence, 7200 RPM and at least 8mb cache, now I was thinking of using a laptop SATA drive, From what I have read they are fully compatable with PC systems, it would take up less space in my allready cramped system, consume a lot less power which should mean less heat and also from what I have seen on the specs they put out very little noise? (I have never heard my laptop hdd even when copying loads of data).
Now I know there not going to have the performance of desktop drives or the capacity but TBH im happy to wait a second or so more for my games to load and capacity isnt a issue as I have a seperate machine that has about 2tb storage which I use for a file server, this machine is my games rig

Advice please

[Funkstar]

you are completely right about laptop drives, they are smaller, quieter, cooler and slower than their desktop counterparts, as well as completely compatible. You just need a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter like this:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...ABLES&doy=11m1

I have a silent PSU, but it isn't powerful enough for you
http://www.kustompcs.com/acatalog/info_1776.html

[Platinum]

Cheers, no adapter needed for SATA ones thats the great thing about em

[Funkstar]

of course, wasn't thinking about that

although you will probably need a mounting bracket, but that isn't a big deal

[amjedm]

Some of the quietest psus are the Seasonic S12 (as advised by SPCR). As Corsair psus are rebranded Seasonics I would go for one of them.

With regards hard disks I think the new Samsung SpinPoint T range are supposed to be pretty quiet. Check out the following thread

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums...hlight=sp2504c

edit: andyb states in the thread his SpinPoint T is quieter than some of the laptop drives he's used.

WD xxxxxKS drives are also quiet, I believe.

SPCR verdict on the SpinPoint T.

[BigBry]

A spinpoint with the acoustic management (HDTools) applied is darned quiet.

[amjedm]

Forgot to ask what size of HD do you want/currently have?

[DanceswithUnix]

Loudest hard drive in my house is a Fujitsu laptop drive, thankfully in a portable USB case so not used often.

Get a Samsung 3.5in drive. Any modern drive with fluid bearings should be fairly quiet, but the Samsung ones are really quiet, nearly as quick as the noisy drives and not that expensive either. They also come with a warrantee that allows 24/7 operation (most drives don't).

I use a 250GB Samsung in my TiVo, and you can't hear it over the very quiet single fan. TiVo is a video recorder designed for living room use, and has passive CPU and PSU cooling with just a single temperature controlled fan at the back that makes a very slight wind noise.

[amjedm]

I use a 250GB Samsung in my TiVo, and you can't hear it over the very quiet single fan. TiVo is a video recorder designed for living room use, and has passive CPU and PSU cooling with just a single temperature controlled fan at the back that makes a very slight wind noise.

What is the model number of that 250GB Samsung pls. Thanks.

[Koolpc]

Samsung are the best and quietest Hard Drives and Seasonic or Zalman for a PSU.

[Platinum]

Cheers for the suggestions, the Seasonics dont appear to be modular?

[DanceswithUnix]

My particular drives are PATA ones, they say they are a SAMSUNG SP2514N. Used hdparm -i under Linux to ask the drives, they are both 20 miles away right now (one is in a server).

There might be new models by now, but I have only ever heard exactly one person complain that their Samsung drive was noisy so I guess they had a bad one. Even then, I think they just said it was noisier than their Western Digital and some of them are quite quiet

I am told the 5400RPM ones are quieter at seeking and run cooler, but I couldn't find any of those.

[Apex]

Have to agree with people on the samsung hdd's they are some of the quietest hdd's on the market.

Performace is not bad and iirc they now do 500gb hdd's with 16mb cache so you not loosing out much.

[Daneel]

I went for a Corsair PSU based on reviews. I should be building this weekend so I'll soon find out exactly how quiet it is.

[Koolpc]

The new Seasonics are modular

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=475252

[amjedm]

Cheers for the suggestions, the Seasonics dont appear to be modular?

As advised by Koolpc the Seasonic M12 are modular. They will be noisier than the Corsair as the Seasonics have a 60mm fan which kicks in at a certain temp and then stays on. The Corsair is identical to the M12 apart from no 60mm fan.