Old topic... Which hard drives are quietest these days?

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Gunther

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A few months ago my PC sounded like a propeller plane about to take off, so I threw a hundred bucks into a heat sink and a few panotec fans. BIG improvement.

So like most people who kill the fan noise, I discovered my hard drive is really, really loud. The room is fairly quiet, the hard drive is the nosiest thing in it by far. It sucks to record and hear HD whine.

Which leads to my question, Which hard drives are really, really quiet these days?


- Gunther
 
Traditionally, the best combination of speed and quiet has been with the Seagate Baracudas. It was certainly true of the IV generation, but i don't have experience with the new V ones. I also hear the latest Hitachi drives are excellent on the noise front as well...
 
I just got a PC with the Baracudas. Extremely quiet. Now if I could just tame those fans.
 
My PC has a 80 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7. Sometimes I leave the computer on at night for downloads. It's right beside my bed.

Usually the minute I get out of bed, I switch the computer on.
But when I have left the computer on (which I usually forget) it happened to me more than once that I switched the computer off instead of on because it's so damn quiet that I don't notice that it's still on. (Also quiet cpu fan and temperature controlled psu fan).


In other words: I like my Barracuda.
 
DItto on the Seagate. I have an 80 GB Barracuda, and the only time you can hear it is when your first turn it on and it does it's calibration check. You can barely hear that either...
 
i have a Barracuda IV, and i don't hear a thing.

in conclusion:

get a Seagate Barracuda ! :D
 
I have 2 120GB Barracudas that are quieter than a cotton ball touching a piece of felt
 
Lol, ok... I'm sold.

Where is a good place to get one?
 
I have a Barracuda IV 80GB. It's not completely quiet - I can still hear it accessing and spinning, but it's better than my old Maxtor 60GB. I got mine at dealsonic.com for a shade under $70

However, Hitachi and (I think) WD and Maxtor are now using fluid-bearing technology in their drives as well. The Barracuda IV is an older model and isn't as fast as the new Hitachis, and may be only marginally quieter.
 
Take a look at www.techbargains.com

It shows that CompUsa has a 160GB Seagate for about $80 after rebates, and Best Buy has a 120GB for $70 after rebates. I've received all my rebates in the past, though one took about 3 months. Hope this helps.
 
Just thought I'd let everyone know...

I got the seagate 160gig hard drive. Man, what a great product, was a breeze to get it going.

Anyway, the final result is that this thing is silent. Even my panotec fans seem loud compared to it (and they're pretty darn quiet.)


Thanks for sending me in this direction, I'm a happy camper.


- Gunther
 
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