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Who makes the quietest drives?

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JudgeDredd

Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2002
Location
Austin, Texas
I have a Shuttle SFF system with two 36GB Raptors in it. After some testing, it turns out they're the loudest things in my system, so I'd like to replace them, but I need some opinions.

I need two SATA drives, but I need help picking them out, so I need to know a couple of things...

I've heard that the 74GB Raptors are little more quiet than the 36GB Raptors, is this true?

If it is, how much more quiet? Noticably? If it isn't true or there isn't that big of a difference, then who makes the quietest 7200 RPM SATA drives? I've always thought Seagate made the quietest, but I'd like some more opinions...

I'd like to stick with the Raptors if I can, I wonder if some sound absorbtion material would work well, I heard that they handle high pitched noises pretty good...

Anyway, discuss or link away!
 
in a shuttle? like small form factor PC?

how the heck do you keep your shuttle from burning up?

I recommend seagate 7200.7 9 (I think its this number :))
I have one and dam its quiete
 
Solid state drive are almost totally silent, but of disk-based storage, I'd think Seagate hold the crown still despite advances by WD and Samsung, I reckon they still have a little lead.
 
Samsung Spinpoint drives are currently the quietest, non ram, hard drives. Check out this site for more info.

Cheers.
 
Gonna second the spinpoints tbh, heard nuttin but good things about them, gonna grab one for me next pc, see how they perform...
 
I have 2 40gig Barracuda's striped in mine I can honestly say I don't ever hear them.

I had 2 36 Raptors but they made the most ungodly high piched noise I had to take them out. Ended up going with Seagate, and Im glad I did.
 
The Seagate I have is honestly the most silent drive I have ever owned. I have the 20gig in my case surrounded by the foam that comes in your motherboard box and its still makes noise. The only time I hear the drive is at boot, and its like, micro decibels. Even when benching it... SILENCE.

I have used Seagate 9gig 10k SCSI drives that you get the rush every time you transfer files to em' because they sound like jet engines... the Western Digital's you know will fail soon because they create more and more noise the older they get... even brand new you hear that nasty noise of them winding up.

The 74g Raptors aren't going to be much better, performance will be better, noise will be only slightly less. There are plenty of HD silencers out there. Put some foam under the drive as I've notice, ironically, that's where most of the noise comes out... use rubber mounts. A lot of noise comes from case vibration...

Hope this helps a little.

-Frank
 
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