Hi,

I'm looking to replace my current WD Caviar Black HD's and would like something that has similar performance but quieter!?

I use my computer in a small recording studio and the mixing room which has the computer is very small. As a result I need a computer that is practically silent yet fast and powerful.

What hard drives would you recommend?

An SSD would be too small or expensive? How much storage do you need?

There's no such thing as Caviar Black performance.
Do you need sequential performance? In that case platter density matters and you might be able to beat your old Black with a model which spins slower (depending on how old it is).

Short-stroking improves performance without causing any noise by the way. If you get more platters you can short-stroke more.

Go with an SSD for OS/Apps and a WD Green for data storage.

Hi, I second the SSD option. I've now seen 120GB SSDs as low as £65~70! I imagine that would provide enough space to work on the files you generate and then move them to network or USB or "green" drive in the PC.
If you've never used a SSD you will be shocked how much faster/smoother it is. The sequential transfer rate increase of 250~500MB/s from HDDs of 100~150MB/s isn't what does it, it's the random speed of HDDs is only 1~2MB/s where SSDs are 20~100MB/s, ie different order of performance.

The caviar black you have would have reasonable re-sale value or use it in USB enclosure for bulk storage, only on when needed and not when recording with SSD main drive.

Regards, Seb

The OP didn't say what kind of performance she needs. Being able to load apps fast is nice but that's probably not what she needs.

There still are some SSDs on the market which suck for writing streams by the way. 250MB/s+? In your dreams! Some are slow out of the box and some slow down with use (and TRIM doesn't help).
For recording audio, you'd probably be fine with any SSD but then again you'd probably also be fine with any hard drive (provided you've got enough RAM) so who knows what the OP needs?

Is Samsung F3 1TB close to Caviar Black 1TB performance? I have no experience with either, but hear they both are good.

As I said...


Western Digital's marketing is painful. They try to make it impossible for you to tell how fast their drives are.
On the other hand, all Samsung F3 1TB are more or less the same. They used to change the number after the "F" when they changed the drive.

Did you already buy another harddrive?

Recently I bought a new system with 1 WD Caviar Black 1TB in a Antec 300 case, the sound while seeking is driving me insane.

Pretty noisy hard drive when not mounted in the case, when mounted in the case the noise and vibrations become really loud.
Already tried a Nexus DiskTwin in the 5.25" bay, while the hard drive is on real heavy load / seeking, I think the sound is even louder than in the standard 3,25" bay.
Yeah, I know the noise depends on the case, reseller said that it's normal behaviour and I should need to get used to it.
I really regret it that I bought this type of hard drive. Of course I read about the things that it's a noisy one, but I could never imagine that the noise is so loud.

I hope the reseller would coöperate to swap my the Caviar Black for an other type of hard drive, because this is not workable.
Even with low volume background music I can hear the noise.

1TB models I'm looking at:
- WD Caviar Blue (WD10EALX): does this make a (big) difference?
- Seagate Barracuda (ST1000DM003)

I think if drives are less noisy and make less vibrations (even when it are 7200RPM drives), it would also less resonate the case?

Already thought of a SSD, and it would make difference becasue the a lot of activity is from launching applications etc. but since I'm using the PC for video editing, I also use large files a lot.

Ow btw, great forums... Found these after I bought my new system (of course...)

A useful tutorial from Adobe on hard drive setup for video editing. It's a year old, and is outdated as far as SSD reliability goes, but still useful.

Thanks for sharing the tutorial, really useful!
Especially the part about the captured/source and preview/output locations and the reading/writing logic.
I'll keep that in mind!

I was already thinking about using a SSD and two hard drives, but more as future upgrade (within 3-6 months).
I like the performance of the Caviar Blacks, but certainly not the noise, it's louder than any hard drive in a single drive setup I've heard before. Having two of them wouldn't be option.

I read some things about that the Seagate Barracuda (ST1000DM003) 1TB uses only one platter, while (as far as I could find) the WD Caviar version use at least 2 platters?

So they have a higher data density and in theory should make less noise then a WD Black or Blue?

CorossiNL --

Your WD Black is a perfect candidate for mechanical decoupling w/ elastic suspension in the lowest 5.25" bay of the Antec 300 case. See these articles --

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article39-page1.html -- novibes
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article8-page2.html -- DIY HDD suspension

and this >7-yrs strong 430 post thread on SPCR members' show & tell thread about DIY HDD suspensions:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19147

I saw that kind of solutions in several topics, looks like good solutions!
Thanks for sharing the articles!

I already arranged that I can swap my WD Black for a WD Blue today.
But, since I think the most noise comes from resonating of the case, maybe I'll still try the decoupling solutions with the Blue.

Hi,

Sorry for not getting back to this thread. I am intending to use the hard drives for pro audio in a recording studio. I would like something that can load large files/samples quickly and be at least as fast as my Caviar Blacks but be quieter?

This is the case I have for my PC :-

http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=33

I have one space 5.25 bay in the case so could possibly mount one of my hard drives in there somehow. I could then possibly replace the other Caviar Black (the one that's doing the least work) with a quieter one?

Mechanical decoupling w/ elastic suspension in the 5.25" bay -- see my earlier post. The noise improvement really has to be heard to be believed. One day, I'll have to make a comparison audio recording just to prove it.

Ok I'll try this out.

Also, what about a pair of quieter hard drives?

I had a look at the SilentPC 'Recommended Hard Drive' round up from April 2010 and the Samsung F1 750gb and Western Digital SE16 Caviar 640gb came up top.

As this is two and a half years old, are there any newer hard drives that offer at least as good performance/speed but even quieter?

Just look at any recent HDD review. You'll see uptodate comparison tables in each one.