I'm looking for a new hard drive, because i have a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X 7200RPM 60GB HD (not with fluid bearings) and it's far from silent.

It's seems that the Barracuda IV 40GB is the quietest HD, but i saw Mike's Samsung 1604 reviewwhich appear to be fastest and almost as silent. However, that disk has 2-platters.

But how about this one??it's the same that Mike reviewed, but it's single-platter. In theory it should be quieter, maybe quiter than Barracuda IV.

The model is SpinPoint P80 Series SP0802N. Searched in google and seems to be available. It has 2mb cache.
The 8mb cache version SP0802N doesn't seem to be available anywhere.

Any comments? Has anyone tried it?

Samsung claims that it's "so quiet, YOU WON'T EVEN KNOW IT IS THERE."

I have a standing request to Sansung for a single-platter version as well as 5400 rpm models. In the meantime, I think it is safe to assume that at the very least, a single platter model will not be noisier than a 2-platter one, and there is a good chance it would be quieter, even if only by a bit.

@MikeC: When you made the review in which mode was the AAM feature of the Samsung HD?

i have a relatively offtopic question, but it's related to 'cuda IV. Two 40gb would be ok? I read something about bad performance in RAID on the silentpcreview.. Also the sound it's stronger ofcourse with two of them, but how much?

This is not a feature that was listed for the Samsung; I never checked. Also Samsung does not provide any AAM utility software, AFAIK.

If you read the product manual you will see it supports AAM.

The utility is very easy to find. Just check the HD section from Samsung.com and choose utilities Linked here.

Also in the review you say you are not sure if the samsung has a FDB motor, but also this is confirmed in the product manual.

Very good Unicron -- I was looking in samsung.ca -- obvious I should have gone to their main site.

About Samsung AAM feature:

I have a Samsung harddrive from the 60gig-platter series. It has one setting for AAM and can at least be found with the Intel Application Accelerator program that comes with Intel chipsets. So I think the new 80gig-platter harddrives must has AAM too

I was thinking in buying the Samsung SpinPoint P80 80GB, however the difference in price between the 80GB (SP0802N) and the 120GB (SP1203N) version is very small.

So, the 120GB seems a better deal, but i think it's 2-platter (the 80GB is one)

How much difference would that make in noise??

Yes it seems you're right. I found this about those drives.

ACOUSTICS (AVERAGE SOUND POWER)
Idle
1-Disk 2.5 Bel
2-Disk 2.7 Bel
Random Read/Write
1-Disk 2.8 Bel
2-Disk 2.9 Bel

Does that make to much difference in real world?

>>Does that make to much difference in real world?<<

It's audible but the noise of other components may make the difference irrelevant.

I've purchased and installed the Samsung SP0802N today and I'm very happy with it!

I too was using a Maxtor D740X (40 GB) and this is a definite improvement.

I hear no whining, seeking or anything. Ofcourse I also have quite some case damping and my computer is positioned behind a chair. The Maxtor whining could always be easily heard, but now I think it's the CPU fan making the most noise (Arctic SS Copper), which is one of the most quiet cpu fan's on the market.

I'm not sure if the purchase of a Silentdrive is even neccesary now.