Why is the Zalman heatpipe hard drive cooler not listed among noise reduction products? Is it just because it has never been reviewed? I'm wondering how it compares with "no vibes". Zalman is cheaper, but uses hard rubber mounts. Zalman does have the cooling advantage, but maybe cooling is not important.

Power consumption figures on T133 400GB aren't the same as in the review article.

Recommended Hard Drives
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page2.html
Idle / AAM / Seek (W): 6.3 / 8.3 / 9.1

Samsung Spinpoint T Series: Successor to a Quiet Legacy
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article657-page3.html
Idle / AAM / Seek (W): 7.4 / 9.5 / 10.5

6.3 / 8.3 / 9.1 happens to be power consumption of single platter variant P80, not T133, which runs significantly hotter.

EDIT: That is, T133 runs hotter, not P80. P80 is relatively cool when idling. Not as cool as 7K80, though.

I see units which allow 3.5 in drives to be silenced in a 5.25 in bay, but what about unity which silence 2.5 in drives in a 3.5 in bay?

Just a suggestion for your next update...

Cheers,
-Joe

I have one such zalman heatpipe hard drive cooler.

Initially all the side bars were anodized blue. There's a sandwitch of 2 on both sides. After some time of using it, one of these four had totally lost it's color. I wonder if there was some kind of dry electrolysis happening in there.

All those hard rubber mounts made my fingers and anything else they touched black. I had to throw them away, I don't want my floor with black spots and needing to wash my hands after fixing the 'puter.

When it comes to heat, running a fan so that it's airflow path hits the heatpipes makes for a cool drive.

maybe it's cooler - i think (i have it and didn't check the temp accuratly).
but is it quieter? from vibrations not seek\idle nosie.?

I have a Seagate 7200.10 Barracuda 500gb 16mb cache SATA 3.0gb/s internal 3.5" hard drive, and it's seeking noises are driving me crazy. Idle, I think the drive is fine - I can't hear it above the 5 fans in my Antec 900 case (3x 120mm Antec TriCools all set on low, the Antec 200mm fan set on low, and a Noctua 120mm 800RPM fan at full speed).

Seeking noises however completely overpower any other noises. Someone in this thread mentioned he has the same drive, but he suspended it to eliminate vibration sounds, resulting in him being unable to hear the seek noises. I want to do the same, but how would I do that? I would like to keep my hard drive mounted on the bottom of my case where the air intake fans are, but the bays are 3.5" not 5.25". I read the SPCR reviews, and it says the No-Vibes III is recommended for installation not in the 5.25" bays but where the air intake is. I don't see how I can physically fit the No-Vibes III structure and my hard drive there though, seeing how my 3.5" hard drive is flush with the 3.5" bays created for it, hard-mounted directly to the case.

the hard mount for the HDD can usually (in new cases) be dissconected from the case.
if you do that and put the whole mount on foam or such it could reduce the noise - because only the mount will vibrate not the whole case.
i suspended my Seagates with elastic bands - it's incredible the difference!
you can still hear them in seek, but it's like 10DB of rough noise quieter!

Well, I am able to remove the bay from the case, however, the way my case is designed (the Antec 900, which is a fairly new case) is such that there is a fan right in front of the hard drive attached directly to the bay. I don't see any room to detach this "cage" to make more room for any sort of elastic mounts.

you could try just to unscrew the HD and rest it on foam inside the mount.
it would be less quiet then the other options i think.

Everytime I buy a new harddrive, at least 2 a year I return to the "Recommended Hard Drives" article to see which one is the most quiet one for the size I want. However, it would be good to add the SIZE of the harddrive directly in the table. The drive model names doesn't always mention the size in an easy way.

how about 500 and 750 gb samsung and western digital models

so new Samsung Spinpoint F1 750 GB series only audible within 20-30 cm in air

How about new Samsung 1 TB against WD Caviar Green 1 TB and Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB

I may buy one of these which one you recommend for silence/performance ratio

Recommended HDDs list is outdated. Some improvements I would suggest:

Add:
Samsung Ecogreens (F1 and F2 generations) (review also needed)

Remove:
- All laptop HDDs. No need to recommend 3 to 5 year old models: poor performance, very poor availability, very poor price/capacity ratio.

- WD740GD. While still a decent performer, it's no longer the best. And it's noisier than Velociraptor. Modern 5400rpm would probably be on par in desktop (non-server) performance, and doing it a lot quieter. (WD740GD was beaten by 7200rpm Hitachis even before Velociraptors release so modern 5400rpm beating old Raptors is not that far from reality, believe it or not.)

- WD5000KS. Old, 4 platters vs 1 platter modern HDDs of same capacity, very poor availability, pricy as hell (because retailers know no-one wants old HDDs if not for PCB swap... and milking every bit of cash from people in distress of data salvage is always a good way to make money).

- Spinpoint T. Not bad since it's mechanically identical to F-series... only lower density and thus lower performance and capacity. No superior qualities over F1.

Overall, SPCR needs a better criteria on adding/keeping/retiring recommended HDDs. IMO, SPCR should recommend 1-3 HDD for each purpose:
- quiet server performance (current champ: Velociraptor, no alternatives (not even old Raptor as it has no redeeming qualities))
- quiet OS performance (current champs: F1 and other modern 7200rpm drives proven quiet with high amount of cache and STR)
- quiet bulk storage (or OS drive for non-performance oriented use) (current champs: GP and F2 and other 5400rpm drives)

So, I recommend 3 categories for 3.5" HDD, each which could have several viable alternatives. More than 1 should be recommended if:
- one HDD has loud seeks and quiet idle, and the other has vice-versa
- one HDD has a very specific noise issue but is generally quieter than competition otherwise (ref. GreenPower)
- one HDD has high capacity and price while other is a value model
- one model offers significant power-saving (green computing + easier enclosability without risk of overheating).

Need for recommended HDDs list might not be of as paramount importance as it was before, and no HDD is likely to stick on to the list as long as Barracuda IV did (back then there really was not many quiet alternatives) but one thing remains: either update recommended HDDs list regularly or stop making recommendations. Recommending outdated HDDs is worse than recommending none.

I'd also add the Western Digital 250GB RE3. Quiet, 5 year warranty, and one platter. Great for RAID setups/boot drive/etc as well.

I agree. The "Recommended HDDs" section needs a major overhaul. In addition there are hard drives that really need a review, such as new Samsung F2Eco or the new Seagate 7200.12. I understand that it takes money, maybe some people will give these hard disk, if close enough to the SPCR's staff.

Please, is a very useful source of informations. Do not abandon it.

It looks like it has been. The "recommended" drives are probably not even manufactured. Even if they were, it's clear from other recent reviews in Storage sections that there are many modern drives that are far superior.

Please, if the article is going to be left unmaintained so long that it is completely useless, or even worse, misleading, then ... please, get rid of it, or at the very least unstick this (99.99% obsolete) item from the top of the Reviews page!

I would have to agree with puddnhead. The drives on the page are all getting harder to find, with some of them out of production now. With the advent of the SSD, I'm not so sure that this page is very relevant anymore. If you were to review the latest round of 7200 RPM 2.5 and 3.5 inch HDDs you would have an audience in those people that want lots of storage in their laptops and people building fast storage boxes. Otherwise, I think it is time for this page to go.

Contrary to popular belief, the recommended HDDs guide was not abandoned; just a long time coming. Recommended Hard Drives - updated 28 April 2010

Thanks for the overhauled and updated HDD section, Mike.

FYI: I noticed a typo in the Notebook section, point 4 : the word sensiitivity is missing an 's'.

Also typo for Sub-7200 RPM 3.5" Desktop Drives, WD Caviar Green 2.0TB model number should be WD20EADS, not WD15EADS.

I like the new presentation of the list. Much better than before!

What I miss to go with it is a list of tested products that didn't make it to the list. That way there's no need for questions like "why isn't product X on the list?" If it isn't in any of the lists it's not tested (and therefore not in the list).

Cheers
Olle

Hello,

Some time after SPCR review of WD15EADS, I've bought a WD15EARS. They're NOT the "same" drive. Have to buy a Scythe Hard Disk Stabilizer to get rid of the rididulous amount of vibrations emanating of this piece of sh^H^Hhardware. Seeks are clearly audible and the icing on cake is the LCC bug. Besides that, it's a good drive.

Rien à ajouter.


AiZ

Nice update. Thanks.

The model number of the Samsung F2 500GB isn't right (the link does go to the correct review though). It should be HD502HI.

Hard drives are so straightforward, which makes this list particularly useful.

Will SPCR be re-testing some recent drives? I'd really like to see how Samsung's F3 series compares. I bought a 500GB F3 anyway, recently, and it performs perfectly well. But SPCR's official view is always what I seek first before considering a drive, where possible.

I'd be interested in this too, and especially at the 1Tb 2.5" drives:

Samsung Spinpoint MT2 HM100UI
Toshiba MK1059GSM
Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10TEVT / TPVT

Anyone have any experience with these? in terms of performance, noise, reliability etc.?

I thought the main (or maybe only) difference was the amount of cache (32MB for the D vs 64MB for the R). Sounds like you a bad sample, and if vibrates that much, may be a long term risk regarding reliability. The LLC problem is easily fixed with the bios update.

Anyone heard about the new Seagate Green drives with 6 Gb Sata 3.0 interface? They run at 5900 RPM (a little faster than the 5400 RPM WD) but are supposedly just as quiet. According to Seagate:

"The Sata 3.0 (6 Gb) interface has new NCQ commands have been defined to enable isochronous data transfers, primarily intended to improve performance in high-bandwidth applications such as streaming high-definition video."

Newgg is selling is one with 1.5 TB for $70 with free shipping until May 3rd, but I would like to get some feedback from members before I purchase.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148725

I have heard that WD is also coming out with some new Sata 3.0 (6Gb) Green drives.

Heard of them, yes.

6Gb/s SATA on a rotating HD is mostly marketing fluff. Won't make more than a percent or two difference in any real world test vs a 3Gb/s drive even if it were 10,000 RPM instead of the 5400/5900 RPM Green drives.

Seagate has been doing the 5900 RPM thing for several years now and I like the concept of the 5900 vs 5400 (little extra RPM no extra noise or vibration) but the downside has been price and availability of 1 or 2 platter drives. They have been real bad about discontinuing or limiting production of lower capacity 5900 RPM drives.

I'd like to have a 5900 RPM 1 platter drive as a secondary to a SSD but if they don't want to sell them I'll go Samsung 7200 before I'll do Seagate 7200 at least until there are no Samsung drives left. Then it'll depend on if Seagate ups their quality to Samsungs old standard or if Samsung just disappears.

If that happens I'll just buy old samsung drives and then go back to WD single platter 3.5 drives if they'll sell any (without doing the stupid naming game of selling a 1 platter new design and 2 platter old design with the same model number).

If the consolidated Seagate and WD both avoid selling 1 platter 3.5" drives that are clearly delineated as such I suppose I'll just use old drives until I can buy really cheap SSDs as my secondary storage.

as to the specific drive on Newegg that you linked to it is a 3 platter drive (500GB per platter @ 5900 RPM). I have no specific experience with it but I'd assume it will be OK (better than other 3 platter drives but not as quiet as a 1 platter drive). If you are looking for the quietest drive possible you'll want to look at lower capacities or at least look harder for a 2 x 666 per platter or 2 x 750 per platter marketed as a something between 1.2TB and 1.5TB.

Hmm.


1TB per platter looks like a silent/low noise 2TB champ of course no one has it in stock but it should be out soon (Summer 2011?). And apparently they will make a 1 platter 1TB version as well but the model number is still unknown and probably won't be out for a month or two after the 2 platter version. Just hope that both come out in quantity before the merger/acquisition. Who knows, maybe the 1TB platter tech was the final push for seagate to buy them.

http://www.techweet.com/video/cebit-201 ... s-1080p-hd

Maybe, but Seagate claims otherwise, partly becasue of the "new NCQ commands have been defined [with Sata 3.0, 6 Gb/s standard] to enable isochronous data transfers, primarily intended to improve performance in high-bandwidth applications such as streaming high-definition video."

In the link below, Seagate documents a 22% overall performance advantage of Sata 6 Gb/s for their Barracuda XT 2TB drive (although the comparison 3 Gb/s drive with same 7200 RPM has only half as much cache):
http://seagate.com/docs/pdf/evolution_t ... torage.pdf