I'm currently running with a 40 GB Legendary(tm) Barracuda IV, which has been serving me well, but is approaching full. I need to upgrade to something larger that is hopefully no louder.

In looking around SPCR, it looks like the 2.5" Travelstar 7K200 in the 100 GB size is about the quietest 7200 RPM drive I can get.

Have I missed anything? Is there something that is obviously quieter that I should also be looking at? (Other than SSD, of course--I'll wait for the prices to come down (a lot) before making that jump!)

Thanks!


P.S. My system has only two moving parts: the hard drive, and a 120mm fan at ~900 RPM in the power supply. The CPU and video card are passively cooled. So the noise level of the drive is of critical importance to keeping it quiet!

Wow, you mustn't be a hoarder like me. 40GB sounds like a world of pain.

I don't know about quiet hard disks (I bought 500 GB FDB Samsung drives recommended here, but they are now the noisiest component in the machine). To answer your question with another question: have you considered the idea of some kind of network attached storage? The consumer grade gear is getting pretty cheap these days, and that way you could put a nice fast, large modern hard disk somewhere out of the way where you can't hear it.

Something like the Netgear SC101 (holds 1 or 2 IDE disks) can be had here in Australia for around US$120. You would still need to keep the 40GB disk in your machine though, and you can only run Windows - the device requires Windows-only drivers..

Bruce, thanks for the suggestion--I hadn't even thought of the possibility of remote storage.

However, I'm trying to "keep it simple, stupid", so I'm planning to stick with a single drive, in the system itself.


Doing more research, it looks like the Western Digital WD5000AACS might be a better choice. It appears to be the quietest drive SPCR has ever tested?--I'm a little unclear on that, because there seem to be multiple contenders for "best so far," but the that series appears to be the most recent contender. (The 750GB and 1TB were tested here.)

The price for the WD5000AACS appears to be about the same as the 7K200, with five times the capacity. It does spin at 5400 RPM instead of my specified 7200, but benchmarks seem to indicate that the 250GB per platter density gives it very good performance. I suspect it's faster than the 7K200, given the lower per-track capacity of the 2.5" drive.

Anybody have any thoughts about all this?

Hi, the old 'cuda IV while very quiet are not fast compared to modern HDDs. Yes they are 7200rpm but other things, mainly areal density and cache size have moved on, the 'cuda only has 2MB cache vs 8MB-16MB-32MB on modern drives. I would think the 7K200 laptop drive would be appreciably faster than the 'cuda, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if a modern 5400rpm laptop drive was at least as fast!
I have a WD5000AAKS in a Scythe Quiet Drive and it's very quiet, probably similar to the bare 'cuda IV (allowing I haven't used one in my system for ~3 years!) not to mention slightly larger and faster
I can't hear my HDD idle at all at the moment and seeks are very muted but I've just turned my 120mm CPU fan up to 900rpm and I can hear that fairly clearly if that helps with absolute noise level judgement. (Arctic Cooling 120mm PWM fan rigged on to ZEROTherm BTF90 butterfly, not a bad fan, disappears below 600rpm)
I have a Seagate 100GB 7200.1 (IDE) in my work laptop and it's not that quiet really, the HGST 7200rpm laptop drive may well be better though. You can get Scythe Quiet Drives for 2.5" drives too, and even put 2.5" drive in 2.5" SQD in 3.5" SQD! But that would be overkill for anyone not living in an anechoic chamber!
I would suggest the 5400rpm WD "Green Power" drives as giving you the capacity and quiet you desire along with much greater performance than your current 'cuda IV. If you want to push the speed aspect get a good 7200rpm drive (Samsung F1 looks like a favourite)
If not quiet enough (suspended obviously) then get an enclosure, Scythe Quiet Drive or SmartDrive are known good, as is allycat's home brew one using aluminium box and gel packs.
Good luck, Seb

Hello,

I think the Western Digital Green Power drives are quieter than the 'Cuda IV, and while they are 5400RPM, it should be about as fast (maybe faster?) -- and they certainly are bigger. It is easier to deal with a 3.5" drive in a desktop case.

Reading the reviews of the 7K200, I am not sure why people are considering this 2.5" drive. It looks to be louder and slower than say a 500GB T166.

Maybe try a one platter Samsung HM160HC 160GB 5400RPM 2.5" drive.
It's a bit faster than the 7K200, wind noise also better, only disadvantage is the very big sample variance in terms of vibration. (all Samsung drives has this problem)
Samsung HM160HC HDTach results

I picked up a 160GB Seagate Scorpio 5,400RPM 2.5" drive and I can say that I am very impressed. From where I sit, I litterally cannot hear the thing (suspended) and it actually got a better Vista score (5.3) than the Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 3.5" drive it replaced (5.2).

I was expecting a performance hit, but it seems about the same if not better.

Untill SSD becomes the affordable standard, I'll probably stick with a good 2.5" drive and make a server out of all my other hard drives and tuck those away in a place I wouldn't hear regardless of the sound they make.

Hi All, to further my comments on relative drive speed I've been and looked at figures on StorageReview as they are one of the most reliable sources for real-world performance figures.
From their current (DriveMark 2006) database I've pulled figures for the Hitatchi 7K1000 (1000GB), WD10EACS (1000GB), Samsung T166 (500GB), Seagate 5400.3 (160GB, 2.5") and Seagate 7200.8 (400GB). The 'cuda IV is too old to be in the current database but is in their previous (2002) database as is the 7200.8. I used the ratio of 'cuda IV to 7200.8 scores to estimate 2006 scores for the 'cuda IV, Office 2002 ratio for Office 2006 score, high-end 2002 ratio for high-end 2006 score and gaming 2002 ratio for the 2006 games scores. This maybe reasonably accurate or it maybe way off the mark, I've no idea how to even tell how right/wrong the numbers maybe but they give the following:


Or if you prefer % based off the OP's original 'cuda IV


So what does it all mean? Well the 5400.3 (IDE in SRs tests) is equally fast as the 'cuda IV and probably as quiet (or quieter) and available in (at least) 160GB size, rather more than the OP's 40GB. WD do laptop drives in 250 & 320GB size that I believe to be faster than the 5400.3 (a bit) while probably similarly quiet.
The 7200.8 is an older 3.5" 7200rpm drive and outscores the 'cuda IV by 40-50% across the board. The Samsung T166 and WD GP1000 are similar performance to each other and in the game tests similar to the 7200.8 yet out perform it in the High-end and, particularly, Office (usage) scores. The 7K1000 is faster still across the board but noise rules it out and I only included it for reference.
Note: In the same tests the Travelstar 7K200 (200GB, 7200rpm, 2.5â€

5400 drives in both form factors have indeed made noticeable gains in performance since the 'Cuda IV was competitive with other 7200 drives. I don't imagine you would be disappointed if you act on the conclusion you have reached.

However, I wanted as quiet a drive as possible that still (listed in order of importance):

1) fit in a highly-constrained mATX environment
2) sustained my current level of HDD performance
3) provided lower hard drive temperatures while suspended or rested on foam.

I thus recently purchased a Hitachi Travelstar 100GB 7K200 to replace my Samsung P80 120GB IDE with Nidec motor. I suppose my needs are only similar to yours in that I don't need much storage space. That said,

1) I now have space not only to supsend the drive in my 5.25" bay but to simultaneously enclose it in a Scythe Quiet Drive (2.5" version)
2) Performance is more than comparable; the 7K200 actually bests the P80 in most categories
3) With idle and active temps approximately 7 and 3 times lower, respectively, than those of my P80, keeping the 7K200 cool should not be a problem, even when suspended and enclosed in the 5.25" bay with minimal airflow.

As far as the aforementioned comparison of T166 and 7K200 noise levels at SR is concerned, it must be noted that the 200GB version of the 7K200 they reviewed has 2 platters and 4 heads. The 100GB version, meanwhile, has only 1 platter and 2 heads (page 17). Hitachi also lists the 100GB version as relatively quieter, measuring 2.2/2.6 "typical" Bels idle/seek while the 200GB version measures 2.5/2.9 "typical" Bels idle/seek (page 37). Travelstar 7K200 Specification

In theory, the 72K00 should be reasonably quiet in my particular setup. Only tests will tell. However, after all the work I've put into my latest build, I can't be bothered to hook my P80 up for comparison. Problematically, the P80--while enclosed in a 2002 SmartDrive, itself sitting in a 5.25" bay with no airflow--was not the loudest thing in my old system; comparisons between HDD noise in my old and new setups won't be very helpful. It will be at least another week before I finish this build anyways.