Storage

The industry's top performing enthusiast drive is now available in a larger, 150 GB capacity version. Did noise grow with storage space, or does this new revision have the same quiet idle and sharp seeks that we saw in our review of the last revision? Now that WD can lay claim to making the quietest mainstream drive, we expect great things of them.

The search for a quiet high capacity hard drive continues with Western Digital's 500GB Caviar SE16. SPCR's favorite drives are rapidly disappearing as the Samsung Spinpoint P80 and the Seagate Barracuda IV fade further into obscurity; the market has long since moved on from our single-platter 40GB and 80 GB favorites. So far, no high capacity >250GB drives have lived up to SPCR's tough noise standards; could this WD be the one?

You only have to put up with the noise of a portable drive when you're copying to and from it — not whenever your computer is running. On top of that, many portable storage devices employ quiet 2.5" or smaller drives that are inherently quieter than the full-size ones in your PC. They're just so darn convenient that we had to take a look at a couple samples of Seagate's clumsily named but elegantly designed USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive and Pocket Hard Drive.

Perpendicular recording technology has trickled down to a desktop drive... and what a difference it makes. Seagate's new 7200.10 boasts 750 GB of space — 50% more than any other drive currently on the market. The drive has already begun collecting accolades for its performance, but how does it do for noise and power? Find out in our review.

Ever thought about getting rid of your hard drive entirely? We did. Read about our effort to run Windows with the Newisys NA-1400 NAS appliance. Whether or not Network Attached Storage can run your OS, it's a good remote storage solution that can put the noise where you are not. The Newisys NA-1400 comes in 1.0, 1.6, and 2.0 terabyte models — just stick it in a basement and enjoy.

Hitachi's 500G flagship 7,200rpm HDD with 5 platters and 16mb of cache comes under the scrutiny of SPCR's audioscope.

The first perpendicular recording drive to reach the market, this new 5400rpm model from Seagate breaks new ground. It has 30% higher capacity than any other notebook drive, yet requires no more power, generates no more heat, and makes no more noise.

This new 7.2k-rpm notebook drive from Hitachi has such low seek noise that the difference between idle and seek is difficult to hear. It's not just quiet; its performance is such is that it blurs the distinction between desktop and notebook drives. The TravelStar E7K100 may well be a harbinger of good things to come in the transition from 3.5" to 2.5" drives.

An external drive that can handle read/write just about every kind of optical disc for computers: The Writemaster SE-W164C is from Samsung, a brand that's developed a reputation for quiet storage components.

Our continuing search for a super quiet 3.5" hard drive turned up two single-platter models from Seagate and Hitachi. How do they fare against the single-platter Barracuda IV of old and the venerable but still available Samsung P80?

Seagate joins Maxtor and Hitachi in offering a 500 GB hard drive in this era of ever increasing storage capacity. The Barracuda 7200.9 is a 4-platter drive with 16 mb of cache and SATA 2.5 compliance. We take a sample for a spin around our lab.

The Enermax Laureate EB205U external notebook HDD enclosure is a little aluminum enclosure only marginally bigger than a notebook drive. USB 2.0 provides both connectivity and power for the drive. How well does this $22 MSRP device work?

Our usual noise-focused review of a new Momentus 2.5" HDD model from Seagate. This one is 7200 RPM, with 8 MB cache, SATA & NCQ and still very quiet. Pretty pricey at this point, but that's the norm for any fast cutting-edge component.

This is a second generation sample of Seagate's flagship model Momentus, now with SATA interface and the highest capacity of any 5400 RPM notebook drive. Our sample of one of the original Momentus left us nonplussed. This 5400.2 fares much better.

The Samsung P80 has been our top recommendation for a quiet 3.5" drive for quite some time, but it's showing its age. The new P120 series offers higher areal density and capacity, both of which translate to higher performance. Does the P120 retain the acoustic qualities that endeared the last generation of Samsung drives to quiet PC enthusiasts?