Which is quieter: 2.5" Notebook hard drive or Barracud

Will35 · Post by **Will35** » Thu May 08, 2003 5:00 pm

This thread will give you some info on 2.5 HDs. The 'cudas are really quiet especially if they are isolated from the tin case. there is some question about the cuda IV being quieter than the newer cuda V. I've only had a V and it's very quiet to my ear.

ez2remember · Post by **ez2remember** » Fri May 09, 2003 10:17 am

Laptop HD can be made quieter easier than desktop HD. A laptop HD requires very little ventilation, as its completely sealed in most laptops without any problems of over heating.

Ideal for foamed sealed boxes!

laptop HD is slower though, but If you don't mind the performance I would go with a laptop HD. Desktop HD is much harder to keep below the limit inside a custom made box. Not impossible, but harder..

Tigr · Post by **Tigr** » Fri May 09, 2003 1:04 pm

Of all laptops I had over the years I can say the quietest was the first one! The further we go the more loud the hard drives become in the laptops. I hate current laptops. I stash them under my desk and put the output on a monitor just to get away from that horrible whine they put out!

So, in any case, don't assume that they are quiet, ok?

marc999 · Post by **marc999** » Fri May 09, 2003 2:52 pm

I agree with Tigr.
Laptop drives are too slow and probably not much quieter, if any. Plus they're expensive. To increase performance, you could RAID the drives, but then you have an increased chance of data loss. I remember researching this about a year ago (before I found this site) and at least back then, according to the Spec Sheets from the manufactures, the Barracuda IV was rated as the quitest (even among laptop drives at 4200 RPM - or maybe I was only looking at the 5400 RPM laptop drives

). Either way, I've found personally it's the high frequency whine that bothers me the most, not the crunching sound. If you have the space, put the Barracuda in a Silent or Smart Drive, and you will not be able to hear it !! If the crunching noise still bothers you, then you could suspend the Silent or Smart Drive with a No Vibes or similar material. This is assuming you have a free 5" bay for the Silent or Smart Drive. If you don't ...... well, I guess it's becomes less definitive then. At that point then you may have to resort to a home made boxed laptop drive (as I'm not aware of any commericially available ones), but I would only do that as a last resort. You could JUST suspend the laptop drive, but I beleive the suspending mainly just gets rid of the crunching sound, not the whining sound.

Zhentar · Post by **Zhentar** » Fri May 09, 2003 3:39 pm

My IBM T30 (I think) has no audible whine, but an audible seek.

Harry Azol · Post by **Harry Azol** » Sat May 10, 2003 5:30 am

Tigr wrote:Of all laptops I had over the years I can say the quietest was the first one! The further we go the more loud the hard drives become in the laptops. I hate current laptops. I stash them under my desk and put the output on a monitor just to get away from that horrible whine they put out!

So, in any case, don't assume that they are quiet, ok?

I have a Toshiba Satelite 2410, it is absolutely SILENT..
The fan is thermally controlled and comes on every 5 minutes or so, for about 10-15seconds..
It uses a IBM Travelstar hd..
I was shocked to not hear any noise coming from the notebook when I first bought it a few months ago..

my 2c

ghowarth · Post by **ghowarth** » Sun May 18, 2003 2:45 am

You probably won't have room for a silentdrive in a SFF case, as most of these have 1 or zero 5.25" bays. That'll mean you'll have to bolt in a 3.5" drive, and suffer vibration noise, or do without an optical drive.

I currently have a hitachi laptop drive screwed into a cubid case, and that transmits a fair amount of vibration noise, especially on seeks. I am going to try suspending it on rubber bands and foam shortly, and see what effect that has - I am pretty sure it will be substantially quieter.

You have to be aware that although SFF cases are small, they are bigger than laptop enclosures and have more hollow space, so the vibration noise is worse.

I am intending to buy a barracuda IV for my case sometime as I am running short on storage space and can't afford another laptop drive, but I suspect that a suspended laptop drive is the quietest solution for small cases.

ghowarth · Post by **ghowarth** » Sun May 18, 2003 2:47 am

although, having said that, my laptop drive is a few years old 5gb one, so newer models may be quieter like tywen indicated in the previous post.

ghowarth · Post by **ghowarth** » Mon May 19, 2003 6:14 pm

I tried to use that tool, but then remembered I didn't have a floppy drive to use the tool with

johtib · Post by **johtib** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 11:43 am

ghowarth wrote:I tried to use that tool, but then remembered I didn't have a floppy drive to use the tool with

Run the case with an open lid an borrow one from another computer, you only need it once!

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:35 am

To answer the original question, the best current notebook drives beat even a Barracuda IV 40G by 5~6 dBA/1m. Vibration level is literally a tiny fraction. No contest, acoustically.