Fastest Quietest Drive

falcon26 · Post by **falcon26** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:20 pm

I'm looking to upgrade my 2 year old 120 gig samsung ide hard drive. I want a drive that is fast and quiet, which would be the best one out their now? I have no idea myself I've looked at alot of drives and can't figure out which one. I would like it to be Sata 8 mb cache and 7200 rpm.

Thanks, falcon26

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:28 pm

Another Samsung?

If you don't mind seek noise, you could use a Raptor.

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:31 pm

falcon,
there is no definate answer. First, it depends on how much space you need. if you only need a system drive and you want it to be very fast, a suspended raptor is fairly quiet (especially the newest models). if you are a complete silence nutter and need 200-250gb of space then get a samsung p120 series. finally if you need more the 250gb of space get a Western Digital JD series.

falcon26 · Post by **falcon26** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:31 pm

My friend has the raptor its way to loud for me. I just want it to be fast yet quiet. I mean the samsing spinpoint I have is quiet very quiet but its not very fast.

falcon26 · Post by **falcon26** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:34 pm

So samsung is still the best to get. I've heard hatachi is good. I would like a drive that's fastest than the one I have now and just as quiet. Right now I have a samsung spinpoint 120 gig 7200 rpm 8 mv cache ide hard drive.

teknerd · Post by **teknerd** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:44 pm

the hitachi's are not very quiet compared to other available drives
given what you have said i would recommend the Western Digital JD series. Some people have had issues with the drives whining, but mine has been fine and they performed well during the SPCR review.

falcon26 · Post by **falcon26** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:45 pm

How is this one?

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Fee ... 6822152025

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 7:26 pm

Yes. that's the one to get. and just suspend the drive for the full effect.

or the 200gb version of it, something I would get instead. heats up a tiny bit less and might be a tiny bit quieter.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:40 pm

What do you need this speed for? Large striping arrays will speed up Photoshop applications (on the order of 3-4 drive arrays or more, none of this two drive BS), but won't do much for application loading.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 4:54 pm

well, lamoid Windows Vista suggests a drive with NCQ on it.

I would guess a sata-II true device and board would be better for this environment.

even though i think sata-ii is marketing crap

jermaink · Post by **jermaink** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 5:09 am

Is the Raptor quiet/silent while idle? Apparently at idle, it creates the same dB as the Spinpoints (21 dB).

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 6:17 am

jermaink: yeah.

nici · Post by **nici** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:18 am

I find the idle noise of the Raptor more pleasant than the P80. I have one WD740 Raptor and one 120Gb spinpoint and one 160Gb spinpoint wich areboth nidecs. Cant say i can hear a difference in volume of the noise.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 7:38 am

I'm also curious what you need this speed for. Going from a 7200RPM 2MB 3.5" drive to a 5400RPM 8MB 2.5" drive, I noticed very little difference in performance. The only place the notebook drive lags behind is sustained transfers (for example, Windows takes slightly longer to load), probably due to the lower arial density of the platters. But as far as responsiveness goes, I couldn't tell a difference.

By upgrading to a newer drive with more dense platters, you may see a small increase in transfer rates. But if you go with a 7,200RPM or even a 10kRPM drive, you're probably not going to see any difference in how responsive Windows is.

But yeah, if it's for photo/video editing, that's a different story.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:43 pm

I guess a good question is does your mobo support SATA?SATA-2? The SATA 2 Spinpoint 200 gb is about the fastest and quietest 7200 rpm drive. I noticed quite a response gain when I went from 5400 to 7200,and going to a Raptor ought to mean more gain-but a Raptor is not quiet. If you REALLY need Speed- 1 Raptor may be less noise than the total of 2 quieter raided drives. I am wondering if there is a next gen Raptor..a bit quieter,better density,quieter+cooler and SATA2. The Raptor's high rpm could make the SATA 2 more effective.

nici · Post by **nici** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 8:37 am

From the SPCR review of the Raptor

The dual platter Raptor impressed us with its idle noise. There is no motor noise to speak of; the only noise is the whoosh of airflow across the spinning platters. The overall volume is slightly louder than our favorite reference drive — the Barracuda IV — gauged by listening and by SPL measurements. It actually matches our reference quiet Samsung (Nidec motor) drives for idle SPL.

The vibration level at idle is quite good, on par with the Barracuda IV. In a real system, the Raptor's vibration noise might be slightly more intrusive than the Barracuda because of the higher pitch fundamental of the 10,000 RPM drive (167 Hz instead of 120 Hz for a 7200 RPM drive), but the total amount of vibration is roughly the same.

We were expecting that the higher spindle speed of the Raptor would translate into a higher power draw. This did appear to be the case, although the increase in power consumption was much less than we expected, somewhere in the realm of 1W at idle and 2-3W while seeking. Despite its spindle speed, the Raptor is not the most power hungry drive we've seen; it is merely higher than average. With the extra heatsinks that are incorporated into the casing, it should have no problem dissipating the extra heat that this power produces.

The results are the same as i have. Idle noise is about the same as P80 Nidec, but seeks are louder. I dont find seeks to be disturbing though, i just care about idle noise. And the silicone grommets in the P180 do a damn good job at dempening the seeks.. i can just hear a faint clicking when it mounted in the lower chamber.