Recommend me a quiet hard drive for an old machine.

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:11 am

I'm looking to replace an 8,4GB IDE (Ultra DMA 33/66) hard drive on an old machine, bacause it makes this buzzing electric noise.

Would some one recomend a few quiet hard drives maybe 20-30 GB that I could look for new or used. Btw I'm trying to keep the costs down.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:35 am

Hard drives below 40 gig typically aren't quiet, both due to their age and the older technology (specifically, lack of fluid drive bearings). If you can get your hands on one, a 40 gig Seagate Barracuda IV (but make sure it's a B IV!) is still one of quietest desktop drives.

Otherwise, if you can get your hands on a cheap laptop hard drive, you can entomb it a'la IsaacKuo, which seems to work excellent.

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:16 am

How will I know it's a Barracuda IV? On Seagates product site there's information on the Barracuda's 7200 and 5400 series but I can't find much about Barracuda IV.

Link: http://www.seagate.com/products/personal/barracuda.html

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:27 am

You want this: http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/dis ... 84,00.html

Unfortunately, discountinued for a long time by now, so something like ebay is probably your best bet...

snoxu · Post by **snoxu** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:35 am

Thanks, I'll look into it...

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:37 am

Barracuda 7200.7 40GB are cheap, quiet and readily available just about everywhere. Not as quiet as the Barracuda IV, but then not much is.

Stjopatron · Post by **Stjopatron** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:26 pm

Excelstor Jupiter J340 40Gb is by margin the quietest drive I have come across. Though old, it is still featured on the company's web site www.excelstor.com.

dmc · Post by **dmc** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 12:06 pm

I was in the same situation , wanted to replace a very noisy 2 GB HD in an otherwise quiet system (fanless P1). I put in a "Seagate U Series X 20", a 5,400 RPM entry level model with 20 GB capacity. The BIOS only recognizes 8 GB but that's enough! This is very, very quiet. But I think there's no extended warranty like on the Barracuda line.

hmsrolst · Post by **hmsrolst** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 12:27 pm

I had the same problem and tried a Barracuda IV, but the BIOS wouldn't recognize it at all, not even 8.4GB. I went with a 6GB UDMA33 notebook drive which is much quieter than what I had, but not as quiet as I'd like. I used to have some Seagate U6's but found them quite variable in noisiness.

duality · Post by **duality** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 1:22 pm

Maybe you should update the BIOS for the computer to recognize... hmm.

Anyhow, my suggestion would be the same: Seagate X20 20GB hard drive. It is 5400 so it shouldn't make much noise at all. In addition, maybe you should look for Western Digital Protege. Also 5400rpm, and the computer I bought had one and it was very quiet, I was impressed.

Also, I could recommend you to go for a 4200rpm notebook drive...