Info about some quiet notebook hard drives.

al bundy · Post by **al bundy** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 3:00 am

mjrpes wrote:...i bought a seagate 5400rpm 40gig 2.5in harddrive (ST94011A), believing seagate's quality as a quiet 3.5in hdd vender would translate to 2.5in, but was dismayed to find the drive emitted a high pitch whine that made it unusable as a quiet alternative (although it was much quieter than the IBM 8.0gig it replaced).

so i did a search here, found this thread, and am hoping my recent purchase of a fujitsu will turn out well

Welcome to the forums mjrpes. I hope the Fujitsu works out well for you, and that you will please let us know your thoughts about it. Which specific Fujitsu laptop did you purchase?

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 3:31 am

Here're my results with Fujitsu's 8MB-cached, 4200rpm, 80GB, dual-platter, four-head MHT2080AT, just to add to the mix. I included temperature ranges while mounted inside a SilentDrive enclosure.

-Ed

robinwood · Post by **robinwood** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 5:01 am

Anyone have tried the Momentus 20 giga (single plate) ?

Maybe it could be more silent than the 40 giga version.

Thanks

mjrpes · Post by **mjrpes** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 2:34 pm

al bundy wrote:
Welcome to the forums mjrpes. I hope the Fujitsu works out well for you, and that you will please let us know your thoughts about it. Which specific Fujitsu laptop did you purchase?

i meant a fujitsu harddrive

i got the 60gig version mentioned at the beginning of this old thread (MHS2060AT i think).

i will post here one i get it installed on my laptop (a semi old sony vaio pcg-z505je) and report the good news.

just based on the seagate, it's amazing how much of a difference the noise levels can be on a laptop harddrive. before i installed the seagate, i could never use the laptop in a quiet place like a library because the thing hissed and growled and was overall way too loud. even though i'm returning it, the seagate made a big difference and almost gaved the laptop a new life (although it's only a 500 MHz PIII, it's still more than adaquate for basic applications). shame that the seagate wasn't perfect... that's what i'm hoping the fujitsu will be.

mjrpes · Post by **mjrpes** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 2:39 pm

Edward Ng wrote:Here're my results with Fujitsu's 8MB-cached, 4200rpm, 80GB, dual-platter, four-head MHT2080AT, just to add to the mix. I included temperature ranges while mounted inside a SilentDrive enclosure.

-Ed

good info. does this forum do stickies? i think that there should be a thread stuck at top with a rough overview of the most quiet 2.5 and 3.5 drives. like a quiet drive faq. it honestly would be very helpful

robinwood · Post by **robinwood** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 12:12 am

News hardrive:
Samsung 2.5" 5400 8mb Magma Serie
http://www.samsung.com/pl/products/hard ... /index.asp

Coming soon

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 2:52 pm

That might explain why, if you go to www.samsungusa.com, the SpinPoint V-series (5400rpm, 3.5") appear to have been moved to the Discontinued Products section; perhaps Samsung is replacing the SV drives with this new Magma series drives.

I'm just making a random assumption.

-Ed

boink · Post by **boink** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:14 am

Hi, I found this forum in a search for quiet laptop HD's

Right now I own a powerbook with a TOSHIBA 10GB 4200rpm MK1017GAP. It is considerably less noisy than my old IBM 10GB Travelstar drive which Apple replaced for me. (The IBM was screaming in my ear, not pretty)

But I need a little bit more room and was thinking about any of these hard drive models:

Fujitsu Hornet 40Gb 5400rpm MHT2040AH
Hitachi Travelstar 5K80, 40Gb, 5400rpm 08K0637
Toshiba 40Gb 5400rpm,16Mb MK4026GAX

My question is: which is the most quiet? This is really the one of the most important selling points for me (although I'm almost sure they will beat my MK1017GAP in quietness anyway)

And evenly important: Are they backwards compatible with my ATA/5 interface (old PB, old interface).
Thanks for any input on this!

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:27 am

I believe the samsung 2.5" is the most quiet, which you didn't list.. I can't find the link for it currently but someone was raving about it recently.

boink · Post by **boink** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:59 am

Thanks for your comment, wumpus. However there is a reason for the composition of that list and that is *availability* in my neighborhood in the Netherlands.
Also the search for samsung 2.5" brings up quite a few reviews (ranging from horrible to very good) but I can not find any really raving review about a 2.5" samsung. But if you happen to stumble upon the link please post it. It might be a good alternative if I can find it.

msp · Post by **msp** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 6:03 am

I have the Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60Gb 7200RPM 8Mb HDD in my Compaq laptop. Originally my laptop had some Toshiba 20Gb 4200 RPM drive. I have to say that this hitachi drive has quieter idle noise than that toshiba. When the CPU cooler is not runnig ( no noise ). I can only hear the HDD drives idle noise from about 20cm away but even then it is very very faint hum. And the seek noise, well you can control it by yourself with the DOS drive tool and i have the quiet / performance slider at the middle and the seek noise is quite low. I have not tested it with the fastest mode but i think you can hear it easily but i don't think that it is as loud as the toshiba drives seek that was quite noticeable. You also can control the Power saving / performance for this drive but i my laptop tested with sisoft sandra there was no difference in performace so i keep it in the more power saving because it also runs little cooler then. But maybe my laptop is also a little bottleneck for the performance altough that it supports ATA-100. But this drive is considerably faster in real life use than the toshiba. And the temperatures with this drive in my laptop are between 40-49C. The area where the HDD is located does not feel warmer than with the toshiba drive. HDD is located above DDR rams in quite tight space as usually in laptop so it is to be expected that it runs a little warm at least in my laptop.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 7:29 am

Boink, I bet MikeC has a review coming up for that Samsung drive. He hints at something promising right on the front page

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 12:27 pm

boink wrote:Also the search for samsung 2.5" brings up quite a few reviews (ranging from horrible to very good) but I can not find any really raving review about a 2.5" samsung. But if you happen to stumble upon the link please post it. It might be a good alternative if I can find it.

Here's hoping against what MikeC puts in any forthcoming review. Generally I am content to ignore reviews elsewhere and put much more weight on reviews & comments here at SPCR, but where did you see a horrible review of the Samsung?

The Samsungs are available at Overclockers UK - I would guess they will ship to the Netherlands.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 3:09 pm

boink wrote:However there is a reason for the composition of that list and that is *availability* in my neighborhood in the Netherlands.

Alternate sells the 30GB Samsung Spinpoint M for €85,00 and the 40GB Samsung Spinpoint M for €99,00.

That 30GB at Alternate is the cheapest Samsung Spinpoint M I have found available in the Netherlands.

boink · Post by **boink** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 1:32 am

Alternate sells the 30GB Samsung Spinpoint M for €85,00 and the 40GB Samsung Spinpoint M for €99,00.

That 30GB at Alternate is the cheapest Samsung Spinpoint M I have found available in the Netherlands.

Thanks!

DuckSeason · Post by **DuckSeason** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 6:33 am

For completions sake, I'm reitterating my view (more in-depth posts elsewhere) that the Seagate Momentus drives are rubbish - at least as far as being quiet goes, anyway. Seagate promote them as "inaudible" and that's just a lie. The Fujitsu 30G I had in an identical machine (Acer TM290) was much quiter than the ST94019A (OEM 40G 4,200rpm). I'll dump it for one of the suggestions here, which is the best guide I've read for pre-purchase info.

doodddoo · Post by **doodddoo** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 8:38 am

I personally cannot wait 'til the Samsung 2.5" HDD article's out from MikeC, I've deliberately held off purchasing a 2.5" HDD since seeing that sneek peak and have been waiting real patiently over several months for the article to emerge. I've had some first hand experience between both the Fujitsu and Toshiba HDDs but found the Toshiba to be relatively noisy during seek... perhaps a little noisier during idle also. The Fujitsu on the otherhand is almost inaudible in the Powerbook I'm using, it definately is a little gem. Currently have no idea of what the 2.5" Samsung is capable of, in terms of Speed and Silence. Anyone know how it roughly compares with Fujitsu and Toshiba?