Is a truly silent magnetic hard disk possible?

DAve_M · Post by **DAve_M** » Fri May 15, 2009 2:57 am

Is it possible to silence a hard disk? Silence is where the disk is inaudible at 1 meter in very quiet surroundings like a bedroom at night time. Can a regular hard disk compete with a SSD in terms of noise?

For example a WD Scorpio Blue, Scythe quiet drive 2.5", elastic suspension. Cost Â£75 total for 320GB. Or Â£105 to then put this inside the 3.5" scythe quiet drive, bolted into a 5.25" bay.

The alternative being somthing like OCZ Solid Series 30GB for Â£90.

Which would you go for?

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:53 am

If you look at all your variables I'd say there's one of them that is very easy to change for at least half of all the readers of this thread: Distance. The tradition says that you should put your desktop computer very close to your desk. It's quite easy these days to place the computer in a different room with regular HDMI and USB cables, and if you're like me and uses the DVD like ten times a year you won't miss it.

So my answer would be HDD, if it sounds too much after all your efforts to make it silent then move it. One day it will be SSD, but not today.

I've said this before, and I know some people don't want to break the traditions like I do. There may be other reasons though. Some people think their computer case is something to be proud of, I think it should be hidden away.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Fri May 15, 2009 5:52 am

no spinning drive will be totally silent at one meter..unless you're in a vacuum.

Tobias · Post by **Tobias** » Fri May 15, 2009 7:14 am

Mats wrote:If you look at all your variables I'd say there's one of them that is very easy to change for at least half of all the readers of this thread: Distance. The tradition says that you should put your desktop computer very close to your desk. It's quite easy these days to place the computer in a different room with regular HDMI and USB cables, and if you're like me and uses the DVD like ten times a year you won't miss it.

So my answer would be HDD, if it sounds too much after all your efforts to make it silent then move it. One day it will be SSD, but not today.

I've said this before, and I know some people don't want to break the traditions like I do. There may be other reasons though. Some people think their computer case is something to be proud of, I think it should be hidden away.

I know that is the reasonable, economical and grown up way to do it, but where is the fun?

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Fri May 15, 2009 7:28 am

Tobias wrote:

The fun is in trying to completely hide the FACT that you're a nerd. Trust me, it's just as hard to achieve as to build a silent PC with moving parts.

Seriously though, I just think all kind of electronics are ugly in a home. So hiding it makes me feel better because then I don't have to look at it, just like most people here don't want to hear it.
And even if you hide it you can still try to make it silent, but in the end it may cost you less by doing both. Suddently the stock HS is good enough, and so are the case fans, and you don't care about the PSU that ramps up to 25 dBA according to SPCR because you can't hear it anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagom

Kaleid · Post by **Kaleid** » Sat May 16, 2009 1:35 am

A 5400rpm harddrive in say a Scythe Quiet Drive placed on foam so that vibrations are eaten up is probably as close as one can get to total silence from mechanical harddrives.

In my system the difference with or without SQD was HUGE. The third harddrive is actually in a Scythe Himuro, which is efficient in quieting down the harddrive(s) as well. Its also cheaper and smaller than the quiet drive and thus it fits better.

DAve_M · Post by **DAve_M** » Sat May 16, 2009 6:07 am

ok thanks for your input, peeps. I think the answer is scythe quiet drive can make a very big improvement, but at the same time cannot make it silent.

I'm going to try moving the computer to be hidden away as well. I will buy a SSD one day... I already have a NAS with all the storage space I need.

Steve_Y · Post by **Steve_Y** » Sat May 16, 2009 7:47 am

I use a couple of 320Gb WD Scorpio Black 2.5" HDDs in a SilentDrive enclosure.

Hard mounted in a 5.25" bay they were still audible due to vibration. In the bottom of the case, on a soft rubber pad, the drives are no longer audible at 1m. Even when the room is very quiet and other sources of noise are turned off, I can't detect that the drives are on.

My case is lined with AcoustiPack sound dampening foam which probably helps a bit. YMMV.

rocket733 · Post by **rocket733** » Sat May 16, 2009 9:17 am

SSD really is the way to go. I have a vertex and my computer is much less annoying (although to be fair I did have a noisy 3.5" drive).

LodeHacker · Post by **LodeHacker** » Sun May 17, 2009 12:39 am

Not silent but really close: Already quiet 2.5" -> Scythe Quiet Drive 2.5" -> NoVibes / suspension -> rubber grommets in 5.25" cage.

Of course for a single 2.5" drive you'll lose a full 5.25" bay and it still will not be silent, BUT it is really close and MOST LIKELY your fans / PSU / other noise source in system will drown out this Ã¼ber dampening for a 2.5" drive.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Mon May 18, 2009 5:18 am

I use Samsung HM080HC 2.5", 74.5Gb, 1platter as my system main disk. It is lying on the thick black spongy antistatic pad (comes with motherboards) on the very bottom of the case, and this makes him completely inaudible even right near outside the case! Thus I can hear the noise of only two of my system fans -- PSU+CPU (350+950rpm).

I also believe no 3.5" can achieve the goal, even 5400 rpm-ed.

[UPD] Hm, my brand-new HD502HI is rather silent for a 3.5"

Eunos · Post by **Eunos** » Mon May 18, 2009 5:54 pm

Agreed, a highly padded/concealed single platter 2.5" like my 80gb Scorpio is inaudible at 1m even at night with a low noise floor. SSDs are nonetheless bringing other benefits like speed improvements, silence even in laptops and improved shockproofing.

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Tue May 19, 2009 12:40 pm

Obviously the really cheap SSD should be avoided due to well known issues with them. OCZ Solid is one of the them.

DAve_M · Post by **DAve_M** » Tue May 19, 2009 1:19 pm

Cheap SSD will be easy to avoid then. But how do you get a single platter disk? That information can be difficult to come by.

Edit: How about a Samsung Spinpoint M HM250JI 250GB + Scythe Quiet Drive? There is a 500 GB samsung that is quite tempting, how important is single platter?

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Tue May 19, 2009 3:05 pm

I don`t think that the number of platters is that important. From my experience it`s the casing that matters the most. Drives with flimsy covers like some of the later western digitals can be quite annoying. Recently I have experimented with mass loading with very positive results. My 80gb scorpio is inaudible at one meter mostly thanks to a thick aluminium heatsink attached to the top cover. An anclosure would work in a similar way though I don`t think it`s necessary when you could recycle an old drive and use it as a sound barrier.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Wed May 20, 2009 12:43 am

ntavlas

I don`t think that the number of platters is that important.

Yeah, I have the same opinion.

And much more important thing is the way how power management works in the specific HDD. He shouldn't unload/load head unit every 15 seconds in attempt to save 250mW or so. I hate these clanking sounds that spoil the matter of silence.

Unfortunately you find this out when you already own the drive

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Wed May 20, 2009 12:50 am

DAve_M wrote: How about a Samsung Spinpoint M HM250JI 250G

Is there any way to test it before you buy? You must be sure that there is no side tones when it's working idle.

DAve_M · Post by **DAve_M** » Wed May 20, 2009 10:37 am

Ksanderash wrote:Is there any way to test it before you buy? You must be sure that there is no side tones when it's working idle.

Unfortunatly, it would not be possible to test before I buy. Hopfully there is is someone on spcr that can say yay or nay to a 500GB samsung...

Samsung Spinpoint M6 HM500LI. Samsung website boasts that it has...

NoiseGuardâ„¢
SilentSeekâ„¢

But not much else to go on. Surely no user reviews on somewhere like newegg can be trusted if they claim it is silent. A review on Tom's Hardware showed the drive to have dissapointing power consumption. So it is looking good - as if it's not unloading the heads to save a bit of power.

Hopefully someone on spcr can pass judgement on this drive or a similar one.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Wed May 20, 2009 11:30 am

DAve_M wrote:Unfortunatly, it would not be possible to test before I buy. Hopfully there is is someone on spcr that can say yay or nay to a 500GB samsung...

After googling a while, and judging by myself different 2.5" drives experience, I would say nay. They say that it has very loud spindle's hiss. Not good for SPCR recommendation. We have this model at the store but I skipped it.

Hopefully someone on spcr can pass judgement on this drive or a similar one.

Hey, look here. I'm on EcoGreen2 now

And I like it!

DAve_M · Post by **DAve_M** » Wed May 20, 2009 1:02 pm

Ksanderash wrote:Hey, look here. I'm on EcoGreen2 now And I like it!

But that is a 3.5" drive. I thought it was better to go for a 2.5"

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Wed May 20, 2009 2:23 pm

DAve_M wrote: But that is a 3.5" drive. I thought it was better to go for a 2.5"

I agree with your way of thinking, but I don't see any safe choice

Sorry.

DAve_M · Post by **DAve_M** » Fri May 29, 2009 9:00 am

Ok, some time has passed. Still looking into silent storage. This is what I have found out...

Most silent hard disk tested by SPCR is the WD GreenPower 2TB - at a mere 13 dBA - quieter than all other hard disks tested including 2.5" drives. But I also hear that Samsung EcoGreen F2 500GB is quieter than WD GreenPower. Therefore, Samsung EcoGreen F2 500GB is the quietest drive ever made (practically speaking, excluding SSD, etc).

Is this true? If so, SPCR recomended HDD list should just be deleted and replaced with a link to a picture of a EcoGreen 500GB

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Sat May 30, 2009 4:52 am

Yeah, the 2.5" section has a lot of out-dated information.

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:01:01 GMT
Samsung has unveiled a new, rugged hard drive for mobile computing in the form of the Spinpoint M7. This 2.5-inch hard drive comes in 250-, 320-, 400-, 500-GB capacities with 250GB per platter layout and capables to withstand shock up to 400G/2ms while operating. It also boasts a new controller to reduce power consumption in seek mode by up to 25 percent over conventional 2.5-inch drives. Other specs include a 5400rpm spindle speed, 8MB cache, native command queuing and a 3.0Gbps SATA interface.

...

And as for 3.5" EcoGreen2, it is realy very silent. I talked to many EcoGreen2 owners and they all share this opinion.

...

Another alternative for Samsung? (Hitachi Travelstar 5K500.B)
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5003
Noise from the drive was minimal, even exposed during our benchmarks without any sort of insulating plastic around it. Some motor hum could be heard with your ear stuck next to the drive, but even head seeking noise was barely heard. Contrast this to a drive like the Seagate 5400.5 that you can hear clicking from a foot or two away and the Hitachi is better than whisper quiet.

DAve_M · Post by **DAve_M** » Sun May 31, 2009 9:52 am

Ahhhh nice find! But the Travelstar 5K500.B seems rather expensive a difficult to get hold. I found another interesting option, Fujitsu MHZ2320BH. It's priced about the same as the Samsung EcoGreen 500GB, but it's 2.5" SATA and 320GB. It's widly availible, but no word on noise, but it's very low power and looks like it could be very quiet. It only uses 1.9W when active - even better than the Travelstar 5K500.B. I wish SPCR could get some more of these drives tested.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Sun May 31, 2009 1:21 pm

DAve_M wrote:Ahhhh nice find! But the Travelstar 5K500.B seems rather expensive a difficult to get hold. I found another interesting option, Fujitsu MHZ2320BH.

Hm... Yeah, it is energy efficient, but...

Fujitsu's MHZ2320BH G1 320GB HDD has a spindle speed of 5400rpm, 8MB buffer and SATA-II 3.0Gb/s interface. It's a bit of a surprise as Toshiba makes pretty good HDDs themselves. The Fujitsu is quite loud, making faint coffee brewing sounds that do not inspire confidence. Temperatures during normal use ranged from about 40-50 degrees Celsius. HD Tune performance was in-line with the ubiquitous Western Digital drives. Initially I feared that the Fujitsu was a bad choice but my concerns were unfounded. (link)
...
The MHZ2320BH is now installed in my Zepto. I think it is a bit noisier than the WD2500BEVS that it has replaced. The heads make a bit of a mumbling noise when SuperFetch is busy but would only be audible in a quiet room. (link)

Damn, it's so slow...

(what would anyone expect from the beginning 2008 year model)

HD Tune: Fujitsu MHZ2320BH G2 Benchmark
Transfer Rate Minimum: 24.9 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum: 63.5 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average: 48.9 MB/sec
Access Time: 17.4 ms
Burst Rate: 99.2 MB/sec
CPU Usage: 2.5 %

[UPD] Found a user report on WD5000BEVT!
...I turn on my laptop rarely, but I can say that this drive inside has a very low noise and heat dissipation, and after tweaking the WD Intellipark feature via wdidle3 /d command there is no even sound of heads parking in idle... (link) (sorry, in Russian)

Tom's review on WD5000BEVT.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:03 am

Anybody using WD5000BEVT on this forum? Share your personal opinion, please.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 8:47 am

Another competitor it is Seagate 2,5" ST9500325AS (Momentus 5400.6 series) 500Gb(2pl) 5400rpm 8Mb.

seek = 1,54W
read/write= 2,6/2,85W
idle/stndb = 0,81/0,22W

They say that it is quiet. And doesn't park so often (there was a simillar sound about 3 times in 2 days).