What's a fast, but quiet, HDD?

kleptophobiac · Post by **kleptophobiac** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 9:06 am

My WD1200JB is the most annoying part of my system, but I am addicted to its speed. The cudas just seem a little too slow for a replacement, but what else would be good?

I'm looking for something that is at least in the same ballpark as the WD1200JB drives, but a lot quieter. I'm willing to pay a premium for it... but 5.25" mounting is not possible. I just do NOT have the open bay for it. The best I can do for anti vibration is rubber insulating the screws from the chassis.

High pitched whine is a nono for me. :p

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 9:08 am

The new Samsungs are pretty good, as well as the 7200.7 by seagate.

Check out the recommended list here:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.p ... =29&page=1

jamoore9 · Post by **jamoore9** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 9:25 am

Maxtor Diamond Max 9 Plus drives with 8MB cache and FDB motor, ATA133 or SATA. Several models use only 1 platter, but I can't remember which ones.

Its a compromise. Its faster than any drive from Seagate, and quieter than the speed demons at WD. I run mine with an SATA adapter. It blows the doors off the Sandra benchmark, and is a heap big bunch quieter than a WD.

Zhentar · Post by **Zhentar** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 11:04 am

I use the DM9+ myself, I find its noise very acceptable and performance excellent. I did have to use the hitachi feature tool to enable AAM though, but I love it. Its way better than my old whiny maxtors. Never heard a cuda so I can't compare their noise though.

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 1:05 pm

I recently installed a Maxtor DiamondPlus 9(?) 120Gb drive. 2Mb version. It's about 2-2.5x the speed of my old 5200rpm/10Gb drives, and plenty big enough. The only downside I can think of is heat. It generates a disturbing amount of heat. Could barely tough it when I had it suspended in an open case without a fan. It's now suspended, in a closed case and has a 80mm fan right in front of it. Works a treat and brings temps down to 'slightly warm'.

--
Simon

kleptophobiac · Post by **kleptophobiac** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 3:53 pm

Anyone know of a place that has sound recordings of drives...?

DD · Post by DD » Thu Sep 11, 2003 8:44 am

What about the 8 MB cache IBM 180 GXP?

Storagereview has them on their leaderboard.

MGP · Post by **MGP** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 9:47 pm

I'd HIGHLY recommend the 120GB 180GXP w/ 8mb cache Hitachi hard drive if you can live with the occasional "chirping sound." Personally, I'm not bothered even though I'm extremely sensitive to noise.

UrbanVoyeur · Post by **UrbanVoyeur** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 10:40 pm

Seagate 7200 8mb cache. Very quiet, fast. No odd see sounds.

Can be quieted further with the IBM/Hitachi hd tool.

bigred · Post by **bigred** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 1:11 am

I have the Seagate 7200.7 120GB. Reasonably quiet, especially when you are looking for decent performance. I'd personally recommend it.