The quietest: 2.5" drives

aztec · Post by **aztec** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 12:43 am

leem wrote:It would be great to see am updated SPCR review of 2.5" hard drives. I'm interested in low noise and low power, especially idle power, rather than performance. Do 2.5" drives offer that much of an advantage?

I've looked through recent threads for sources: Techreport reviews seven drives, and some good comparative reviews at http://www.storagereview.com.

Would appreciate any more info... Cheers

Agree. This thread should get updated with some sort of review. Otherwise, its a pointless sticky-thread.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:39 am

aztec wrote:
Agree. This thread should get updated with some sort of review. Otherwise, its a pointless sticky-thread.

Not totally useless to us poor saps with PATA 2.5" drives in our systems. It gives us an idea of what to look for when we need a new (well...replacement) drive.

leem · Post by **leem** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:09 pm

Toms Hardware has done a review of next-gen 7,200 RPM notebook drives.

[quote]#4 Samsungâ€™s Spinpoint MP2 is a good performer.... itâ€™s as power-hungry as first-generation 7,200 RPM drives by Hitachi and Seagate. In terms of efficiency, Samsung is simply not yet where it could be.

#3 The Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 offers balanced performance and delivers good results across all benchmarks....

#2 Western Digitalâ€™s new Scorpio Black has... the fastest access time and great I/O performance, beating all the other 2.5â€

sdheda · Post by **sdheda** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:57 am

I am making a new HTPC using the Antec NSK2480, and I am looking for a quiet 7200rpm notebook drive, with at least 16mb of cache.

I was thinking about this WD Scorpio Black 320GB drive.

Any suggestions on which model I should buy?

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:53 am

I just want to share with people with some info on six 2.5" 5200rpm 320Gb drives (all have 2 platter design).

==========================================
Fujitsu MHZ 2BH: MHZ2320BH
Hitachi TravelStar 5K320: HTS543232L9A300
Seagate Momentus 5400.5: ST9320320AS
Samsung Spinpoint M6S: HM320JI
Toshiba MKxx52GSX: MK3252GSX
Western Digital Scorpio: WD3200BEVT

Unfortunatelly, no info on noise level. But let's share our knowledge about already bought hardware

P.S. The article where pics were taken from (sorry, Russian).

cmthomson · Post by **cmthomson** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 4:03 pm

Of course these days, the quietest 2.5" drives are SSD's, which are silent and consume <0.5W. The Intel x25-m gets excellent reviews. But it's pretty expensive...

jrturbo · Post by **jrturbo** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:20 am

Hi Guys

I would say that the latest models of 2.5" hard drives would be silent, as, for speed you should not worry either, they are fast enough on average giving you the equivalent performance of 3.5" hd from 2 years ago.

If you are building a SFF or a HTPC they are ideal, you can ussually fit 2 2.5 notebook drives in the space of a single 3.5 drive .

I just put together a Shuttle SX48p2 Deluxe with 2x wd 300gb velociraptors in raid 0 without the alloy heatsinks and they are silent, both fitted in a single tray for a 3.5".I would say that the 120gb notebook drive in my 2 year old fujitsu notebook is louder, I am very impressed with the result.

I beleive the heatsink in the velociraptors is nothing more that a pretty adapter to enable you to mount it in a 3.5" bay.

They only downside is the cost, I bought mine used from ebay and saved a fortune, I have seen them sold by some vendors in the bulk for servers, as bare drives no icepack adaptor quite cheap.

I thought I should share my recent experiences building my shuttle.

Regards

Joe Rubido

Regards

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Fri May 08, 2009 6:58 am

(bumping the thread)

The quietest 2.5" I ever seen is my SAMSUNG HM080HC (PATA/5400/1pl/80Gb). I even cleared my usual file heap over 300Gb to squeeze into 74Gb

No parking sound at all, and it is very cool too. I don't see any nearer concurrent concerning the noise level. The modern HDD that is parking heads every 8 seconds is considered loud, thus unsuitable.

Could anyone on this forum recommend something newer and quieter than old 80Gb Spinpoint M60?

greenfrank · Post by **greenfrank** » Mon May 25, 2009 9:23 am

my 2.5" FUJITSU MHZ2160BH G2 (160gb) is nearly silent. I have also another 2.5" fujitsu in other pc (250gb) and is also very, very quiet.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Mon May 25, 2009 1:11 pm

Another good report:

Shamgar wrote:Samsung HM160HI is the quietest HDD I have used so far. No real surprises as it is 2.5" 5400RPM. Seeks are audible but very muted. It is not annoying at all, even during high disk activity. Fan noise usually drowns it out. It is suspended in Solo's elastic cords. Vibration is not an issue unlike my WD6400AAKS.
Performance is good enough for everyday tasks. Only during large file tranfers and compression/decompression do I wish to install 7200RPM. Boot up on 5400RPM is noticeably slower too. But what I gain in quietness and low power makes up for it.

KuniD · Post by **KuniD** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:52 am

Potentially a stupid question, but would I have any problems playing back HD movies from a NAS if my HTPC boot drive was a HM160HI?

NoiseFreeGuy · Post by **NoiseFreeGuy** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:37 pm

Ksanderash wrote:(bumping the thread)

The quietest 2.5" I ever seen is my SAMSUNG HM080HC (PATA/5400/1pl/80Gb). I even cleared my usual file heap over 300Gb to squeeze into 74Gb .....

Could anyone on this forum recommend something newer and quieter than old 80Gb Spinpoint M60?

I am _very satisfied with my Samsung HM160JC drives.
I have three or four of them now. They are 5400 rpm PATA drives.

I use one as my main c: drive and the others as USB backups.

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:19 pm

KuniD wrote:Potentially a stupid question, but would I have any problems playing back HD movies from a NAS if my HTPC boot drive was a HM160HI?

Hardly probable as it is rather expeditious drive.

...

Five 2.5-inch hard drives at 500GB
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17010/13

Ksanderash · Post by **Ksanderash** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:28 am

New 2.5" review!

Perfect Notebook Storage: Seven 2.5â€

luminous · Post by **luminous** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:58 pm

I have recently been playing around with trying to get a quiet HDD for my laptop that is larger than 250Gb. So far I have not been having much luck.

I have encountered a few Seagate Momentus 2.5" 5400rpm drives that are near silent in their 250Gb capacities, however in 320Gb format they have constant seek noises and idle whine

I have the same issue with my 400Gb Samsung, has an unpleasant grinding noise that is intermittent.

Not really sure what to try next, have been through more than 4 drives so far. Will have to take a look at that review that has been posted above, although Tom's is not really renowned for providing a lot of info on noise.

luminous · Post by **luminous** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:03 am

Just fixed the annoying clicking noise on my Samsung drive.

I had independantley changed my Dell HDD from the noisy slow 320Gb orignally supplied to a Samsung unit. It would appear that Dell have also started to use this 400Gb drive and have been receiving complaints from customers with regards to its clicking noises. It seems they have been in touch with the manufacturer and obtained updated firmware to address the issue.

There is firmware from other manufacturers too, so I have linked the page below in the hope that this may help others with ticking noises or power transition issues with their laptop HDDs.

http://search.euro.dell.com/results.asp ... e&~ck=anav