Which Hard Drives Are Quiet?

[craiger]

I thought about getting one of the Western Digital hard drives with the 8mb cache. But I heard Seagate hard drives with the 2mb cache buffer are the ones that make the least amount of noise. Which one of these would be good? Should you have a quiet hard with a 2mb cache or would the Western Digital also be as quiet as the Seagate with the 8mb cache? Thanks, Craig.

[jeffbourner]

Hello,

I own a Seagate 40GB 7200rpm harddrive with 2mb cache. It is extremely quiet. In fact I can't even hear it at all! It Also operates very fast and is reliable. Go for the Seagate over the WD in this case.

[BuddhaTB]

Seagate's are the most quiet.

[tazdevl]

Seagate's are the most quiet.

Yup, their IDE drives aren't the fastest... but when you get down to it... the difference in performance isn't really noticeable to the end user.

[MonteLDS]

i have an 80 gig seagate. I would never know it was their unless i looked inside. it never makes a noise... i wonder if it will make a noise when it is dying

[Shaman]

Seagate's are the most quiet.

Just installed WD1200JB with 8Mb cache that operates very, very quietly and fast. I do not have experience with Seagate hard drives and therefore can't compare.

[BuddhaTB]

Most drives now a days are much quieter then hard drives from a few years ago. But Seagate drives are absolutely quiet and you don't even know your hard drive is spinning. Seagate also adds in extra foam padding to help dampen the noise. However, if you want a faster drive, your going to beed to get one with 8MB cache, because Seagate's are alittle slower but its not too noticeable.

[MikeTR]

Seagate V and IBM/Hitachi GPX 180 are definately more quiet than the WD. Take a look at this site: http://www.storagereview.com. The Seagate is slower, but the IBM/Hitachi is almost as fast as the WD. Bought one just the other day. Be sure to look for the 8MB model (-1 extention in model number).

[Action Jackson]

Both my Western Digital SE's are pretty quiet.

[blakerwry]

I have an 800JB that I refuse to use because it is so loud.. on the otherhand I have a very quiet 1200BB... go figure.

This is normal, WD drives seem to be very inconsistant in their acoustic qualities.

I also have an IBM 180gxp(used to have 120gxp) and a Seagate ATA IV. Both of these drives are very very quiet. I'd never know the 180gxp was running if I weren't using it (seeks are audible).

[manni]

Samsung harddrives are also very quiet. I have Samsung V60 120 GB drive, I haven't heard any noise from that HD. It's not the fastest but it's silent, reliable (3 years warranty) and cheap.