Noisy HD?

Is there a manufacturer of HD that's known for low noise level? My
first computer had a Quantum HD and the seek noise was very high and
irritating. My present computer has a Maxtor 80GB and there is NO
seek noise. Further, the spin noise is less than the fan noise, so
the performance has become excellent--at least subjectively.

I'm about to assemble a new computer with a 160GB HD, and I'm going to
be very critical of the noise level. Any advice will be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,

Norm Strong

"normanstrong" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
Is there a manufacturer of HD that's known for low noise level? My
first computer had a Quantum HD and the seek noise was very high and
irritating. My present computer has a Maxtor 80GB and there is NO
seek noise. Further, the spin noise is less than the fan noise, so
the performance has become excellent--at least subjectively.

I'm about to assemble a new computer with a 160GB HD, and I'm going to
be very critical of the noise level. Any advice will be greatly
appreciated.

I'm very happy with my Seagate Baracuda ATA IV and Baracuda ATA V drives.
They are quieter than any other drive I've used, they run cool, and though
they aren't the absolute fastest out there, they're pretty high performance.

I'm not sure if they have a 160 GB model though...the biggest one I have is
120 GB.

Ken

"normanstrong" wrote
Is there a manufacturer of HD that's known for low noise level? My
first computer had a Quantum HD and the seek noise was very high and
irritating. My present computer has a Maxtor 80GB and there is NO
seek noise. Further, the spin noise is less than the fan noise, so
the performance has become excellent--at least subjectively.
I'm about to assemble a new computer with a 160GB HD, and I'm going to
be very critical of the noise level. Any advice will be greatly
appreciated.

Any modern drive that uses fluid bearings aka fluid dynamic
bearings aka FDB should be very quiet. Maxtors have a utility
that can put the drive in an even quieter (and slightly slower)
mode than the default, which tends to be somewhere between
lowest acoustics/lowest performance and loudest acoustics/
fastest performance. The performance issue isn't really that
important in TiVo boxes, however, so go with the quietest
setting if using the drive that way.

The old 7200rpm vs. 5400rpm rule isn't that useful today because
5400rpm drives are hard to find now and new 7200rpm drives
are often quieter and run cooler than 5400rpm drives made just
a year ago due to FDB. (The 5400s would be quieter if they
used FDB, but this new technology tends to be found only on
the newer drives, which tend to be 7200rpm.)

Go to www.silentpcreview.com. In the forum area you will see a whole bunch
of discussions on sound source in a computer. Using the recommendations
from that site I built a computer that you have to hold your ear within 5 or
6 inches to hear it run.

BTW, the recommendation for quite 7200 rpm drives has been the Samsung. The
quietest 5400 rpm drives are the Seagate Baracuda IV.

jerry


"normanstrong" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
Is there a manufacturer of HD that's known for low noise level? My
first computer had a Quantum HD and the seek noise was very high and
irritating. My present computer has a Maxtor 80GB and there is NO
seek noise. Further, the spin noise is less than the fan noise, so
the performance has become excellent--at least subjectively.

I'm about to assemble a new computer with a 160GB HD, and I'm going to
be very critical of the noise level. Any advice will be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,

Norm Strong

"JerryK" wrote in message
...
Go to www.silentpcreview.com. In the forum area you will see a whole bunch
of discussions on sound source in a computer. Using the recommendations
from that site I built a computer that you have to hold your ear within 5 or
6 inches to hear it run.

BTW, the recommendation for quite 7200 rpm drives has been the Samsung. The
quietest 5400 rpm drives are the Seagate Baracuda IV.

All my Barracudas are 7200 rpm...I didn't think they made 5400 rpm
Barracudas...?

Ken