Low noise HTPC Hard drive wanted

A

asmielia

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2003
Messages
337
Hi,
I'm in the market for a 250-300GB SATA hard drive for my HTPC. I've got a 30GB Quantum that's ridiculously noisy while it's being accessed so it's gotta go.

I've always wanted to have a reasonably quiet PC, but building an HTPC has made me realize how important it can be to have a totally quiet PC. The only things spinning in my case right now are the 2 fans on my Enermax whisper PSU, a Zalman 7000Cu fan on my CPU, the stock fan on my ATI Radeon 9700pro and the northbridge fan on my Abit IS7. It's pretty quiet, but could be better.

In any case, the hard drive is just ridiculous and needs an upgrade. What's the best brand right now for low noise in a 250-300GB SATA drive?

Thanks,
Adrian
 
Samsung P80/P120 series will be the absolute quietest, followed closely by the Seagate 7200.7 series.
 
Samsungs are quiet as long as it has the right motor but loud ones are pretty rare. Otherwise Seagates are usually quiet as well.
 
laptop hdd :)
I've got an 80GB fujitsu in my car that's dead quiet
Don't forget your sound dampening
 
the maxtor drives are really quiet as are the seagates.
pick the one you can get the cheapest in 300 gb and you'll do fine.

recently got the maxtor 300 gb sata at a local fry's for $89.99 excelent deal on a very quiet drive. for htpc you may want to ditch the radeon and get a cheap fanless card like a geforce 5200
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. I think anything will be a major improvement over what I have now. But I'll most likely go for the Samsung.

wetware, that's an amazing deal on that hard drive. But there's no way I'm spending money to seriously downgrade my video card. That money would be way better spent just making my existing card fanless.
 
I go seagate all the way now. low noise and a 5 year warranty. outpost has a 2 good 300gb seagate deals. 300gb SATA for $99.99 after $50rebate and a 300gb PATA for $84.99 after $50 rebate. If you are patient they put the PATA drive down to $69.99 after $60 in rebates on occasion. They just did it this past weekend though so it might be a few weeks before it happens again. I have picked up one the last 2 times they have done it. That combined with the $50 200gb drives ( WD :( ) and I have a terrabyte for $240 after rebates. Thanks Frys!!

as for the vid card, they make passively cooled 6600's that will greatly reduce noise and still have adequate power for most games at 1280x720 resolutions that are native to most HDTV's.

passive 6600 for $102
passive 6600gt for $166

if you want to go ATI for some silly reason, heres a x800 for $179 that is passive...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125171
 
I bought a 300gb seagate and a 250gb from frys in the past couple months during their rebate deals. The 300gb is on my htpc now. I'd recommend them in terms of bank/buck.
 
If you really want to get down and dirty with the noise character of hard drives, I would peruse www.silentpcreview.com. It is the preeminent resource for quiet computing. Based on their reviews I chose Samsung drives, which were crowned as the leader in quietness. I have 2 SATA Samsungs which are remarkably quiet. I cannot hear them idle over my 120mm exhaust fan, and their seek noise is a low rumble that is not obtrusive at all. I have read that while Seagates are still decently quiet, they are getting noisier with each generation. The 7200.7 series was the last generation that was truly quiet. The 16mb cached Maxtors are supposed to be pretty good, not as quiet as a Samsung, but can be a slightly better value. The Maxline series come with 5 year warrantees and have supposedly gone through stricter quality control.

If you have a noisy graphics card, I highly recommend givning and Arctic Silencer a shot. I have one on my 9800pro and it is silent now.
 
wetware_interface said:
the maxtor drives are really quiet as are the seagates.
pick the one you can get the cheapest in 300 gb and you'll do fine.

recently got the maxtor 300 gb sata at a local fry's for $89.99 excelent deal on a very quiet drive. for htpc you may want to ditch the radeon and get a cheap fanless card like a geforce 5200
Click to expand...

My god, I cant believe someone recommended Maxtors for a quiet drive.
 
danman said:
My god, I cant believe someone recommended Maxtors for a quiet drive.
Click to expand...


Same.. My Maxtor Diamond MAX 160gb harddrive thrashes like crazy when seeking.
 
Consolidated data on [H]ard|Drive noise

Samsung: Best there is in terms of idle noise, unless you can find a Seagate Barracuda ATA IV. The P120 is slightly quieter than the P80 in terms of volume, but has a slightly higher pitch - if you can hear it at all. Seeks are pretty well muted too on both SP series, and hard to pick up if the drive is in a sealed case. You can use the Hitachi feature tool to lower the noise of Samsung drives by tweaking AAM settings. Someone above me mentioned that there are some "loud" Samsung drives. Those drives use JVC motors. To my knowledge, Samsung is using the much quieter Nidec motors across the board now.

Seagate: The ATA IV is the quietest drive ever in terms of idle noise, but hasn't been manufactured for years now. Also, seeks crunch away quite noticably on it. The 7200.7 is pretty good, but Seagate does NOT allow user control of automated acoustics managment (AAM) settings on their drives. Seagate's PATA drives are locked in quiet mode, while their SATA drives are locked in the louder performance mode if the drive does not have NCQ. If you get a Barracuda that supports NCQ, turning on NCQ locks the drive in the louder performance mode. If you do get a Barracuda that is locked in performance mode, you will regret it. The seeks on my SATA 7200.7 are louder than my 10,000 RPM Fujitsu MAP and Raptors, not even close to the level on my PATA 7200.7

Hitachi: Pretty good idle noise, but have a periodic head reset that is best characterized as a meow. While normal, its annoying. Hitachi's seek noise is pretty quiet when you turn AAM on (You can download the Hitachi feature tool to control AAM settings on their drives). With AAM off, Hitachi shows their category leading seek performance with pretty high noise.

Maxtor: Actually pretty quiet at idle in the case of the DM10/MLIII. However, Maxtor drives run very hot, and require cooling that their competitors do not to stay within safe operating temperatures

WD: WD's newer black topped Caviars are a vast improvement over the older silver topped ones that did not have FDB motors. My WD2500KS is essentially inaudible at idle, but the seeks are louder than the Samsung drives I had, as well as my Hitachi and PATA Seagate drive.

As others have said, the best thing to do to eliminate HDD noise in an HTPC is to use a 2.5" laptop drive and pul lthe content off a media server that is squirreled away in a closet or someplace similar. If you must use a 3.5" drive, Samsung is the way to go.
 
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