Thinkpads Forum

I've been going over this issue over the past 6 months and can't figure out still which of the new dense HDD mobile 2.5" HDD is dead silent (I know a HDD makes noise and that I can't be compared against a SSD), but for what I've found, my WD800BEVS stock on my Thinkpad 14.1" STD Screen is the quietest HDD I've ever used.

In the quest searching for a bigger HDD, I started researching and found the Hitachi 5K320 was a quiet drive, well I ordered one from eBay and the one I received made the same 'wind-like' sound typical 7200rpm have. So apparently I got a 'faulty' drive, which failed 1 month later.

Then researching again thought what the hell if my WD then I will order a high performance HD from WDC (the WD Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT). On WDC site it state the dbA on this drive is 22/24 which was fine but in real life the drive turned out to be more noisier than an old Hitachi 7K100. So fed up I reinstalled my quiet 80GB.

So now my question:
Newer HDD with massive space (+320GB's) will have the tendency to be noisy? I can't stand the fan like sound of the drive, if its present.

Honestly based on objective conclusions, which of the 320GB - 500GB HDD's right now in the market are really dead silent, at least similar to my WD800BEVS which I love.

Erm... 7200s will be significantly louder than 5400s. Just a fact.

Dunno what was wrong with that 5k320 though.

I've got ears like a bat, and never noticed the original 160GB hard drive, or the 320/5400 Seagate I replaced it with. The normal system fan noise IS often audible, nothing from the hard drive though. At any time.