what is the quietest SATA drive for my x60s?

[funkychorlton]

hello

I am looking for a really quiet mobile recording solution so that I can record onto my x60s in the same room as sensitive microphones. I have a SAMSUNG HM160HI which with a single platter is supposed to be the quietest SATA - but it is a few db louder than my old x31 with its IDE drive and I assume this is because it is SATA? Its not the seeek sound its just the general whoosing sound it makes when running

I am wondering what you folks would recommend for really silent 2.5" SATA drives? Maybe smaller drives are quieter?

Funkychorlton

[jdouaze]

I have the Western Digital Scorpion 250 GB SATA drive and it is absolutely silent...
Very fast, HUGE, cool (temparature wise) and of course... silent...
Way faster than the stock 80GB I had!
(after my good experience, I also loaded the same drive in mt T61 by the way)

Very nice drive, will recommend !

[baggettechat]

I would prefer single platter model of Momentus 5400.3 or 5400.4. They are relatively quite.

If you really really want a silent drive, a ssd should be your choice, they are costly at this stage though.

Even if you use a HDD, you can still somewhat reduce the noise by covering its top cover with a thin (say 0.8mm thick) metal plate (heavier is better, say copper) attached by double-face adheasive tape. It works.

[cmarti]

Western Digital Scorpion 250 GB SATA here too and i barely can hear it.

[torqueo]

I would personally just wait for SSD to get cheap. I'm using the stock Hitachi 120GB that came with my x61s until then. Seagate/WD are better but not better enough to justify replacing, at least for me. SSD is not only silent, but better on power and faster than 7200RPM drives....

[funkychorlton]

i dream of SSD, for musicians and the sound sensitive its a dream... but too much for me right now


in the meantimetime has anyone tried/heard the Western Digital Scorpion 320 GB - that is a very useful sie of notebook drive!

but as quiet as the 250 I wonder?

F

[DavidNY]

Hitachi HDs are quiet, and if you use the software from their site the drive can be tweaked for quietness.

[eyestrain]

Maybe not a fair comparison, but I've found a double platter 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3 to be much, much louder than a single platter 80GB WD Scorpio WD800BEVS. And I get the impression that brand/model of drive is more important than number of platters.

That WD is by far the quietest drive I've heard. Including a 4200rpm Fujitsu that was supposed to be amazingly inaudible, and a Hitachi that was supposed to be very quiet. (And a couple others)

But many people have complained about clicking noises from Scorpio drives. I haven't heard any, but haven't used the drive much. Instead, I'm using a CF card in a SATA-CF adapter. If you're desperate, that might be a solution, especially combined with an external drive in a heavily damped case, or using a NAS in another room. See storage forum at spcr (silentpcreview.com) for advice on quieting a drive in a case. Someone there posted pics of using a gameboy box and some clay! It's safer to do that kind of thing with a 2.5" drive than a desktop 3.5" drive. You can get an esata card for fast connection to the drive, assuming you have an expresscard or cardbus slot. (I have a T60, not too familiar with X6x.)

You can also search forums at spcr for drives you're considering. I recently did for the drive you have now, and IIRC two people found it very quiet... so there might not be much quieter available, except perhaps Scorpio, which some there have found quiet if they don't get the clicks.