Which HDD? 1-2TB and very low noise

[Desmo]

Hi guys,

Looking to buy a 1-2TB drive soon but low noise is probably the most important factor for me. I've been looking at WD Green Caviars as they seem to get good reviews on the noise front. Also the 1.5 seems to be quieter than the 2 due to fewer platters and I'm happy to compromise on size for silence if I need to.

Any other options out there?

[Will]

Only ever experienced the Green caviars - you could go SSD but they're uber expensive.

You could get a drive enclosure.

Also it depends if you want a 7200 or 5400 rpm drive.

Single platter is ever quieter.

[LeperousDust]

It's been truly years since I played with big hard drives (as opposed to notebook variety) so I'm sure i'm out of date, but the samsung drives I had were always VERY well behaved noise-wise in comparison to all my others (others being seagates and generic WD's) :)

[Desmo]

Can't use a caddy, it's to go in an HP micro server :)

It's mainly for serving files and some video conversion.

[Mondo]

I prefer to put Samsung drives in my drobo, can't complain about it's noise.

[Davey_Pitch]

I've used WD drives for years, and while I've had the odd problem (who hasn't with HDDs though?), I've found the WD Green Caviers to be as reliable as any drive I've had before or since. I've currently got one in my NAS box running just fine :)

[Zirax]

WD Green or Samsung are a good bet. I have 2TB of each.

If you are putting them in a micro server make sure to get either them from different shops or mismatch brands. Reason is if you put them in raid 1, there is a chance they will go at the same time. 2TB + of data is not the sort of size to mess around backup wise :)

[Desmo]

Went for a 1.5TB WD Green in the end...£55.

[Joe 90]

The WDs seem a good choice. I have a WD20EARX (2tb) in a NAS in the lounge & you can't hear it so the greens should in theory be even quieter.

[Desmo]

Really pleased with this machine, it's extremely quiet :)
New drive should be here in the week.

[Mark]

The only thing you have to watch with WD Greens is 'load cycle count' (the number of times the heads retract). WD use rather aggressive timings (heads retract after about 8s idle, compared to minutes for other drives), which can lead to excessive wear under some conditions. WD can supply a utility to change this if you want.

That said, none of my WD Greens have given me any trouble and I haven't bothered with the load cycle fix (though keep meaning to do it).

[Toby]

I have two WD Green Caviars, a 2TB and a 3TB and they're both pretty damn quiet to be honest, certainly amongst the quietest I've had.

Is it access noise you're concerned about or general idle noise? The drives in my main machine are all isolated from the case with knicker elastic which I finds makes the world of difference.

[Desmo]

I can't even hear the drive in this machine, it's very quiet. I've just ordered a new fan for the machine to drop the noise levels down again although to be fair, it's pretty quiet as standard but I'd like it whisper quiet :)