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mediahound · Sep 17, 2005, 01:01 PM

I just got a G5 dual 2.3 and it came with a Western Digital WD2500JD (250GB). I understand that this has a ball bearing motor and there are drives that I can get that have a newer kind of motor that is quieter. Can anyone recommend a drive that I could get that might be a bit quieter etc?

OogaBooga · Sep 17, 2005, 01:20 PM

Get one with a fluid bearing motor.

ranga · Sep 17, 2005, 01:36 PM

I have two Segate 300GB SATA drives (ST3300831AS) in my dual 1.8 G5. They are fairly quiet.

--ranga

mousehouse · Sep 17, 2005, 02:15 PM

Have a look at storagereview.com. I think the Seagate and Maxtor (fluid) drives are the most quiet around...

OreoCookie · Sep 17, 2005, 02:38 PM

The quietest are definitely Samsungs, from all drives I have/had (IBM, WD, Segate, Toshiba, Maxtor), they were the quietest.

mediahound · Sep 17, 2005, 02:43 PM

Thanks, that was the term I was trying to remember

Kristoff · Sep 17, 2005, 02:46 PM

WD RAPTOR.

Quiet.
Fast.
Reliable.

ReggieX · Sep 17, 2005, 04:33 PM

Seagate.

tuamigo · Sep 17, 2005, 04:45 PM

I just installed an 200gig and an 160 gig drive on two external macally usb/firewire drives. They are super quiet. BTW I got the 160 gig for twenty dollars after rebates. It was the best deal I have ever got on a HD. If you want model number i can look those up for you later.

tuamigo

mediahound · 05:46 PM

I'm leaning towards a Seagate 300GB or Maxtor 300GB. They both have the fluid bearing motor. The Maxtor seems to have better speeds and has a larger cache (16MB vs. Seagates 8MB)

Any opinions on Seagate vs. Maxtor?

Tritium · Sep 17, 2005, 05:52 PM

Seagates have a 5 year warranty, maxtors have 1. That should settle it.

I have 3 samsung hard drives, they aren't as nice as a seagate. They're quiet seeking and spinning, but they vibrate more than a seagate so they make the entire computer oscillate and make some noise. I have a couple barracuda IVs and if they were bigger, i'd still use them.

a2daj · Sep 17, 2005, 07:07 PM

My OEM Maxtor 250GB SATA drive in my G5 completely sucks. When it gets hot it slows to a crawl. I replaced it with a Seagate 300 GB SATA drive and it's just as quiet but haven't had any problems with disk performance when things get hot.

mediahound · Sep 17, 2005, 07:11 PM

Interesting. Looks like things are point to Seagate.

intake · Sep 17, 2005, 09:18 PM

Media, I have had three Maxtors of various sizes. Two of them are nearing bearing failure after two years and can't be trusted with critical data. They HOWL badly. OTOH, my Seagates are whisper quiet and the SATA drives are fast (with a native SATA bridge). Add the five year warranty, why go with anything else (unless you need blinding speed, then get the WD Raptors).

mediahound · Sep 28, 2005, 07:13 PM

interesting development, it turns out that the Western Digital that came in my G5 has a fluid dynamic motor. Wester Digital states that all their SATA drives use a fluid motor. It's actually quieter than the Seagate I got (while seeking, while idle, the Seagate is virutally silent whereas the WD can be heard, but only very slightly). Maybe I should have just gotten a 2nd Western Digital. On the other hand the 5 year warranty on the Seagate ain't a bad thing.

Lateralus · Sep 28, 2005, 07:26 PM

Seagates seem to be quiter across the board. Although all of the manufacturers seem to have their own odd duck drives in their lineup that are relatively quiet. But with Seagate, you don't have to do research before buying to find out which drives are quiet, since... they all are.

So; Seagate.