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P · Mar 23, 2003, 06:16 PM

I've ordered a new Seagate Barracuda V HD that I intend to install into my iMac DV/400. Now, those Barracudas are very silent, and my machine does not have a fan - my idea was to create a machine that is almost completely silent even when running.

Has anyone tried this? How silent will it be?

BrettOZ · Mar 23, 2003, 09:02 PM

I really like the Maxtor drives for their silent operation (Had one running in an iMac 350 slot loader) , however your biggest battle will be the noise of the CD/DVD drive

D'Espice · Mar 24, 2003, 10:20 AM

I have two Seagate Barracuda IV harddrives with 7200 rpm in my PowerMac and I cannot hear them, they're almost completely inaudible.
So is the Barracuda V, so you will go to almost completely silent even when running.

P · Mar 25, 2003, 05:57 PM

I have a Maxtor drive in a (third-party) FW chassis, and it makes those screeching noises sometimes when trying to start which is why I steered clear of them. And yes, I know that the DVD-player is noisy, particularly on some unstable discs - my copy of MOO II sounds like a jet engine - but I don't plan on leaving discs in it all the time. The idea was to leave the computer on all the time, only sleeping the display, without me hearing it (I sleep in the same room) - we'll see if it really is that quiet.

BrettOZ · Mar 25, 2003, 10:00 PM

P - I had a terrible experience with IBM drives, ever since I have just gone Maxtor and been very happy. My first experiences with drives was in the form of Seagate (damn noisy things) but according to all the revues I have read here and other places, Seagate seems to have improved and is highly regarded.

WJMoore · Mar 25, 2003, 10:22 PM

Not sure about the setup in your room but the thing that annoys me most about having my iBook in the room is the pulsating white light. I have to cover it up otherwise it keeps me awake. I can deal with noise though. I have an old PII350 FreeBSD server running all the time and the noise doesn't worry me in the slightest.

Wesley

P · Mar 26, 2003, 09:34 AM

BrettOZ - I have also had the distinct displeasure of having to replace a broken IBM drive. I had had the foresight to backup the drive, and I never had any problems with IBM drives before or after that, but for now IBM is on the sidelines along with Maxtor. Seagate was the choice by default, and xlr8youmac had only good things to say about it, so I never looked further.

BrettOZ · Mar 26, 2003, 07:29 PM

P - I had 2 IBM drives go on me within 1 month of when I purchased them (Must have been a bad batch) - even though I had no hassles returning the drives to where I purchased them, before that I had no problems with IBM drives. But my data is very important, so I am staying clear of them now.

Next drive purchase I will certainly be looking into Seagate, although I am still happy with my Maxtors

tuamigo · Mar 27, 2003, 12:04 AM

Yes my friend you shall be happy and maybe a little scared about how quiet your computer is. I have the same set up as you, an imac 400 dv.

When I first bought my imac it seemed pretty quiet, after some time, I started to notice the hard drive getting louder. Overall, it was still the quietest machine I've ever seen-heard.

After the 80gig seagate overhaul, I'm very pleased with the results. Plus, i have a 10gig paper weight.

next upgrade, finding a g4 to squeeeeze into the imacdv

just kidding!

Again, you won't regret your purchase.

tuamigo---
imac dv 400
640 ram
mx 700 'neat device'

P · Mar 27, 2003, 05:11 PM

Mission accomplished, and oh yes it is quiet! I can hear it when sitting at it, but barely when in bed across the room.

I decided to install a fresh copy of Jag instead of doing a clone, which also meant that real sleep works again - just when I don't need it. You just can't beat Murphy, can you?

pliny · Mar 27, 2003, 05:24 PM

My dv 400's original hd was a Seagate, this is the one I replaced with a WD 7200 because of the bee buzzing sound. Wasn't long before the super quiet WD got just as noisy as the original drive. I think it's the lack of a fan, the heat loosens the bearings or some such and causes vibrations that come out as noise.

P · Mar 27, 2003, 06:41 PM

If you're afraid of heat, try a drive with a smaller cache. I chose the 2 meg cache over the 8 meg one for just this reason. The drive is indeed in a position that doesn't get much cooling, but I very much doubt that it would have a very large effect on noise.

Juggler · Mar 28, 2003, 05:38 PM

I have a Seagate hard drive (80 Gb that came with an 800 Mhz 17 '' iMac). Model ST380020A. My opinion is that it is a noisy hard drive. But then again, I have very good ear and get easily disturbed. In any case, it is definitely not silent. A "bee buzz" is a good description of the noise, as a previous poster wrote.

However, a description of this hard drive that I found on the web states that This generation of U Series drives offers the best combination of performance, acoustics and reliability. Idling at just 2.9 bels, U Series is one of the quietest drives available.

Probably it is also a matter of luck and maybe different hard drives of the same model may behave differently.