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Quietest 500GB Firewire drive?

I'm researching external drives for my music room (Firewire drive > PowerBook G4 > [USB DAC when I have more $] > Arcam FMJ). I want it to be as quiet as possible. (I would be very happy if it were as quiet as the PowerBook.) I have an older Lacie Big Disk in my office and, even though it is fanless, it isn't sufficiently quiet for my music room (I can hear the disks spinning and electrical hum).

Here are the drives I'm comparing so far:

- LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Disk
- Western Digital My Book Studio Edition
- Seagate FreeAgent Go for Mac

Can anyone speak about their relative noise levels? Lacie tells me the Quadra is much quieter than my older Big Disk, but I would like to hear from actual users.

Thanks!
syncrasy
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,443 posts
 
Why bother with building external disk when you can get Firewire Neptune 500GB for $114 with high quality (braid shield) Firewire cable included and 2 year warranty for the whole thing. Similar 1TB Firewire Neptune is $159 now with the cable (after $30 Hitachi rebate). My 500GB Neptune is Western Digital based and is very quiet (no fan, no spin noise at all) but I'm not sure about 1TB Hitachi.
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Hi Kijanki. You mention 1Tb Hitachi drive. . . is that a 2.5 inch drive? Do you have the part number or a link to its description? Thanks, G.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,443 posts
 
Guidocorona - I'm not sure if it's 2.5". The web site of the Other World Computing is www.macsales.com

OWC is the one of the best stores for mac - very helpful and customer oriented. Everything is high quality - they don't sell junk. I bought many things there. Look for Neptune external drive. I bought the Firewire only 500GB with Western Digital drive inside (now $114). I'm not big fan of Western Digital but this one is very quiet. You might ask them about Hitachi. Right now they have $30 rebate from Hitachi.

I also bought pocket 250GB USB drive for the laptop backup and it is dead quiet.

Initially all drives are formated for MAC but they accept NTFS - at least this pocket drive (case is clear plastic). Ask them since NTFS format is sometimes fishy and FAT32 is garbage.
merlocpm
44 posts
 
I just installed a Lacie D2 Quadra on my Mac Mini. Although it is fanless, I can hear the drive startup and spin when playing music. I transferred my files onto the mini for now while I use the Lacie for backup purposes
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
Merlocpm, I believe Quadra contains 2 physical 3.5 inch drives. Such arrangement will always yield a little more than twice the noise/vibration of a single drive. That is because it is unlikely that the two drives are perfectly aligned on the same rotational plane. In addition there may be microscopic rotational speed differences between the drives. . . all of this will cause. . . mechanical intermodulation, which will translate into a little additional noise and vibration. Try to place the quadra on top of a sheet of sorbithane. The lower mass of 2.5 inch drives is likely to yield less vibrations. The largest 2.5 inch drives on the general market today seem to be 500GB with 5400RPM rotational speed, with prices as low as $109 for the Hitachi offering. See:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150380+1309740009&Configurator=&Subcategory=380&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=
The drives are sold unformatted and can be fitted into an external SATA 2.5 inch USB or Firewire enclosure for use on Mac, Windows, and LINUX variants. On Windows the only file system supported for large partitions is NTFS
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