Fast, quiet USB3 hard drives...

skel_73 · Nov 19, 2012, 12:06 PM

Hi there. I'm looking for an external USB 3.0 hard drive , either 2 or 3 TB, that is fast (7200RPM) and quiet. Anyone have an recommendations?

I've been looking at OWC Mercury Elite Pro and the miniSTACK, among others

I recently bought a 2TB Lacie Porsche and thought it would be very quiet as it's fanless, but it is noisier than the older Western Digital with fan that it replaced...

Thanks

Scott

Lehcim · Nov 19, 2012, 03:31 PM

Many thanks for the info regarding the Lacie Porsche Design, I was considering to buy one...

peeaanuut · Nov 19, 2012, 03:32 PM

the Back-Up plus that I have seems to be pretty quiet. not sure if its 7200rpm though, I have been looking for that stat and cant seem to find it.

Entopia7 · Nov 19, 2012, 05:36 PM

The Seagate GoFlex Pro series of drives has a 7200rpm option. I have a 500gb 7200rpm GoFlex with a USB 3.0 interface (proprietary, included with my drive). It has served me well so far, used primarily for storing my audio sample library.

As an aside, I'm currently looking for USB 3.0 hubs that don't suck. Let me know if you have any experience with one. I'm back to my 2.0 one for now...

madmin · Nov 20, 2012, 02:22 AM

I'm using a pair of LaCie d2 Quadra v3 USB 3.0 3 TB drives on a 2012 mini (they also have FW800 daisy chaining ability). They have 64mb caches. They aren't silent but they produce less noise than other drives I've tested. They look pretty funky, never get hot and are quite fast.

Sustained read/writes of about 110 mb/s as separate drives and 190mb/s in mirrored raid 1. Later if I need more speed or space I could add another 2 for nested raid 1+0 or could even add a raid 1 pair of SSDs in external usb3 drive cases and have a big external fusion drive to go with the 1TB internal one the mini came with. Though that's probably risky.

You could put together your own setup buying external cases with whatever drives you want for less money than I paid for these but they probably wont look so cute.

PaulKemp · Mar 14, 2013, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madmin

I'm using a pair of LaCie d2 Quadra v3 USB 3.0 3 TB drives on a 2012 mini (they also have FW800 daisy chaining ability). They have 64mb caches. They aren't silent but they produce less noise than other drives I've tested. They look pretty funky, never get hot and are quite fast.

Daddy needs some more storage, how much noise does these badboys generate?

Giuly · Mar 14, 2013, 05:50 PM

It might be reasonable to get one LaCie 2big Thunderbolt Edition instead of two d2s.

madmin · Mar 17, 2013, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulKemp

Daddy needs some more storage, how much noise does these badboys generate?

I dont have anything to measure that unfortunately. I only notice noise when they awake from sleep. During normal usage I would hear them if they were on my desk but I've got them about 1m away on an open shelf and never notice anything distracting. BTW they don't sit on my MOTU that photo was just joking.

All in all I'm still very happy with them.

Nov 19, 2012, 12:06 PM	#1
skel_73 macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Toronto	Fast, quiet USB3 hard drives... Hi there. I'm looking for an external USB 3.0 hard drive , either 2 or 3 TB, that is fast (7200RPM) and quiet. Anyone have an recommendations? I've been looking at OWC Mercury Elite Pro and the miniSTACK, among others I recently bought a 2TB Lacie Porsche and thought it would be very quiet as it's fanless, but it is noisier than the older Western Digital with fan that it replaced... Thanks Scott __________________
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Nov 19, 2012, 03:31 PM	#2
Lehcim macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: London	Many thanks for the info regarding the Lacie Porsche Design, I was considering to buy one... __________________ Mac Mini 2012 + Thunderbolt Display MBA 2012 13" 8Gb New iPad 16G Cellular / iPhone5 16Gb Apple TV3
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Nov 20, 2012, 02:22 AM	#5
madmin macrumors member Join Date: Jun 2012	I'm using a pair of LaCie d2 Quadra v3 USB 3.0 3 TB drives on a 2012 mini (they also have FW800 daisy chaining ability). They have 64mb caches. They aren't silent but they produce less noise than other drives I've tested. They look pretty funky, never get hot and are quite fast. Sustained read/writes of about 110 mb/s as separate drives and 190mb/s in mirrored raid 1. Later if I need more speed or space I could add another 2 for nested raid 1+0 or could even add a raid 1 pair of SSDs in external usb3 drive cases and have a big external fusion drive to go with the 1TB internal one the mini came with. Though that's probably risky. You could put together your own setup buying external cases with whatever drives you want for less money than I paid for these but they probably wont look so cute. Attached Thumbnails
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Nov 19, 2012, 03:32 PM	#3
peeaanuut Banned Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Southern California	the Back-Up plus that I have seems to be pretty quiet. not sure if its 7200rpm though, I have been looking for that stat and cant seem to find it.
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Nov 19, 2012, 05:36 PM	#4
Entopia7 macrumors member Join Date: Feb 2008	The Seagate GoFlex Pro series of drives has a 7200rpm option. I have a 500gb 7200rpm GoFlex with a USB 3.0 interface (proprietary, included with my drive). It has served me well so far, used primarily for storing my audio sample library. As an aside, I'm currently looking for USB 3.0 hubs that don't suck. Let me know if you have any experience with one. I'm back to my 2.0 one for now...
	0

Mar 14, 2013, 05:50 PM	#7
Giuly macrumors 68020 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: That depends whether you ask for timezone, state of mind or GPS coordinates.	It might be reasonable to get one LaCie 2big Thunderbolt Edition instead of two d2s.
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