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Most silent 500GB HDD

H

hldomster

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 22, 2009
70
0
Hello,

I have recently installed a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB drive in my 13" MacBook Pro and it makes a constant noise. The noise sounds like the fans are running louder than usual, but the noise clearly comes from the HDD and not the fans.

So, I take it this is not normal, so what drive should I get? This is the second WD SB drive I've had and the first one was faulty as it vibrated a lot and you could feel it when resting your hand on the MacBook Pro. The current drive does not have that problem, but this noise is really annoying.

What I want is a large capacity drive that is really quiet. The advantage of the WD is that it doesn't make the 'clunk' noies the stock HDD does when you move the MacBook Pro. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.
 
I did a three way comparison with my stock 320GB Hitachi drive and two other 5400rpm, 500GB internal laptop drives about two months ago. You can read my subjective results here: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7326977/

Ultimately, I now have a newer (June) unibody 15'' macbook pro that has a 500GB Hitachi drive. From what I've experienced, the Hitachi drive is still quieter than the 500GB WD and Seagate drives I evaluated in the above link. If I were you, I wold get a 500GB Hitachi drive. Note however that all these drives will make that annoying "ping" or "click" sound periodically as the hard drive parks. You can eliminate this sound using hdapm. There are resources on the web that detail how to install this little extension. If you want a completely silent HD. Your only option is to go to the more expensive solid state drives. I hope that helps.
 
I have the WD and it is noisy too, BUT I notice it is pretty quite if I rest my hand on the right palm rest (the HDD is right below), I might apply a little pressure but it's pretty much just the weight of my hand. I wonder if I open it up and put some foam pads or something in there to apply some pressure if it would be quite.
Any thoughts?
 
reallynotnick said:
I have the WD and it is noisy too, BUT I notice it is pretty quite if I rest my hand on the right palm rest (the HDD is right below), I might apply a little pressure but it's pretty much just the weight of my hand. I wonder if I open it up and put some foam pads or something in there to apply some pressure if it would be quite.
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I found the same (applying pressure). I don't think sticking things inside the MBP is a good idea though. The constant drive head parking is starting to become annoying too - I did not notice it with the stock HDD.

Which drive!?
 
Noise will vary from drive to drive, not necessarily brand to brand
You cannot say one brand is quiet and another is not

You may get one that is noisy, and someone else may get one that is quiet
Some have complained about the Scorpio Blue
Mine is quiet, cool and fast

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
hldomster said:
I found the same (applying pressure). I don't think sticking things inside the MBP is a good idea though. The constant drive head parking is starting to become annoying too - I did not notice it with the stock HDD.
Click to expand...

I only noticed the head parking when installing Half Life in Crossover and really made me cringe so much that I stopped the install but normal use I don't hear any head parking.

I'm still tempted to pad it or something as I can bear with the drives noise with my hand on it. I just hate taking out the million screws to get at the HDD.
 
Do you have an external enclosure, or better yet one of those disk docks? Do you have another 2.5" drive? You could remove the noisy drive from your mbp and put it in the dock or external enclosure. You could then hook it up to your machine and boot from it. Out in the open like that you could tell if it is the drive making the noise or not. If it is noisy get it exchanged. Another thought... is the drive properly secured in the mbp?

I have 2 scorpio blue 500GB drives in 2 different mbps and they are very quiet and vibration free.
 
MacDawg said:
Noise will vary from drive to drive, not necessarily brand to brand
You cannot say one brand is quiet and another is not

You may get one that is noisy, and someone else may get one that is quiet
Some have complained about the Scorpio Blue
Mine is quiet, cool and fast

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
Click to expand...

is your mbp a mid-2009 model by any chance?
 
xlii said:
.... You could remove the noisy drive from your mbp and put it in the dock or external enclosure. .... Out in the open like that you could tell if it is the drive making the noise or not.

I have 2 scorpio blue 500GB drives in 2 different mbps and they are very quiet and vibration free.
Click to expand...

Not correct. My WD Scorpio Blue does not make the head parking ticking noises in my external enclosure, but it does make ticking (head parking) noises in my 13" uMBP. Are your MBP's June '09 models?

The head parking ticking noises from the WD Scorpio Blue seem to be limited to the newer late '08 and June '09 uMBP's, probably due to an incompatibility with Apple's power management in these models.
 
Z06jerry said:
Not correct. My WD Scorpio Blue does not make the head parking ticking noises in my external enclosure, but it does make ticking (head parking) noises in my 13" uMBP. Are your MBP's June '09 models?

The head parking ticking noises from the WD Scorpio Blue seem to be limited to the newer late '08 and June '09 uMBP's, probably due to an incompatibility with Apple's power management in these models.
Click to expand...

Both my 13" uMBP and my 500GB scorpio blue drive are brand new bought in June 09. My mbp has the 1.7 firmware update.
 
How much is space an issue for you? Because you could always get a noise reduction cabinet to put your noisy components into.
 
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