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Looking for super quiet 5400RPM drive..

ohla313

ohla313

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 24, 2010
778
0
I had a 2009 MBP and it came with the Hitachi Travelstar in 160GB, 5400RPM. This drive is SUPER QUIET. When I upgraded to the 2010 MBP, I took the stock 320GB out and put the 160GB in due to noise issues.

I recently purchased the 320GB model of the Hitachi Travelstar, hoping it would be just as quiet as its 160GB equivalent. It is a bit noisy and not as super quiet as my 160GB drive.

Can anyone please recommend a super quiet and sturdy 320GB 5400RPM drive that I can use in my MBP?

Thanks!
 
Well, if you are concerned about the speed an can live with a 160gb, you may be interested in getting a SSD..

Nearly no sound+Huge boost in performance...
 
yes but my budget can't really afford that. I'd love to get an SSD but will need to stick with an HDD for now.
 
I pretty sure the body of the Mini is thicker, sound may not be muted as much in a MBP. On top of that, in general a laptop is closer to you than a desktop machine.

I'm interested too since the constant, quiet but clearly audible fan-like noise from the HDD of my MBP is annoying.
No SSD for me yet but only because there doesn't seem to be a consensus on which is totally trouble free.
 
I just recently installed a 500 GB Hitachi Travelstar (5K500.B) in my MacBook Pro and it's dead silent, my guess is that it likely depends on the specific disk. My computer originally shipped with a 320 GB Hitachi Travelstar disk which was a bit louder during seek operations.

I've owned a couple of Seagate Momentus 5400 RPM hard disks over the years in various computers as well and those were pretty quiet.
 
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Just installed and used the drive today. It is loud. You can hear it whirring well. Sigh this journey for a silent 5400RPM will never end! Either those reviews are bogus or I got a clunker.

I am now willing to look outside of Hitachi brands, if anyone can offer anything else?
 
@ohla313
I highly recommend the Hitachi 5K500.B. I have bought two of those, a 250 GB (single platter) and a 500 GB (two-platter), they are completely silent (and I'm picky about silence). And very little noise during seeks and writes.

Which one have you bought? It you bought one of those that you linked to on Amazon, they seem very old (2004). The textual description mentions "5K500.B" but I think this is incorrect.
 
Roman2K~ said:
@ohla313
I highly recommend the Hitachi 5K500.B. I have bought two of those, a 250 GB (single platter) and a 500 GB (two-platter), they are completely silent (and I'm picky about silence). And very little noise during seeks and writes.

Which one have you bought? It you bought one of those that you linked to on Amazon, they seem very old (2004). The textual description mentions "5K500.B" but I think this is incorrect.
Click to expand...

Yes I bought the one above: http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-Trave...TF8&coliid=I31JJ7J1U72YND&colid=3MTGM3IQTA094

THe reviews said it was quiet, but it was not at all. I am real picky with silence as well. It's a relief someone shares my feelings!

Could you please link me to your recommended drive? Do they have it in 320GB flavors?

Thanks!
 
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From the description, the HDD you bought is a 7200 RPM, not a 5400 RPM like you were looking for. That should explain the whirring. In addition, if the description is accurate, "Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004", this suggests it's an old model, likely with at least two platters for just 320 GB.

The one I would suggest is the newer 5K500.B. The different size models are made of 250 GB platters, 1 to 2 heads per platter, 5400 RPM. Looking at the product page, there exist models ranging from 120 to 500 GB. There's a 320 GB (HTS5455032B9A300 - Amazon), but beware: it's made of two platters (in the table, "Data Disks" reads "2") and 3 heads. I'm pretty sure this means one gimped 200 GB platter (250 shrunk to 200) with 2 heads, and another gimped 120 GB platter (250 shrunk to 120) with 1 head.

Personally, I couldn't bear having a gimped platter, let alone two. So I would go with either the 250 GB / 1 full platter / 2 heads (HTS5455025B9A300 - Amazon), or 500 GB / 2 full platters / 4 heads (HTS5455050B9A300 - Amazon). In fact, like I said above, I have gone with one 250 and one 500. They have been running perfectly for about 6 months, in silence (one is in a Windows 7 desktop machine, one is the OS drive of a Linux NAS running 24/7) ;).
 
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Roman2K~ said:
From the description, the HDD you bought is a 7200 RPM, not a 5400 RPM like you were looking for. That should explain the whirring. In addition, if the description is accurate, "Date first available at Amazon.com: September 14, 2004", this suggests it's an old model, likely with at least two platters for just 320 GB.

The one I would suggest is the newer 5K500.B. The different size models are made of 250 GB platters, 1 to 2 heads per platter, 5400 RPM. Looking at the product page, there exist models ranging from 120 to 500 GB. There's a 320 GB (HTS5455032B9A300 - Amazon), but beware: it's made of two platters (in the table, "Data Disks" reads "2") and 3 heads. I'm pretty sure this means one gimped 200 GB platter (250 shrunk to 200) with 2 heads, and another gimped 120 GB platter (250 shrunk to 120) with 1 head.

Personally, I couldn't bear having a gimped platter, let alone two. So I would go with either the 250 GB / 1 full platter / 2 heads (HTS5455025B9A300 - Amazon), or 500 GB / 2 full platters / 4 heads (HTS5455050B9A300 - Amazon). In fact, like I said above, I have gone with one 250 and one 500. They have been running perfectly for about 6 months, in silence (one is in a Windows 7 desktop machine, one is the OS drive of a Linux NAS running 24/7) ;).
Click to expand...

those drives seem to be in limited stock though. doesn't hitachi update these drives??
 
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Haven't WD bought Hitachi? That must be why Amazon aren't selling these Hitachi-branded drives directly anymore. Too bad, who knows what WD are going to do. Hopefully no more confusing model numbering leading to platter-count lottery, or energy saving mechanisms hindering proper RAID configurations :rolleyes:.
 
rockyroad55 said:
Get one of the Scorpio Blue drives. Since you want the 5400 RPM, they have the most bang for the buck.
Click to expand...

But it seems like they have high failure rates. What other good brands can I look into for a 320GB model?
 
With WD having bought Hitachi, I think that leaves us with 3 manufacturers: WD, Seagate and Samsung.

I would lean toward Samsung over WD or Seagate since I have had only noisy WD and Seagate drives, and very good, quiet experience with Samsung's Ecogreen F4 (four of them in RAID-Z 1). They have a 320 GB, 5400 RPM.
 
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rockyroad55 said:
I don't think so since many hard drives are just as likely to fail anyway. Had a scorpio blue for 3 years now. Still going strong.
Click to expand...

The only WD drive I bought before was the WD 1TB drive that was 12mm for my MBP. It fit but I wasn't comfortable with the triple platters. Will look into their drives. They are pretty cheap. I hope they are dead silent..
 
ohla313 said:
The only WD drive I bought before was the WD 1TB drive that was 12mm for my MBP. It fit but I wasn't comfortable with the triple platters. Will look into their drives. They are pretty cheap. I hope they are dead silent..
Click to expand...

WD just came out with a new scorpio blue 1 TB 2.5" 5400 rpm drive. IT is a 2 platter 9.5 mm drive. It is very quiet. I just got one 2 weeks ago and it has been running great in my 13" 2009 MBP. I would recommend it. I own 4 of the 2.5" Scorpio Blue drives and not only are they quiet but they have run great for me. I trust the brand.

Look at port 42 from this thread for a benchmark of the drive.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13093762&#post13093762
 
xlii said:
WD just came out with a new scorpio blue 1 TB 2.5" 5400 rpm drive. IT is a 2 platter 9.5 mm drive. It is very quiet. I just got one 2 weeks ago and it has been running great in my 13" 2009 MBP. I would recommend it. I own 4 of the 2.5" Scorpio Blue drives and not only are they quiet but they have run great for me. I trust the brand.

Look at port 42 from this thread for a benchmark of the drive.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13093762&#post13093762
Click to expand...

Wow. That's pretty impressive! But I am only looking for a 320GB drive, I don't need that much storage.
 
ohla313 said:
Interesting. Is there any way I can view all single platter 320GB drives? The lack of reviews makes this drive a risky one to buy.
Click to expand...
You'll have to look at individual manufacturers' websites for single platter drives. Toshiba's storage division is very reputable. I wouldn't worry about the lack of reviews.
 
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