Recommendations for a QUIET Time Machine Drive

[stadidas]

Evening all,

My Western Digital 500GB My Book drive that I was using for Time Machine backups has died, so I need a new drive. The My Book used to drive me mad with the amount of noise it made, and as it is on all the time, it got very annoying, especially as my iMac is so quiet.
Does anyone have any suggestions for a Time Machine drive of the same capacity that is quiet?

 

[Eidorian]

2.5" 500 GB drives are available.

 

[dantherevelator]

I can recommend you avoid the Seagate FreeAgent. Mine sounds like a freakin' kettle about to boil.

 

[iBecks]

I can recommend you avoid the Seagate FreeAgent. Mine sounds like a freakin' kettle about to boil.

I second this, am glad I now have a Time Capsule in another room.

 

[Eidorian]

I have two Western Digital 2.5" drives and they're about as loud as my old iMac Core Duo.

 

[synth3tik]

I am using only G-Force drives for my back ups. It is not whisper quite as there still is a drive in there, but they do have many (most) models that do not included a fan. WD started with out fans, but I think they put them in.

G-Force makes really good external drives. They really spend the time to develop them. They all have heat sinks on the bottoms which seem to work rather well for heat displacement.

 

[Ashka]

500 gig (German) Formac portable Firewire / USB drive here ... silent.
Not left plugged in the MBP, just used when needed.

 

[Morod]

I can vouch for these. I have the 500GB firewire drive. Not even a fan in it to make noise. Quieter than whisper-quiet, and reliable. But, a bit spendy....

http://www.g-technology.com/

Good luck with whatever you choose!
Morod

 

[Makosuke]

The Fantom Green Drive series is one to look at as a budget option. It doesn't have a fan, but on account of the metal case and using one of the low-power WD Green drives it doesn't get particularly hot, so you come out ahead on that front, and the drive itself is pretty quiet. Not silent, but certainly not loud enough to bother me.

Obviously one of the 2.5" options would be quieter, but they're going to cost significantly more per GB, while these Fantom drives are at the bottom end of prices for external USB2/eSATA ones. Also a 2 year warranty, though I don't know if Fantom is reliable enough as a company to trust that that's worth anything.

Anyway, happy with mine so far.