Totally Silent External HD Enclosure Needed - Your Advice

[simontarr]

I'm going to 'build' myself a few totally silent external hard drives because I'm sick of listening to my Seagate revving up and taking off all the time.

I'm going to buy this hard drive (but obviously not from QuietPC because they rip you off) but I'm stuck with finding a good, reliable caddy that's fan-free and keeps the HD cool.

I rarely use my external drives as hardcore scratch disks or anything intense like that. They will mainly be used as archive drives so keeping them cool isn't No 1 priority but it would be good if I could get a silent one that keeps everything cool.

Can any of you recommend a good caddy? I live in the UK, so they would have to be available to buy here. Thanks for your help.

PS. I'm looking to sell my iMac before I go to uni, if I can get a nice easy sale here on the MR Market Place. I need a laptop for my course because I'll be traveling between halls and lectures a lot. It's an early 2006 Core Duo 2GHz, 20-Inch Screen, 250GB HDD, 1.5GB RAM, 128MB Graphics. I'm really unsure as to how much I can ask for it- anyone have a rough price?

 

[Merser]

I'm going to 'build' myself a few totally silent external hard drives because I'm sick of listening to my Seagate revving up and taking off all the time.

I'm going to buy this hard drive (but obviously not from QuietPC because they rip you off) but I'm stuck with finding a good, reliable caddy that's fan-free and keeps the HD cool.

I just bought a OWC Mercury Elite Pro which has a WD Caviar SE16 500gb drive in it.

Read about the drive and its quiet cool features here

http://www.mobilewhack.com/computer...tal_wd_caviar_se16_500gb_sata_hard_drive.html

I imagine with OWC's aluminum fanless enclosure its even quieter.

I hope this helps.

 

[iPilot]

Are you sure the OWC Mercury Elite Pro has the WD Cavier drive? I can't seem to find that on OWC's website. The link you provided on the WD claims a price of $350...how would OWC be able to offer it, and their enclosure, for $220?

I'm hoping you're right, as I would be interested in that setup as well.

 

[iPilot]

Nevermind about the second part...I just went to WD's website, and it shows a price of $170 for the drive.

Where on OWC's site does it indicate what drive they use for the Mercury Elite Pro?

Thanks

 

[Sesshi]

The choice and the subject title seems to be an oxymoron.

You won't get a Totally Silent external drive in a 3.5" form factor without significant amounts of work. However if we're talking Can Be Heard Above The Increased Fan Speed That Crappy Apple Hardware Has To Be Spun Up To To Keep It As Cool As Some Other PC's But Is Acceptably Quiet, it's certainly doable.

If you're looking at Totally Silent, you might like to take a look at the Flash SSD's in an enclosure. And if you're looking at Barely Audible In A Normal Computing Environment, take a look at the USB bus powered 2.5" HDD drives like the Freecom Toughdrives. They do a 250Gb version.