What hard drive? Upgrade to 2011 iMac.

[PaulKemp]

Hi!

So my 2011 iMac came with only SDD, and I now in the process of adding an additional hard drive. But, I have some questions for you guys who already have added / replaced the hard drive. The disk is going to be used as a boot camp partition (Windows) and normal media stuff. Some games etc. Size, 3 or 4 TB.

Hard drives:
Speed vs noise is important. I would like to have 7200 RPM. But, I don't want to hear the hard drive when sitting in front of the iMac.

• WD Desktop Green 3TB: Cheap, but "intellipower" RPM. Could be slow? Also, 3 TB is the biggest I can find for the Green line.
• WD Red 4TB NAS Harddrive: Don't know about noise. Since this is targeted at the NAS users, I'm not sure how it would work for me.
• Seagate Barracuda® 4TB: 5400 RPM. Not sure about this. I'm getting conflicting reports on the ST4000DM000 drive. And co workers are preferring WD over Seagate. Cheap though.
• Seagate Barracuda® 3TB: 7200 RPM? This sounds like a good option. Could be noisy. But cheap, fast and large.
• WD Desktop Black 4TB: 7200 RPM and expensive. But this is the "best" option. 5 yrs warranty etc. I imagine this disk being very noisy.

Could be others I have forgot. Personal experience with noise and what types of disk would be nice.

Installation kit from OWC:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIM27HDD11/

 

[elithrar]

WD Black. Not really noisier than any other desktop drive. Don't get the Red.

 

[PaulKemp]

WD Black. Not really noisier than any other desktop drive. Don't get the Red.

WD Black 4 TB is the nice to have option. In Norwegian money, it's 195$ more expensive than the 3tb Seagate Barracuda, and I can't really justify that kind of a price difference. And both are 7200 RPM. I'm also guessing they are about the same regarding noise.

If someone has replaced the 3.5" hard drive on a iMac, how well do you hear the hard drive?

 

[monokakata]

I've got 6 of the 3 TB Seagates in my Mac Pros. They are very quiet, in my experience. True, in an iMac they'd be closer to your ears than in a Mac Pro under the desk. I like them a lot.

I did read someplace online that Backblaze, the online backup company, favors the 3 TB Hitachi, for reliability.

 

[PaulKemp]

I've got 6 of the 3 TB Seagates in my Mac Pros. They are very quiet, in my experience. True, in an iMac they'd be closer to your ears than in a Mac Pro under the desk. I like them a lot.

I did read someplace online that Backblaze, the online backup company, favors the 3 TB Hitachi, for reliability.

I think I'll go for the 3TB Barracuda. It's well renown, cheap and will suit my needs.