5 ms·

Since this is a thread about HDDs, can someone recommend a quiet HDD? Or is it a pipe dream and one should stick to SSDs?

lostlogin 6y ago
I can do the opposite - 16tb Seagate exos drives are very loud. Great drives, but horrible noise. If I were you I’d be looking at slow ones, 5400 WD drives.
- sliken 6y ago
  Sadly, at least in some cases the "5400" drives, are just relabled 7200 drives at a lower price point. Apparently it's cheaper than making actually 5400 drives.
glenneroo 6y ago
Since moving to Fractal Design Define (i.e. soundproofed) version 4/5/6/7 cases over the past ~10 years, the only noise I ever hear anymore is from the fans, primarily GPU and case fans when running heavier jobs. In my main system I have 6 spinning rust drives (8-16TB from various manufacturers) running 24/7 and I never hear them, even during heavy read/writes... and I often sleep on the couch nearby ;)
- wellthisisgreat 6y ago
  I actually have Fractal Define 7XL but am hesitant to get HDDs bc haven’t used them for some 10 years. Does FD7 isolate HDD noise to the level of for example AIO noise?
  - glenneroo 6y ago
    I'd recommend checking out some YouTube reviews in regards to water-cooling, several have talked about AIO but I skipped over those parts. I don't have AIO but if you want to keep absolutely silent, I would suggest mounting AIO fan-kit in the front of the 7XL instead of up top since that requires removing some of the critical soundproofing.
brianwski 6y ago
Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze. > one should stick to SSDs for sound I think you should stick to SSDs for performance reasons. :-) I can't go back to spinning drives for my desktop computers. But here is one idea for you... Backblaze started in my dive one bedroom rental apartment in Palo Alto, California. Here is what that looks like with cubical walls setup in my living room: https://i.imgur.com/twu5vKe.jpg https://i.imgur.com/twu5vKe.jpg Ok, so my desk in that picture is the one on the far right. I positioned my desk in the living room against a wall carefully so that my gas furnace room (with a door) was DIRECTLY on the other side of the wall. Then I put the computer inside the furnace room, drilled a hole through the drywall large enough to run the monitor cables and USB for the keyboard and mouse, and my desk was SILENT. I caught SO MUCH grief for putting my computer in a furnace room, but the silence was worth it. I still claim to this day that if the furnace pumped out all of it's heat into the closet surrounding the furnace that would be a terrible design, that's not how it works at all. :-) But if it bothers you deeply, find a wall where there is a coat closet on the other side. Here are more pictures of the original combination furnace room and machine room in the first Backblaze Corporate Headquarters: https://www.ski-epic.com/2007_small_business_setup/dell_xps_very_large.html https://www.ski-epic.com/2007_small_business_setup/dell_xps_...
- wellthisisgreat 6y ago
  Haha this is amazing :) Also wow you founded Backblaze, super exciting to meet you here. I am a happy customer and also got my family members to sign up so that they don't have to worry about losing pictures. Heard about Backblaze from one of the professors at university. Can't imagine unsubscribing ever, it's definitely a part of essential software package for me. Also if BackBlaze founder recommends to stick to SSDs I will stick to SSDs :)

lostlogin 6y ago

I can do the opposite - 16tb Seagate exos drives are very loud. Great drives, but horrible noise. If I were you I’d be looking at slow ones, 5400 WD drives.

sliken 6y ago
Sadly, at least in some cases the "5400" drives, are just relabled 7200 drives at a lower price point. Apparently it's cheaper than making actually 5400 drives.

glenneroo 6y ago

Since moving to Fractal Design Define (i.e. soundproofed) version 4/5/6/7 cases over the past ~10 years, the only noise I ever hear anymore is from the fans, primarily GPU and case fans when running heavier jobs. In my main system I have 6 spinning rust drives (8-16TB from various manufacturers) running 24/7 and I never hear them, even during heavy read/writes... and I often sleep on the couch nearby ;)

wellthisisgreat 6y ago
I actually have Fractal Define 7XL but am hesitant to get HDDs bc haven’t used them for some 10 years. Does FD7 isolate HDD noise to the level of for example AIO noise?
- glenneroo 6y ago
  I'd recommend checking out some YouTube reviews in regards to water-cooling, several have talked about AIO but I skipped over those parts. I don't have AIO but if you want to keep absolutely silent, I would suggest mounting AIO fan-kit in the front of the 7XL instead of up top since that requires removing some of the critical soundproofing.

brianwski 6y ago

Disclaimer: I work at Backblaze. > one should stick to SSDs for sound I think you should stick to SSDs for performance reasons. :-) I can't go back to spinning drives for my desktop computers. But here is one idea for you... Backblaze started in my dive one bedroom rental apartment in Palo Alto, California. Here is what that looks like with cubical walls setup in my living room: https://i.imgur.com/twu5vKe.jpg https://i.imgur.com/twu5vKe.jpg Ok, so my desk in that picture is the one on the far right. I positioned my desk in the living room against a wall carefully so that my gas furnace room (with a door) was DIRECTLY on the other side of the wall. Then I put the computer inside the furnace room, drilled a hole through the drywall large enough to run the monitor cables and USB for the keyboard and mouse, and my desk was SILENT. I caught SO MUCH grief for putting my computer in a furnace room, but the silence was worth it. I still claim to this day that if the furnace pumped out all of it's heat into the closet surrounding the furnace that would be a terrible design, that's not how it works at all. :-) But if it bothers you deeply, find a wall where there is a coat closet on the other side. Here are more pictures of the original combination furnace room and machine room in the first Backblaze Corporate Headquarters: https://www.ski-epic.com/2007_small_business_setup/dell_xps_very_large.html https://www.ski-epic.com/2007_small_business_setup/dell_xps_...

wellthisisgreat 6y ago
Haha this is amazing :) Also wow you founded Backblaze, super exciting to meet you here. I am a happy customer and also got my family members to sign up so that they don't have to worry about losing pictures. Heard about Backblaze from one of the professors at university. Can't imagine unsubscribing ever, it's definitely a part of essential software package for me. Also if BackBlaze founder recommends to stick to SSDs I will stick to SSDs :)