[mythtv-users] Sugestion for low-noise HD

[Ben Lancaster]

On 4 May 2007, at 13:07, Adilson Oliveira wrote:

> I'm building my first MythTV box and I'm using a Seagate Barracuda
> 7200.10 model ST3320620AS which is a fine HD, big, fast but a bit  
> noisy
> and also works a bit hot. Can you recomend a more silent one and that
> runs colder?

Harddrive noise is a tricky one, as they produce two kinds of noise:

1) The noise of the disk spinning (high pitch whine at worst, often  
masked by fan noise, but MUCH more prominent with "silent" fans)
2) Clicking/rubling during read/write as the head flicks around the disk

Until recently, the quietist consumer drives on the market were the  
Samsung SpinPoint drives, with the 'cudas a close second in that they  
absolutely no noise from #1. You still get the hard drive click/ 
rumble - this can be minimised with rubber dampers if you mount the  
disk in an optical drive bay. I use a pair of them in my mythbox with  
dampers, and you can hear very very little.

Western Digital have recently made some BIG progress in countering #2  
- see here:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=280&Language=en

I'm yet to hear one myself, but the technology they speak about  
(there's an animation somewhere on there) looks very convincing and  
seems to make sense.

£0.01 GBP

Ben