Quietest Hard Drive: There are two common source of unwanted noise in a computer: the fan and the hard drive. If you’re looking for the quietest computer fan, check out the Cooler Master Sleeve Bearing 120mm Silent Fan. Now that you’ve already fixed the fan problem, lets now look at some of the noiseless harddrives you can get online today. But before getting into that lets have a looks at some of the factors makes a hard disk noisy.
Hard drive noise comparison- 7200rpm vs 5400
In terms of performance, the 7200rpm hard drives give an average 120MB/s write and read speeds while the 5400rpm give 100MB/s read &write speeds. However the 7200 hard disks are noisier compared to 5400rpm drives. A study published in TechReport shows that there is a 3% decibels difference between the two harddrives models.
But is 3 percent actually significant enough for the human ear to spot the difference?
Well let me explain in detail how the decibel scale works. The decibel scale for sound is measured such that an increase in10 decibels is equivalent to 2x loudness. So this means that 3decibel difference between the 7200 and the 5400 would be something that’s easily noticeable. (Also read my guide on quiet mini fridge)
What is The Quietest Hard Drive?
Western Digital (WD) Red NAS Hard Disk Drive
The Western Digital series of disk drives is specifically designed for use with NAS (Network Attached Storage devices rather than desktop computers. The WD red series is available in 1tb to 12tb capacities and are some of the silent disk drives on the market. While they are designed for use with NAS devices, you can use the WD red drive as a normal desktop drive for storage. However make sure that your motherboard and operating system are new enough to recognize the disc.
These drives can run nonstop for 24 hours, have a three year warranty- (1 year more than you will get with WD’s green and blue desktop drives).
Quietest Hard Drive Comparison Chart
| Image | Name | Noise Level Idle dB(A) | Noise Level Active (dB) | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
  | WD Red Pro 8TB NAS Internal Hard Drive | 22.5 | 39.6 | See on Amazon |
  | WD Blue 6TB PC Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class | 30.3 | 32.8 | See on Amazon |
  | WD Red 6TB NAS Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class | 29.4 | 33.4 | See on Amazon |
  | Seagate BarraCuda Pro 10TB Internal Hard Drive Performance HDD | 26.5 | 34.7 | See on Amazon |
  | WD Purple 6TB Surveillance Hard Disk Drive - 5400 RPM Class | 31.1 | 34.7 | See on Amazon |
  | Seagate ST6000AS0002 6TB ARCHIVE HDD | 33.7 | 35.4 | See on Amazon |
  | WD Green 6TB 3.5-Inch SATA 6.0Gb/s IntelliPower | 31 | 37 | See on Amazon |
Source: Nascompares
Quietest Hard Drives Reviews
1. WD Red Pro 8TB NAS Internal Hard Drive
Western Digital hard drive manufacturer is commonly known for offering reliable storage media. This version features a sizeable capacity of 8TB storage space. This is perfect for backing up your PC files when you’re in transit.
It measures 5.79 x 4 x 1.03 inches and weighs 1.58 pounds. Therefore, it’s portable enough to carry comfortably in your bag pocket. Besides, it can handle high-intensity workloads 24 hours a day. Another essential feature is extended drive testing to ensure all drives are working.
WD 8TB hard disk has a rotational speed of 7200 rpm that helps you meet fast loading speed demands. This speed is ideal for quick response, whether you’re playing console or computer-based games. Not only the rpm, but this unit also comes with a 5-year limited warranty.
Also, WD 8TB supports an average 300TB per year workload rate, meaning you can transfer many details to and from the device. Lastly, the gadget boasts a 3D Active Balance technology that improves reliability and error recovery.
2.WD Blue 6TB PC Hard Drive – 5400 RPM Class
The Blue WD PC hard drive is available in different storage spaces, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB. This particular unit is the biggest in terms of storage, offering you 6TB storage space for daily reliable computing.
It’s sizeable and measures 5.87 x 4 x 1.03 inches. In addition, it weighs 0.66 lbs/pounds, which easily fits in your pocket bag. The gadget also comes with a pre-installed cache memory of up to 64MB for optimum performance.
The WD has an operational speed of 5400 RPM, thus giving you reliability for your office or web applications. Perhaps, this particular WD version is a deal for use as a desktop PC or primary drive.
This item has a product warranty of a 2-years limit and supports a variety of Operating Systems, including Linus, OS, MAC, and Windows. Also, it’s fitted with WD quality for ease of performance and high-speed error solving.
3. WD Red 6TB NAS Hard Drive – 5400 Class
This hard drive has a storage space of 6TB, that’s enough to store your PC’s backup files, personal images, and videos. Besides, this version of the WD Red hard drive series is available from 1-14 TB. That said, you’re spoilt of choice based on your needs.
WD Red 6TB NAS hard drive lies in the 5400 RPM performance class. Therefore, it’s best to archive and share files. In addition, it’s fitted with NASware firmware Operating System for flexibility and versatility.
The unit measures 5.8 x 4 x 1 inches and is ready for use once you get it out of the box for Windows PCs. For Mac users, you might need first to reformat the gadget using your device. Also, it weighs 1.66 lbs/pounds. That’s light enough to carry around in your clothing pockets.
It supports an average 180 TB per year workload rate that comprises user data that goes in and out of the device. Lastly, a warranty of a 3-years limit awaits you if you go for this hard drive.
4. Seagate BarraCuda Pro 10TB Internal Hard Drive
The Seagate BarraCuda Pro 10TB is a performance-based internal hard drive with 10TB storage space. With all that space, you can store more files and do it more confidently due to the proven reliability of the BarraCuda Pro HDD.
The product measure 5.75 x 3.98 x 0.79 inches and has a total weight of 1.08 lbs/pounds. The product’s dimensions make it one of the aesthetically pleasing revolutionary internal hard drives.
In addition, this item is perfect for handling large projects such as video and music editing as it boasts a rotational speed of 7200 RPM. This speed supports gaming and business projects as well. Therefore, you can use the gadget for multi-tasks.
Seagate BarraCuda Pro 10TB has a warranty period of up to 5-years. Besides, it has 2-years Rescue Data Recovery Services in addition to the 5-years warranty.
5. WD Purple 6TB Surveillance HDD – 5400 RPM Class
The WD Purple 6TB internal hard drives come in two main styles: the Old Generation Surveillance HDD and New Generation Surveillance HDD.
This is the Old Generation WD Purple Surveillance HDD and gives you 6TB of storage space. Both old and new generations of Surveillance HDDs are available in various storage spaces between 1 to 10TB. Therefore, there’s a variety of choices to select from based on your needs.
The WD Purple 6TB is engineered specifically for surveillance and security measures. It measures 5.8 x 4 x 1.03 inches. In addition, it weighs approximately 1.65 lbs/pounds.
This unit uses all-frame technology to avoid pixilation and video disruptions when recording to provide high-definition security services. With a 5400 RPM rotational speed, this item boasts of reduced video frame loss.
It’s fine-tuned for more stream-count and low bit-rate applications common for most security and surveillance applications.
6. Seagate ST6000AS0002 6TB ARCHIVE HDD
The Seagate ST6000AS0002 has a whopping storage space of 6GB and a total of 800GB Hard Disk Size. Also, it allows compatibility with both Windows and Mac devices. This space makes it a reliable pick for video editors.
This product comes with a 5900 RPM rotational speed, thus promising reliability when archiving your files and videos. Also, this speed is excellent when copying files of your favorite movies and albums for archiving.
Dimension-wise, the gadget measures 5.12 x 3.15 x 0.59 inches and weighs 1.90 lbs/pounds. The device also supports a cache size of 128 MB, which is fairly good for optimum performance.
The device doesn’t have an automated backup. Although, since it’s compatible with both Mac and Windows, it can efficiently utilize their respective backup functions.
7. WD Green 6TB 3.5-Inch SATA 6.0GB/s IntelliPower
The WD Green 6TB 3.5-Inch boasts a reduced power consumption compared to many other HDDs. It has an internal storage space of 6TB. Besides, the WD Green hardware offers a variety of options from 500GB to 6TB. That said, this one is the biggest of all in terms of space.
It’s not large and measures 5.8 x 4 x 1 inch with 1.65 lbs/pounds. Further, the device is built based on an exclusive Green Power Technology whose primary attribute is power saving.
Another form of technology embedded in this device is the IntelliPower. This refers to a fine-tuned balance of three basic operational features, spin speed, catching algorithm, and transfer rate. The balance ensures the product delivers both optimum performances while saving power.
Also, IntelliSeek helps the device record the optimum seek speeds to lower the effect of vibration, power consumption, and noise production. Lastly, it has a 2-years limited warranty from the date of purchase.
Opt for SSD for a noiseless computing experience
Traditional HDD’s contain a disc that spins when the computer is switched on. It’s from this spinning that hard drives get their ratings as either 5400 or 7200RPM discs. It’s the spinning that makes the drives noisy. On the other hand is a Solid State Device commonly known as SSD. Unlike traditional hard drives, the SSD has no moving parts. Its uses a Negative-AND flash memory. This makes SSD drives dead silent- think memory card or flash drive.
Quietest Hard Drive Buyer Guide
Before investing in a hard drive for your personal or office computer there are several factors that you should consider. They include:
Storage capacity
In most cases, the search for a new drive starts after realizing our growing needs for more storage space. Suddenly the 500GB or 1TB drive that came with your computer becomes inadequate. If you own a desktop, you can simply add a second, a third or even fourth drive but on a laptop you will have to swap with another drive. The best thing you can do is to swap with another drive with a more storage space. You can easily upgrade your 500GB storage device with a 1TB or 2TB drive. However keep in mind that you will have to spend extra bucks if you’re going to buy a drive with more storage space.
Manufacturers
There are dozens of manufacturers out there specializing in manufacturing quiet hard drives. While customer reviews on the internet can be a great way to filter down the different brands offering sweet deals, it’s important to note that consumers at times can be biased on their reviews. Another way to filter down the best HDD manufacturers is through expert reviews. Do not overlook quality when buying an HDD that will store you most important data. Some reliable brands include Samsung, Western Digital, Toshiba, Seagate, and Hitachi. Now that you know some reliable manufacturers, you can use consumer reviews and expert reviews to sort the best drive to meet your needs.
Performance/Rotational speed
Not all hard drives give same performance. HDD come in 4200/5400/7200 and 10,000 revolutions per minute (RPM). The higher the RPM, the faster the disc will process your data but the higher the RPM the costlier. While people tend to think 7200 give better performance than 5400, it’s important to remember that other factors play a crucial role in a hard disk performance. Most of the drive you will find in computers today operate at 5400 and give a desired performance for average PC user. Taking noise level into consideration, it’s important to choose a disk drive that will give you desired performance while at the same time keeping noise levels down to minimum.
Warranty
Another important factor that you should consider is the warranty offered by the manufacturer. One of the best ways to get an idea for how long the manufacturer expects the HDD to last is to have a look at the warranty. Brands such as Seagate and Western Digital give up to 5 years warranty on their products including HDD’s and this should get you covered in case your drive fails.
What to do after purchasing the Quietest hard drive online
Over the years, I’ve been using a variety of Seagate Archive drives and WD green and red drives and I think it’s best to share some bit of advice on what you should do after buying a new drive and how to detect any defects as early as possible.
The first thing you should do is inspect the packaging the disk arrives in. the drive should be suspended between two plastic holders inside the box. These holders help suspend the drive and prevent it from damage during transit. Now when installing the disk drives, I’d recommend you wear gloves or instead wash clean your hands. This should help avoid transferring hand or finger oil to the drive.
The next step would be long format the drive once you’ve installed it. You can run one or more passes on the drive to ensure that each sector of the disk gets written to. One the formatting is complete, the next step would be to check the SMART data and watch out the values for anything alarming. Pay attention to reallocated sectors, failed reads and RUEs.
Final thoughts on quietest hard drive
With the quietest disc drive you are able to work in a quiet environment without any sort of distractions. But if you are willing to dig deeper in your pockets, you can opt to have an SSD drive because they are much quieter than any silent hard drive you’ll ever find. You can also read Quiet Server for Home and Small Businesses
Thank you for this informative post Andrew. I have found that 5400RPM hard disks are much quieter than 7200RPM drives. And yes the 3% decibel difference is something that the human ear can clearly distinguish. I’ve had to replace my noise SEAGATE drive with Western Digital (WD) Red NAS Hard Disk Drive and I can assure you it’s quiet thought it’s not quiet as I expected it to be but the noise is something I can deal with- not too much to make one lose sleep.
I don’t think you mean 3% difference. 3% would hardly be noticeable. However, 3dB difference is twice as loud/quiet (depending what you’re comparing to what).