Quietest 320GB laptop drive?

I'm looking to bump up my laptop hard drive to 320GB - I would have liked 500GB, but it seems none of the current ones fit my needs. I almost pulled the trigger on the Samsung Spinpoint 500GB that was on sale at newegg this weekend, but the reviews of vibration/noise scared me off.

The most important things to me are silence and non-vibration. I have used 5400RPM drives pretty much exclusively on my laptops, so the extra speed from 7200RPM is nice, but not necessary, especially if it will create more noise/heat.

I have read online reviews, but unfortunately they've been kind of across the board. There's also a bunch of models to choose from. I'd rather get some real opinions from users. What are people here using? Have they been as silent as the stock Apple drives?

Thanks in advance for posting up!

 

Hitachi 5K320 & 7K320, are two quiet drives I've come across.
The Seagate 5400.5 is said to be super-quiet and very power efficient, access times are a bit high.
You can also try out the 250GB single platter 5400.6, as single-platter drives tend to be quicker, quieter and consume less power.

 

I used a Fujitsu 320GB/5400rpm in the Alu MB that was really quiet overall but made a startup sound.

The Samsung HM500LI has high power consumption and very high acces times. It uses three platters.

WD5000BEVT seems to tick all your boxes. It's quiet and fast. It uses two platters.

Edit: turns out I'm 'wrong'. it's not very quiet without using some rubber.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=598174

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Looks like there isn't anything out yet in the 500GB category that is silent.

Hopefully that changes. Hitachi just joined the 500GB group:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/11/hitachi-joins-500gb-laptop-disk-party-brings-encryption-and-a-b/

What about 320GB? Still interested in hearing people's experience with 320GB drives. Thanks!

 

Hitachi 5K320 is the quietest 320GB drive. It's cool and pretty fast too.

WD3200BEVT is quicker but can get hot and uses more power than average.

 

Thanks guys.

I ended up going with the Hitachi 320GB 5400. It's on sale at newegg for $59.99 after $20 MIR with free shipping. It got great reviews for specifically being quiet.

I will hold off on 500GB until there are some less noisy options.

 

I was under the impression that SSDs were especially quiet (no moving parts), so it would have been the route for you, if you had the cash.

 

I need space, and SSDs are cripplingly small right now. I am moving up from a 200GB hard drive for a reason. Plus the cost vs. performance is way unbalanced in my opinion.

 

I have a Toshiba 250GB drive that came with my 2.4ghz Alu Macbook which is the quietest HD I've ever heard in my life. Can't feel or hear it EVER...even during high load/file transfers...and performance is very good.

They have a 320GB version too.
http://www.toshibastorage.com/main....dDiskDrives/MK3253GSX/MK3253GSXSpecifications

 

i dont know what you mean by quiet, i havent ever heard my 320GB seagate momentus.

not sure if this qualifies for quiet..

 

I will also recommend the Hitachi you bought. Nice drive. I can't wait for SSD prices to drop and capacity to rise. 256GB @ $200 or under sounds pretty good for low heat, noise, and more battery life. Not to mention better performance.

 

Try the Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200 RPM 320 GB Hard drive. I'm using it right now. Only $75 on ebay and it's really really quiet. Obviously it vibrates more than a 5400 RPM and also, it runs very cool and uses very low power consumption.

 

Hitachi 7k320. Sweet and silent.