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    What's a quiet AND cool 1TB 3.5" hard drive for use as an external drive?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by tracerit, Jul 19, 2009.

  1. tracerit

    tracerit Notebook Consultant

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    I have a Hitachi 7k1000 32MB 1TB I bought back in Novemeber, and it runs very hot. According to HWMonitor it goes for 50C at idle and 55C at load. I thought this was ok until I put my Raptor 10k drive in the enclosure to erase and noticed it ran only at 42C load and was VERY cool to the touch.

    Since I'm using the laptop not for performance anymore, i'm willing to go for a quiet and cool hard drive, are there any that's recommended?

    Must be:

    1TB
    SATA
    quiet
    cool
    preferably low power




    Also, is it possible when I disconnect the external hard drive (connected by eSATA or USB 2.0) from the laptop it'll turn the drive off or when I turn the laptop off, it'll power off the external drive also?
     
    tracerit, Jul 19, 2009
    #1
  2. NAS Ghost

    NAS Ghost Notebook Deity

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    If you were using the USB interface to connect the drive, your temperature readings may have been incorrect. As for the power question at the end, the WD My book does that, at least the one I have does. As for which drive to actually use ( I believe you meant E-SATA ), you could get a WD Caviar Green and put that in an enclosure of your choice.
     
    NAS Ghost, Jul 19, 2009
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  3. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Those temps seem reasonable and correct. I second the WD Green drives if you want a cool and power efficient running 3.5" drive. Unfortunately, all 3.5" drives require additional power (besides from USB), so unless you have a common power bar, turning off the notebook will not power down the hard drive.
     
    sgogeta4, Jul 19, 2009
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  4. ntheo

    ntheo Notebook Consultant

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    I got a Western Digital Green 750Gb w/ a Newegg enclosure and it runs well..I don't notice any performance difference compared a 7200rpm drive.

    There's a fan on my enclosure so things are cool.
     
    ntheo, Jul 20, 2009
    #4
  5. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    I've noticed that Hitachi desktop drives (3.5") tend to run on the warm side, as a whole. I have 4 Hitachi drives from various generations, and they all run noticeably hotter than the Seagate and WD drives I have.

    The WD Caviar Green drives are very affordable and run quite cool. My friend has a Cavalry external hard drive with one inside, and it runs cooler to the touch than my Hitachi-inside drive.
     
    MidnightSun, Jul 20, 2009
    #5