Hard drive noise is a real
bitch. In a system with no
fans, it can be the most
annoying thing in the world. In fact, even in a system with
fans, the
pitch of
hard drive noise is often the most
annoying thing about it.
Take, for example, the
5400 rpm 20
gig Maxtor that shipped with my
G4 Cube. It isn't overly
loud, but it had this
high pitched idle, a sound that you really didn't notice outright until you turned the computer off. Of course, it
seeked even louder, making that sort of
crunching
sound. It
crunched a lot whenever I'd
compile anything.
Take, as a counterexample, the
7200 rpm 80
gig Seagate ATA IV drive that I replaced it with. This drive is a
marvel.
Quiet, for starters. After listening to it start, it
idles so
quiet that it cannot be heard. When it seeks, it almost
purrs instead of
chewing and
clunking its way to
infamy.
Seagate managed to achieve this wonder through quiet
liquid bearings and insane
platter density. When you only have two
platters to
spin, with 20
gigs to a side, you just don't have a lot of
noise.
Now, I can
sleep with my head no more than 6 feet from my computer. No fans, no drive noise,
no alarms and no surprises.