Who makes an Ultra quiet external harddrive

[Greg V.]

Hey Folks,

Just put my new 003Rack Factory rig together and am looking to get a low noise, ultra quiet external hard-drive. Any suggestions? I need to do acoustic guitars and vocals in my home project studio and will be sitting very close to my MacBook Pro and the new external hard-drive, so hard-drive noise is a big issue. Two links below I'm looking at, does the 2.5" versus the 3.5" make any difference?
3.5" http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-...te-al-pro-quad
2.5" http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

Also, my MacBook has one connector for FW800 and FW400, can I use a FW800 hard-drive that has two FW800 connectors? or can I use a hard-drive that has one of each: FW400 and FW800? Thanks very much!

[kite]

I use Wiebe -pretty much totally silent -no fans, compact,F/Wire 400.
Buy the Wiebe enclosure, and fit drive to suit, eg Seagate etc.
I also record in the same room as the Mac,and do a lot of acoustic type work, so know what you mean. I have 4 of the Wiebes in total, and only had minor niggles with the internals, but all put right by dealer at no charge !
Have a look here Wiebe Tough Tech

[Gary Nattrass]

I use a g-tech quad 750gb drive and it has no fan and is totally silent, it has USB, firewire 400, 800 and esata connectors.

I used to use lacie drives but find these more flexible

http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVEQ.cfm

I have a similar set-up and connect the console to the firewire 400 and the hard drive to the firewire 800.

It doesnt make much difference if you have two f/w800 or dual f/w 400/800 connectors although I chose the quad g-tech to give me the most compatibility with all my systems.

Regarding the drives you have been looking at I would personally go for the 3.5 inch drive as it will be more reliable, also you will need a 7,200 spin speed drive to get optimum performance. The 2.5 inch drives are also very useful for portable recording and I have a lacie rugged 100gb drive for this purpose.

As a recommendation I would get one of each if you can, a larger capacity 3.5 inch drive as a main system drive and a 100gb 2.5 in portabledrive for everyday use, you can then use your main drive as a back-up for the portable drive.

[orage]

Transintl makes some great enclosures that are extremely quiet. Just wait for Outpost/Fry's to have a low price on a Seagate drive and slap it into the enclosure.

[Ziko]

On a slightly different tack, I put a thread up a week or so back about how to keep a macbook pro quiet in a small studio and someone suggested buying some of those aurelex monitor pads and putting your macbook pro on those to help keep it cool so the fans won't suddenly start going nuts in the middle of a recording.

Good advice I thought.

[ee8]

I use a g-tech quad 750gb drive and it has no fan and is totally silent, it has USB, firewire 400, 800 and esata connectors.

I used to use lacie drives but find these more flexible

http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVEQ.cfm

I have one of these G-drives too, and it seems to make a clicking noise whenever it's working--i.e., when I'm recording to it!

Is this the case for anyone else?

I've been told that Maxtor drives are the ones recommended by IT guys. Can anyone comment on that?

Thanks!

[Ormond]

G Tech for absolute sure.
Click is only on start up.

[Goobs]

I use the first OWC drive to which you linked. It's totally quiet, and a very reliable drive built by dependable people who support their product well.

Highly recommended.

Good luck,
Jeff

[Greg V.]

I use the first OWC drive to which you linked. It's totally quiet, and a very reliable drive built by dependable people who support their product well.

Highly recommended.

Good luck,
Jeff

Thanks folks for all the help, I went with my first link:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-...te-al-pro-quad
Just rcv'd it and dig it, quiet and it plugged right in, no issues.... Right on!

[The Dougfather]

OWC enclosure loaded with a travelstar, they're very quiet compared to other mainstream brands.

Cheers