2.5" drives in a desktop

DonkeyStyle \o/

I've been toying with the idea for the past few minutes... I want to replace a noisy harddrive in my other PC here... I have a 3.5" IDE Samsung Spinpoint 120gig drive in my main PC and it's pretty quiet, so I'd go for another one of those... but I'm wondering if these lil' 2.5 inchers would make even less noise, considering most of them run at 5400 rpm.
(Am I correct in assuming these are laptop harddrives?)

Seems like you pay more per Gig with these smaller drives, but if the noise levels are much lower, I'd be willing to buy a small capacity one just for the OS and a few other bits and pieces.

So question #1 I suppose would be are these 2.5" drives actually more quiet than an already fairly quiet 3.5"?

Question #2: Are there any gotchas to installing one of these in a desktop (besides mounting, since I don't actually mount them to the chasis, I leave them sitting in a kind of enclosure which in turn sits on sponge at the bottom of the tower (works amazingly well to eliminate vibration noise))... what I mean more is the cabling... would I be alright to use the SATA cables that came with my motherboard? (or is there some special laptop mini-SATA I'm unaware of?)

I've also toyed with the idea of getting a large USB memory stick and running the entire system off it... since it's basically a guest PC for office and web access... but I've heard solid state memory doesn't take kindly to the kind of thrashing it'd be subject to as an OS drive. :eek:

Any thoughts at all?
Cheers.

zilog_jones

2.5" disks are a good bit slower for starters, and I don't think they're really that much quieter if at all. I don't know what 2.5" SATA disks use - you used to have to use an adaptor for PATA ones but obviously a full-size PATA socket wouldn't even fit on such a disk.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Well the drive it'd (hypothetically) be replacing is pretty slow anyway (probably because it only does (u?)DMA66)... it's not really a big issue for me.

I'm wondering now aswell do they produce as much heat as a 3.5" (I'd assume they're cooler at 5400rpm), because I could put it in a passively cooled 'silent' enclosure.

Laptops generally seem pretty quiet to me, considering you're right up close to it, instead of it being under a desk.

vir7ual

To the best of my knowledge, laptop sata drives and desktop sata drives have the very same connection. not sure about power. Someone may be able to correct me on this. I have a 2.5" ide drive in a desktop, using an 3.5" IDE cable to 2.5" IDE with the power connected to the 4pin rails. Use this for testing laptop hard drives. Wouldnt notice any major noise difference as the whole room has a load of equipment in it. As for speed, i'm running raptors as all my OS drives on the desktops so personally would notice switching to a 5400rpm OS drive.

8T8

Heat output is lower on such drives but for noise well I suppose it depends on hearing, a regular PC will probably mask the sound from such drives anyway.

IDE or SATA drives can be obtained the IDE kind have a mini connection that requires an adapter for use in a desktop system. I believe there are some mini-SATA connector drives out their as well but not sure about retail drives.

The Seagate Momentus 7200.1 or 7200.2 are currently the best 2.5 drives on the market, also conveniently the Seagate Momentus also uses the standard SATA & SATA power connectors.

DirkVoodoo

As I recall, the Antec P150, and possibly other antec models, used a rubber band mounting for HDDs. In one review they went for ultimate silence by twisting the rubber around a few times to mount some 2.5" drives, completely isolating them from the chassis.

Most 3.5" drives are whisper quiet, unless you buy raptors. IMHO, unless you drop every other component to the dB of your 2.5" drive and have an excellent sound-proofed case, then there is littls point buying laptop drives. In essence, a computer is only as quiet as its loudest component, which I think for me might be reverberations throughout my Al case.

And 7200 rpm is a small price to pay for better performance.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Yeah in fairness I can hardly hear my Samsung 3.5" over my gfx card and CPU fans... not unless I fix it to the chasis anyway.

I had it great before, where you could hardly tell if the PC was powered on at all... but every time I upgrade, I have new noise sources to deal with... and a hotter case to boot.

I'm (reluctantly) considering adding case fans, as taking the side off my case drops my cpu load temps down a good 5 degrees. :eek:
I could probably roast a chicken in there.

vibe666

the seagate momentus are great laptop drives, i have a few of them, both in a dell d600 laptop and several usb drives, they are very quiet, but i wouldn't say they'd be any quieter than a samsung spinpoint 3.5" personally, as they have a very good rep for their low noise levels.

as for case fans you can get a couple of 120mm fans for your case that will produce very little noise. a company called silenx does some 14dBA fans that would do you very nicely.

one in front, sucking air in and one in back blowing it out and you're all set. just remember to keep your case sealedup tight to maintain correct airflow. if you case is hotter with the cover off then something is going wrong wiht your ventilation.