Silent external hard drive???!

You need to explain what you intend doing. If you want an external harddrive to connect via Ethernet it needs to be a NAS, as these have small computers on board, the usually have a fan so are not silent.

If you are using itunes then the time capsule will work but not very well. You will be storing your itunes library on it which your itunes on your mac needs to connect to, if itunes is open before it can spot the capsule it will not find the library so default to the normal location.

You may want to investigate the Ripserver NAS - it is specially designed as a music server and is very quiet - me I'm going to wait for solid state storage.

The Linn Majik DS looks interesting though.

Clearly SSD would be the best, but is very expensive right now. There seems to be a question of which external NAS devices are the best to use. A quick look at the Linn Forum shows an entire thread devoted to this issue, with many members reporting different results of sound playback depending upon which NAS/HDD they are using. I do not know whether Naim has addressed this issue as the review of the HDX in Hi-Fi Choice indicates that they will be making some recommendations regarding NAS/HDD which work well with the HDX. Having said that from what I've read seems to indicate the best results reported with D-link 323 NAS storage case with Seagate drives using the 7200 series which range in price from the desk top series to the DB35 which was made for more "streaming capabilities" for music, DVR playback.

Seagate Free Agent Pro.

Dead silent. No fans. Extruded aluminum case acts as heat sink.

I have never heard a single noise from these.

5 year warranty as well.

I have a free agent and they are pretty quiet, however not good for this application as he wants ethernet, that leaves NAS

iiyama,

If you are connecting via ethernet, why not locate the disk/storage in another room?


Charlie

iiyama,
Why the need for ethernet????
-p

The aim of the drive would be to store my music/itunes library on only.

My reasoning for using an Ethernet cable is speed, im know expert but I believe this would be the best way to connect the two devices(?)

However, im open to suggestion and any alternative suggestions would be most welcome!

I do have a wireless system at home but have no plans to connect my MBP & Lavry to this. I would prefer them to be 'part' of the Hi-Fi in the front room and therefore isolated, again I am open to any suggestions as im not, and clearly not an expert in this, and seek advice!

Im currently re-wiring my house and could easily thread an Ethernet cable from my back room to the front and straight into the MBP, therefore the need for a silent drive would be reduced but still needed! A friend mentioned the Buffalo TeraStation Live 1TB Gigabit Ethernet NAS Hard Drive, is this any good? anybody used one?

Sorry for any confusion, in simple terms I just want a large storage system for my music which can then be played via my MBP via my Hi-Fi!

My home computer set-up is all Apple, iMac 24", Extreme base Station, Atv.

quote:

Seagate Free Agent Pro.

2 nded

Firewire is quickest and in a local situation USB next.

As for ethernet you need a nas and it needs to be connected to the home network.

There are many solutions available.

Actually eSATA is somewhat faster than Firewire.

Have a look at the Western Digital drives. Generally better reviews than the Seagate and better looking too.

My Book


Nigel

Thanks for your thoughts!

Ive got a My Book Pro and it sounds like ten xbox 360's together its that loud!
So, if i can run a cable directly into the back of the MBP a standard external hard drive with firewire 800 would be fine?

quote:

Originally posted by CharlieP:

If you are connecting via ethernet, why not locate the disk/storage in another room?

I'm with CharlieP on this one–why have a drive in the room at all, if you don't have to?

David,

I totally agree. But not being that up on networks blah blah and from what ive read it would seem best to avoid wireless and go for a direct connection.

Without drilling a hole in the wall the only solution, that im aware of, would be to keep the HDD in the same room, hence the need for a silent HDD.


However, as im rewiring the house and now have permission from the good lady i will run a cable between the two rooms. Luckily the Hi-Fi is on the other side of the wall near my computer so it wont require a large cable or be obvious to the eye which is a bonus!

This option not only helps with the reduction of noise but cost! So far this HDD seems the most likely candidate G-TECH G-DriveQ 1000GB External Hard Drive FW400/800 USB2.0 & eSATA!

Thanks for all your input!!

I have 2 Western Digital drives and they are among the loudest I have ever heard.

The Seagates Free Agent Pros are literally dead silent. I have not heard the "non-Pro" plastic housed versions though. So do not know about that.

They are E-sata, Firewire AND USB. Relatively inexpensive with a 5 YEAR WARRANTY!


I have NEVER once experienced "speed" issues due to using USB. When doing drive back-ups it would certainly go faster if I was using E-sata. But i do back-ups at night so I would never notice it.

When I get a different tower, or a PCI Esata card, I will start using the E-sata connection.

The Seagates are the way to go.

-p

The Western Digital my books are fanless so are practically silent.
If you get the world edition it can connect via network or by any other method you want except eSATA.

If you don't mind having your computer on when you're playing music then the time capsule works just fine adn gives great network coverage too.

I've not found a massive difference between ethernet and wireless. If you're going to go for a NAS then makes sure you can load software on it otherwise its a waste of time and effort as I've found out.

If I was in your position I'd just get a good external HD, connect it to your imac and run it wirelessly via airport express to your hifi. It works really well.

All the best

Ryan

Ryan,

I have no idea what MyBook you own. BOTH the 320 and 500 GB WD Mybooks I own (I am looking at one right now) have fans. And The 1tb my friend owns, has a fan.

They all have fans as far as i know.

There is a firmware update the allegedly reduces fan noise. But i have yet to experience it.

I only use the WDs for back-up so I dont care how loud they are.

But not only the fan is loud. You can easily hear the drive working. The clicks and wurrs associated with a HD searching the disc.

I would NEVER use these as a listening drive. I only bought because they were dirt cheap at the time.

iiyama, if I may offer soe advice.

What you are proposing is a bit cak handed.

Presumably you have a ADSL/router in the house receiving incoming connections to the web. These usually have the benifit of a coupld of ethernet connections. It is to this that you would connect a NAS harddrive and as far as I know is the only way to do it.

So if you have the capability of a bit of wiring, stick an ethernet run into the sitting room for future proofing, you may for instance in the future get a Squeezebox or appleTV

But for the here and now plug a NAS drive into the router, and then a whole new world of confusion and shit can reign down upon you from a great height there.

quote:

Originally posted by pcstockton:
Dead silent. No fans. Extruded aluminum case acts as heat sink.

I have never heard a single noise from these.

As my Qnap 109 NAS!
Very happy with it.

garyi,

Ive gone off the NAS idea, after reading up it does seem a little overkill and 'issues' written all over it!

I aim to use a standard external HDD, v silent by all accounts in the back room and connect via the Ethernet cable.

I haven't been that clear, I am totally rewiring the electrics in my house, from the look of things they haven't been done for a long time, some of the wiring is from the 30's!

I wouldn't normally go to so much trouble but as ive got a lot of rewiring to do in that area of the house, separate spur and sockets for the Hi-Fi, computer stuff, i might as well run the cable through.

The main reason im opting to use the cable option over the wireless one is, that from what I can gather, most folk say the wireless option doesn't sound as good(?)

I do have an Apple Tv and its sync with the network.

The WD drives are excellent for about 15 secs, then all hell lets lose and the whole street can hear it!

What am I missing? You say you don't want a NAS but will connect with ethernet. How does that work? I thought that connecting to your network made it a NAS? Firewire and USB are how "standard" external drives connect.

Garyi is right when he says that iTunes gets a bit confused when it can't locate your iTunes library. This can happen whenever your library is on anything other than your local drive. I have had the issue with both USB connected HDs and with a TimeCapsule (which is what I use now). I don't find it too much of an issue but I have to check before ripping that iTunes will place the files where I actually want them(or relocate them later). If iTunes can't find my library for playback, fully closing (using Command-Q, not the "red x") iTunes and re-opening it once my external drive is "up to speed" and connected usually fixes it OK.

You might be lucky in that bonjour on a mac will see an ethernet connected harddrive directly to the mac, and so too might a PC.

But by definition if the harddrive you are connecting has an etherner connection then it is a NAS drive, and in order to connect it via ethernet you have to use different protocols to USB or firewire, so you would need to use the nas drive as a nas drive.

Long and short is if the run is reasonably short say three metres you'll be alright with a USB lead.

One other consideration, if your data is in one place only, you don't have any data.

My ripped music collection is a valuable asset given the hours invested in secure ripping and then getting the tags right.

I use a TeraStation NAS RAID device, 4 SATA HDs in RAID5 to give me fault tolerence in the event of a single disk failure. It's quiet rather than silent, but not an issue as I built a fan ventilated cabinet in the loft to house it plus a dedicated server and UPS.

I intend to hook up another TeraStation soon so I can run an overnight backup from one to the other to give me an even more robust solution.

Personally, I think NAS is the way to go for storage, but really would recommend going RAID5 to give some peace of mind... backing up a Terabyte of storage onto tape or DVD is really not a practical proposition!

quote:

backing up a Terabyte of storage onto tape or DVD is really not a practical proposition!

Yes it is - just buy a Plasmon juke-box.

I've seen Plasmon used as a professional WORM archival solution, but do they do home user scale devices?