# wnat to upgrade tivo in bedroom and dont want extra noise



## kurtucky (Nov 5, 2004)

Hi,
I want to uprade my standalone series 2 that is in a bedroom. Can someone recommend a hard drive that will not make my tivo any noisier, is a high capacity, and is afforadable? 
Thanks!


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## sonyuser (Sep 19, 2005)

I would recommend the new Seagate drives. They are good performers, quiet and best of all, carry a 5 year guarantee. Go to www.newegg.com and they will have what you need. Newegg rocks!


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## dminches (Sep 29, 2001)

I just installed a 500 GB seagate drive and it is pretty noisy. It doesn't bother me, but it is anything but quiet.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

dminches said:


> I just installed a 500 GB seagate drive and it is pretty noisy. It doesn't bother me, but it is anything but quiet.


If you want an upgraded drive, and you want it in the bedroom - STAY AWAY FROM SEAGATE DRIVES. They are very loud, more so lately it seems with the newer drives.

The other issue with Seagate drives is that they are not compatible with AAM (Drive acuostic management software) at all, so you cannot quiet the drive that way.

I have found Western Digital HDDs to be very quiet. My upgraded drive is quieter than the orig TiVo drive in my other non-upgraded box (both boxes are orig 80hr DTs)


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## kurtucky (Nov 5, 2004)

thanks supasta... I have 2 seagates in my computer and they are very noisy. Do you know the model number of the western digital that you have in your tivo? 
Thanks so much!


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144392

I am very pleased with it. I also ran Hitachi Drive Tools on it and it made it a little quieter. 
Now, don't misunderstand me here. The drive is still a HDD. It is more noticeable when it seeks and so on, but most of the time it is silent to the point that I have to put my ear to it to hear it. Now, this is in my livingroom. Whether or not it is suitable for the bedroom, I;m not sure. I will say, like before, that the WDD drive is quieter than the stock drive in my other TiVo, and they are both 649-80hr DT boxes.

The price is great, too. I am pondering purchasing a second one for my other DT box. I thought I would want bigger, but it is actually mabye a little too big for what and how I use my TiVo.

Now, remember that HDD types and sizes are relative to each person's needs. Some here will tell you to get a Seagate, I will tell you to go WD, and some say that Samsung are the best buy. I say hang around the forums here a bit, read all the threads on the topic (there are hundreds) and decide when you feel you have the information you need. Thats what I did, and I decided on the WD drive (correction - I was also suggested to get a Seagate drive, and it was on sale at BestBuy. 400GB. I brought it home and installed it quick. It was so loud I ordered the WD from NewEgg 3 days later. When the WD arrived about 3 days later, I installed it and returned the Seagate.)

Point being - do your research.


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## kurtucky (Nov 5, 2004)

Thanks for your advice. I did a quick search and I think this is the hitachi drive tools your were talking about http://www.majorgeeks.com/IBM_-_Hitachi_Feature_Tool_d3388.html Is this the one you used?


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

Yes. Here is the link to the Hitachi page with the program. Same difference.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

I have about 2.5 year old Samsungs (80GB though) that are pretty quiet (in my PCs). For nearly 1.5 years I have been runnign a 160 GB WD drive. It could be quieter, but is just fine.


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## DaveLessnau (Nov 10, 2000)

You could also browse around www.silentpcreview.com and soak up some of the methodologies they use to quiet down computers.  In their Reference/Recommended section, they have an article that was last updated on 06/30/2006. In that, they've added the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000KS as a quiet drive. The other drives they list might be harder to find because they're older. There's also the option of using 2.5" notebook drives, but they're more expensive, have lower capacity, and I haven't really seen anyone successfully use one here on this forum.

Since you want to use the TiVo in your bedroom, you might look into SPCR's other silencing techniques like soft mounting the drive, replacing the fan with a quieter model (soft mounted), and possibly adding sound deadening material.


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## ZombiE (Dec 17, 2005)

This is what I bought about two weeks ago and installed into my S2.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822144309

I'm happy with the sound level in my bedroom. It does make a little noise when the head is seeking. I can only hear it if I am sitting at the end of my bed, it's on my dresser.

I didn't run the Hitachi Drive Tools to make it any quieter, I guess I can if I heard it a lot. In bed watching TV with the volume up so I can hear it drowns out any noise coming from the Tivo.

Just my experience,

Z


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

ZombiE said:


> I'm happy with the sound level in my bedroom. It does make a little noise when the head is seeking. I can only hear it if I am sitting at the end of my bed, it's on my dresser.


Thanks Z, that is helpful to me also. (Notice that the drive I used and the drive you used are the same other than size) So, that makes me feel a little better about putting that drive in the DT in my bedroom.


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## dminches (Sep 29, 2001)

Several of the prior posts linked to drives 320 GB or smaller. Are the larger drives inherently noisier? When I replaced the original 250 GB drive in my HR10 I wanted to install a larger drive to increase capacity. Thus, I went with the 500 GB drive. I didn't see the point of putting in a 250-320 GB drive. I guess it is different with an SD series 2.


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## supasta (May 6, 2006)

dminches said:


> Several of the prior posts linked to drives 320 GB or smaller. Are the larger drives inherently noisier? When I replaced the original 250 GB drive in my HR10 I wanted to install a larger drive to increase capacity. Thus, I went with the 500 GB drive. I didn't see the point of putting in a 250-320 GB drive. I guess it is different with an SD series 2.


I went with the size I did because of the price. 
I am quite happy with it. More than I thought I was going to be. I wanted a big 500GB drive, but I knew I wanted a WD and I wanted it cheap. So, I got the 320.


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## ZombiE (Dec 17, 2005)

I record everything on high, not best, in my bedroom. I have, including all the Tivo suggestions it has recorded over 100 hours of shows to watch. When in hell am I ever going to find that much time to watch them all?
What I am using it for is to record a season of shows and then I'll watch them. I am close to just turning off the suggestions on that Tivo. There is so much room that I don't see how I could record that much stuff and watch it. So for me a 250GB drive was by far big enough.

Like supasta, I went with pretty much the price point for what I was getting. I think a 200GB hard drive was 75 bucks, the 250GB I paid 77 for. So I just went with the 250GB.

Again the noise level of the Tivo on the dresser I cant hear at all while Im laying in bed watching the TV. 

My wife and I both fall asleep while the TV is on, volume real low. So I cant comment on the noise level with the TV off and going to sleep.

Z


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## tedsti (Nov 9, 2005)

One thing to look into for quiet drives is how many disc they have in them. A 160GB drive could have 1, 2, or 3 discs depending on what generation it is. Fewer discs means less noise and generally less heat.


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