And that is an understatement. I recently replaced my very quiet (and old) WD Red 3TB drives with Samsung Exos X16 16TB drives. I’m starting to think this was a mistake as my storage server is in the living room. I wish I had somewhere else to keep the server but my apartment is not big enough.
I read somewhere on the internet (so yes, with a grain of salt but it sounds about correct) that the WD Reds are 28-29dB when active and the Exos X16s are 45 (!) dB. I realize that these Exos is enterprise class drives and probably not intended for home use and that in a server room there will be enough noise as it is to make this less of a problem.
Maybe I’ll have to replace them. Sad because I got them quite cheap and replacements will be significantly more expensive. Wonder if the Toshiba N300 drives are quieter because they seem to be a good alternative.