Quietest NAS hard drives
Noise is the spec people forget until the NAS is under a desk or in the living room. We rank current NAS drives by their published idle sound power (A-weighted, dB) - the figure that matters when the array sits idle most of the day. Lower is quieter; seek noise breaks ties. Drives without published acoustic data are not ranked here.
* Shown as a full table on desktop, and as cards on tablet and phone.
| Drive | Capacity | Idle noise | Tech | Class | Interface | AFR | €/TB | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
WD242KRYZ WD Gold
|
24 TB | 20 dB | CMR | Enterprise | SATA | - | €57.89 | €1,389 |
| 2 |
WD221KRYZ WD Gold
|
22 TB | 20 dB | CMR | Enterprise | SATA | - | €44.09 | €970 |
| 3 |
WD202KRYZ WD Gold
|
20 TB | 20 dB | CMR | Enterprise | SATA | - | - | - |
| 4 |
HAT3320-20T Synology Plus Series
|
20 TB | 20 dB | CMR | NAS | SATA | - | - | - |
| 5 |
WD181KRYZ WD Gold
|
18 TB | 20 dB | CMR | Enterprise | SATA | - | €53.75 | €968 |
| 6 |
WD161KRYZ WD Gold
|
16 TB | 20 dB | CMR | Enterprise | SATA | - | €49.94 | €799 |
| 7 |
HAT3310-16T Synology Plus Series
|
16 TB | 20 dB | CMR | NAS | SATA | - | - | - |
| 8 |
WD142KRYZ WD Gold
|
14 TB | 20 dB | CMR | Enterprise | SATA | - | €56.00 | €784 |
| 9 |
WD121KRYZ WD Gold
|
12 TB | 20 dB | CMR | Enterprise | SATA | - | €48.75 | €585 |
| 10 |
HAT3310-12T Synology Plus Series
|
12 TB | 20 dB | CMR | NAS | SATA | - | - | - |
Ranked by idle noise (A-weighted sound power). $/TB uses the cheapest live price where available.
Why idle noise is the number that matters
A NAS spends most of its life idle, so idle sound power tells you what you will actually hear day to day. Seek noise only shows up during heavy reads and writes. We sort on idle first and use seek to break ties.
Noise is a comfort spec, not a safety one. Use this list to narrow a shortlist you have already filtered for CMR and reliability, not as the first cut.
Frequently asked questions
- What makes a NAS drive quiet?
- Lower spindle speed and platter count, mostly. The 5400-class NAS drives (IronWolf, WD Red Plus) are usually quieter than 7200 RPM enterprise drives, and helium-filled drives can run quieter and cooler than air-filled ones at the same capacity.
- Are the noise figures comparable across brands?
- Reasonably. We use each manufacturer's A-weighted sound power (dB) from the datasheet, idle and seek, measured to similar ISO methods. Real-world noise still depends on your enclosure, drive mounting and how many drives you run together.
- Is a quiet drive worth a higher failure rate?
- Rarely. Sort by reliability first, then break ties on noise. A drive that is 1 dB quieter but measurably less reliable is a bad trade for an always-on array - check both columns before buying.