How loud is a Seagate hard drive?
On the current IronWolf and IronWolf Pro data sheets, a NAS drive is rated 20 to 28 dBA at idle and 21 to 32 dBA in seek, typical.
Idle here is "measured in Idle 1 state", the platters spinning with no reads or writes. Seek is the heads moving, the clicking you hear when files open.
| Drive | Model | Idle dBA | Seek dBA |
|---|
| IronWolf 2TB | ST2000VN003 | 20 | 21 |
| IronWolf Pro 12TB to 24TB | ST12000NT001 to ST24000NT002 | 20 | 26 |
| IronWolf 4TB | ST4000VN006 | 23 | 25 |
| IronWolf 6TB and 8TB, 5400RPM | ST6000VN006, ST8000VN002 | 25 | 26 |
| IronWolf 12TB and 16TB | ST12000VN0008, ST16000VN001 | 28 | 30 |
| IronWolf Pro 2TB to 10TB | ST2000NT001 to ST10000NT001 | 28 | 30 |
| IronWolf 8TB and 10TB, 7200RPM | ST8000VN004, ST10000VN000 | 28 | 32 |
| IronWolf Pro 28TB to 32TB | ST28000NT000 to ST32000NT000 | 28 | 32 |
| IronWolf Pro 24TB HAMR | ST24000NT031 | 28 | 32 |
Only data sheet rows feed that table. Every row carries the word "typical", and none says which acoustic quantity was measured.
Which Seagate NAS drive is quietest?
The 2TB IronWolf ST2000VN003, at 20 dBA idle and 21 seek. It is not a pick, because no new, in-stock Amazon listing carried that model number on November 7.
Among drives you could order that day, the helium IronWolf Pro 16TB and 20TB share the lowest idle figure, 20 dBA, with seek at 26, and the 5400RPM IronWolf 8TB ST8000VN002 idles at 25 and matches them on seek. Which figure counts depends on use. A media server that waits most of the day is an idle problem, and the helium Pro wins it. A NAS that backs up several computers every evening spends more time seeking, and there the 8TB IronWolf is just as low.
Is IronWolf or IronWolf Pro quieter?
Capacity decides. At 16TB the IronWolf Pro rates 20 dBA idle to the IronWolf's 28; at 4TB the IronWolf ST4000VN006 rates 23 idle and 25 seek, the Pro ST4000NT001 28 and 30.
The split follows the hardware. Small IronWolf drives spin at 5400RPM, while every IronWolf Pro spins at 7200RPM and the small ones are air filled. From 12TB to 24TB the Pro is built with helium, and its idle figure drops to 20.
The Pro's other advantages are a 550 TB/year workload limit and a 5-year warranty, against 180TB/year and 3 years for IronWolf. Those are reasons to pay more. On noise, the Pro only wins at 12TB and up.
The 12TB and 16TB IronWolf are helium drives, and they rate 28 dBA idle, the same as air filled IronWolf Pro drives.
The newest IronWolf Pro capacities break the pattern as well. DS2129.7, dated 2025, gives the helium 28TB, 30TB and 32TB 28 dBA idle and 32 seek, louder on both rows than the 24TB and smaller helium Pro models on DS2129.4, and the 24TB HAMR model, ST24000NT031, prints the same 28 and 32.
Read the column for the exact model number. The ST8000VN002 and ST8000VN004 share a capacity and a family name, and they sit 3 dBA apart at idle.
Data sheets and manuals give different units
They give different quantities in different units, and the manuals sometimes print one line for a whole group of capacities.
The IronWolf Pro manual for the 12TB, 16TB, 20TB and 24TB lists "All models" at 2.8 bels for idle and 3.2 for seek, typical, where the data sheet gives those four drives 20 dBA idle. The manual for the 24TB to 32TB models prints the same 2.8 and 3.2. Editions shift too: DS1904.22 gave the IronWolf ST4000VN006 a seek figure of 27 dBA, and the current DS1904.23, from 2025, prints 25. Here dBA ranks with dBA and bels with bels, and one is never converted into the other. A bel of sound power is not a reading at your ear; our explainer on the two quantities shows the difference.
These drives are rated only in their 3.5 inch product manuals, from 2.3 to 2.8 bels idle and 2.5 to 3.2 seek, typical. Each manual calls its figures "overall A-weighted acoustic sound power levels (no pure tones)", consistent with ISO 7779, so they rank against each other and against the IronWolf manuals.
| Drives (manual) | Idle, bels | Seek, bels |
|---|
| IronWolf 4TB, 3TB, 2TB and ST1000VN008 | 2.3 | 2.5 |
| BarraCuda 8TB and 6TB | 2.3 | 2.5 |
| SkyHawk ST4000VX016 | 2.3 | 2.7 |
| IronWolf 8TB and 6TB | 2.5 | 2.6 |
| BarraCuda 4TB, 3TB and 2TB | 2.6 | 2.7 |
| Exos 7E10, all models | 2.8 | 3.2 |
| IronWolf Pro 12TB to 32TB | 2.8 | 3.2 |
Oddly, the BarraCuda is quieter at 8TB than at 4TB.
Of the SkyHawk, BarraCuda 3.5 and Exos drives looked up on Amazon, only the SkyHawk 4TB was in stock new. The BarraCuda 4TB listing was out of stock, and the Exos 7E10 listing showed only scarce stock.
The 2.5 inch BarraCuda prints the lowest bels
The 1TB BarraCuda 2.5 ST1000LM048 rates 2.0 bels idle and 2.2 seek on data sheet DS1907.3, and the 500GB ST500LM030 prints the same.
| Drive | Idle, bels | Seek, bels |
|---|
| ST1000LM048 (1TB), ST500LM030 (500GB) | 2.0 | 2.2 |
| ST1000LM049, ST500LM034 (7200 RPM); ST2000LM015 (2TB) | 2.2 | 2.4 |
| 15mm models, 3TB to 5TB | 2.6 | 2.7 |
This sheet names no standard, unlike the 3.5 inch manuals with their ISO 7779, so the 2.5 inch drives form a separate group. Every BarraCuda 2.5 on the sheet is SMR.
No acoustics row appears on the 3.5 inch BarraCuda, SkyHawk, Exos 7E10 or Exos X24 data sheets. For the first three, the product manuals carry the figures. The Exos X manuals were not catalogued, so the Exos X24, X20 and other Exos X drives have no figure on this page.
The IronWolf sheet has shrunk, too, from 17 models on DS1904.22 to 8 on DS1904.23. The ST14000VN0008, ST10000VN0008, ST6000VN001, ST4000VN008, ST3000VN006, ST3000VN007, ST2000VN004, ST1000VN008 and ST1000VN002 appear only on the older sheet. Seagate's IronWolf product page showed no capacity list when checked, so whether they are discontinued is unclear; all that can be said is that the current sheet leaves them out.
