Oh btw weaponx i'm not recommending the 7200 rpm. It's only if you're willing to pay the price for the best performance. But it's not very cost effective (the 7200 rpm one).

Get the 5400 rpm one. Decent speed, more storage more bang for buck with little loss in performance.

Btw when you say fan, is this the cooling air fan from your notebook? Sometimes the weird whining sound can be due to your fan being dirty and it needing to be cleaned a bit. I usually have to clean mine like once every 2 weeks as I leave it on 24/7.

This hard drive has been doing well for years...But there are times when I want it to perform some task faster (like data transfer when I backup my files). I will definitely go with the 5400 one. Don't need 100GB of space, just 60-80GB will do

The fan is the cooling one from the side. It spins every 15 minutes or so. Doesn't matter what I'm doing ...but usually I'm just browsing and IMing.

Thanks again for the replies. I'm going hard drive hunting now