Word from Samsung has it today that they've released a new breed of desktop hard drives dubbed the SpinPoint S166 series. The main focus with these is silence, they sport Samsung's proprietory SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technologies to accelerate operational speed while reducing noise. Samsung believes these drives to be roughly fifteen percent quieter than other competing 80GB and 160GB models currently in the market.

For full details, have a read of the announcement here.

Seoul, Korea - April 4, 2007 : Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital consumer electronics and information technology, today announced its new SpinPoint S166 Series of ultra silent and high-speed hard disk drives. The 3.5" SpinPoint S166 hard drives are currently shipping in 80GB and 160GB capacities and will be available worldwide in April.

The new SpinPoint S Series of hard drives offer upgraded versions of Samsung's proprietary SilentSeekTM and NoiseGuardTM technologies to accelerate operational speed while reducing noise. Benchmarking tests on sound power have shown that competing hard drives (80GB and 160GB models) generate on average 2.8 bel (1 bel = 10 decibels) in idle mode and 3.2 bel in seek mode, while Samsung's S166 series generate just 2.4 bel and 2.75 bel respectively. This significant fifteen percent noise-level reduction makes the drives ideal for use in office computers, as well as in home consumer electronics such as DVR/ PVRs, or any other hard drive equipped products intended for use in a quiet environment.