I once had the
(mis)fortune to use a machine with a Seagate 2G
 Barracuda in it. 
 The scarry thing is the quieter 3.5" x 1" drives I
mentioned
 replacing the full height 5 1/4" drives with are Seagate 2GB
 Barracuda's! 
 
Ow!  I'd happily take more decibels of white, or at least fan, noise
over fewer decibels of that horrible Barracuda whine.  At least to a
point.  That's a bad pitch for my hearing.
  BTW, let me guess, the machine you had the misfortune
to use was a
 Sun Pizzabox, right?  Those suckers are noisy with the Barracuda's! 
Yes.  One of the SCA machines - a 4, or a 5, maybe.  (I also had a U1
with more 2G Barracudas, but that was turned off most of the time.)
   Or perhaps
this merely means I'm not a Real Classic Collector. 
 Nonsense, it just means you
still have some of your hearing :^) 
 
After that time (it was some months) I feel sure I have a notch in my
hearing right at the pitch of the Barracuda's whine....
                                        der Mouse