Yes my jtagged box is dead silent but I'm referring to the stock consoles. The stock 360 is silent after disk validation if you install the game to the hard drive.NXE to God, FSD; no need for discMy slim was quiet except for hard drive if all background noise in the room was gone/minimal.
It spins as long as there is a disc in the drive and the console is turned on, whether your running a game from the disc or not. It sounds to be spinning at full speed all the time too although I haven't actually checked to see if it is.
Actually the Wii does the same thing. When a disc is in the drive it spins at full speed unless you run a app/game that doesn't need it (for example weather channel, news chanel, VC, wiiware, netflix etc) then it shuts down. Even at the home screen, if a disc is in the drive it will spin until you start something that is not disc based or take out the disc. Doesn't surprise me Nintendo did the same for the WiiU. A Wii with a drive in good working order is almost silent, that is probabaly why you never heard it. I bet the WiiU has a has a faster disc drive and hence a bit more noise (but that is just a guess since I don't have one lol).
