Looking for silent new laptop

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Hi,
A client of mine wants to buy a new notebook with Windows and a 17″ screen. She now has a Toshiba of 5 years old but that’s getting to the end. She always complains about the ongoing noise of the fan inside, even when cleaned (again). Since iPads, newer Macbooks etc. are pretty silent she (and I) are wondering where to look for compareble Windows notebooks (in silence that is). The Intel Core M seems to slow for heavy duties and large screens. The cost will be no problem, the sound will be!
Any suggestions over there?
TIA
Sjors

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I have an HP ProBook and it’s quiet.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Check the new systems coming out with the latest Intel chipsets. Many will be fanless.

Joe

--Joe

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Tnx both. The problem is what one describes as quiet somebody else might find disturbing. Circumstances differ also a lot. Just the sound of the fan might irritate a person. I guess I have to demonstrate quite a few before she can agree

Sjors

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I have a couple of Toshiba laptops, the first one bought in 2010 and the fan comes on now and again, but that’s normal and its frequency and strength would be dependent on the use of the computer.

If it’s persistently on then it would be worth installing HWMonitor to see what temp it is operating at as the thermal paste may need cleaning off and renewing if cleaning it out is insufficient.

Is she using it on a flat surface and are all of the feet on the base so that the intake isn’t restricted ?

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Hi Sudo15,
Which ones exactly?
The nb is place on a flat table.
She has this problem because she’s distracted by the sound. Others that work on it don’t care about it. As I said: it’s this person’s problem.

Sjors

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If by “Which ones exactly” you are referring to the feet on the underside of the nb, I once came across an instance of where one of the feet had gone A.W.O.L. so that the laptop was down at the air intake end and was restricting the intake.

If the fan is going full all of the time then that is either a sign of overheating or of heavy graphics use and is why I’ve suggested installing HWMonitor to check the temps.

If however one of the fan blades has been distorted by use of the straw attached to the air duster, then that could cause a buzz or whatever which could be annoying, but you’ll know if the fan sound is normal or not and the user has just become hypersensitive to its normal sound when it kicks in.

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Turn up the music ???
:fanfare::flee:

:cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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I mean which notebooks…..

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Well, they all have feet on but looking at mine, I’d have to have two missing for it to flop down – it was just that was the cause for someone experiencing a serious overheating problem – so thought I’d mention it.

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Well, still don’t know which couple of T nb’s you have

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Ah – mine

The older one is a Satellite L450D-13X and the slightly newer one is a Satellite C660D-1GD

Probably wouldn’t have bought the later model if I’d taken the trouble to see that it was a bare bones job with just a 1.3GHz processor, but the price seemed right at the time and it does for what I use it for – which isn’t a lot

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That’s one of the series she has now, means bothersome

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I have had a Lenovo T420s and a Dell Latitude E7440, both quiet as church mice.

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Well both mine are still running okay

I bought the L450D in July 2010 and the C660D Dec. 2011 but tend to favour the C660D because it has a numeric keypad and it sits lower on the table so my wrists aren’t “propped up” so high when I’m typing.

Have you installed HWMonitor yet to see what temps the machine is running at ?

As for a choice of new laptop, I think most are coming with the Win 10 upgrade now and it could be quite difficult to get one that still had Win 7 – has she mentioned anything about a Win version preference or even taken it into account ?

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As for a choice of new laptop, I think most are coming with the Win 10 upgrade now and it could be quite difficult to get one that still had Win 7 – has she mentioned anything about a Win version preference or even taken it into account ?

Don’t know about the UK but there are still plenty of Windows 7 laptops available here. Microcenter has 48 of them:
http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.aspx?Ntk=all&N=4294967288+4294960442&cat=0003%3c%3e%3c%3eWindows-7-Professional-64-bit-%3a-Laptops%2fNotebooks-%3a-Laptops%2c-Netbooks-%3a-Computers-%3a-Micro-Center

Jerry

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Well Sudo15, the old one doesn’t run anymore and yes, that means it’s very quiet (as the grave).

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I’ve just had a Google for some in the UK and there does seem to be a number of online suppliers.

In the UK people tend to go to the likes of PC World, Argos or the major supermarkets and they tend to have moved on from Win 7.

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The problem is not the Windows version but the sound it makes.
tnx anyway.

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For quietness, you’re just going to have to go on personal recommendations in the thread as it isn’t something you can check until you have set the machine up.

Can you remove the HDD from the machine to see if it boots up with an error message about no bootable device or remove the RAM modules to see if you get any memory error beeps or flashes – or don’t any lights come on at all when you switch it on ?

If it has more than one RAM module then try with just each installed to see if it will boot.

Also try it on just battery and then just on AC.

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tnx for the advise, but client doesn’t want anymore costs on this machine. Do I send it to you? :-))))))))))))))))))))

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No Thanks – but surely you could do those gratis if just to see if either was the cause.

If it’s as old as my L450D then it probably wouldn’t be compatible with Win 10 as I haven’t seen any Win 10 drivers for its HD3200 and she probably wants to see the back of it anyway because of the noise.

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A couple of points to consider. There are laptop cooling pads with a 120mm or even a 140mm fan and a speed control knob. I’ve used on of these and with the fan set at minimum speed it was almost silent. And, since it’s continuous rather than start-stop, I didn’t hear it at all after about 20 or 30 seconds. As a result of the gentle continuous cooling pad fan the laptop’s own fan never came on during the 90 minutes or so that i was using the system. A very acceptable result. I believe the cooling pad cost around $30, but i’m not sure. The larger the fan the slower you can run it and still have it be effective, and the slower it runs the quieter it will be. Another point to consider is Intel M processors not being powerful enough. It may be worth looking at a laptop with the Core i7-5500U (U = ultra low voltage = less heat = less fan noise). You can compare benchmarks of the i7-5500U to whatever your client is using currently and see if the i7-5500U is maybe powerful enough?

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Hi Marvin, good tips, tnx. Already found out about the M, too weak. The i7-5500U will do the job. Gonna look for a laptop with that processor.

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My Acer laptop is very quiet. I suggest you take your client to Staples or some other store and have her try out various laptops. Earplugs may be a last resort.

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Trouble w/ that is everything is going to sound louder in a quiet room at home.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Right David, a shop isn’t exactly a quiet place. At least it shouldn’t be

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I got a MS Surface Pro 3 – it does anything my Laptop did plus it’s whisper silent

HTH

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As long as you are comfortable that Core i7-5500U processor is suitable for your purposes, then I’m sure it will be fine.

If however you are less familiar, or are taking someone’s word for suitability… The Core I7’s are a high end chip typically meant for desktop systems. You can find them in high performance laptops of course but those are often big laptops meant for heavy duty work. As such they need better cooling systems and that often means more airflow and more noise.

Conventionally the advice you would be getting here would be to look at Core i5 or i3 systems, or an AMD APU. Anything which puts out less heat needs less cooling and that means less noise.

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Hi BHarder,
It’s the U in Core i7-5500U that makes it interesting, not the performance. U think an i5 or i3 in a laptop would make less noise? It’s merely bookkeeping for clients she does.

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I guess what I’m saying is that it sounds like noise is #1 or #2 on your priority list. If that’s true then you should really be evaluating laptops based upon this directly. Specifying a particular CPU is perhaps not the way to get a satisfied customer, unless they are tech-heads to whom a cutting edge CPU means something.

Having said that, in general the Intel i7 design is meant for high performance systems. As such they typically consume quite a bit of electricity and throw off a corresponding amount of heat. Which means that a quiet laptop isn’t usually going to contain an i7 CPU.

This is computing of course and every once in a while a manufacturer or vendor puts out a product that is a technological miracle: Good to excellent performance, price and TDP, with no significant downsides. Yet it usually best not to rely upon those tech miracles.

Your description of a bookkeeping client just reinforces this advice. From my perspective I’d not be comfortable recommending a weak Atom solution, but neither does it seem they really need the powerful i7 solution either. And for several years now the ‘sweet spot’ in Intel price/performance has been the i5 series. Nor would I rule out an AMD solution. It’s only at the top end of the power curve that AMD cannot compete effectively. My brother has an AMD based laptop and he’s very happy with it.

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Right, sound is #1 AND #2. Problem still is that anybody can be happy with hers/his laptop (speaking of loudness) another person is irritated by it. Like an Airbook 13″, that makes no noise at all (or hardly). And that’s what I’m looking for. Has to be Windows and 17.3″. Intel or AMD doesn’t matter.
Read my lips: silence is golden

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