Silent laptop - which one?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

jh wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking for a mobile station for a mobile audio studio. It's only for
> recording, no mixing. I decided for a new Centrino (Dothan) about 1.6-1.8
> GHz + Intel chipset, I need at least 512 MB RAM, 5400 with 8MB cache
> internal HD; FireWire port; ATI Graaphics with 128MB (not shared with system
> RAM), and CardBus slot with Texas Instrument chip; at least 15.4" S/XGA,
> DVDR+/-. Most of the specification is for my audio system. All I want is
> silence ;-) Most laptops I've heard are very loud. I need something silent.
> What do you suggest?

My Asus M6Ne is silent when it's not working hard (idling at 600MHz). As
soon as it hits CPU load however, the fan gets quite loud. I suspect
this will be true of most Centrino laptops. Personally, for mobile live
audio recording I use minidiscs (but I guess that's not an option for
you if you need multitracking) and transfer the recordings to my PC
later. Now that Sony has finally gotten their head partially out of
their *** and released HiMD with bi-directional high speed digital audio
transfer, it's actually not as huge a chore as it used to be. It's still
not drop-dead easy, and they still have their ridiculous DRM preventing
you from doing what you want with music you created yourself, but it's
an improvement over their previous offerings.

--
-- Howard Chu
Chief Architect, Symas Corp. Director, Highland Sun
http://www.symas.com http://highlandsun.com/hyc
Symas: Premier OpenSource Development and Support

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"jh" <jh@radio.kielce.com.pl> wrote in message
news:coijd6$l6q$1@nemesis.news.tpi.pl...
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking for a mobile station for a mobile audio studio. It's only for
> recording, no mixing. I decided for a new Centrino (Dothan) about 1.6-1.8
> GHz + Intel chipset, I need at least 512 MB RAM, 5400 with 8MB cache
> internal HD; FireWire port; ATI Graaphics with 128MB (not shared with
> system RAM), and CardBus slot with Texas Instrument chip; at least 15.4"
> S/XGA, DVDR+/-. Most of the specification is for my audio system. All I
> want is silence ;-) Most laptops I've heard are very loud. I need
> something silent. What do you suggest?
>

Dell M60...........silence is golden.

toy
> Regards,
> Jacek
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Toy" <toy@155btinternet.com> wrote in message news:<coimuj$qea$1@sparta.btinternet.com>...
> "jh" <jh@radio.kielce.com.pl> wrote in message
> news:coijd6$l6q$1@nemesis.news.tpi.pl...
> > Hi,
> <snip> I need
> > something silent. What do you suggest?
> >
>
> Dell M60...........silence is golden.
>
> toy
> > Regards,
> > Jacek
> >

Jacek - thanks for this tip. Can you elaborate. How silent? Always?
What about when working hard? Are other current Dell's as quiet?
What about SONY Vaio?

Does anyone know of any silence standard(s) for PC's, desktop or
laptop? Something like dBhours perhaps similar to KWhours.

And when will manufacturers and reviewers begin to list dB in the
specs? Even for those of us who do not run radio stations . . .

Thanks
Phil

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I think this will be the case for all centrino notebooks. When the cpu is
clocked down and you are only surfing the net or using a word processor, the
fan will be off and the notebook silent. However, as soon as you use
something processor intensive, the fan will come on. Every centrino notebook
Ive used has done this Dell 600m, compaq x1000, HPnc8000. If you're looking
for quiet (or as close to it as possible) forget about any cpu other than
Pentium M (centrino chipset)

"jh" <jh@radio.kielce.com.pl> wrote in message
news:coijd6$l6q$1@nemesis.news.tpi.pl...
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking for a mobile station for a mobile audio studio. It's only for
> recording, no mixing. I decided for a new Centrino (Dothan) about 1.6-1.8
> GHz + Intel chipset, I need at least 512 MB RAM, 5400 with 8MB cache
> internal HD; FireWire port; ATI Graaphics with 128MB (not shared with
> system RAM), and CardBus slot with Texas Instrument chip; at least 15.4"
> S/XGA, DVDR+/-. Most of the specification is for my audio system. All I
> want is silence ;-) Most laptops I've heard are very loud. I need
> something silent. What do you suggest?
>
> Regards,
> Jacek
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

OK, how about Acer Aspire 2026WLMi?

Jacek

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Dan" <mikedan*nospam*@videotron.ca> wrote in message
news:lihrd.65466$WV2.2169287@weber.videotron.net...
>I think this will be the case for all centrino notebooks. When the cpu is
>clocked down and you are only surfing the net or using a word processor,
>the fan will be off and the notebook silent. However, as soon as you use
>something processor intensive, the fan will come on. Every centrino
>notebook Ive used has done this Dell 600m, compaq x1000, HPnc8000. If
>you're looking for quiet (or as close to it as possible) forget about any
>cpu other than Pentium M (centrino chipset)
>

they are quieter on batteries than on AC because they tend to stay clocked
down.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

> silence ;-) Most laptops I've heard are very loud. I need something silent.
> What do you suggest?

Problem! Almost all fast notebooks use a fan, thus noisy. For
silence, you'll need a notebook with no fan in it, which limits you to
slower notebooks.

eg. Sony X505 2lbs notebook -- No fan and specifically designed that
way. Others include:
(www.dynamism.com carries most of these)
1. Sony X505/P/SP/CP, 1.7 ~ 1.8 lbs
2. Sharp MM20/MM10, 2.0 ~ 2.1 lbs (*With speed throttle to lower CPU
temperature)
3. Panasonic R3/R2/R1, 2.1 ~ 2.2 lbs
4. Panasonic T2/T1, 2.4 ~ 2.6 lbs
5. Sharp MP70G/MP50G, 2.78 ~ 2.82 lbs (NOT sure if it's fanless!)
6. Panasonic W2, 2.84 Lbs
7. Panasonic Y2, 3.4 lbs (NOT sure if this is a fanless design, for the
Banias LV P-M consumes ~12W at peak speed!)
....

Maybe a tablet PC like the Fujitsu ST5000 or the 2lbs NEC VersaPro /
VersaProJ?

---

The second problem? You can't make a 100% silent notebook unless you
replace the noisy hard drive with a flash hard drive. The head movement
in the regular hard drive and the spinning platter(s) will make noise in
a regular notebook, even with the fan off.