Are the core2 duo laptops quiet?

hamster

Hi,

I have an old 5 year dell inspiron 2650. It's an old workhouse P4 1.8Ghz machine with 512Mb and 32Mb Geforce2 Go. It still works fine but one thing that annoys me is that the fan comes on full blast if I am using a 3D application like Celestia or Stellarium for more than a few minutes. I don't mind the fan on low but it comes on full blast and heat is intense.

Anyone tell me what their experiences with the newer core2 duo laptops are like for heat - those with dedicated cards like 8400M or 8600M Nvidia cards for example? Do they stay quiet even with extended use of 3D apps/games? A low murmer from a fan is fine but not like a hair dryer!

mondeo

My old fujitsu siemens laptop is like that too, the fan is like a B52 taking to the sky when I play tomb raider on it haha! My new packard bell laptop is quiet enough, celeron M processor has a nice quiet fan.:rolleyes:

quarryman

i have the vostro 1500 with the 8600m GT and its the quietest laptop i've ever had.

i haven't noticed any increase in fan speed as more power is used.

hamster

quarryman wrote: »

i have the vostro 1500 with the 8600m GT and its the quietest laptop i've ever had.

i haven't noticed any increase in fan speed as more power is used.

That's great to hear - so say if you used google earth for 30mins - would you hear the fan just on the low setting? What would take your laptop to crank up the fan? Good news though.

TerrorFirmer

I have a 1500 as well with 8600GT, fairly quiet, but most decent laptops are, the old P4's were notorious for being noisy and virtually any modern laptop budget or otherwise should be bliss in comparison

hamster

HavoK wrote: »

the old "mobile" P4's were notorious for being noisy and virtually any modern laptop budget or otherwise should be bliss in comparison

Please be true! Worth the upgrade for that alone. Shame since the laptop is fine with basic 3D but simply gets too hot.

Fogmatic

I've only known 1 laptop, my 6-month-old Packard Bell BU-45-P-073, but it's dual core and is nice and quiet to my ears (and my hearing is perfect apparently); just a little low hum, quite soothing really. I went to PC World with my specifications, made a short-list of machines matching them, and listened to every one (somehow I had the feeling that it was a fairly unusual activity!). For me the 'tie-breaker' was fan noise (open-plan home, for a start).
They may have moved on from that model (I think it was one of the last of them in this country), but I guess they're unlikely to get worse.
It also seemed to me to have the most responsive touchpad of the similar-spec laptops; not as sluggish as the others (though I use a mouse with it anyway for speed).

I was also buying a desktop, went through the same process and the winner was also a Packard Bell -maybe they're good generally on the noise front?

Overheal

I have a Centrino Duo and the fan does run quite frequently but I rarely find it bothersome, unlike my old desktop fan. If I leave it on while I sleep I just put the laptop in low power settings and the fan runs even lower. Ultimately though the CPU is actually the coldest part of the machine, being outdone by the HDD and the Ram.