[Regalma]

I use a laptop as both my SqueezeCenter computer and as a wireless controller for my SqueezeBox. I love the setup. But now I would like to go to a more powerful laptop than my Asus eee for various reasons. I thought I had an HP picked out till one of reviewers happened to mention it sounded like a gas powered leaf blower, scratch that one.

That is what is so frustrating. Reviewers almost never mention noise levels, even subjective ones. Larger manufacturers never seem to mention it. There are no standards so anyone can claim anything.

Does anyone have a laptop that is very quiet that they could recommend? I would like at least a duo core 2 GHz CPU with 12" screen. Graphics is of no real importance to me. I figure on a 500GB HDD. They are all slower, so therefore probably quieter.

Has anyone used a laptop cooler? Do they actually quiet down the laptop, or do they just transfer the noise to the cooler?

Thanks,

[woodsyi]

I use a laptop as both my SqueezeCenter computer and as a wireless controller for my SqueezeBox. I love the setup. But now I would like to go to a more powerful laptop than my Asus eee for various reasons. I thought I had an HP picked out till one of reviewers happened to mention it sounded like a gas powered leaf blower, scratch that one.

That is what is so frustrating. Reviewers almost never mention noise levels, even subjective ones. Larger manufacturers never seem to mention it. There are no standards so anyone can claim anything.

Does anyone have a laptop that is very quiet that they could recommend? I would like at least a duo core 2 GHz CPU with 12" screen. Graphics is of no real importance to me. I figure on a 500GB HDD. They are all slower, so therefore probably quieter.

Has anyone used a laptop cooler? Do they actually quiet down the laptop, or do they just transfer the noise to the cooler?

Thanks,

What are your various reasons?  Do you need the mobility?  If not, you can get a souped up desktop and house it out of the room.  Use the existing Asus eee to remotely access the powerful PC.  Desktops are much cheaper than notebooks and it's very silent when it's out of the room. 

[Regalma]

I've considered that. But I am energy efficiency kook. One laptop in hibernate mode is all I am willing to have. And I don't want to have to wait for a computer to boot up to listen to music.

The Asus would work fine except my eyes being what they are the 7" screen is too small to make full use of SC without reading glasses. At the same time both my regular laptop and my desktop are so old that I am becoming frustrated by their performance. My thinking is that I could buy one good laptop and a docking station with external monitor and keyboard, then get rid of all three of my current computers. I could use a 12" laptop which is small enough to use as a remote control. Dell has the setup I like but I have no idea how loud it is. HP had the ideal one. It included a touch screen, but it apparently is very loud.

[mike1964]

Most of the noise in a notebook computer comes from the hard drive and cooling fans.
I have a Macbook Pro 13" with a SSD drive (120gb, though) and it is dead silent, no mechanical noise whatsoever, and the fans rarely run and when they do they're not noticeable.  Also, with the SSD drive it completely boots in 17 seconds.  I have a larger 320gb portable drive that is pretty quiet that I use for backup.  If all you're doing is accessing music files, the portable drive would be pretty unobtrusive with noise, as it wouldn't need to continuously run.  Most of the mfgs offer SSD drives as an option now, but size is limited and they are a bit pricey.  Dell, for example, has the E4200, a 12" notebook, with 120gb SSD drive for about $1500.  You can buy the drive by itself (to add to any notebook, assuming SATA compatibility) for about $300-350 from NewEgg.com 

[truant]

I was just asking a somewhat similar question over in the Applecore forum.  I have a MacBook Pro (not the latest version) that I've been running with my Havana dac for the last month or so.  Just the other night I was updating my mom's software and decided to try her MacBook (white plastic) in my system. I had recently read on the Altmann Attraction dac sight a reviewer's impression that the MacBooks are quieter than the MacBook Pros so I was curious to see whether I could discern any difference.  Well, I've been struck by how different the two laptops sound from one another.  My first impression...I preferred the white MacBook. I've checked all of the settings to insure they are consistent. However, I haven't updated her iTunes yet. Once I have more listening time under my belt I'll update her iTunes to the current version to match mine.  As far as quiet is concerned I have no idea whether any of the differences are the result of either laptop's quietness.  What do you think?

[richidoo]

Lenovo T500 is very quiet. I use it while listening casually to the system, I don't notice it. It has 15" screen and all the energy saving software and hardware that a greenie would need to save the Earth from certain doom. Personally I shut all that shit off so I can get some work done without interruption. But believe me it is capable of putting you into total green hell, and giving 9+ hours on a single charge. Energy settings are easily changed with one click on the toolbar, and it responds instantly.

In regular browsing and productivity tasks set to full power mode the fan rarely runs, it is very quiet, barely audible considering it is only 2 feet away. The bottom doesn't get hot, just mildly warm after hours of use. In green mode it is even cooler on the lap.

There is some kind of very quiet beep, 2kHz maybe, that I can only hear in the wee hours when the house and outside is totally silent. It must be like <15dBA. It took me a month to figure out that it was coming from the laptop, I first thought it was distant bugs outside with the windows closed.

Great computer. Firewire, shock protection, Thinkpad design excellence is really worth it.  I have had HPs, Compaqs, Toshibas, Gateways. This is the best so far.  I am very sensitive to noise, especially in the music room. I leave it running next to me on the couch when I do serious listening, I can't hear it at all from 3ft away.

With Vista it has poor downloading from my NAS, all other computers with XP have no problem. I think it is the NAS's fault, I need to update the firmware. Win7 is coming, maybe that will cure it. That is the only issue I have with this laptop. Uploading to NAS is lightning, as is browsing on 300kbps.

[firedog]

Have you considered building a fanless low power computer? You can build one that uses similar amounts of power to a laptop and isn't much larger - especially if you base it on an ATOM motherboard.  Then just attach a monitor. You can even get a usb monitor that doesn't pull much power.

[Photon46]

All concerned with this topic should check out www.quietpc.com as they are a great resource. I've bought from them and had good service. Lots of options for modification of offending components if you are handy and so inclined.

[prvngrnd]

I currently have a Sager NP2098 that is very quiet indeed. Even though it can run pretty hot when it is in your lap and the fan is working, the sound is barely noticeable. I next-to-never hear the hard drive spinning. I have to unplug my refrigerator and turn of the ceiling fan when I *really* want to listen and even after doing this I can not hear the laptop (5 feet from listening spot).  I use my computer in the same way that you do; both as the squeezecenter computer and and wireless controller for the squeezebox and I have been very happy.

http://www.sagernotebook.com/default.php

This is my second Sager laptop and I have been extremely impressed with the build quality of each. My first one lasted nearly 5 years and this was with a lot of back and forth to college classrooms (lightening storm did it in, I think). When I originally purchased it in 2004 my room mate at the time had a HP laptop and we were both surprised at home much more quiet my Sager was than his HP. No head-to-heads with the current set-up but it is definitely more quiet than its predecessor.

[boead]

I recently picked up two Acer One's at Walmart for $279.99 each (gifts for family).
1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, WinXP sp3, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 802g Wi-Fi netbook - webcam too. Its absolutely dead quiet. Fast enough for a music server, very tiny. 6+hours on battery.

You can get the same with a SS drive but SS drives are slow(er) and expensive. Although I did see some netbooks with basically the same config with 16GB SS drives for about $350.

[TheChairGuy]

I've found Mac notebooks quieter as a rule (tho I'm a Windows PC kinda' guy)

The 2nd speed of fan noise on my notebooks, that is noticeable, seems to kick in on when hard drive space reaches near 33-40% (that is 60-67% capacity left on the hard drive).

I suspect the processor must be working harder to sift thru all the files one can store up.  De-frag mutes it a bit sometimes, but it always returns later as you keep piling on hard drive data. 

So buy the biggest hard drive you can find in a notebook today if you want to keep the 2nd speed fan noise to a minimum. Or, keep your information offboard (physical/portable or cyberspace) in storage so as to keep things a tad quieter longer.

John

[barkerpj]

Have to add a comment after reading some of the replies above.

CPU's are not working harder looking on hard drives for files - shouldn't make any differnece if the hard drive is almost empty or full as long as there is swap space left.

And the post before - solid state drives if implemented properly are quicker and no moving parts so less heat and noise. Only use either Intel or OCZ Vertex SSD's as these are the only drives with good read/write speeds (unfortunately they are more expensive as well)

Fanless PC is the way to go depending on how much processing power you need.

[boead]

Have to add a comment after reading some of the replies above.

And the post before - solid state drives if implemented properly are quicker and no moving parts so less heat and noise. Only use either Intel or OCZ Vertex SSD's as these are the only drives with good read/write speeds (unfortunately they are more expensive as well)

Fanless PC is the way to go depending on how much processing power you need.

Yeah, I concur the better SS drives today are fast(er) but cost as much as the netbook itself unfortunately (although its getting better all the time). The small SS drives they put into these sub $400 netbooks are sort of slow but have improved battery life and are sort of fast enough considering. These netbooks aren't all that fast to begin with but if you keep them lean they run nice and WinXP is a great platform for a simple and cheap USB music player. You can Remote Access it from any other PC so you don't even need it flipped open.  You can pull files (music/video) from an external hard drive or a music server or NAS box somewhere through a network so even a 16GB SS drive is plenty big enough I think.

I built a couple of tiny portable drives for shuffling data around( between home and work mostly) and backups recently. They are self powered USB and are really quiet with WD Green drives. I also picked up a couple of Seagate FreeAgent drives with the nice dock but they are noisier.
I bought these: http://www.vantecusa.com/front/product/view_detail/177

I'm going to pick one of these up for myself real soon. I picked these up recently for $279! Thats cheap!!
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11081785