Hello

As an alternative to a desktop for my home PC that I'd like to be dead-silent, I was wondering if I should go for a laptop instead:

Laptops...

• take less space than a desktop
• are built from the start to be very silent, as they can't be put under a desk
• have a keyboard layout that's a bit different, but I can hook up a regular PC keyboard
• can be sold with a more compact screen but I can connect a bigger monitor at home
• don't have room for a second hard drive, but I can connect a small NAS to my LAN to back up data
• have good enough CPUs for moderate use

So, unless I need a really powerful computer for intensive use such as video editing or compiling big applications, are there good reasons these days to buy a desktop?

If not, what brands and models (available in Europe) would you recommend for a very silent and good quality laptop for moderate use (Internet, LibreOffice, small development in .Net and Python, etc.)?

Thank you.

Here's a set of feature I recommend:
Matte, high-res (1600x900) screen 14"-15"
Fingerprint reader, no need to remember a password
Sturdy construction.

Notebooks that fulfill these criteria:
Hp ProBook 65X0b (14") or 65X0b (15") for 800€-900€.
Thinkpad T520 series are also good, and they have a Trackpoint (personally, that's reason enough to recommend the Thinkpad over the ProBook, your mileage may vary though), but they are usually a little more expensive.
Dell Lattitude E series are good, but even more expensive.
[edit] Samsung Series 7 might be worth a look. They have are very compact and have a silent mode, but are loud when gaming and not as robust as the other notebooks.

Unfortunately if you want dead-silence, there are only desktops as a viable choice. Dimensions of laptops makes cooling them dead-silent nigh impossible.
There are some netbooks which didn't have a fan(and had room for SSD instead of HDD), but had to have very slow CPUs and anemic Graphics.

Mobile computers might change in 2013 with Intel's Haswell and AMD's platform with Steamroller/Jaguar cores. But right now it's desktop only.

Thanks for the tip on the matté screen; I almost forgot it about it. With so few laptops these days with a matté screen, that should be an easy way to weed out the options.



I use an Acer 3810T for testing/getting around and it's very silent while still powerful enough for my needs. Since it's over two years old, I needed to check what the options are now.

Thanks for the tip on Intel's Haswell and AMD's platform with Steamroller/Jaguar cores.

I'll check what HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Asus, and Samsung have to offer over here.

Unless you value the mobile features and/or small size of a laptop, it seems to me you can build a decent noiseless desktop with at least comparable performance for a fraction of the cost of a good laptop. And as commented above, a silent, able laptop is a rare thing, if any exist.

Notebookcheck is a great site for laptop reviews. You can use their search function for extensive weeding (including noise).

Only if you count the screen and keyboard, which you shouldn't if you're talking about hooking up a screen and keyboard. Laptops only have a size advantage if you like their screen and keyboard well enough to live with them.
There are desktops which are smaller than any laptop now.


It's not true anymore. And you can build silent desktops.


Some laptops take two or even three drives, not counting the ExpressCard slots which take SSDs, the memory card slots and so on.


True.

But the main advantage of laptops is of course portability. Even if they rarely leave your home, you can carry them from a room to another, from a desk to a couch and so in.


It depends on your preferences regarding screen and keyboard (and therefore size). That's the most important part of a laptop and some builders are only good for some types of laptop. And I'm not knowledgable about some sizes.
Go out and try your acquaintances' laptops. Try the laptops shops have on display.

imo, if the computer does not have to be portable, and you want dead silent, a desktop is the better choice.

-- it can be completely silent
-- cheaper than equivalent performance laptop, or faster at same price
-- big screen & keyboard are more comfortable

Despite power efficiency advances and SSDs, a silent laptop is extremely rare. I've hunted high and low, w/o luck. Right now, my main laptop is a Thinkpad X220. Pretty quiet... but I can hear both the fan and the hard drive. I've tried an SSD -- slightly quieter, and the fan is smooth, but it's still audible. I went back to the HDD because I decided I wanted the 300GB space; SSDs are still too costly for me at that size range.

btw, high frequency squealing from mobo/power components can be excruciatingly annoying in very quiet laptops. I encountered a couple of laptops w/ this problem.

Thanks for the link.

I only have two words for you: mini-ITX.