Quiet & cheap laptop ? HP NX9005 ?

More popular than ever, but some are still very noisy.

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squeaker
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2004 8:13 am

Quiet & cheap laptop ? HP NX9005 ?

Post by squeaker » Thu Jan 15, 2004 3:19 am

Hi all Im after a cheap, quiet laptop - does such
a beast exist ?


I plan to dual boot it, with Linux. For windows,
I'll mostly be using it as a quiet desktop replacement
for web browsing/email and documents. When in Linux
I'll be doing some coding and web site development.
Whilst this may sound quite processor intensive, I
don't think it should be - Im using an AMD K7 600MHz
at the moment which has been adequate. Additionaly,
I think a DVD/CD-RW would be quite handy. Battery
life is not a major concern. I don't mind if a fan
*has* to kick in now and then for a moment if Im
doing something CPU intensive, but certainly want
it to be quiet *most* of the time. Also, ideally
Id like 30Gb or larger hard disk. I guess also Im
slightly keener on "well known" brands - since
replacement components seem to be slightly easier
to source - maybe thats bogus though ???

The problem I've found is that all the laptops that
seem to have potentially suitable prices/specs seem
to be only available online, meaning I havent been
able to check out how quiet or otherwise they are. Also,
reviews rarely mention noise - unless its at the other
end of the spectrum and horrifically noisy.

As far as starting to narrow things down, Ive pretty much
rejected desktop CPUs, going on the assumption that mobile
ones should be cooler and therefore quieter ? This means
either an Athlon XP-M or a Pentium-M. Note: Im not that
bothered about going the whole Centrino hog since Im not
too bothered about battery life, if/when I do go wireless,
Id go straight to 802.11g, and the lack of Linux support
for the Centrino chipsets (ie I believe that the WLAN
won't work under Linux currently).



This (rather longwindedly) leaves me with the current favorite:
an HP Compaq Evo NX9005, with an AMD XP-M 2400+, 14"TFT,
256Mb RAM, 30Gb hard disk, DVD/CD-RW, and Windows XP Home for
750 UKP inc VAT from Dabs (=> 1371 USD @ todays rate).


But is it quiet ??????


Some other possibilites are:

. IBM ThinkPad R40E Cel M-2.0 128/30 14.1" DVD XP Home
. NEC Versa C160
. Fujitsu Siemens Amilo A 7620 Athlon 2600+
. Acer TravelMate 291XCi Centrino 1.4



Anyone have any comments on the above. Any comments on the NX9005?
Or any of the other machines ? Any other suggestions ?

Cheers for your time.
John.

rjm
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 12:36 pm
Location: Kyoto, Japan
Contact:

That was my problem ...

Post by rjm » Tue Jan 20, 2004 4:49 am

Online shopping means you can't check the noise in advance.

As I mention in another post here my X31 is silent when the Pentium M is in stepping mode, and very quiet even at full bore. The base model is $1350 US.

Its a nice machine, with a magnesium case and titanium alloy top. Excellent keyboard, though slightly undersized. My only gripe: at 30mm it is 5 mm thicker than it should be. That extra height makes it more geek-chic than svelte. 25mm would have been perfect.

If you want an optical drive and full size keyboard, as well as semi-gameable graphics, go with the T series. It's another 500-750g to lug though.

RJM

bobkoure
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm

Re: That was my problem ...

Post by bobkoure » Thu Jan 13, 2005 11:23 am

rjm wrote:Online shopping means you can't check the noise in advance.
And in-store shopping simply means that you can tell if the item you're interested in is noiser than ambient. Ever bring something "quiet" home from the store to discover that it wasn't at all?
Of course, that might be a US-only kind of thing where computer stores are large, noisy, full of sound-reflective surfaces...

patord
Posts: 82
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:23 am

Post by patord » Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:57 am

Based on my experience with AMD XPM notebooks, with the BIOS and your tweaking of the PowerNow features in Windows (assuming you are running Windows XP or 2003 on it), it can be fairly silent. The main thing will be how you set the threshold's for when the CPU fan kicks on and your throttling of the CPU via PowerNow.

The only current notebooks in production with extremely good thermal management are Pentium/Celeron M notebooks. Which translate into very silent notebooks. But NOT those damned Mobile Pentium 4 based notebooks, which are, in my opinion the devil in terms of noise and heat. Any notebook not based on those mobile P4's has potential to be silent.

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