The proliferation and immense popularity of notebooks in recent years leaves the average buyer with an incredible array of choices. There are no web sites or resources I know of that focus thoroughly on the noise notebooks make. So why not start here?
- Report experiences with notebooks, whether quiet, noisy or sopmewhere in between Details are important: Make, model, config can all affect performance.
- HDDs and fans are the only sources of noise in a notebook, so identifying the HDD is very useful, and telling us about the speed / noise / load / heat behavior of the fans is important.
- Tell us about any notable aspects other than noise, whether good or bad.
- The worst noise offenders will probably be Mobile Pentium 4 based systems because these CPUs run so hot. Avoid them like the plague.
- The quietest notebooks will probably be VIA processor based, though they appear to be hard to find, and not really suitable if you do games, and other multimedia-heavy stuff. Pentium-M systems will also be quiet, in general. I have little experience / knowledge about AMD-based notebooks; perhaps those in the know could post here -- and it can be added to this FAQ.