Silent PC? Silent Laptop!!

SlaveToSilence · Post by **SlaveToSilence** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:01 pm

recently i noticed that my laptop is pretty quiet, when its idling its fan turns off and its 0db.. which got me thinking!!

what if i was to flip it upside down, take the casing off the bottom and mount a 120mm fan blowing over all the components (so the noisy fan never ramps up) and plug my keyboard mouse and monitor into that! it would be enough for internet explorer and msn etc and downloading silently over night and then i could just turn my main pc on for gaming

has anyone every tried this? i think it might work quite well

save on the electricity bill too!

just another idea for y'all to play around with

let me know what you think!

aaa · Post by **aaa** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:04 pm

Laptop heatsink designs don't exactly help with this. I think the noisy fan will turn on anyways, since no air from the 120mm is getting in...

Forget taking it apart, just get NHC. Since it's just internet and msn you can lock it at some low speed+low voltage, causing the fan to rarely turn on.

What about the HD, anyways. Those make noise too.

SlaveToSilence · Post by **SlaveToSilence** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:50 pm

what is NHC?

why would no air get to the heatsinks? id be taking off all the plastic on the back so that all the components were showing and so getting air :s

the harddrive in the laptop is very quiet, and the download drive would be a samsung spinpoint T 500GB in a silent external encloser (maybe with 120mm fan also)

or the antec 200mm fan would be even better (is it 200 or 220 i forget)

Sylph-DS · Post by **Sylph-DS** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:14 pm

I don't know what kind of laptop you have, but the last laptop I opened up (which was a pretty standard HP widescreen) had a copper heatpipe that was connected to an aluminium (I think) plate that was connected to the CPU, VGA and some other parts with a bit of paste. The heatpipe had a small 5cm or so array of small copper fins with a fan right next to it. This was all on top of the hardware, so, right under the keyboard.

If this is the case with your laptop, then it's probably easiest to just take off the keyboard and stick a big heatsink on the aluminium plate, and put a fan on that at like 5v.

Note however, that pretty much anything to do with opening up the laptop will void the warranty.

Personally I'd look into whether you can underclock the processor and slow down the fan.

aaa · Post by **aaa** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 6:38 pm

NHC is underclocking/undervolting software.

Most laptops I've seen have very tightly packed fins with two teeny openings, one going out and one adjacent to the fan. Usually air has to be forced through it, and having a 120mm just sitting next to it isn't going to force air through it.

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 3:54 am

There are numerous mounts and docking applications for doing precisely this. For cooling, Zalman makes the ZM-NC1000 and Antec has http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails. ... dID=75004#, just for example. There are numerous generic mounts to set up your laptop for desktop use. Stripping the casing is usually no good because the internal structure is too cramped for proper airflow, usually full of obstructions too so you can't cool what you want.

Laptops as desktop computers is a tested and proven idea. They're excellent for light tasks and as standby units due to advanced power management, but poor when it comes to maintenance or modification. If you are so inclined, you can set up a more powerful, more manageable and even quieter computer yourself from components available, so mobility is still the laptop's only advantage.

SlaveToSilence · Post by **SlaveToSilence** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:07 am

i took my laptop apart and plugged it into my watt meter, and without the screen plugged in it runs at 25 watts idle, and 45-50 initially when it was charging the battery

aburgard · Post by **aburgard** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:49 pm

At Microsoft we ALL use laptops instead of desktops every day. That damn fan drives me nuts.

FlorisNielssen · Post by **FlorisNielssen** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:33 am

aaa wrote:NHC is underclocking/undervolting software.

NHC (or Notebook Hardware Control) is more than underclocking/undervolting software. You can adjust almost any hardware that's inside your laptop. Except your fans actually.
But if you have a Dell laptop your lucky because there is an other program with an impossible name called I8kfanGUI. I enables you to change your fan speed settings.
Also see this topic.

floffe · Post by **floffe** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:50 am

[off-topic]I love your sig, FlorisNielssen. Pratchett is great.[/offtopic

Icharus · Post by **Icharus** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:01 pm

I use my laptop (NEC Versa P520) for downloading, surfing the web, etc., due to its low power use.
It used to get very hot when left running all the time, which caused the annoying whiny fan to run. I ended up bying a Zalman laptop cooler (ZM-NC1000) which I run at low speed. It is almost silent and keeps the laptop down to 30degC under load, as well as keeping the hdd much cooler.