Laptops - Whirrers and Quiet Ones

mimi1234

Hi all,

I'm thinking of getting a new laptop. The two I have had before were Sony and Dell and both were perfect but had run their course hence getting a new one. They were both quiet to run and never whirred.

The new one I have is a Lenovo but my gosh, it whirrs like something on drugs.

How would one know if a laptop whirrs or not? Is there something I need to look out for? Any particular brands or types that are quiet to run?

Thanks.

Neil_Jones

Laptops you get what you pay for.
Most budget laptops use the cheapest form of cooling, which is a strip of copper that runs from the processor to an outside vent where radiated heat is blown away by the internal fan. As this area clogs up with dust, the fan has to work harder and to do this it has to spin faster - spinning faster generates more noise. As fans wear out and the bearings go, they become even more noisy.

Other laptops could be designed in a certain way to be fanless, but realistically unless they are low powered and generate small amounts of heat in the first place, heat has to come out of the unit somewhere.

You could look at the service manuals to see what the cooling solution is like. The issue is not unique to any particular brand at any particular price point, they all produce budget, mid-range and top end units. But they all have to be cooled somehow.

sal_III

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Laptops you get what you pay for.

Not necessarily. My top spec Dell XPS 13", that is anything but cheap is quite noisy under load.

If you want high performance laptop it's bound to be noisy, there is no way to passively cool it and the smaller the laptop, the smaller the fan, the faster it needs to spin, the noisier it is.

I'm afraid the only way to be sure is read some reviews that include noise in their tests or try some in Curry's etc. if there is a way to stress test it there.

arciere

Depending on what specs you are looking for, there are also fan-less laptops, which make no sound at all for obvious reasons.
I used to have a 13.3" Zenbook that I was very happy with (passive cooling, no fan), recently I upgraded to a 14" Zenbook, this one does have a small fan but unless you are in total silence, it's pretty much impossible to notice it.

that

I have read the thin expensive Apple ones use the metal case as passive cooling. The problem with not enough cooling, like the expensive Apple one, that if it gets too hot the cpu is choked and performance takes a dive.

apple3feet

I would check your CPU usage, and what is running. My new Dell was whirring away even when I was not doing anything. I fixed it by updating a graphics driver.

It made a huge difference.

JRA

almillar

Yeah, busy laptops are the ones that whir! Makes sure a Windows update or something isn't running.
Whirring is the fans having to come on to help get heat away from the processor.
If you want to avoid this you want quiet fans, an efficient heat sink, and an efficient processor. About the only 'spec' you can get from all of this is the TDP of the processor - the heat it puts out, in watts(?). Intel and AMD both produce these figures, and the bigger the TDP, the more cooling required. Desktop processors will be highes, laptop destined ones lower, and 'ultrabook' ones will be lowest. Of course, the problem with all this is that manufacturers just squeeze them into smaller, thinner devices. So you want to decide on a size of laptop, and how powerful it needs to be. If there's a laptop that is cooled passively, it's likely not very powerful.

I could tell you about some Apple laptops, with fans that have blades that are different sizes, making them quieter, and I guess other manufacturers do similar. You're not going to know for sure until you're sitting at home with your laptop!

ianto11

sal_III wrote: »

Not necessarily. My top spec Dell XPS 13", that is anything but cheap is quite noisy under load.

If you want high performance laptop it's bound to be noisy, there is no way to passively cool it and the smaller the laptop, the smaller the fan, the faster it needs to spin, the noisier it is.

I'm afraid the only way to be sure is read some reviews that include noise in their tests or try some in Curry's etc. if there is a way to stress test it there.

I have an HP Spectre X360, not only is it noisy when the fan spins up it also runs uncomfortably hot on occasions.
As above, powerful processors, small form factor ultrabooks cooling is always going to be an issue

mimi1234

Thanks all for your help. Gosh, I didn't know it was that complicated. i guess the Lenovo one I have is possibly a budget one as it only cost £400 or so. It's whirred from day one but now it is just getting really annoyingly loud. That's even when I just have google chrome open and nothing else running. The funny thing is my friend has the exact same laptop, he even uses it for a bit of gaming but it makes no noise at all, even when he has YouTube on, is playing a game and doing other things.

Other than a bit of YouTube and some Excel work, I don't use it for much else. I don't use it for gaming or such or watching movies etc.

I think my work one is a Dell one but that makes no noise at all, even when I have various things running. I might get one of them.

I was thinking of splashing out about £750 to £1000 on a new one so will definitely look into the things that you kind folks have mentioned.

alanrowell

It might be the hard drive not the fan if the drive isn't a SSD.

that

mimi1234 wrote: »

It's whirred from day one but now it is just getting really annoyingly loud.

It is usually the fan, rather than the disk.

As it is now older the heat transfer past that is sandwiched between the cpu and the heatsink is not doing it purpose. The heatsink needs to be lifted off, the old heat transfer compound wiped off and a then a new one re-applied Cost about £7 for the heat transfer compound which will probably do at least 2 CPUs. Also remove the heasink compound from the graphics chip too - if the chip is present.

You could on ebay look for a more quieter fan too. I would not grease it as that will probably make it quieter for a while but eventually kill the fan, which will make the laptop quieter still

Do brush out the dust and muck, both off the fan blades, housing and radiator. Painbrush and tooth brushes work well, and clean the air intake as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J_kXAiwu3Q