Which is quieter, a laptop or a desktop

[yinsdianao]

Hi,

I have owned two laptops so far. One PC, the other Mac. Both ended up being noisy after a year of use. I am really sensitive to noise. So having a quiet computer is a must to me.

I heard that, desktops tend to be quieter, due to the fact that larger (and slower) fans are used. Is this true?

Those who know this -- If I want a quiet computer, other things being equal, should I select a desktop or a laptop?

And, independent of the question above, which model of Thankpad tends to be really quiet?

Thanks a great deal!!

[ssd_thinkpad]

Welcome to the forum! Using a complete silent desktop system for a few years and trying to buy a silent thinkpad docked to my monitor, keyboard and mouse, I want to share my knowledge with you. First you have to decide whether the system should be total quiet. If you turn down the brightness of your display, a silent noise of the transformator will appear. Also note, that some Core (2) Duo cpus tend to "whine" when going from energy saving c3 cpu state to more energy saving c4 cpu state. You can turn this whining off either in bios or by software. What you need on both systems is a solid state disc (ssd) instead of a usual hdd. I'd take a slc ssd instead of a inferior mlc ssd whatever it takes, prices start at 250 $.

Desktop system
The desktop system is far easier to make completely silent: Just buy everything with a passive cooler (motherboard, graphic cards ...). Then you need a large passive cooler (50$) for your cpu and a passive ac adapter (100$) . The 1. cooler your choosen cpu (requiring less watt) and 2. the more easily to downvolt it is, the more likely this cpu is ready for passive cooling. You also want to buy a desktop case (additional 100 $) which is somewhat open, so there is a heat flow: The heat always goes to top, so your desktop case should let the hot air escape on top. The desktop system should also be open on the bottom for a good air flow. There are only around 250 $ involved and some research time for getting a nice cpu to build a desktop system completely silent without thinking of the cost of a ssd.

Notebooks
It's obvious that notebooks can not so easily be upgraded like desktop systems so you need to know before how they behave (like the desktop cpu). You have to put in a ssd.

Thinkpad X-series
You need a digital video output for your system, from the x series only the x200(x) with docking station and the x301 (has an already integrated ssd and a digital video output directly on the thinkpad) provide digital output. The x301 seems to be fairly quiet, some user noted that he shutdown the fan off all the time.

Thinkpad T-series
All models with an integrated gpu are preferred as they are cooler. Models using a dedicated gpu are not possible to passive cool easily. The most modern t400 (has digital video over docking) / t500 (has digital video also directly on thinkpad) are said to be the coolest when running only on integrated gpu. But it is possible, that the t61 with integrated gpu are cool, too.

[yinsdianao]

Hi SSD_Thinkpad,

Thanks a lot for your informative reply. Merci beaucoup

Now, if one buys T400 Thinkpad, Lenovo allows you a couple of options in terms of SSD drive:

64 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA [add $212.50]
Intel 80GB High-Performance Solid State Drive [add $340.00]
128 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA [add $382.50]

As I know nothing about Solid State Drive, which one of the above is a SLC SSD which is superior?

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum! Using a complete silent desktop system for a few years and trying to buy a silent thinkpad docked to my monitor, keyboard and mouse, I want to share my knowledge with you. First you have to decide whether the system should be total quiet. If you turn down the brightness of your display, a silent noise of the transformator will appear. Also note, that some Core (2) Duo cpus tend to "whine" when going from energy saving c3 cpu state to more energy saving c4 cpu state. You can turn this whining off either in bios or by software. What you need on both systems is a solid state disc (ssd) instead of a usual hdd. I'd take a slc ssd instead of a inferior mlc ssd whatever it takes, prices start at 250 $.

Desktop system
The desktop system is far easier to make completely silent: Just buy everything with a passive cooler (motherboard, graphic cards ...). Then you need a large passive cooler (50$) for your cpu and a passive ac adapter (100$) . The 1. cooler your choosen cpu (requiring less watt) and 2. the more easily to downvolt it is, the more likely this cpu is ready for passive cooling. You also want to buy a desktop case (additional 100 $) which is somewhat open, so there is a heat flow: The heat always goes to top, so your desktop case should let the hot air escape on top. The desktop system should also be open on the bottom for a good air flow. There are only around 250 $ involved and some research time for getting a nice cpu to build a desktop system completely silent without thinking of the cost of a ssd.

Notebooks
It's obvious that notebooks can not so easily be upgraded like desktop systems so you need to know before how they behave (like the desktop cpu). You have to put in a ssd.

Thinkpad X-series
You need a digital video output for your system, from the x series only the x200(x) with docking station and the x301 (has an already integrated ssd and a digital video output directly on the thinkpad) provide digital output. The x301 seems to be fairly quiet, some user noted that he shutdown the fan off all the time.

Thinkpad T-series
All models with an integrated gpu are preferred as they are cooler. Models using a dedicated gpu are not possible to passive cool easily. The most modern t400 (has digital video over docking) / t500 (has digital video also directly on thinkpad) are said to be the coolest when running only on integrated gpu. But it is possible, that the t61 with integrated gpu are cool, too.

[ssd_thinkpad]

The T400 is said to be one of the most cool systems. Most likely, none of these options is slc ssd, they are cheaper mlc ssd where the 80 gb is an intel mlc ssd which has superior reading and comparable writing speed compared to a slc ssd. You can not go so wrong with the intel 80 gb ssd. However, I'd get the cheapest hdd and upgrade the thinkpad to a slc ssd myself. Upgrading the hdd is fairly simple: First create the lenovo restore cds / dvds from Windows > Thinkvantage, then change hdds and replay the created discs on the new slc ssd.There are lots of people who do not mind using a mlc ssd. However I bought a x301 with mlc ssd and it was too slow for me compared to my some years old slc ssd.

[closersource]

None of the options you listed are SLC.

Lenovo used to offer the SLC Thinkpad SSD 64GB (FRU 43N3400) with the X300 and separately through retail, but it went for $1150. You have a better chance finding it on EBAY if you really want SLC.

[hart22]

Also take a look at http://www.endpcnoise.com/ which specializes in making quiet desktops meeting a variety of needs. Models start at ~$500 for barebones systems and go well over $5000 for quiet workstations running dual Xeon processors sporting the latest Nehalem architecture.

They custom modify cases and various other components to make quiet machines, some of which have audio profiles peaking in the low 20 dBs.

[tomh009]

On a ThinkPad, there will be two main sources of noise: the fan and the hard disk. The hard disk noise you can eliminate by using an SSD as pointed out above, or reduce by selecting a low-power, low-noise conventional disk.

The level of fan noise is driven by a combination of fan design (the new X200 series, for example, generate significantly less noise for the same fan airflow than the older X60/X61 series) and the heat produced by the system.

To minimize the heat, you need to minimize the power consumption, as all the power ends up being turned into heat anyway. Select the lowest-power CPU available: LV and ULV CPUs in the X200s are the most efficient, but in general faster CPUs use more power, meaning more heat and more fan action. And then make sure to select a model with integrated graphics, rather than the more powerful discrete graphics available in the T or W series ThinkPads. The discrete graphics chipsets use much more power ... and you end up with more fan noise (and less battery life).

[yinsdianao]

Hi,

Thanks everyone for responding. Actually, I found out that the irritating noise coming from my current Mac computer is due to the Intel CPU whine. I posted another question here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=75615

Taking everything into consideration (fan noise, CPU whine, etc), which model of Thinkpad would be best?

I am not diverging from my original topic (desktop versus laptop). Now, I just want to know which model of laptop generates the least amount of heat and no CPU whine!

Thanks guys!

[tomh009]

I think your best bet is to use ssd_thinkpad's suggestion and disable to popdown (and thus the whine). I have never really noticed it on my X61 or X200s, both of which use the Core 2 Duo (and I think my ears are fairly sensitive as I can hear the DSL noise on a phone line, even with the dampers installed). However, it may be that the Mac motherboard design exacerbates this noise, making it worse for you.

Apart from that, an SSD will be completely silent -- and my X200s (which has a low-noise/low-power conventional HDD) runs with the fan off 99% of the time -- as long as I'm not running Photoshop -- making it effectively silent.