M57 small form factor (SFF) noise?

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skellington · #1 Post by **skellington** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:23 pm

Hi,

Can anyone here with experience with the M57 SFF describe how loud it is? I recently bought a dell SFF machine and it was much too loud (fan noise) for my needs. I need a machine that is nearly silent when doing mundane computing tasks (it would be ok if it got somewhat louder when running hard).

Why can't I find a quiet and small desktop pc?

Thanks.

#2 Post by **ryengineer** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:41 pm

According to lenovo, M57 is the quietest ThinkCentre offering ever:

The ThinkCentre M57/M57P family is comprised of the quietest running ThinkCentre offerings ever. With acoustic levels measured at 4.0 bels or lower in all modes of operation, the M57/M57P provides a consistently quiet operation. As a unit of measure, "bels" is typically used to describe the amount of noise emanating from a PC.

Lenovo Plants Seeds For "Greener" Computing With New ThinkCentre PC.

I don't know which Dell SFF you own but according to one of Dell's environmental data sheets for Dell's Optiplex 740 SFF (one of their latest models) that I found online - the declared acoustic noise emissions in Bels for the following components were reported as:

Floppy Drive Accessing 4.8
Hard Drive Accessing 4.0
CD Drive Accessing 4.8
Idle 3.9

The average is higher than (~4.4 bels) what lenovo reported for M57 (4.0 bels).

Lenovo now provides live chat with reps (different from chat with support) about buying decisions too (9-6pm if I remember correctly), I tested it to see how they're doing:

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
All agents are currently busy. Please stand by.
You have been connected to XXXX.
XXXX: Thank you for choosing Lenovo Chat service, this is XXXX, sales ID XXXX. How may I be of assistance today?
Customer: Hi, I am looking to buy ThinkCentre M57 eco USFF, is it a quiet PC?
XXXX: Yes it is one of our quietest Desktops.

Rest of conversation is not worth mentioning.

I know this is not something you're looking for, an assurance from lenovo rep but M57 Eco USFF thinkcentres are fairly new so it will take a while for someone to review them, however statistics do show they're promising.

We've many thinkcentres in our office but no M57 USFF yet, from my experience in M series M55 is also a nice quiet thinkcentre.

skellington · #3 Post by **skellington** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:45 pm

Thanks for the reply.

Just for clarification, I'm actually looking at the small form factor M57 (not the eco USFF).

I see that the Dell 755 SFF (which is what I had - returned it) says 4.3 bells when idling for the high-end configuration. It was a nice machine but in a quiet environment the machine could be heard across the room.

"4.0 bells or lower IN ALL MODES of operation" is encouraging. It implies that idle noise would be less than 4.0 bells (hopefully significantly). If the Dell numbers are relevant, the delta between high-low noise on the Dell is 0.9 bells. If the M57 SFF in idle is 3.1 bell that wound be great. 3.1 bells (31db) would be significantly more quite than 4.3 bells (43db). (I think 12db less noise would sound 200% less loud to the ear.)

Thanks. Maybe I'll take the risk and get it.

skellington · #4 Post by **skellington** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:33 am

Actually -12db should sound 1/4th as loud to the ear AFAIK.

#5 Post by **ryengineer** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:51 pm

According to a study at NRCC, following are typical sound levels:

Jet takeoff, artillery fire, riveting ... ... ... ... ... ... 120 or more
Rock band or very loud orchestra ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. 100-120
Unmuffled truck, police whistle ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 80-100
Average radio or TV... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 70-90
Human voice at 1 m... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... . 55-60
Background in private office... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 35-40
Quiet home... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 25-35
Threshold of hearing... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. 20

All in db.

This faintest sound which a human ear can detect is known as the threshold of hearing. Some studies also show that people with excellent hearing can have threshold of hearing of 0-19.9 db.

The numbers from Dell and lenovo would be of little help to you if you somehow possess sensitive sense of sound perception.

skellington · #6 Post by **skellington** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:26 pm

Well, I don't need to be able to hear a fly land next to it.

If the Lenovo runs around 30db and the Dell runs around 40db, that is a significant difference since -6db is half as loud to the human ear.

From experience, the dell was louder than the general noise in my office. We have 30 computers in our office and none are as loud as the SFF Dell.

"Quiet home" level noise would be perfectly fine. I'm hoping the Lenovo is there. I'll report back when I get it.

skellington · #7 Post by **skellington** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:28 pm

Oh BTW, one bell = 10Db from Lenovo's documentation. In case you were wondering where I got the Db numbers from.

skellington · #8 Post by **skellington** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 6:36 pm

I found this on the lenovo website:

http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca ... 107599.PDF

Small form factor models:
Declared (upper-limit) sound-power levels:
– Idle: 3.8 bels
– Operating: 3.9 bels
• Average sound-pressure levels at operator position:
– Idle: 24 dBA
– Operating: 27 dBA

Average operating value of 27dBA sounds good.

#9 Post by **ryengineer** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:13 pm

skellington wrote:Oh BTW, one bell = 10Db from Lenovo's documentation. In case you were wondering where I got the Db numbers from.

I'm familiar with the practical meanings of db, dbA and bel.

M57 SFF looks quite a nice thinkcentre, if you do buy it then please post your afterthoughts here.

Happy Computing!

bhurley · #10 Post by **bhurley** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:15 pm

The ThinkCentre A61e rates at 4.1 bells under a full compute load, and I can tell you I noticed it right away in my home office when I got the machine. The machine is quite audible even when not under a full load; to be honest I don't hear much difference in the volume of the sound regardless of whether the computer is idle or I'm pushing it. Now it's become part of the background white noise, but before I got the A61e I was using a ThinkPad (T42) as a desktop replacement and it was dead silent most of the time, except for the rare occasions when the fan kicked in.

If you need a really quiet machine, I think a laptop is going to be a better choice than a desktop.

The other thing about the A61e (and probably other Lenovo desktop machines, though I don't have any experience with other desktops) is that the optical (CD-DVD) drive is incredibly loud in certain applications, such as installing software from CDs (loud enough that it can be heard in every room of my house, even with my office door closed; it was loud enough to wake up my teenage stepdaughter one morning when she was sound asleep a few rooms away). It's not the jet-engine-style whine that you hear with ThinkPad optical drives, but more of a motorized roar, almost like a chainsaw.

I'm happy with my A61e, but it did take some time to get used to the noise compared with the ThinkPad. I don't notice it at all now.

skellington · #11 Post by **skellington** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:38 pm

Well, I'll let you know how loud it turns out to be if Lenovo ever ships it.

Is it normal for an order to be 'in process' for a week? Lenovo estimates shipping on 4/11 which will be almost 3 weeks from the date of purchase.

That seems to be a ridiculously long time to wait for a standard computer.

skellington · #12 Post by **skellington** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:04 pm

I got the machine. So far very happy with it minus a couple of little issues.

I'll do a little review for the machine and post it as a separate thread in a week or so after I've had a little more time with the machine (and time to do a clean install of vista).

M57 small form factor (SFF) noise?

M57 small form factor (SFF) noise?

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