Thinkpads Forum

The question has already been asked but, as far as I could find, not answered. How noisy is the X300 ? Is the fan completely off in, say, ordinary web-surfing use ? Is it loud when it's turned on ?

no answers to this?, i am interested too, i currently own a powerbook (apple) and might do the switch but i am evaluating lots of things and when it comes to laptops noise is really important, how noisy are these machines??, thanks

kyokurider wrote:no answers to this?, i am interested too, i currently own a powerbook (apple) and might do the switch but i am evaluating lots of things and when it comes to laptops noise is really important, how noisy are these machines??, thanks

Just got mine today, they are very quiet, my previous machines have been a T60p (14") and a T42p (15") and even with the tricks to turn the fan off you could hear the disc. No disc noise, and no fan noise (unless you hold the vent hole right up to your ear, and then only just)

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Dan

well that really is good news. However i will have to wait until april, see what else can they offer in terms of, specially, processor. I am sorry but that is just not enough for me, i have a powerbook as a main computer and use it around 10 hours a day.

I do lot of stuff with it and i really need something powerful..

By the way, hello everybody mi first posts in the forums, see if i finally switch to thinkpad.

kyokurider wrote: I do lot of stuff with it and i really need something powerful..

By the way, hello everybody mi first posts in the forums, see if i finally switch to thinkpad.

Indeed it depends what you want to do with it. I gave up long ago on using a laptop to do any heavy work. I use simply as a window on the world. So light, good screen, good battery life is what I want.

Mind you the SSD disc in the x300 is way better than the 7200rpm discs you get in the 42p and 60p, so depending upon what your workload is it may still be better.


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Dan

Since notebooks have become more powerful over the last years heat and noise is an issue for some users, especially for those who work in a quiet environment. I am currently evaluating to buy lenovo's new x300 and I am also looking for information concerning noise emission. On www.notebookreview.com there is a test of the new x300 in which they make reference to noise and heat emission, eventhough it is still a subjective valuation. Well, one thing is clear: ssd should be inaudible, no doubt. But concerning the fan I am not that sure, even if ddignam says that one can hardly hear it. The test on notebookreview says that in a more quiet room the fan is "certainly audible". A friend of mine already ordered a x300 so that I will have the chance to work a few hours with the notebook to see if I get annoyed with the fan noise. If that is not the case I'll certainly buy it.

The specs dont' quote a decibel level? IBM used to...

epbrown wrote:The specs dont' quote a decibel level? IBM used to...

Specs quote 40db, which may be the maximum. The fan did spin up to a noticeable level a couple of times last night, for maybe a minute or 2 each time. Most of the time though it's totally silent.

I don't use it for anything other than running GotoMyPc back to my desktop(s) at work so it's not doing much.

YMMV

The fan is quite noticeable when it spins up due to processor load. Even browsing sites with Flash is enough to get this to happen.

However, this is no worse than any other laptop I've used in the last few years. There's obviously no drive noise, which is nice, and there are plenty of times when the fan is either not running or doing so very quietly.

I only wish there were 45nm-CPUs available to test in this configuration. Would be interesting to see if the fan use goes down noticeably.

well, the powerbook i currently own for 3 something years is the most silent laptop i have worked with for sure..., you make me think now.., i really need to see it but start the fan cause you are browsing flash?...does not sound very good to me..

kyokurider wrote:well, the powerbook i currently own for 3 something years is the most silent laptop i have worked with for sure..., you make me think now.., i really need to see it but start the fan cause you are browsing flash?...does not sound very good to me..

Like I said - I haven't seen a modern laptop that doesn't behave that way. I'm hoping Intel's new chips will alleviate that.

well theres a couple of things i am pretty happy about the powerbook and is the screen and the noise.. 0 noise, honest.
(and i am looking at thinkpads...

ddignam wrote:Just got mine today, they are very quiet

I would have to strongly disagree with you there!

The x300 fan is quite noisy, and during summer (24+ degrees Celsius average room/outside temperature) it is spinning more often than not. Even when everything is idle. I'm in fact a little disappointed in that. It's embarrassing next to the (2007 model) Dell Latitude at my job, which fans are totally silent and doesn't even have an SSD, has twice the CPU power and three times the diskspace, two times the screen area and half the price-tag of the x300.
Next to the fact that this Dell is much heavier, the only advantages of the x300 are the keyboard layout, the feel of the keys, its size (if you want small and thin that is) and that's about it.

To be honest, I can't for the life of me understand why Dell or Panasonic don't copy the IBM keyboard layout 1:1.
I wouldn't have doubted my notebook buy for a minute and would buy Dell anytime over this retarded noisy lenovo hardware. I assure you, it's pretty sad to see such a great notebook (the x300) lose so many points over its noisy fan and its terrible screen bleed. Lenovo isn't doing very well in my opinion, they use cheap fans and panels period.