How noisy is the M17x?

So I asked this in the M15x forum, but now I'm considering a larger screen. Is the M17x quiet when just browsing, using Word etc.? I'm ok with GPU fan noise when gaming, but when tinkering around in the kitchen it has to be relatively quiet. If they have basically the same guts, I'm hopgin the 17x is also quiet when not gaming?

Anyone?

I checked out the AsusG73H at Best Buy last night and it's very quiet when browsing. I still can't decide between the 3 (M15x,M17x,Asus G73H). The asus keyboard had some flex, but otherwise was sturdy and is down right cheap.

 

Its super quiet chiefs. No need to worry there. It can get quite loud as you expected during gaming.
However ever since I did some cooling mods, changed out the thermal pads and thermal paste. It is like super super silent. Even during intense gaming It is not that loud. Fans do kick in but about half as loud as what they used to. So its awesome stuffs now.

Doing everything apart from gaming you won't have to worry about loud noise chiefs.

Cheers.

 

The system can get quite noisy if you do some number crunching or serious gaming, though if you clean the heat sinks + fans every few months it helps a lot. When they've just been cleaned you'd be surprised at how much of a workload it can do before the fans need to rev up.

When just browsing the web the machine is pretty quiet. It's not as quiet as a netbook or anything like that, but it's pretty minimal. I've never had a problem there.

 

So now the M17X has free 5870's in crossfire. Anyone have that now? That's great... and hopefully for just browsing they're both pretty much silent. But really,.... how loud is that gonna get at times? I know, I know... gaming goodness.

 

eheheh yeps. Yeh quite a few peeps have jumped on the free GPU upgrades.
They can get pretty loud chiefs. hitting like 4300rpm fan speeds. Depends though. You might get lucky and its a better one. If not then to lower fan noise in games you'll have to just do the thermal paste and pads cooling mods. They work awesome and many guides on here on how.

However if you don't it will still be fine. Not too loud oles chiefs. Only fan noise when your gaming or doing intensive stuffs. Like CPU intensive as well. Just remember to make sure the 3 fans stay clean and dust free. So regular cleans and so forth and you'll be right. Browsing and stuff they are very quiet.
I'm a bit hater of fan noise. I leave my notebooks on 24/7 so its a big problem lol if they are very noisy.

I remember the annoying fans the XPS M1730 had. Boy they were shocking. They would rev up every few mins and then be silent again. Then rev up and silent again. It just kept doing this 24/7. All it was doing was letting the GPU temps rise and hit 75 degs while the fans would stay completely still and silent then once it hit 75 degs it would speed up and drop the temps down to like 50 degs and repeat the whole process all over again oles. So annoying. LOL.

Cheers.

 

I do have to say that mine is very noisy. I had to have a tech out to replace one of my graphics cards, and it makes a horrible noise now sometimes.

<shrug> It's not horrible loud, but louder than it was out of the box less than a year ago.

Just want to say that these laptops were not made for quiet time, but they are power houses when it comes to running apps.

 

you could try to reseat/repaste the gpu dell tech generally do a really crapy job at it

generaly alienware laptop are very quiet when runing nothing but when you start a power hungy aplication get ready for a storm

 

My M17X is very quiet when not gaming. Got a bit loud when playing crysis but not too bad. I've got crossfire 5870's. Overall I'd say it's quite quiet for a gaming machine.

 

It all depends what, where and how you will be using your laptop.

The G73 is slightly less noisier than the M17x when gaming, the G73 suffer way higher temperatures and you will most likely have to send it in for a new graphics card some time. But if you want to be able to play games at some "public" places then the G73 will just about make that happen. There is no way you can sit any place public when gaming with the M17X, as the fans at full load is from 3850-4300 RPM. But for non gaming things I'd say both laptops are very good. (Get a macbook pro or something if you only will be using it for non gaming) And if you are up to spending hours changing thermal paste/pads then you could get the M17X to run more silent.

M17x: You want a portable desktop replacement with tons of power and you don't care about the yet engine sounds it produces. 52Db at full load

G73: You don't care about fancy colors and having the best score in 3marks. You just want a good gaming laptop at an amazing price. 42 Db at full load

I already have a good desktop pc and I only game at school, so if I could choose again I would choose the G73. But if you travel a lot and spend much time in hotel rooms etc then the M17X will be a worthy choice. Just don't get shocked of the fan noise like I was. When I started gaming I was like, how can it possible get louder? 20 seconds later I was like: Oh yeah it can

 

wait till you start ocing and hit the thermal limit of the machine i found out that there is a "overfan" profile in these bioses i was like zpmfg it's going to lift up

 

I really want the m17x but the g73 may be what I'm looking for. I love gaming gps online for hours at a time. UsuLlu holed up on my office with a CRT at 1600 x 1200. Hate ghosting. Current old rig (amd64 & 6800gt) make plenty of noise. I don't mind it gaming, but I'd like a desktop reacement that I can have running in the kitche and family room while editing photos, videos,surfing and doing java dev work using Eclipse and multiple tools.

My concern is it getting loud after running for a few hours with multiple apps open, or on the summer when it's 80. Especially with 2 gpu's in crossfire (or would they stay cooler because they aren't getting taxed as much?).

I've tried out the G73 at best buy and am impressed by it's prices, weight (same as m15x), and how quiet it is. I want the quality of the m17x and the lighteting would be cool. I'll be using it everyday for years so I could pay more for quality. But if it's annoying everyone then that's not good.

Interesting you all that have radeon 5850s in crossfire didn't think it was that loud. Maybe the nvidia was much louder? I could always crank the gpu's down using powerplay couldn't I? When not gaming that is.

I may buy the m17x with my employee discount. If it's too loud I'll sell it to one of y'all or return it and eat the restock fee. The g73 is tempting.

Thanks guys for your input.

 

Yeh I'd have to say my R1 with the Nvidia GPUs are louder than my R2. Nvidia GPUs are generally hotter than AMD ones.

You can get these Aliens down to some nice gaming fan noise rpms with some good thermal paste and change of pads. I've just been gaming on mine all around the house without disturbing people too much. It kinda just blends in with the background noise. I've been playing Medal of Honor Tier 1 special Ops on Maxed out settings AA and everything set to highest possible setting. My fans maxed out at 3200rpm and it really isn't that loud to be honest when you consider the type of gaming I was doing

So yeh chiefs I would def recommend that you get one and give it a try. See how you like it. If not yeh you have something like 21 days to send it back no questions asked.

As for using the notebook for a long time. I use mine 24/7. Its always downloading or processing tasks when I'm away. I am also a massive multitasker. I run so many tasks it just not funny lol. It becomes a hassel if I have to restart lol because I have just too many tasks open and in use. So when updates or something needs an OS restart ahh annoying LOL. The thermal control is pretty good in these systems. Once I quit out of a game or something super intensive is turned off the fans slow back down to quiet speeds again. Almost instantly. Also they only go up and down depending on how tasking the specific program you are running is. In most situations they won't even boost the fan speeds. So it would still keep the machine quiet. The only real times I hear the fans boost up to higher levels are when I start gaming for a little while. It also depends on the game of course. Some games run my fans only at 2700rpm.

Good Luck with your decision.

Cheers.

 

Not exactly true. The Dell "Satisfaction Guarantee" has been gone for a while. They still offer a 21 day return period, but unless there is a problem that is their fault, they will stick you with a 15% restocking fee. Period.

Your best bet is to use an American Express card with the return protection plan. If you return an item, and the store charges a restocking fee, AMEX will credit you back that fee. (I've done it a few times!).

Just an FYI, because everyone assumes you can order whatever you want at Dell and just return it before 21 days. You can't.

 

AH thanks for that bit of info chiefs.

Guess it only still applies to the down under peeps then only. We got around 30 days if I wasn't mistaken. However if there are some issues then a 15% restocking fee might also be charged.

Cheers.

 

for such task it should not heat or fan much as it's the cpu wich is taxed i had to run 6 boinc project (4 cpu project and 2 gpu project) on my rig for 50 min to get around 73 on my cpu how ever the gpu got up to the high 80 in the same time

no normal task is as hard on a system as this and even then my cpu fan was not making much noise also powerplay is auto so when not gaming the gpu throttle down you can lock them in a throttled down state usin power profile or stealth mode

 

Thanks guys. You guys are super.

It makes it easier to pull the trigger with the input you all provided. Worst case I sell it or eat the restocking fee. I'm still tempted by the G73, but I realize the tradeoffs in quality, performance, and cost of ownership. Could be a hassle. But it is the quiet I'm looking for. Wish I could try out the M17x somewhere, but I think I can picture how it will sound based off of your help. Much appreciated.

Peace.

 

I find my 3 months M17x-R2 quite noisy in not-ressource-needing tasks such as internet browsing...

With a single 5870, there is only one fan right? and it cools both GPU and CPU right?

if so, then i find my fan is quite noisy...

anyway to find out the speed of this fan?

speedfan doesn't say anything, nor does Hwinfo32...

 

That's odd. Have you tried the stealth mode or powerplay to lower the gpu power when you don't need it? I would guess one fan for gpu, then fan for CPU as well as a case fan?

 

I should still be able to browse without stealth mode and not have fan problems...

where do you read your fan speed and with what tool on the m17x-r2?

 

Dude, just flip your latop upside down, and count the fans LOL. Theres one each gpu, and one in the middle for the cpu. so a single 5870m setup has 2 fans.

 

Seriously? Noisy? I've had mine for a month now and I'm writing on it at this minute with Stealth Mode OFF and I can barely hear the fans. LoL

It's only loud ... ish ... when gaming, but I don't notice it because my Logitech Z-5300s are LOUDER!!

Maybe that's why I can't hear them. The speakers have ruined my hearing ... and I'm getting old.

HWiNFO32 - Sensors Tab


Cheers,

M17x-R2 Black | i7-840QM | 8GB-1333MHz DDR3 RAM | ATI Mobility Radeon HD5870 CrossFireX | 17" 1920x1200 RGB LED | 1TB Raid0 7.200rpm HDD | Bluetooth 370 | Intel WiFi 6300 | Windows 7 Ultimate

 

My laptop is basically silent except for when i power on or if i'm playing games. Right now I can't hear anything coming from it.

 

Pretty quite machine, as others say, if it's not under load, it's practically inaudible.

For fun, I tried an unscientific SPL measurement using my RatShack digital SPL meter 33-2055.
From the sitting position with the fan at about 30% I don't get a reliable reading it's telling me somewhere in the 55db c weight. (The lowest level the SPL can read is in the 50's) I know this value has to be wrong because when the machine kicks into 100% fan, using FurMark the reading stays somewhat the same 55 ~ 58 db c weight.

In order to get a more accurate reading I put the SPL closer to the loudest part of the PC, rear fans middle between GPU and CPU fan, note I only have a single 5870. I had to get about 1 foot away to start getting a reasonable reading of 60 db c weight.

At about 1 inch SPL levels reach 70 db c weight.

To get an idea of the db scale look here

From a sitting position, just guesstimating I'd say the level at full blast is either in the upper 40's or lower 50's. You can definitely hear it at full blast, but happily the sound isn't objectionable. It's not high pitched or whiny.

Mike

 

Well i must say this, from my experience with the M17x i just received just 2 days ago. While gaming, if you crank the laptop speakers to its highest, the fans are actually louder than the sound coming from its speakers (this is regarding to MoH LE to be fair, so i dont know if other games are louder or not). I found it very hard to hear dialogue n understand everything completey because of the fans being so loud, and that is 1 fan since i have 1 5870m in my setup right now, and the cpu fan was spinning on its lowest rpm setting. I cant imagine how loud it gets when both 5870m's and the CPU are being stressed, and all 3 fans are going full blast. Sheesh.

At home that isn't really a problem sinze i got logitech z5500's hooked up, and it gets LOUD. But if you want to game at school, or somewhere where people around you don't want to be bothered... well.. thats when it becomes a problem. At full pin it sounds like your using a hairdryer.. LOL

Now i know the laptop needs those fans to keep it cool, as it is a gaming laptop... but my only complaint is that it doesn't even cool properly as it should, without repasting and doing the retention mods for better cooling.

Thing is a beast though. Still can't decide whether i'm keeping it or keeping my M15x yet :s ... So far my M15x runs coolers, quieter is smaller, lighter, longer battery life, but doesn't have the RGB LED, 2xhdds, 2x gpus, 5 usbs, full OC'ing capabilties in bios+ a psu thatsupports it,,, and is built slightly less robust (that plastic on the bottom... WHY DELL WHY!!!)

Its so hard to decide

 

By your description, sounds like yours is louder than normal.

Mike

 

here is my screen capture:


no fan speeds..

 

Your fans are running, at 30%. Same as mine right now with just web browsing in non-stealth mode. I can hear the fan and I'm in a dead silent hotel room. So that brings us to several points as to how loud the system is...

1. You fans might operate higher/lower. If extreme, contact Dell

2. Your environment is noisier than the 30%, low fan speed, settting for you not to notice this. For example, I can say my system is dead quiet at home when it's really not.

3. Use a sound level meter, cheap at Radioshack, if you really are concern about it and what to know the ranges. Make sure it's calibrated!

Generally though the system under light load should be quiet enough for you to use in public, including libraries.

 

The 30% fan speed comes from GPU, however it doesn't control the fan speed on many notebooks (Alienware including), so it's not a true value.
You should see an "Alienware" temperature sensor. What version of HWiNFO32 are you runnig? This feature has been added in the latest releases only.

 

hwinfo32 v3.61-992

The fans are spinning with just me browsing on here. Whether they are truly at 30% is irrelevant as I can hear the noise...from the CPU fan however hahaha It's easy, flip it over and it's coming from the center

 

What M17 model do you have?
If you attach/send a HWiNFO32 Report File, I can check why you don't see the Alienware sensor data..

 

I'm confused. The 30% is not a real value because it's reading off the GPU, yes. But my video fans are spinning, however the CPU fan is much louder and this is what one would hear in a dead quiet hotel room on the 17th floor

My temperatures are around 37-41C which is fine.

My model is M17xR2, I7-620, 4Gig, 500Gig HD, 4870 XF, RGB LCD

 

I need at least the HWiNFO32 Report File in order to check why you don't see the additional fans. It might require a fix in HWiNFO32..

 

I am glad you finally got hear the M17x and understood what i was talking about in the other thread ...

Amazing machine but yeah its a tad on the noisy side ..

 

Man btw I have the same R 1 as you do (did)
Did you reinstall Windows on it? From Vista to 7 I mean. I have a problem with it. After reinstalling the thingy I can't start using hybrid graphics ( the dual 260), I only get a black screen although I can see my mouse cursor. and in like 5 minutes I get blue screen of death. Uhhh. Scary. Any ideas? I want my graphics back xD)

 

Get the current dell video card drivers from dell.com. If you had graphics before the update then there shouldn't be anything wrong with your cards but you'll need different drivers for windows 7 and you can find them on Dell's site.

 

Ummm
Actually there is a problem with it. My brother installed the drivers for me, as I was absent from home. And he, duh, installed the drivers from my recovery disk. Which is made for Windows Vista. Any problems with this?

 

Here you go, early in the morning too! Well...early for me. Sorry, I haven't parse through it myself.

 

Thanks for the file. I checked it and you should see an "Alienware M17x-R2" sensor in the Sensor list with additional temperatures and fan speeds.. Do you see it there?
If not, I'd need additional data - HWiNFO32 Debug File after you open the Sensors window..

 

That's where I've been getting the readings from. Yes, it does have the GPU temps and fan speed (30%). The file doesn't appear to have any temperature readings though.

 

Ignore the fan speed from GPU sensor. According to the dump you sent, there are indeed Alienware-specific sensors visible with several temperatures and 3 fan speeds:

"Temp 0",47.0 °C
"Temp 1",44.0 °C
"Temp 2",44.0 °C
"Temp 3",38.0 °C
"Temp 4",41.0 °C
"Temp 5",40.0 °C
"Temp 6",32.0 °C
"CPU",1963 RPM
"GPU1",2031 RPM
"GPU2",2033 RPM

You should watch the GPU1/GPU2 fan speeds displayed there.

 

Unless there's something weird I don't know about, you'd want to get your drivers from Nvidia.com. The Dell ones might not work if there's a difference between their Vista and 7 drivers, and either way they'd be ancient.