Noise: Dell D430 Core Solo, CD and C2D ??

Since I haven't found a new or used fanless ultraportable to a decent price I have started to think about buying a Dell D430. In the user review of the core solo version of this computer Greg wrote:

Sounds good, do you share his impression? Is this true for the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo models as well?

 

I have the D420 with Core Solo which I reviewed for NBR, which is basically the same as the D430 and its various versions. I would say this notebook is actually quite loud and annoying in retrospect, although with I8kfanGUI it's dead silent if you want it to be. The laptop is fine and silent on battery, but if it's docked or on AC power it's always loud and idles around 50-60C with the fan spinning at least 5000rpm. Since you can use I8kfanGUI, these are all moot points however, so read this how you'd like.

 

my friend owns the D430 and i have used this laptop many a time. from my experience what greg told is correct if u r using laptop only for lectures, meetings, office applications etc. but if u r using it for intensive tasks such as gaming. there is an increase in the noise output. its not 100% silent. however very quiet when compared to my inspiron 1420. so it depends on the work u r doing. however its a very nice machine. so i highly recommend going for it.