What high-end Dell laptop would you choose for minimal fan noise

I'm about to buy a new laptop for work which I need 32GB of RAM, but I don't need a ton of processing power. However, I'm a sucker for quiet laptops. I used to have a 2015 Dell Precision M4800. I really like the build quality, the keyboard etc, but it used to run the fan even at idle

Is there any Dell Laptops you guys can can recommend that is decently quiet? Right now I'm looking at either the XPS15 or a Dell Precision again. I like Dell, but it seems from reading these forums that they are hard to get quiet

Thanks

Alex

 

Depends on what your doing with work. The xps will stay quiet if you are not pushing it with games etc.

 

I feel like the XPS has had so many issues with over heating. When I read the forums it seems like everyone is repasting the thermal paste.

I'm I at all correct if I think build quality for the Precision series is better?

 

Most of the "complaints" here come from pushing the system while benchmarking and gaming. My little insprion does not kick in it's fan a lot and it has to work much harder at simple tasks the xps just laughs at.

 

Minimal fan noise? The biggest, fattest Precision. Nothing as thin as the XPS15 or its Precision if you really, really care about noise.
I personally don't find the noise annoying, I just take it as a cost of having a lightish 15" system.

 

Why is this if you don't mind? Also, will say a 15" Precision M7520 that weighs in at 6.3 pounds do the job or do I need to go with a 17" one?

 

Cooling power / Heatsink thermal conductivity / Thermal inertia. Do your workloads tax CPU/GPU seriously for a long period of time? Even better if you could tell us about what kind of load.

In theory, if all you were doing is loading up a bunch of VMs and not stressing them out, the XPS15 would sit mostly at idle then, and would therefore be silent because its fans don't spin up unless there is actual heat.
My XPS15, with it's -145/-145 undervolt, thermally throttles to 3,6-3,7 under throttlestop's benchmark, and basically maxes out its temperature at 95-98C. However, it "only" pulls 65W while at 3.9GHz, after that it thermally throttles hard. So the cooling solution obviously wasn't designed for sustained turbo.

Do you predict you will only need 32GB of RAM?

The difference between 32GB and the ability to throw in 128GB is massive. Also the difference between a P2000 and a P4200 is ridiculous. Do you even need a dGPU?

I was actually going to suggest the Precision 7530, not the 20.

 

Unless you are doing massive amounts of photo, video or cad rendering simultaneously, you do not need 32gb, let alone 128gb of ram. I have 16gb of ram in my inspiron and do photo, video and design work with little issue.

 

Buy a pair of noise cancelling headphones and pair them with whatever high end machine you like. Fan noise is evidence of work being done. Worrying about fan noise on a powerful high end system doing a lot is like worrying about getting sweaty when you go to the gym.

 

Thanks a lot for taking the time to explain it to me. Reading about this I've come to think that maybe I got unlucky with my old Dell. It seems like what I'm doing shouldn't be that taxing, but it started running the fans even when I just had just Chrome up. However, from what I read the new fan control software should help.

"I was actually going to suggest the Precision 7530, not the 20."

I'm keen on buying a 7520 since they had some refurbished ones on the Dell outlet and other posters said it was great value. I also don't need massive processing power. Any thoughts on that? Or even if you got some non Dell laptops which might be preferable for this.

Thanks again

 

I would die a horrible death in the future with only 16GB. My x220 has 16GB of RAM and it's like 5 years old. That was when I found that EDA and CAD on a 12.5" screen is completely not a feasible way of working, so desktop-only. Even HDL programming is a bit sketchy due to the need for secondary resources.

I do a bit of VM, a bit of EDA, a bit of CAD, some HDL programming. This is (relatively) ram intensive. My desktop has 96GB of RAM and I'm sitting here "idling" with programs open but not actively working at 35% usage but it's also Win7. Only the future will tell how I can use the laptop to maximize it's productivity. I suspect I won't have as many VMs open on the laptop compared to the desktop.

@AlexPe

There's also the P52. If you're not going to be seriously loading it, your choices open up. I have a bit of a soft spot for dell business support because they've come through for me in the past. While Lenovo's support for the X220 hasn't really done me any favours. You might want to take a look through the owner's threads here for people's real experiences in owning these laptops.

 

We are not comparing desktops to laptops here. And in the future, maybe notebooks will have more ram.