N6000 fan noise

I'm in the process of buying a notebook for college. I have read many reviews and posts saying that the fans are noisy. Is the fan noise acceptable for a classroom? I'm going into engineering, so I guess other notebooks will be in the classroom.

Thanks,
ccbr01

 

I don't think it is high enough to bother others, especially not in a class with all the ambient noise. probably you wont even hear it.

For example, just to get an idea of how loud it is. I have an external 3.5" enclosure with a cooling fan and a 7200RPM in it. when I switch that thing on, the noise of the N6010 fans just disappears into the background.

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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 512MB Dual 333MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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not sure what you exactly mean by modified!
If you mean controlled thru software, NO. Me and a few other guys on this forum have failed to find any software that can control the fans. We sort of came to the conclusion that they cannot be controlled.
If you mean exchange the fans. Well the fans aren't really standard, have a look for your self:


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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 512MB Dual 333MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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Can the fans be modified to fit the quiet conditions?

 

Ok then... well, when I describe to my mother your description of noise, she doesn't buy the concept. She wants it to be quiet. I really like this notebook. Is there any major store chain that has Fujitsu as a display model. This would probably convince her of the quality of Fujitsu.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by ccbr01

 

Thanks, I found one in Georgia. That is just two hours away, but when spending two grand, my mother will travel the distance for the best deal.

thanks,
ccbr01

 

But I enjoy the upper 9600+ ATI gpu. Toshiba has the 9000 chip in all of their notebooks. The 9000 is just a decrepit gpu for Half Life 2 and Counter Strike Source. That is why I choose the N6000.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by ccbr01

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by ccbr01

 

Also, how would you consider the HP zd8000. I know that HP's quality is not great, but I have a relative who is in the employee purchasing program with HP.

 

Is that more like the dell 9300? Also, I have had bad problems with Acer in the past that lead to a dead pentium 2 mobo.

 

ccbr01, my girlfriend just got the n6010. she doesnt have a problem with the fans running all the time. i do. a little bit at least. it bugs me because i am used to use my laptop ( compaq presario 2700gr )in bed, when she was trying to sleep, and i had no fans running at all. i dropped it, so i am using hers now. if you are in any public place, the fans are no problem at all. i cant image hearing them at all. if you are in a quiet room, trying to watch american chopper and your girlfriend is trying to sleep, it is a problem. maybe not a real problem. but it bugs me that you pay almost 2000 bucks for it and the fans are running all the time. it also bugs me that this thing has HT and the cpu still runs all the time at 3.2GHz. i thought it will go down at some point if you dont use the cpu so much. i guess i was wrong. however, this is a great pc, with enough features and some style to it. yeah, it would be nice to make the fans shut up, but i guess i have to live with it...p.s. a spell check would be nice, i am from germany...HAHA

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by neavissa

 

here is what i experienced. last week when we got the laptop, i checked under system properties and saw that the cpu is only running at 1.6 GHz. i thought that i have made the classic mistake and only looked at what cpu is in the laptop and not under what speed the cpu operates. i forgot about the whole cpu thing. when i remembered to check a few days later, which was today, i saw that the cpu was running at 3.2 GHz. like it is suppose to. i then thought to have figured out what it was. my old laptop was running at a lower speed when i turned it on unplugged. so i tried the same with this one. nothing, it was still running at 3.2 GHz. so i called fujitsu and asked them why the laptop was running at some point at only 1.6 GHz. the woman i spoke with told me that HT is responsible for that. HT adjust's the speed of the cpu automaticly depanding on how much speed the compter needs. is that true? however, i am doing nothing, the computer is just sitting there, when i check the speed it is still 3.2 GHz. by the way: the woman told me about an article in the windows knowlidge base, that sais that xp cant tell acuratly the real speed sometimes. i am gonna try the bios setting that you were talking about now...

 

me again...i just looked at the bios at couldnt find anything else than power management and ht technology. both are enabled. is that what you were talking about. the side-in or what ever it was? by the way, i appologize for my spelling, like i said, i am from germany.

 

guess who?! you never believe what happenend. i am playing around with the power options under control panel and when swithed from always on to portable/laptop, the cpu shows only 1.86 GHz. well i was hoping that the fans stop running when the cpu runs slower. they do!!! not for long, but they are not running all the time. there on and off. even tho i had the same settings under portable/laptop and allways on. to bad i deleted the other settings. i will install the original fujitsu xp and see what is going to happen...

 

Ok then. I remember something that I read saying that Intel's Step-Side Technology divides the clock speed in half to conserve battery power. And if I do remember, I read something on the Fujitsu website that referred to the divided clock speed. Qwester is this correct?

 

Ok guys, you have been going way too wrong while I was asleep! [ ]

Here is the deal. Speed reporting is really rediculous in XP, you cannot trust it. get cpu-z from here: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

HT has nothing to do with CPU speed, all it does is that it allows two threads to run at the same time, but not at the same clock cycle. Confusing! Ok, consider it like this. You have 2 different unrelated inputs, CPU works for a few cycles on input 1, but then input 1 is delayed because it's waiting for something from the RAM, so instead of the CPU just waiting there doing nothing until input 1 proceeds, it begins working on input 2 (which is a different thread). Conclusion: CPU speed didn't change, you just split your speed between different threads.

As for the speed of the CPU. Yes "always on" keeps your CPU at 3.2G and "portable/laptop" causes your CPU to dynamically switch (depending on load, if it goes above 50% it jumps to the next speed) between a range of speeds from 1.86G - 3.2G. Why a range? Simple math. You FSB is 133MHz, if you use a x14 multiplier you get 1.86G, and if you use x24 multiplier you get 3.2G, for all the different multipliers in between you get the range I am talking about.

So why do you need less cooling when you decrease the multiplier? because at lower multipliers the CPU needs less power, and hence the voltage can be decreased. Less voltage, less power, less battery consumption, less heat, less cooling!

Now even if you stay at 1.86G your fans will stay on. The P4 is a power hungry CPU and unlike the P-Ms cannot be passively cooled unless you have a humungous heat sink that has a decent airflow, which is impossible in a notebook. If I am not mistaken the P4 consumes more power, under lowest power rating, than a P-M, under highest power rating. But at 1.86G the fans run slower, ie less noisy, but they do still fluctuate under load.

Now if you want to keep the CPU at 1.86G despite the load, XP offers no tool for that, at least the power settings that come built into XP didn't work for me. So you can download this: http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/index.html and set it at max battery, that locks your CPU at x14 multiplier, ie 1.86G. (note: this software will report the wrong cpu speed unless you go into its options and ask it to detect the speeds thru windows)

ccbr01, as for your question about the HP. The HP is a more powerful notebook. Better graphics and faster CPU, it uses the desktop 800FSB version, Fujitsu uses the 533FSB version (I know I said the FSB was 133 just earlier, but if you know P4 you'll know why, P4s operate at a quad boosted FSB, meaning 133x4=533 or 200x4=800). This being said let me point out some downers, since it has a desktop CPU it will generate more heat, going with HP also sacrifices a bit on build quality. And if you read the review of the HP on this site, you will notice that the reviewer reported excess heat in the palm rest area and the keyboard. + I don't suppose it will be quiter, or at least by a significant amount. One of my friends had its predecessor and I would say that that thing was pretty audible when we used to go do work in the library, but not really bothersome.

ZD8000 review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2248&review=ZD8000

Hope this extensive reply helps, now back to my programing [ ]

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N6010: P4M 3.2G, 512MB Dual 333MHz, 60GB 7200RPM, ATI 9700M, 17" WXGA+
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thanks qwester, you helped me alot. damn, was i off with the whole HT thing...

 

I have finally made my decision... I'm probably going to get the Dell 9300 with the 2.0ghz Pentium M and the Nvidia 6800 gpu. If a new line of Fujitsu notebooks come along, I might consider buying one of those.

Thanks for everything,
ccbr01