Lenovo W500 fan noise

Hi,

I am fully aware that W500 is not a new laptop by now but it can be purchased at an attractive price, and it seems to suit my needs very well which are:

1. Must have a matte screen
2. Must have a decent vertical resolution as most programs I use are built that way. Thus resolutions like WXGA is not an option.
3. Very silent as I am allergic to fan noise. Fan noise when doing heavy work is ok.
4. Reasonable bright screen
5. Linux friendly

The only thing I am not sure about re. W500 is the noise. I have tried a L512 which besides having a (for me) awkward screen format, is pretty noisy even doing nothing. I acknowlegde that noise perception is extremely subjective, but still I would like some feedback from current or previous owners of W500.

My feeling is that W500 is indeed very silent based on readings in this forum, but those posts are now quite old and mainly from people owning W500 for a very short time. Hence, I would very much appreciate a few fresh posts

Thanks in advance,
Martin

 

The fan noise is barely audible when you don't stress the CPU and gpu, and if you leave it on the intel gpu mode, the fan hardly comes on (or more precisely hardly audible).

Unless you need the wuxga and that firegl gpu, the t500 with ati gpu may be a better choice, with the ati 3650 and wsxga+.

 

Lead_org, do you suggest T500 because it is more silent?

 

There are more of them available on the market, which gives you a great choice range and better bargaining power.

Which country are you residing in?

 

Denmark. I can get a well-equipped W500 for 1900 USD which to me sounds quite OK.

T500 is cheaper in the same shop, but the specs are not as good (ram, hd etc).

 

ram and hdd are the easiest things to upgrade on thinkpads, and they can had for reasonable prices from many online shops. But if CPU is vastly different, then you should consider the W500 instead.

i am unfamiliar with the pricing structure in Denmark, since there are lots of taxes that inflates the price of product as compared to say the Australian and American market.

I am not sure whether JabbaJabba can chime in on this one.

 

If you find 1900USD reasonable, then you should compare how much identical or similar machine costs at ebay or other international sellers that ship worldwide, perhaps you can save few hundreds that way

PS. When I imported my R400 into Latvia I had to pay VAT only. Customs would be 1-3%, but they didnt apply it. Only VAT=21%.

 

If you buy laptops from i.e. the US and import to Denmark you pay 25% VAT on top. Depending on who declares the laptop for you (i.e. courier or postal service) there will be an admin/declaration fee as well.

Prices in Denmark are generally quite high, but the prices in the provided links are definitely reasonable given the general price level.


Marlar:

As Lead_org mentioned, I can also attest to the T500 fan being very silent. You literally have to put your ear within an inch of the fan before it is audible. Only when stressed will it create more noise, but even then it is still quieter than some ThinkPads, let alone most normal laptops.

Send me a PM. Perhaps we can match expectations. I am thinking of selling my fully spec'ed T500 with T9600 CPU, Intel 160GB G2 SSD, Advanced Mini Dock, etc.

I am currently traveling, but will be in Copenhagen in about 2 weeks time.

 

The fan on my W500 is very quiet. Even when I'm pushing things and the fan comes on, it is far quieter than any of my other thinkpads, let alone the other laptops I have from HP or Sony. The fan on my T60p was quite a bit louder than my W500. The only other laptop I have that is as quiet is my X200. So I think you shouldn't have to worry about fan noise on the W500.

 

The W500 and T500 are pretty much identical, including the cooling assemblies, so they're both the same in terms of noise. On integrated graphics, I literally cannot hear my T500's fan even when I put my ear to the heat exhaust. On discrete graphics, I can feel the warm air coming out, but still can't hear the fan. Only when stressing the laptop out more can I hear the fan, and even then it's far quieter than most laptops of similar power.

 

This is the truth. Even with heavy gaming my T500 isn't that loud. $1900USD for a W500 is pretty much insane, and at least here in the US you can get a decently-specced W510 or a used W700 for that kind of money. The only difference I can tell between the T500 and W500 are the FireGL GPU(which would be better if you did CAD work; the T500's HD3650 is the same card and actually better for gaming) and the option of a WUXGA display(the T500 comes with a WSXGA+ display max; I used to have a 15.4" WUXGA notebook and find the WSXGA+ much easier to work with). If you absolutely need those, then the W500 will be better.

I found my decently-specced T500(4GB RAM, 160GB HDD, HD3650, WSXGA+ LCD; loaded except for lack of webcam and the base P8400 CPU) for $500USD, shipped here in the US. Even with shipping to Denmark and VAT/customs fees added, you'd save money even if you decided to add the webcam, 8GB RAM, a good SSD(take off a good chunk of that for a large HDD), and a T9900 CPU yourself. You could probably eBay a Blu-ray drive and still fit inside that budget.

Fan noise at idle with either machine(both when you have the ATI or Intel GPU selected) is very low. In fact, the loudest component on my T500 is the hard drive... and you can only hear that if the room's nearly silent.

Edit: JabbaJabba's offer of his machine is actually a pretty good deal. I don't mean to plug but I was considering it before the one I have pretty much literally fell in my lap. That one is completely loaded, and will be virtually silent and lightning-quick with the SSD.

 

I have had a W500 for 18 months or so. Though it is quiet with a HDD, a W500 is much quieter with no HDD - A W500 is silent most of the time with a SSD. I have been using that combination for 18 months or so and it is very very quiet.

 

Thanks for the great feedback everyone.

I have actually tried a W500 now and find the noise level very low and certainly acceptable.

However, I find the display brightness a bit disappointing as I often work outside during the summer. And according to reviews, the T500 is actually considerably brighter, so I am looking in that direction now as I can understand that the two models are much the same anyway and both are very quiet.

I will send JabbaJabba a PM. Unfortunately I missed his post but hopefully there is still time.

 

Maybe I am going blind, but how do I send a PM in this forum? I just can't find a link anywhere!

 

Okay, I am too new here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit.../260503-noob-question-how-pm.html#post3484986

Could someone send JabbaJabba a PM for me as I think I am in a hurry regarding his visit in Copenhagen

 

The W500 has more grunt in the gpu than the T500. The W500 also has the option of a WUXGA screen - but I think the WSXGA option on the W series would be the same as for the T series in brightness. The WUXGA is a little less bright, but in good condition is fine in office conditions.

 

This is not correct. It is optimized for i.e. CAD applications, but the hardware platform is the same.

See this link for details:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...about-v5700-vs-raedon-3650-a.html#post5041991

 

The gpu on the W500 has twice the ram of the one on the T500. I would think that is a bit different

But yes, the amazing WUXGA screen option available on the W500 would for most people make a bigger difference in the real world... Sure does to me.

 

Different, yes. More grunt, no. More grunt would mean that it is faster than the HD3650. Unless the application can utilize the extra/faster ram it will not make a real difference.

So far I have seen no evidence showing that the V5700 is faster than HD3650. Optimized/certified for OpenGL apps yes.

 

GPU-wise, it really depends on what you're going to be doing with it.

The general consensus is this: If you're going to be doing work with OpenGL applications and other software which is coded to utilize a workstation-class GPU, then the V5700 in the W500 will be a much better choice than the T500 with the HD3650.

However, if you have no need for professional apps and want to do some gaming, the HD3650 has a significant edge in that department. My gaming tests are definitely not scientific, but it's been able to handle most anything I've thrown at it so far. For moderately intensive 'casual' gaming, it's been able to run titles such as COD4, Mirror's Edge, Oblivion, and Bioshock very smoothly at higher detail settings.

 

If you want to carry it around with ease and often then the W500 is indeed a worthy Lenovo to go for and silent too (unless you really stress it) however if you don't mind the extra weight and size I recommend the W700 (which I'm using now). Big laptop yes but it's also very quiet and has more oomph than the W500, especially in the graphics department, two HDD's in RAID 0 or 1.

If you have your heart set on a W500 then just bare in mind you won't power up a quad core Q9000, Q9200 (ES) or QX9300 mobile Core 2 Duo in there. Reports are that Lenovo have blocked it at the BIOS level, likely removed the microcode update for these models even though they use the same socket s the dual core Core 2 Duo's.

 

Hi,

Just wanted to post a follow-up. I ended up buying a new T500 although JabbaJabba's offer was quite good, but being self-employed I have a VAT and TAX advantage when buying new.

I had the opportunity to compare W500 and T500 side by side and in terms of noise there are pretty much identical. But I chose T500 because it has a much brighter display (about 50%) and I want to be able to use it outside in the summertime. That's one of the great things about being self-employed: doing my business (programming) in a comfortable sunchair

I am so far very satisfied with it. It is almost completely silent and it feels sturdy and well-built. My only problem is the keyboard layout. I have a big problem getting adjusted to the position of Fn and Ctrl, they should be swapped! Apparently thousands of people feel the same according to some googling, and I found this patched BIOS: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/474396-fn-ctrl-swap-all-lenovo-laptops-solved.html

Has any of you tried it or know if it is safe to install? Or are there other ways to swap these keys? I use Linux, and xmodmap is unfortunately not able to work with Fn.