T61 - build for fan silence. Comments/help?

Hi All,
I have been trying to get a really really quiet (my main concern is the fan) laptop and have heard that the T61 is pretty good for this given its redesigned heat management capabilities.

I am under the assumption that lower heat = lower fan speeds.

I will get integrated graphics (runs cooler than dedicated?)

I will get WinXP (less graphics demands/indexing = cooler?)

15.4 inch widescreen (larger form = more heat passively dispersed?)

Ability to run TPfancontrol utility? (have you guys tried this w/ T61? does it work and is it safe?)

has anyone had experience with these issues? Please note that my ears are extremely sensitive. I usually work in a very quiet room and will go crazy if the fan is constantly at an audible RPM...i know alot of you will say its not audible at all, but keep in mind my definition of audible is in a completely silent room and given that my ears are extremely sensitive and my tolerance is freakishly low. thanks guys

 

1. lower heat does equal to lower fan speeds
2. integrated graphics definitely run cooler than dedicated graphics, plus you get more battery life.
3. I don't think OS will have a significant impact on heat.
4. Yes, typically the larger the case, the better the heat dissipation.
5. I don't know about TPfancontrol, but I just let the computer adjust fan speed.

In all honesty, even with the fan running full blast, I can barely hear it. Plus it's not even on all that often. Really only when I'm gaming and such does it come on.

 

It's audible in dead silence, not by much though. I doubt you would be able to find a laptop that is as quiet as a T61 though.

Just make sure you have it on Adaptive profile and it'll throttle the cpu down to 800mhz and turn off the second core. Being at such a low clock it'll probably keep the fan down or off most of the time.

As for OS, XP might be a good choice, it'll keep the swapping from the HDD at a minimum rather then Vista which caches everything in your ram. But it can go both ways though, Vista does start up your most used programs faster.

As for video card, the X3100 does sound like a good choice but I really wouldn't worry about it using more power in Vista.

 

I'll tell you what, I got my T61p loaded with 2.2GHz CPU and 570m GPU and it is very very quiet. I here the chirps of the CPU more than I here the fan for what its worth.

 

CPU chirps?

 

Yea, it is that whining noise (chirp was a bad way to describe) that all Core 2's have when they go into deeper sleep states or something.

There are handful of threads around with people complaining about it, or worried I suppose.

 

On battery power it goes crazy

 

I think you are starting in the right place with a T61 for silence. Even in a quiet room I can not hear the fan over background noise from a fish tank in another room. Its definitely one of the most quiet laptops I have used, even at full CPU and GPU load from gaming.

 

Agree with you 100%!

 

On my T61, the big issue isn't the fans - it's the hard drive and, more so, that irritating CPU whine! I can barely hear the fans even on full blast in a quiet room, but the CPU whine is audible basically whenever the machine is on battery, even with average background noise. This is owing mostly to how high-pitched it is, but I don't think it carries very well, so if your concern is use in a quiet room, it should be fine as long as you don't drive yourself nuts. The hard drive also comes through occasionally, but as I have the 5400RPM drive and TurboMemory it isn't usually very noticeable.

 

Did you turn HD Indexing off? That will let the system lay off the HD a bit.

 

i had the CPU whine with the DELL that i returned, but RMclock fixed that like a charm

 

I've never heard that yet. My T61 is as quiet as any machine I've ever had, and I have the T7700 CPU and the nVidia 140 graphics card.

 

Yup, that is one way to fix it.

I almost guarantee that it does to a certain extent. I have yet to see here a Core 2 chip that doesn't. Some users are simply more tolerant. Do you ever let the CPU throttle, or do you run full speed all the time?

 

I actually wish they could allow us to bump up the speed of the fan for better heat exchange. (I think its too silent it could be bumped up a little to reduce heat)




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I agree. I wish you could at least control it for yourself. I don't really like the 50 - 70C temps I get.