NP5792 Fan Noise

I've used several program to underclock my video card (in my experience the main source of fan noise). The two best I've found are ATItool and RivaTuner (the one I'm currently using). You can selectively underclock 2d (desktop), 3d (which I believe includes Vista aero), and battery clock speeds for the video card. It also includes a nice monitor so you can watch the results of your underlocking via graphs which can be customized to include anything you can imagine on your video card (I haven't seen a fan speed though).

 

I understand gaming laptops need Fans, however the Idea that all gaming laptops are loud all the time is false. I'm not someone who has never used a high end laptop. I have used plenty including my current rig which was top of the line when I got it. Yes it and other's I've used get really loud when gaming, but when just web browsing or office apps the fans are running at much slower speed which created little or no noise.

My coworker has a new dell 1730 which granted doesn't have a 8800 in it but still it's very quiet when using it for normal office work.

Like I said I can accept it needs to be loud when gaming, not a problem at all. But the idea that because it's capable of gaming it has to be loud all the time, well that's just not true.

 

duane123, please read the posts in this thread from page 4 and beyond, as well as earlier posts in this current thread from page 9 and beyond.

You will see that there are those that say it is too loud ALL the time, and those that say it is not.

Please refer to my post #84 in this thread for some reality about the issue, and what to do if anyone thinks they might have defective hardware.

 

Paladin, why don't you make a video test so that we can hear how silent it is and prove we are all wrong?
But you have to talk on it to show you didn't put down the volume of the camera...

 

I've read every post in both those threads. And there are enough people saying their machine is loud all the time to be more than a few defective machines.

This isn't something I've just made up, and I'm not trying to bash clevo/sager. I'm honestly concerned as a potential customer about the noise issue. Having never seen or used a Sager/Clevo machine in person I have to base everything off of what I read here.

If the vast majority of users don't have their fans kicking in to high when doing normal office work then great, but that has not been the impression I've gotten based on reading pretty much all the posts here for the last 2 weeks.

Having the option to make the fans constant is a step forward for sure, and it will help me zone it out. However I'm more worried about others not myself. If it was just myself I would deal with it, but I work in close quarters with others quite often and I don't want to disturb them.

 

They arent noise issues, some people just have a higher tolerance for fan noise i guess... It doesnt bother me at all... infact it makes me smile because i know those fans have to turn on and turn up to keep my awesome hardware from melting.

if you want a high performance lappie its just part of the game. deal with it i say or go get a lesser system that doesnt need alot of airflow.

 

You can't say they aren't noise issues... you can only say, for me there is no noise issue...
Whatever here people keep telling, I know for personal experience that the Clevo D901C is more quite... and nobody would ever convince of the opposite.

 

but its true that the machine is loud... but its like every other "gaming" laptop... i have a asus g1 at home and it make as much noise than my m571ru

 

duane123, the vast majority of users do not post here at all (there are literally 10's of thousands of them).

Just because it seems like a handful of posters are complaining here it seems to blow it out of proportion because there seem to be fewer posting here that they do not have any problems with the noise, although you are getting both opinions.

What I can tell you is that we get virtually no complaints to our 24/7 Tech Support team about fan noise, and even though we offer the Sager 30 Day Total Satisfaction Guarantee, I do not recall any that have been returned for this reason.

Further, I do not believe even people here are complaining because the fans are kicking into high when doing office type work or surfing, what they are complaining about is that the fans turn on at all (even at the lower speed), or that they are turning on and then off within a short period of time while doing this kind of work.

The NP5791 has been reviewed by NotebookReview, where the reviewer said:
"Unfortunately the cooling fans are none too quiet. While both are quiet enough at idle, they ramp up to full speed every minute or so and then slow down, which gets irritating. The fans are loud enough to annoy someone in a quiet place at full speed, even if they are several yards away. Although I would take a loud notebook that stays cool over a quiet one that does not any day of the week, it would have been nice if the manufacturer found a quieter way to cool the machine. The NP5791 is loud enough that I would be hesitant to take it anywhere quiet like a library. In a meeting it might even be disruptive.

Overall, I am impressed with the NP5791's ability to keep itself cool but I am disappointed with the noise level that was apparently necessary to achieve that."

This is a good analysis, and should be considered by anyone thinking about buying the Sager NP579x laptop.

 

Sorry but now I don't understand your position anymore: before you said that we had broken notebooks and that's why they were so loud... Now you bring as a good analysis a review that says exactly what we are saying... I am confused...

 

Don't misinterpret what I have said. I have never said that you had broken laptops if you thought the fans were too loud.

We are beating this to death...unnecessarily. It is what it is, and I have stated only that the sound level meets both the Sager and the Clevo specification.

Several people have stated in several different ways that you should expect fan noise (as does the reviewer) to keep a high powered laptop cool, and it seems that different people have different tolerances for the noise they make.

It doesn't really matter if one is quieter than another...they are what they are and they are either acceptable to the user or they are not. So far, as far as I can recall we have never had anyone return their NP579x because of fan noise.

 

I live in Southern CA, I know Sager is somewhere in the LA area right? Maybe I will make a trip out hear/feel one in person. Do they have some kind of show room there or is it just a factory?

 

If you would like to call me I can arrange an appointment for you to visit the Sager factory where they can demonstrate one for you in their Conference room.

 

I know at least 2 people who returned their 579x`s due to abnormally highfan noise.
Bottom line : both the 579x and the 926x are high end gaming laptops. Durinmg gaming they`re both quiet as a train, as expected. During normal operation, browsing and such, the 579x is a train, whereas the 926x is more like a car.
I don`t care what anyone says, having witnessed a direct comparisson between these 2, I`d have to say that the 9262 is the best choice in all but portability...
And it is also PROOF that high end gaming laptop CAN BE PRETTY QUIET DURING NORMAL OPERATIONS. This is the statement which puzzles me and makes me angry that in order to get a quiet gaming laptop I have to pay the premium price, whereas the 'little brother" might get you pissed off if you`re in a quiet , study room or such.
I bet you anything that Clevo could fix this. I bet you there are alternatives to make the damn thing quiet WHEN NOT GAMING. But if people "like it " just the way it is, because "it is" there will never be a change.

I see that Sager is paying attention to the needs of their customers. Tip my hat to y`all. But eliminate the real problems...fix those damn fan issues!
Every 579x owner can agree on this. And for the record, I love mine, I love to show it off, but when it starts screaming,makes me feel like an austridge and shove my head in the ground...

 

hehe yeah... its noisy but its not that bad...

 

Allright . Do a test for me Megabud, since you`re among the few that say it`s "not that bad". Take your laptop in a study hall, and start browsing, and do normal operations.Count how many "get out with that thing" remarks you`re gonna get.

I clean my laptop weekly, keep it on a solid surface, suspended mid-air at about 5 inches,plenty of cooling ,in a max ambiental temp of 22 C. And still the gpu fan kicks in when I`m just reading my email. That`s not even using my gpu! makes sense to you more than to me, apparently...

 

You cannot have a gaming machine silent... i have a asus g1s at home and its the same thing...

I never saw a d901c in my life... so i cannot say if its silent or not...

 

You just don`t get my point. Is your Asus G1S LOUD when NOT GAMING ? do the fans kick in full power then?
Seriousely,if we`d all agree, I bet sager /clevo would try to do something about this...

 

The D901C is not completely silent... when you play it is as loud as its brother... but during normal works it doesn't start to sound like an old tractor... it just stays quite...

 

Oh... i see... no the asus one doesnt go full blast when we just surf on the net...

m571ru fan sometime go max power when it just windows idle...

 

I had the 5791, RMA'ed it so I could buy the 9262 instead. The 9262 is QUIET. in comparison to the 5791, it is SUPER QUIET.

Every day I'm amazed at how quiet this laptop is even during gaming.

The 5791 was noticeably loud, although, I was using it in an office situation so this noise was much more noticeable. FireFox, MSWord, etc. no games.

The Zalman cooler made the fan come on much less and for not as long each time it did come on. there's a review here somewhere showing this difference. I thought this cooler made a huge difference. I bought two coolers now, one for home and one for work. awesome stuff.

I've gamed on it and it didn't bother me much at all with all the other stuff going on.

In the end, I think people will just get used to it. I will agree though, study hall would pose a problem I believe.

 

Oh... well than the d901c is quiet... but i wont rma my laptop for a d901c... and in 2years it will probably have new stuff for laptop so... for now this m571ru is fine and ill keep it... and i dont care if some1 say that my laptop is noisy, ill just insult them back, because im french!

and im also poor so i dont want to invest another 1000$

 

Nobody is insulting you or telling you to RMA because of fan noise.

Its a simple discussion and people just want more information.

Fan noise was not the primary reason for my RMA, I just felt like I went halfway with the 5792 and money was not as critical for me, but that is another issue.

I think the noise is hardly a reason to spend $1000.

Although people should know that it would be tough in a quiet library or something like that.

 

Bah... its my first real laptop... except the acer i had... but ill probably buy a desktop next year for gaming... laptop are too expensive for now and you cant upgrade them...

but for the noise its not that bad... i brought it to a cafee not a long time ago and it was ok... at least for me...

 

i take mine into meetings all the time, never one complaint or second look.

 

yeah up to now nobody says something against the noise... true theres always a lot of noise around where im going...

the only thing they said was... why the logo is up side down... :s ya eurocom messup this one...

 

They're scared of you.

 

no... well... sometime... when i lost in a game i... lost control of myself... and im french in an english world so they dont understand what im saying when im pissed

 

Thanks for the offer Paladin I will probably take you up on it when I get closed to buying, probably next month.

The thing that drew me to clevo/sager to begin with was the relative affordability compared to other gaming brands, so if I can get the 5792 and have it suit my needs I'd be a happy camper.

 

Just to be clear: the reason why I am telling all the time that the M571RU is loud is only because I want to help other people not to make the same mistake I did. When I wanted to buy it, I asked many on the forum and nobody was clear about it... especially the people who bought it (and maybe wanted to sell it) didn't wan't to admit it is loud (I suppose psycologically it is easier to accept your purchase not admitting it). And the retailer for sure will never admit it. Nobody here wants to put down the notebook because it looks good and it is very fast, but IT IS LOUD and this is the fact. The D901C is not (when you don't play).

 

Yeah I appreciate your honesty. I know most people will tend to want to beleive their purchases are perfect when they buy a big ticket item so they will down play any faults. People also tend to feel validated in their purchases if others buy the same product so they will often promote them fanatically. Nothing wrong with any of that of course, but since this is something I've never seen in person I need all the honest and possibly critical opionions I can get.

I get buyers remorse something crazy, so I tend to research anything I buy to the point of obsession. I don't want to come off as trying to be negative or bashing these products. I just am trying to see all the angles before I spend the money. Unlike some people price does matter for me .

 

so do i . its not that i am displeased with the np5792, in fact i am kinda IN LOVE with it and its pretty perfect in every respect except for the non-toggle-able fans / clock speeds. i know NOTHING about how to make a program that would do this, but i really hope that one is made.. reiteration, it would make this computer the best notebook of every world!
c

 

It's also really, really difficult to quantify "loud" in any really meaningful way since there are large psychological and contextual components to that term - a noise that person A barely notices may be maddeningly annoying to person B, and a noise of x decibels in a crowded cubicle-office may be "quiet" while the same noise in a library reading room may be "loud" (and grounds for getting kicked out ).

A couple of months back, I pestered several of the other posters trying to see if I could get a sense of how loud this system was by asking for other comparable examples of machinery, e.g., a window AC unit - mostly to no avail.

Probably the most useful proxy would be for someone who has one to make a video (with decent audio) capturing both the sound of the fans and some reference sound that the rest of us could use as a yard-stick, perhaps at least a conversation between two people sitting next to the computer, or perhaps something like a blender (probably too loud to be useful) or a ringing telephone (but no cutesy ring-tones, some sort of replication of the old AT&T ring-tone ), and then posting that video so that others on the forum can play it and decide for themselves.

 

As above, I'd really appreciate a high quality recording of an M570 clone running at high and low fan speeds, along with a reference audio.

The issue of noise (aside from cost!) is one of the last standing in the way of my purchase. I'll be using this in earshot of the wife, if she can't hear her dreadful soaps over the noise of the fans it'll cause bloodshed.

 

i should be getting mine next monday... i'll try post a reference video for everyone. i've been trying to figure out what to record it "with" for a good reference level.

 

Thanks emblazoned - there's a rep point waiting for you when you do.

As an alternative to a background reference noise, a measure of noise from a known distance (or range of distances) would give a good indicator of how loud it is.

 

What I can tell you is that with fans on you almost do not hear anything coming from speakers. The speakers on 5792 are low powered compared to my M1710 and also pointing to the side of the notebook. So they are quiet at best of times, but when the fans get going it is hard to hear them at all. Not a huge problem for me since I use headphones most of the time

 

Okay, I absolutely disagree with that statement, and I have an NP5792 myself. Even with both fans on, the sound is fine and clearly audible unless you are listening to something very quiet. I play music and watch movies on my laptop with both fans on often, and never have trouble with the sound. The fans are really not that loud, its just enough to annoy a select few people and enough to want a toggle mode to underclock and turn them off. ikt is mostly the switching that i think people react to.

 

this is turning into a full-fleged experiment. =P i'm up for the challenge! plus if UPS will let me, i have a feeling my lappy will land this afternoon and rather them delivering it i might just go to their site and pick it up which means i'll get it today.

in any case, does anyone know where i can host video files?

 

I've seen people here post the video to you-tube, and then put a link to the you-tube page here.

I agree with super-twisted that it would also be useful to have (now that we're all getting greedy here ) recordings from various distances, but there still needs to be a reliable reference sound in the video or else we'll be unable to determine whether the perceived volume is due to the fans themselves, or to the audio recording level.

If nothing else, perhaps put a wooden cutting board next to the computer (so it's in the video) and repeatedly bounce a ping-pong ball off the cutting board during the length of the video - that should give a sound that is both loud enough for the recorder to pick up and should also be a sound that is easily reproducible by the rest of us.

 

ha!... youtube... can you tell my brain went on weekend already? *sigh* i should've known... =P

 

What's a "brain" - am I supposed to have one? Have a good weekend!

 

i hope no one with their 5792 in hand beats me to the punch. =P i call dibs!

 

You're bloody brilliant. I second your suggestion.

Now if only someone has the balls to do it. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

 

How`bout we all make like a standardized type of video. Start laptop,start a temp monitor and record using a good quality camera. I have a Canon A710IS, so videos/sound comes out quite nicely. I`ll do a sort of test as soon as I get my camera back from my brother and upload them on youtube or something.

 

LOL, that was not a cutting board! It was the floor of my living room! AHAHHAHHAAHHAH

 

This is funny. I asked for a video when I created the thread.

 

and you got one.. just not a good one...

i'd work on it today if UPS would freeking let me pick it up... but since i paid for 2-day (vs. 1-day) they said they're gonna throw it in a container and lock it up until monday. i kid you not. i'm so irritated right now.

 

Isn't monday a holiday?

 

Well, the video I made was not very good because actually it was not a test... I did the video for other reasons... then I realized later that it could be helpful for people who want to hear how loud it is... And if you listen carefully you can get an idea... I couldn't make a better one because I sent it back ...