NP5793 fan noise and battery life

Hi everyone,

I'm going back to school in the fall and in need of a new laptop.

I was wondering if the NP5793 is a viable notebook to use in a classroom setting.

I've heard people mention that the computer is somewhat loud, even during word processing and web surfing. I'm a little concerned that it might be disruptive during a lecture especially if the class size is small. Are these concerns valid?

I also had a question about battery life. Reviews I've read indicate ~ 120 min or so. Is this a fair estimate? Is there a feature to switch between the video card and onboard integrated graphics to increase battery life? I seem to recall reading that one of the alienware laptops can do this. Stealth mode or something like that.

Thanks for the advice

 

Hi
I think with the new fan firmware it should be silent.It doesn't have an integrated card to switch on to like Alienware.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. By fan firmware, do you mean that I can control the fan speed? If that is the case and I reduce the speed to decrease the noise would this have any adverse affects on the temperature of the GPU/CPU?

Sorry for the newb questions.

 

Ya there are key combination like Fn+1 and others for low,high,auto etc.

 

I would be pissed off if someone used a 5793 in the classroom.

The fan firmware doesn't really help. Mid setting is least annoying, as it doesn't turn the fans to max every half minute, but it's really loud in itself.

Luckily i'm not a student anymore

 

I just got mine in last week. When using it in a classroom type setting, where you will not be playing games (hopefully), you can switch the fans to medium (fn+3). This creates just a gentle hum that is not too noisy for a classroom.

If you leave it on auto it goes from very silent to very load sometimes.

 

IMO: Calling it a gentle hum is misleading

 

compare it to an xbox 360 i heard. those things seems pretty loud at first few mins, but then you dont even notice it after.

 

Any other opinions on the noise level?

Does anyone currently use an NP5793 in class and have they had any complaints?

 

does anyone have a link to that company that make custom fans for laptops? since the 5793 is so cheap compared to the M860tu, i would get the customs if i bought this chassis if the M860TU does not work out.

 

It's too noisy to use in small classrooms. You can hear it from 15 ft away.
Just my two cents.

 

EBM papst is that company...do a search on google.
Im to lazy to provide you with a link

 

hmm... well thanks for all the info guys.

I really fell in love with the NP5793, but the noise factor might end up being an issue for classes.

Are there any other laptops with a comparable noise level at bestbuy or circuit city that I could check out in person?

 

thank you, im talking to them now about it.

 

My class.. a bit... noisy, so it's okay for me to use Fn+1

 

I found this Gateway that's available at Bestbuy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8780198&productCategoryId=pcmcat150700050002&type=product&tab=2&id=1204332501169#productdetail

It has an 8800m GTS. It would seem that the main difference between it and the GTX is the number of steam processors.

I would imagine that they have similar cooling systems and probably similar noise production. Does this seem reasonable?

I was thinking about checking it out after work to see how loud it is.

 

I had the same question...

It really sucks that such a good laptop is so loud It's really the only disadvantage...

 

Sadly,it is noisy and it`s not suited for quiet places.
I can use it in a library,where people study since most of the time there`s background noise,and traffic jams around.
But in a classroom, I don`t think so, it`d bother people for sure.
I recommend the upcoming 860TU if you can wait...

 

oh come on guys......no question it is damn loud with full throttle, but even 2 hours straight crysis didn't turn my fans over 40%.
with max battery mode + air condition + no game play in classroom, my fans barely passed 10% throttle. 8800m gtx @200/100/100 is even cooling than 8400m GS

 

how did you get it to work like that then? i thought the main problem with the 5793 was that it completely ignored doing any 10%-80% throttle. It would just stay silent with the fans off untill the laptop got hot enough that it needed cooling. then the fans would go on full strength for a bit and then turn off again.

 

no really, I covered 4 stages of fan throttle so far including full blast.

 

Forcing the GPU at a very low frequency clock will not do much in essence, but it might cause the gpu fan not to kick in.
I have experienced that in the past,but it was in a room at about 15C (41F) ,forced the CPU at 600 Mhz and the GPU at the minimum possible clocks...
Oh,and only did browsing

 

so you pretty much had the power of a palm in your laptop, all in the effort to quiet down the fans?

 

Well, the main thing was that I needed to make it quiet and perfectly usable in low noise envirnoments.
Sad to say I could not replicate the circumstances...

So I use med mode whenever I feel like reading or studying.

 

everyone is always looking for a comparison in noise to this thing. Is there not a special measurement for noise levels that could be graded on this laptop and then compared to other things people might have at home with close enough score to the lappy?

 

There was a test between the RU and the XPS 1730, and the Ru was noisier by quite some dB...
47 was it? don`t remember,I think Anandtech had it.

 

I think I found it:

One last item we would like to comment on is the noise levels of this notebook. While we certainly don't expect a gaming notebook to be silent, particularly when running some intense game, it just so happens that we have several gaming notebooks in our possession right now. Frankly, the Clevo notebook is substantially louder than the other two notebooks, even at idle. The system appears to be struggling to keep CPU temperatures down, as it rarely dropped below 41 dB at a distance of 2 feet. By comparison, the Dell XPS M1730 is practically silent when idle (31 dB). Once a heavy load is placed on the CPU, noise levels rise even higher to 45 dB, and during gaming sessions noise output can reach up to 47 dB. The M1730 only got that loud after overclocking the CPU, which isn't really a fair comparison. Of course, the M1730 is a larger chassis, which makes it a bit easier to cool. Regardless, we're quite shocked that a single GPU notebook would end up being quieter than an SLI notebook.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3262&p=12

 

I am gonna get one of this pretty soon:

will show you guys the data compare to HP and Apple laptops.

 

You`re gonna get what soon ?

 

With fn +3 it really is a mild hum. I don't know if other people have defective models or something, but I don't think the sound would be at all distracting in a classroom. Of course, that's for taking notes/using the internet. If you start to play games, then obviously it will get loud.

 

The only good thing about the m15x switching between GFX for sound!

 

Actualy it won`t.
Fn+3 is FORCED, and will stay at that speed regardless. I`ve played UT3 with FN+3 forced on and hit 73C for the GPu and 71C for the CPU as oposed to 63C /GPU and 65C/CPU...(or better yet, 55C after UVing )

 

Come on try and get it higher Eleron and then try and fry and egg and take pictures !!

 

fn+3 should go full blast if either cpu or gpu hit (or get close to) unsafe temperatures (low 70's are not unsafe).

I used my 5792 (7950GTX) in lecture theatres with the original fan firmware (with ramping) and got no complaints. My 5793 even in auto mode I would be happy taking to class and now I have an NC2000, it's even quieter, though that would reduce battery life if not plugged in (Although I was playing supreme commander on full settings with the cooler on last week for 30mins till my friend asked me if I realised I hadn't turned the power outlet on...I was surprised...)

 

I checked out the Gateway at Bestbuy and idle the thing was silent. I'd like a comparison between that. And if it is ANYTHING like an Xbox 360 playing a game then that is completely ridiculous since that is just obscene. Xbox in Dashboard is okay.

 

>.> after my 5793 arrives, I'll have bought both the gateway and the sager twice. I would actually say while gaming they are both identical in sound on auto settings. Even while idling the gateway also ramps up and down like the sager, it just doesn't ramp up as high, but the sager is just as quiet using the low fan setting. Forcing the sager to full fan speed though definitely makes it the loudest I've ever heard.

 

is it so loud that even wearing headphones does not help?

 

^^^ i would not say that

 

and you don't even need to use full speed...if you leave it on auto fans, it'll only get to that setting at like 80+ degrees C (which would take a decent amount of overclocking to achieve in normal use...)

 

you can wait till montevina refresh,cos it will have hybrid sli

 

only if the board is nvidia to enable that feature