How's the Vaio SR's fan activity?

So I returned a VAIO Z not too long ago b/c the fan was intolerably noisy due to the fact that it was always blowing. However, in looking for a new laptop, I just can't seem to find anything similar to a VAIO in terms of looks/portability/battery life, which leads me to the SR. In particular, I want to know about the fan. I've seen the SR at the store, but given the nature of its surroundings, I think we can agree that's not the best place to judge the fan's noise level, so I hope you all could help. Specifically, I want to know if the fan is always "on" and blowing like the Z's fan? Furthermore, in general, how is the fan noise compared to the Z?

 

I'm a stickler for fan noise and heat......and the SR is wonderful in this regard!

super super quiet

 

But what about the fan activity? Is it always blowing like the Z, or does the fan only turn on when it needs to (ie- when the laptop reaches a certain temp)?

 

What fan, i can hardly even hear it. Its like not even there

 

That's kinda subjective since while many Z owners claimed they could barely hear their fans, it turned out to be all too noticeable for me. I simply want to know, is the SR's fan always "on?"

 

i guess it is always on since when i put my hands on the vent, its cool air coming out, and when i m gaming, its hot air coming out, but fan noise stays the same as before

 

I see, thanks for the reply. With my old Dell, the fan will turn "on" and start blowing out [warm] air through the side vent only when it needs to and I actually prefer that. This results in the laptop feeling a bit warmer, but since I almost never use it on my lap, that doesn't really matter to me. Of course, I don't want it to be scolding, but having the fan always blowing is just distracting b/c I'm pretty sensitive to the sound.

 

Sony fan's are known for being "overactive" but with that said, its not really noticable unless your playing a videogame or watching a dvd for like an hour or two. With that said, there is a "silent" mode if you need it to be silent in a library or some place.

 

It's always on. At least that's the case on my SR 21M (model with P8400 CPU and ATI dedicated graphics).
My guess is that if you weren't happy with fan activity on the Z, you won't like the fan of the SR either.

I, too, came from a Dell and was disappointed by the level of noise that my first SR unit produced
(not only that the fan was always on, but it was running at a varying rate, even at idling conditions, which was really distracting).

I had my first SR replaced by a second unit. This improved things, but I can still hear the fan spinning up and down slightly
while I am typing on a document (the machine being idle otherwise). I suspect it's a firmware issue, similar to the problem that plagued
some of the T40 series Thinkpads.

There's the Silent Mode that turns the fan off, but this works only if you use Vaio Control Center under Vista. If you are going to
use Linux you need to manually undervolt/underclock the machine to achieve the same effect.

All this has not kept me from sticking to the SR, but it's still a shame. It's the only weakness of this almost perfect laptop.