SZ Fan Noise - post your opinion

Hello!!
I'm going to purchase a SZ here in Italy...2ghz core duo, 120GB HD, 1GB ram (just 1 module).
I'm planning to use it just for HD recording, so the issue that worries me a lot is the fan noise.
I've read in many topics that the SZ is not a quiet notebook, though it runs very cool.
Can you post your opinion about this issue? I would be very glad.
Thanks so much

Vince

 

My SZ160 runs VERY cool and silent - the fan hardly ever comes on, and when it does, it's a whisper at best. Something to consider, though, is that I have a 1.83 gHz, and you're looking at a 2.0 - more speed = more heat, so the fan might be more prone to engage in the higher processor speeds... Having said that, it shouldn't be much different, if any, than mine.

Javier

 

My sz110's fan never seems to shut off. There's a noise even on the lowest fan setting. Yes, it does run very cool. The noise isn't too bad actually, but if there is a way to lower the noise any further, I'd like to know.

 

So, there should be a difference in fan noise between the basic and the premium version.
Maybe the carbon fiber case dissipates heat in a better way. Who knows.
I know T2500 should run hotter…I hope it’s still silent.
I’ll let you know. Here in Italy Sony Style claims to ship this machine this month. I hope so!!!!
Thank you

 

I have the premium model and seem to have that "fan never turns off " issue. I'm not sure it's the fan though. I have it unplugged and have the fan set to 1 in vaio power management. I was using it in a totaly silent room however, that may contribute to why I was hearing it so well. With that said, the notebook runs really cool and it's pretty quiet.

 

My fan is on all the time, but usually at a very low speed that is just a whisper. I cannot hear it at all unless I'm in a completely silent room. Now, when it heats up, and the fan speed increases, you can hear it. It is still quieter than any of my other notebooks.

 

I have the 160 premium and run cool and quite. The fan rarely comes on and even then it's a whisper. FYI I'm running in Stamina mode and surf the web and word processing. Not gaming - yet.

 

The "fan always on" thing might be a Speed mode behavior.

 

I have 160 premium. This laptop is noisier than my previous laptop, M30 toshiba. The fan is always on and it's noticable in stamina mode. In the library I could barely hear the fan noise, but in my room, I can hear that pretty well. It bothers me so much, so I need program or utility that make fan turn off. Any suggestion?

Oh, I also have noise like "ddi~~" it's really high frequency noise. I think it's from hard drive or fan. It's different from the fan noise. Does anyone have this sound?

 

You might wanna see if you can compare it to another machine in a store or something.

No high frequency noises here.

 

I can’t see the point of it…everybody says something different.
Maybe the fan noise issue depends on the machine…So, someone of you is lucky, someone not.
That sucks!!! Maybe the best thing to do is to buy it in a store with SZs in stock, and to look for the quieter one.

 

So... the high-frequency sound from the fan is only my problem??

Anybody else?? I can always hear is when fan goes on.

 

cool and quiet here

~r

 

Same here. I hardly ever notice the fan.

 

I doubt there is really that much difference between machines. "Noise" is very subjective, and very much dependent on your expectations, and previous experience.

With that said, there shouldn't be any high pitch sounds from the fan or hard disc (I have yet to hear anything that I might attribute to HD noise). The fan is subtle, not loud. If you are hearing buzzing, whining, or anything more than the sound of air blowing out the back left corner, it is not normal. Try to compare it with another machine.

 

As I mentioned in another thread there are differences bewtween individual units.

Out of the three other SZ 160s I compared mine to, one was noisy, two were very moderate, and mine is almost always silent (the fan rarely comes on).

It's the luck of the draw.

By the way all ran VERY cool.

 

Well, I won't dispute that there ARE differences. But if the differences are as drastic as are being described, then Sony needs to get a pile of the notebooks with flexing keyboards and noisy fans, and whatever else is unacceptable, returned to the QC department. I for one would not hesitate to return mine if I had a funky keyboard, or noisy fan.

 

Anyone had a Vaio S4x or S5x before? How loud is the fan in comparison to these "older" models?

 

I have the sz110B and it is very quiet and cool. The fan is not always on and when it is it is very quiet. The loudest it has ever gotten is when I was playing BF2 and it was still more quiet than my other 2 notebooks.

 

I have the SZ120 and there is no fan noise. There is a little air noise but I have to hold the laptop up to my face (no further than a foot away from the air vent in the back) to hear it. The sound is only moving air. I have played Civ IV and Doom3 for an hour and the fan noise stays the same. Speedfan reports 52c temps no matter what I'm doing (which I find kind of odd actually. My old DTR would vary between low 50's and 70).

 

SZ120P/B here (1.83GHz). In stamina mode on battery power, with "ultimate battery" settings, the fan is barely audible at idle, speeds up a little under light load (watching a divx or mp4, say). In full performance mode on AC, playing games, it cranks up quite a bit, but still nothing major. The shrieks from the optical drive are a lot more annoying.

'Course, these things are a lot more noticable when you're actively looking for them; the noise from my old 3GHz P4 Alienware varied between "jet" and "rocket" noise levels and it didn't take long for my brain to learn to filter even that out. (Sometimes bothered other people, though )

 

Something else to consider is that each person here has configured the power consumption settings to their respective liking... I notice that when I change the CPU settings to "performance' in the VAIO Power Management app, the fan cranks up a bit more because of the increased heat from the processor. In the default 'adaptive' state, the fan hardly ever kicks on at all on my machine.

Javier

 

i dont notice my fan come on at all...very quiet.
i have had it sit next to my old laptop (dell dinosaur) and my dads vaio S18, ofcourse the ancient dell is roaring both the HD and fan when using apps, the S18 fan kicks in and in audible, i still dont think its even that bad and then the SZ18 is practically silent the fan is on but noting compared to the other 2.

Ine a dead silent room you can hear it even then its very acceptable, in a office or uni or any normal day to day enviroment you will not hear a PEEP out of it.

as mentioned if only the DVD drive was as quiet!

 

What happens if you disable the drive, say in battery mode, does it still beep around or have you incapacitated it

 

I have M30 (725CPU)toshiba too, when the fan is on--sound like a disc is running in the optical drive! The air blow out is also vey hot!!!

For the SZ premium, I don't notice my fan come on at all...very quiet.
May be you just set the fan to be always on?
Very different in both same notebook??!!

 

the comp is very cool (well it gets warm overtime obviously) but i can barely hear ANY fan noise (unless i put my eat RIGHT above the keyboard)

 

The fan speed and noise level TOTALLY depends on your particular settings and usage. Stamina or speed? Adaptive CPU or forced? Fan set to quiet or fast? Playing a game or reading email?

In my experience the fan is generally very quiet but will change as you use the system. So far the loudest I've seen has NOT been objectionable considering what the system was doing. And I'm a noise level freak with a desktop PC condiitoned for low noise (Antec P180 case, Phantom 500 power supply, Nexus case fans, Zalman silent CPU & video card coolers).

The fan also doesn't do weird things like cycling up and down repeatedly or anything.

 

I really don't notice the fan noise - on mains or battery (set to speed).

The DVD drive is a different matter but not a deal breaker by any means.

 

Agreed. My 120 is cool and quiet. It's only a low-moderate in my opinion at peak when I run stress-testing with 100% CPU. The rear exhaust was a good design decision too. I'm very pleased.

 

Hello,
i own a SZ90 (jap model) and i that night i discover that the constant noise made by the notebook when the cpu is under 41°C comes from the hard drive. When it shuts down, there is no more noise. Of course the fan comes up when Cpu reaches 41°C

 

I noticed this too, Is there a way to keep it under 41C ? Undervolting it at the lowest setting ? I heared undervolting is not an option with the Duo chips though ...

 

Lowest voltage I can set with NHC is 0.95V. When locked to 0.95V/1GHz the temperature doesn't drop below about 45C at idle.

 

I get it to hover around 43 or 41 . If we could find a way to silence that darn fan .... untill it reaches 45 or something ... it drives me crazy when i'm writing something in a silent room

 

noise is not an issue, so is the temp... i wish I could get better battery life

 

Has anyone heard the fan noise levels on the SZ140? I'd likely get the 1.66 Ghz or the 1.8, if that makes any difference. I'm returning the Acer Travelmate 3002 because I couldn't stand the high pitched fan that came on too often, even with appropriate power management.

There seems to be such discrepancy in the levels people are reporting for the 110/120. Is there any general consensus?

mansari-- i have the exact feeling-- i can't stand hearing a fan come on in a relatively quiet room. I don't mind it at all when I'm gaming or otherwise partially taxing the system, but for typing into Word? It should never come on.

 

I have been amazed to hear people complaining about SZ fan noise. This is the quietest laptop fan I have ever heard. Very very quiet.
-Mark (SZ 160P)

 

I have severe issues with notebooks and fan noise. Most notebooks these days seem to be very noisy. I tend to use my machines in quiet environments when not at work so any fan noise is usually noticeable. You'll be glad to hear that the SZ is extremely quiet. The fan does cycle but you can barely hear it over the sound of the harddrive. You actually hear the movement of air more than the sound of the fan which is exactly opposite of the behavior of the S models. What is truely amazing is that the machine stays cool with very little fan activity. I don't think you'll have anything to worry about.

 

Thanks duffyanneal! I believe you too had the same noise issues as myself with the Travelmate 3000, so I'm glad to hear your perspective.
OK now I'm excited about this series!! (Now, do I settle for the 140 or do step up to the bigger numbers...)

 

I have SZ160, I hardly ever hear the fan noise, nor the HDD noise, its the most silent laptop I have ever had. Till you use the optical drive, man that mother is the loudest freaking drive I have ever heard, and its not so much about how loud is it (though its pretty loud) but I'm amaze of the number of diffrent sounds it does, that thing is a freaking ocherstra. And I have yet to burn a DVD! So yea I try to never leave a cd/dvd in the thing cause it makes all kind of noise! But other than that I hardly hear a thing from the laptop.

 

mine sounds like a jet. i dont seem to have controll of it in the power settings so i guess i have to reinstall. i sitting in bed with my wife on a powerbook and me on my viao 160 and she said what the hell is that noise (the tv was on too) when i press the s23 button it says fan speed lowered but there is no difference in the noise level. i have the fan at 1 and it still sounds like a jet.

 

I have the SZ18, it's really quiet,no noise or heat. My S470, however sounds like a train in comparison and heats up.

 

Well mine was very loud too (SZ1XP). I was really disappointed about the fan and tried everything to lower the speed without much success. Then I had an issue with the DVD-Drive and returned the notebook and ordered a new one which I received yesterday. This one, as expected, did not have the issue with the DVD-Drive anymore, but very much to my surprise, its fan was much more quiet. Most of the time it is overtoned by the HDD. So now I am very happy with this notebook. I think the reason why people make different statements about the fan noise here could also be due to some variations in the production of the laptop. Also the notebook which I returned had very uneven LED screen illumination. This one has it too, but it is not as bad as the first one and is acceptable to me now.

 

SZ140 Very Quiet. I havnt really put it to the test. Any suggestions on how to?

 

Does anyone know how to fix the fan nois eproblem wher eit sounds like something is stuck and making a buzzing noise? no one really posted a solution online...if htey did can u link them to me