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    Sony Vaio S-Series

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by LeonX, Aug 27, 2004.

  1. LeonX

    LeonX Notebook Geek

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    Hey, Vaio-owners!

    I reviewed the European version of a vaio s-170 notebook (S1XP) for a german newspaper just one month ago. Indeed I was overwhelmed by its features, its screen as welll as by its form factor. BUT when I started is I was totally disappointed by the fact that its fan run
    very often and very noisy. So I finally shared the impression of the colleage from the register that the s-series is nice but not award-winnig. Since I do not read complains about fan noise in this forum I wonder if the american version is not that noisy or am i the only one who thinks a thin-and-light-version has to be silent (as for example the Vaio Z1 series was!) I would bet people would mind if you work with a s-series-vaio in a libary?

    Whats your opinion?



     
    LeonX, Aug 27, 2004
    #1
  2. Skyshade

    Skyshade Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    Well, the sound of the fan is pretty evident. It does sound more like a desktop fan than some other laptop fans. However, it's not any louder compared to other laptops. You can throttle it down (and the CPU, of course) if you really need it to be quieter.

    I'm not sure you can blame the noise on Sony entirely -- the CPU fan probably comes with the CPU from Intel (at least that's how it is in retail CPU boxes). Since the CPU is right by the air vent (like the power supply fan in a desktop), you get the best cooling but the sound of fan comes undistorted to your ears.

    I have seen a couple people complained about it. I personally have no problem with this trade-off between performance and quietness because performance is the main appeal (alright, except the looks) for S170 anyway. There are enough pure business thin-and-light laptops out there already.[ :D]
     
    Skyshade, Aug 27, 2004
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  3. Venombite

    Venombite Notebook Virtuoso

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    Intel does not provide the fans for CPU's used in notebooks. The designs of the notebook and cooling systems are different in every notebook. The fan used is probably just a really small fan. The smaller the unit, the smaller the fan. And when you have a small fan, it must spin faster to provide the same amount of cooling. Also, because the unit is so small/thin, the heat sinks are probably smaller, therefore the fan needs to run more, IMHO. So personally, I think that would be normal, but again, they could probably have used a better fan in this case.

    -Vb-
     
    Venombite, Aug 27, 2004
    #3