Is Acer Aspire L100 quiet?

proteus · Post by **proteus** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:36 am

Hello,

I'm looking to buy a new computer and, as an alternative of building my own quiet PC, I was looking at some ready-built alternatives.

One of the options is Acer Aspire L100 (Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+). Its small size is very practical, but I don't know about the noise level:
http://www.bcc.nl/index.aspx?ItemId=630 ... tID=219423

In the shop it didn't sound noisy, but with all the background noise is hard to be sure. Does anyone around here has any experience with this model?

Thank you!

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:31 pm

I am wondering the same thing. Looks like the Athlon64 X2 and Core2Duo versions are available on NewEgg. Very nice looking systems, and very small as well.

Link 1
Link 2

Price isn't too bad IMHO when you consider all that you're getting: Windows Vista Premium license, onboard WiFi, firewire, etc.

proteus · Post by **proteus** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:24 pm

I ended up buying the Athlon64 X2 version. It's not silent, but it is very quiet - at least in my opinion. The noisiest part is the hard drive, so I would not recommend it to someone with a lot of disk activity (fortunately, not my case

I'm using it with CentOS Linux and it is nice to watch the frequency staying most of the time at 1GHz when there is not much CPU activity.

I should also mention that I keep it on all the time and the front side is always VERY hot, you cannot hold your finger on the area around the front connectors for long.

So it might not be the best solution for everyone, but in my case it fit the bill quite well.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:59 pm

They look impressive, and there might even be modding potential. I love the size!

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:48 pm

Thanks for the info proteus, sounds like a nice little machine.

MikeC, maybe you could get in touch with Acer USA and see if they'd be willing to send a unit for review?

bitpoh · Post by **bitpoh** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 6:06 pm

Proteus, what hard drive is included in your machine? Any chance if the noise/heat can be reduced by swapping out the hard drive with a quieter/cooler running one?

Steven04 · Post by **Steven04** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 6:49 am

Hi There,

I read this topic and I think that it is relevant for you to read this:
I bought an Acer L100 for a month ago and I don't like the noise of the Seagate Harddrive there was in it. So I bought an Samsung 300 gb. According to this site, it is the quitest HDD, and that is really true. I build it into my L100 and is makes so much less noise, I can realleyrecommend it to you.

note: My parents also bought a L100, but it hasn't got the Seagate in it and is much quiter. So I think Acer has got more complaints about it.

Best Regards,

hybridized · Post by **hybridized** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:06 pm

had an L100 myslef for a day now. a little disappointed with the noise level having read elsewhere that it was very quiet, though for an off-the-shelf solution with a 40mm fan i guess its about as quiet as it could be.

on the 40mm fan, i was pleased to finds it was that rather than a 50mm which i thought it might be, as i see potential for adding a 40-60mm fan adaptor to the outside of the case and using a quiet 60mm fan @ low voltage.

once i'm happy its all wqorking ok ill open it up. im liking the external PSU, i assume the 40mm is the only fan. the HDD is an annoyance, shame they didnt use a Samsung.

though all in all i'm pleased, finally a 'laptop without the screen'.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:02 pm

What you might do is try undervolting the processor. I'd recommend using RMClock, it's a great little program. Assuming they aren't already using a 35w X2 3800+, there should be a lot of room for reducing Vcore, and therefore heat output at load.

hybridized · Post by **hybridized** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:41 pm

i've just opened it up, will post some pics soon. made a mistake when measuring the fan on the outside, it is actually a 50mm

its a Delta 15x50mm 16 cfm AFB0512HHB (rated @ 36 db).

anyone know the quietest 50mm fan that'll push close to this cfm? otherwise i'll need to find a way to put a 60mm on.

as for HDD, unfortunately mine has a Hitachi. seek noise is high.

kevinherring · Post by **kevinherring** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:51 am

Not that it is really that related, I thought I would add my thoughts on the machine.
Firstly, despite what the ebuyer says, the machine uses DDR-2 667 ram, not DDR 400. This of course also means that it uses an AM2 socket with a regular low power desktop CPU.

The DVD driver is attached on the IDE channel, and the hard drive is on the SATA channel. There is only one SATA socket on the motherboard, however there is a header for another socket right next to it. I assume that if one were to solder an SATA socket to it, you could plug in an extra hard drive. At some point I intend to do this so that I can add an e-SATA socket to the back of the machine for an external hard drive.

As for the noise levels, I would say that it is pretty quiet. I wouldn't really say that the hard drive was noisy, but you can definitely hear it in a silent room.

So far I would say that I am pretty impressed with it! I sold the monitor on ebay for Â£100, so for Â£289 I would say it is pretty incredible!
Kevin

proteus · Post by **proteus** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:45 pm

Sorry for not checking back on the thread for so long. Some answers to the questions above and some follow-up.

The HDD is a Seagate Barracuda ST3250824AS. I didn't open it to see about modding possibilities, I don't want to void the warranty and this is a temp solution anyway until I build a proper silent computer.

Under load the fan noise has become lately even more noticeable. The front side is still very hot to the touch - but it has been running like that 24/7 since last year without any problems.

But, although not really silent, the computer is still reasonable quiet, and for the price and comfort remains a solution to consider.