Is there any silent Pentium M laptop with NON-integrated gfx

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:34 am

Has anybody found a Pentium M laptop (pref. Alviso/Sonomo) that has discrete graphics (Radeon / Geforce), but is still able to stay cool and quiet when in battery (low power) mode.

I don't mind if the fans come on when the laptop is in full power mode (mains power) and 3D graphics is being displayed.

However, having a quiet laptop during laptop surfind would be ideal.

Or am I after that elusive ghost machine that does not exist?

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:48 am

Um... Maybe I'm grossly misunderstanding you, but don't most laptops have discrete graphics (i.e. mobile Radeon/nVidia)? IBM's T series laptops appear to use mobile Radeons and are reportedly excellent laptops.

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:58 am

Most of the ones with long battery life, cool thermal and low noise have Intel 855 or 915 chipset integrated graphics.

Conversely all of the X700, X800, Geforce 6600Go discrete graphics laptops which are powerful enough for gaming (with Pentium M cpus) are hot, get noisy and have low power life.

The best compromise so far that I have been able to find is the Acer Travelmate 8104 series.

It has X700, over 2,5h battery life and doesn't get super hot. However even that does spin the fan quite a lot, according to the first review and as such may not cut the SPCR mustard :)

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:07 pm

Well, there is a "G-less" 855 chipset, but whether any notebooks use it is not something I can answer.

silencery · Post by **silencery** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:13 pm

compaq x1000s use radeon 9000s and come widescreen =)

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:00 pm

Ok, I'll try to rephrase:

- Are there any modern 3D game capable (Doom, HL2, etc) laptops on the Alviso/Sonoma platform that stay quiet/cool when used for light writing/surfing (2D only) in power saving mode (i.e. under battery power)?

I know there are overly hot/noisy/short battery life DTR PIV notebooks.

I know there are compromise Pentium M -notebooks with X700 (and Geforce 6600Go), but even they get hot/noisy under light loads.

The truly quiet and cool running laptops seem all to be with integrated graphics, little memory, really low speed CPUs (ULV, etc).

Karvalakki · Post by **Karvalakki** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:53 pm

I have Acer TravelMate 4502WLMi.
The only sound I hear during
surfing and using other non CPU/GPU intensive applications comes
from hard disk. I cannot hear any fans blowing.

The laptop has 1.6GHz Pentium M and Radeon 9700 64MB.
The graphics card is a little old but I can still play Far Cry but of course
not with the highest graphics settings. I haven't tried HL2 or Doom3.
When playing FC fan(s) start to blow but they are not constantly blowing.
I would be very surprised it the noise situation would be much different
if the graphics card was X700.

The laptop hard disk is Seagate Momentus 4200.2. I think it makes too
much noise and I will soon replace it with Toshiba MK4025GAS.

BTW I don't have to use the laptop with battery power to be in
power saving mode. There is Acer ePowerManagement
application where you can among other things change
CPU power setting.

Karvalakki · Post by **Karvalakki** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:41 am

The Toshiba HDD wasn't so great after all:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19447

But when the Toshiba HDD is idle the system is silent unless
you stick your ear right next to it.

bsoft · Post by **bsoft** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:36 pm

Compal CL-56.

When you buy a notebook, there are three companies involved: the ODM, the OEM, and the reseller.

In the case of an HP laptop, the ODM is generally Compal, the OEM is HP, and the reseller is whoever sold you the notebook (e.g. Best Buy).

Even IBM does not manufacture its own laptops.

In my case, the ODM was Compal, the OEM was ChemUSA, and the reseller was discountlaptops.com.

I got a great P-M notebook for $1500, complete with a 15" SXGA+ display, 5 hour battery life, P-M 1.7GHz, 60GB 7200rpm drive, Intel PRO/Wireless 2200, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 512M PC2700, and ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 128M graphics.

The CL-56 has only one fan, and it doesn't run during normal conditions. There are no vent holes on the bottom of the notebook to become clogged, and the notebook doesn't get very hot on the bottom (or at all). At 6.1lbs, it's definately lap friendly.

It has the power of a DTR notebook (MR 9700 128M, fast P-M, DDR, FireWire, large screen, full-size keyboard, etc.) but is as portable as the 14" iBook.

There are no real design flaws. The unit has a very solid build with no creaky or weak plastic elements, and all the details are well thought-out. The status LEDs are clear and well placed. The keyboard has a good layout - with CTRL in the proper place and a full sized assortment of keys (two nice, large shift keys, a large backspace key, full-sized nu,ber keys, a large CTRL key, full-size DEL key, large TAB key, convenient windows key and menu key, etc. The wireless is excellent - it supports WPA2 fully and I have never had any compatibility issues - and it has good signal strength as well.

There is one power button, and it's a solid button, not some funky switch-like contraption. It's also well placed. There are two application hotkeys which are customizable. Brightness is easy to set with FN + Up / Down. Volume is easy to set with FN + Page up / down (next to the Up/Down keys). Mute is also easy to access, FN+END (end is easy to hit because it's the last key on the top row).

The SD reader works, but it's a bit slow. It's still a nice feature. The touchpad is basic, with no funky buttons, but it is a Synaptics touchpad so you get all the goodies of the Synaptics driver (side scrolling and other fun things). The power connector is well located on the side, and the optical drive is easy to access on the front of the machine. The side-USB is also easy to access, as is the SD/PCMCIA slot.

Overall, it's an excellent notebook for an excellent price.

Check it out: discountlaptops.com

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 12:30 am

bsoft -- nice summary.

If you add more comments about the noise of the HDD and the fan when it does come on, and the ambient noise of your normal environment, your post could easily be a "user Review" -- in that section. Care to make those edits?

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:38 am

Thanks bsoft. I know of that one (form notebookforums).

I was hoping for something with Sonoma / X700 / 6600 Go.

There's the Acer TravelMate 8103/8104 and MSI 645 options, but at least the first one does get hot and is not very quiet.

BTW, I though ODM was Original Design Manufacturer. This would in this case probably be Compal, as they offer ODM services in laptop arena.

OEM is the Origianl Electronic Manufacturer, which would in this case be Compal as well. They actully built the laptops.

ChemUSA is just a brand holder. They outsource design and manufacturing to Compal, but do the branding/marketing themselves.

Then they distribute their stuff (usually using third parties) to the retail channel (like discountlaptops).

regards,
halcyon

PS I don't think it would be impossible to make a laptop that is almost silent in power save moder (cpu/gpu stepped down in speed/voltage). It would only need to kick in the fan at high speed in full power mode. This would be to me the ideal laptop: silent and long running in power save mode on the go, but powerful enough a DTR when plugged-in and working with heavy stuff.

shigaloo · Post by **shigaloo** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:08 am

tom's hardware ripped open a Dell XPS v2, pics here

http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/200 ... ps-04.html

The XPS 2 w/ go6800u or i9300 with go6800 (plus other graphics options) seems to be one of the best silent DTRs around, likely cuz Dell got first dibs on the launch. However it's pricey, wait a couple months and you will have many more options.

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:40 am

Dell XPS v2 is certainly not going to be silent, not even quiet.

That 6800 pump out so much more heat than x700 that it's going to be a real lapburner, even in battery mode.

That battery rundown times pretty much prove that.

I'm now looking at Fujitsu Celsius H230 FireGL V5000 (x700 pro variant with 256MB of memory), but no idea yet as to how quiet it is.

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops- ... 033957.php

mb2 · Post by **mb2** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:07 pm

apparently the poor battery life (and assuming heat and stuff too) is due to the fact that they use PCI-E? which would rule out all sonoma's presumably.
i (well, my dad) also have that acer w/ 64mb 9700pro

and it does 5-6 hours on very light (read: word + web browsing) useage.
real shame that u can't get a P-M with discrete gfx and good battery life anymore

sgtpokey · Post by **sgtpokey** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 9:45 pm

I have aToshiba M4 with 6600 geforce go graphics. The M3 is the same model but weighs less and is not a tabletpc (the m4 is).

The 6600 on the Toshibas are a bit less benchmark wise than an x700 (The Toshiba's cards are clocked slower than a "standard" mobile 6600 but I have no problem running Guild Wars at 1400 x 1050 (native resolution).

The fan when playing CAN get pretty noisy. But the Toshiba also comes with a Power saving utility that will let you control the noise when not gaming. Using that you can pretty much get it to run fanless by downclocking the machine and setting the Cooling Method to "Battery Optimized"

I also run mine with RightMark to lower the volts and get more battery life

All in all this may fit your criteria...

nici · Post by **nici** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:33 am

Just wondering, is there any reason to have a discrete graphics card over an integrated intel one except for gaming performance?

I have a fujitsu-siemens amilo pro v 2010, the cheapest "business" model with celeron m. Anyway, it spins the fan too much and i want to upgrade..

The acer with 9700Pro discussed in this thread is still available in some shops here, though the never version with x700 graphics is more widely available and only 50€ more expensive or so. reported battery life half an hour shorter than the older one wich means about 4 hours.

The other interesting laptop is the sony Vaio B3VP, its about the same price, has one inch smaller screen, and intel 855GME graphics, and 7,5h battery life

Im just thinking that since it has 7,5h battery life it must use very little power. i tried it in a hop too, and couldnt feel any air moving thru the wenting holes and did not hear any noise. I know shops are loud, but i did compare it to tens of other laptops in several different shops and it seemed to be the most quiet.

So is there a benefit in disrcrete graphics other than gaming performance?

nici · Post by **nici** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 8:36 am

Hmm, the HDD on the FUjitsu died when i was editing the previous post and it took some time to get the desktop up and runnning again..

Anyway, ill get the comp back nexxt week.

Oh and the 7,5h battery life on the Vaio is with optional extra battery apparently, about 4 hours with standard battery. So nothing spectacular.