I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 (Sonoma, Pentium M 740 (1.73Ghz), Mobility Radeon X300 + other stuff that doesn't make that much heat as the aforementioned). The Sonoma platform is pretty new, so I haven't gotten everything working under Linux yet, but I suppose we'll get there. Most annoying things:

1) No DMA on my DVD+RW drive (yet). Support is supposedly right around the corner, though.
2) I have no way of seeing the GPU temperature
3) I have no way of seeing the HD temperature
4) I remain unimpressed by the idle temperature of the CPU @ it's lowest SpeedStep (which is 800MHz) - it rather rapidly goes over 45-50 degrees, at which point the Dell BIOS, being ever so massively clever, switches the fan on. Supposedly the chip can handle up to 100 degrees. I'd be happy if they would start at 60, but oh well.

So.

Most of the time the chip is idling at 800Mhz. The question remains of course: Is it possible to SpeedStep below the minimum SpeedStep as specified by the foobar autodetection dingies inside the metal (read: plastic) case? I bet if the minimum frequency was 400Mhz it'd still spend most of the time at that minimum frequency. And the system would run a tad cooler/longer too.

Does anybody have any expertise in this area, or know of someone somewhere who does?

The Inspiron 6000, btw, is most assuredly not even a remotely quiet computer. *sigh*

I'd have expected a lot more from a Pentium M system. But these Dothan CPUs have a max heat dissipation of 27W (I know, it'll rarely get there, but still it's not exactly the same as the first Pentium Ms), and we're rapidly approaching the point where the whole "power efficiency" paradigm goes out the window. *double sigh*

I have an Inspiron 6000D and I love it. Have you upgraded to the latest BIOS (A05 I believe) On my system it changed the behavior of the fan in the system.

Look up I8KFanGui in Google and D/L the program and patch for the I6000. It will allow you to set the temp at which the fan kicks on and off. It wil also allow you to manually turn the fan off and on.

I have a Dell Precision M70, which is of similar form factor to the i6000, but has a much more powerful gpu (256MB Nvidia QuadroFX Go 1400) compared to the i6000's X300. Of course such a gpu creates more heat. However the M70 (and its sister, the D810, which has a X600 as its gpu) has more heat vents and a separate fan for the gpu as well as the cpu. Running i8fangui in observer mode, the cpu temperature travels between 39 and 54C, the gpu from 52 to 60, and the HD from 40 to 41. Some fan is always on but very quiet, and when the cpu or gpu temperature hits the top mark, it gets just a little louder, forcing the temperature back to the lower level. A very pleasant machine to work with, and very quiet, considering the powerful gpu. At least on the top of the notebook, it is always cool. The M70 takes the most demanding programs in its stride, never struggling.