SPCR

A prolific poster at NotebookReview.com claims the fan in his XPS 1330 no longer comes on during normal use (ie unless CPU intensive use, or using an external monitor) now that he's installed a SSD. He's had two at a time with SSD's, so it can't be a fluke, however lots of non-noise-sensitive people claim a fan is off when it's simply running on low...?

I wonder how the Latitude's would go with SSDs?

BTW, a Dell sales guy reported back for me from some tech manager that their quietest 3 notebooks are- D630, XPS M1330, and D830- the D630 being quietest of the 3.

However, according to Dell's specs the D531 is actually 5db less than the D630 at idle. I presume this is with fan running (and not more a reflection of h/d choice), but it's a bit hard to know. The D531 also has it's air vented to the back, unlike the D630/D830.

Any comments on Dell fanless idle? I''m surprised that the 2.5" h/d's 10? watts would make such a diference.

I'd be surprised if the HD affected fan usage, they use around 0.3w idle, 3w while being accesed.

Really!

I'm new to the world of Notebooks, and coming from 15w 7200rpm 3.5' drives, 3w's of heat seems simply amazing!?? Are you talking 2.5" or 1.8" drives?

That's 3 watts for a 2.5 inch drive. The 1.8" drives are generally even less.

I suppose there is a difference in heat and if the laptop was right on its thermal cusp where a fan turns on and off, then switching to SSD might make a difference in fan operation. But I suspect that more often than not it wouldn't. A less mentioned influence is Windows' USB driver that prevents the CPU from entering C states, heating it up, and causing what otherwise might be unneeded fan usage. All those laptops with built in USB cameras..... I have to wonder. I know connecting a USB mouse to either laptop I have causes the fan to ramp up.

That said, I have a small SSD and wouldn't do without it. No noise. No vibration. It has turned my laptop into everything it should be.

Copper wrote: That said, I have a small SSD and wouldn't do without it. No noise. No vibration. It has turned my laptop into everything it should be.

I think I would like to buy a simple cheap laptop, and put a SSD drive into it to house the OS and common apps, so that for general browing there is no spinning and no vibration , and no fan. Most often, I will hook up an external KVM and use it as a 'desktop'.

What laptop and SSD are you using? Do you ahve any recommendations for a low-price laptop that keeps relatively cool, and marries well to a SSD?

Thanks a lot.

UPDATE-

I've since PM'ed the poster mentioned above, and he said the fan in his XPSm1330's definately stay off longer with an SSD installed. They now stay off "the majority of the time." Of course this could 51%, or 95% ..

My Dell money's still on the Vostro 1400. From the repair manual pics it appears it's North Bridge has a passive heat sink with a vent below it, rather than having it's heat piped to the main fan like virtually every other Dell model. The main fan appears to only cool the CPU. I wish there was a way to tell how the built in graphics (if you choose that option) is cooled.

I'll report back when I can get one with a Penyrn.

With my Inspiron 6400, the main (and only) fan cools both the CPU and the GPU. The both run (with a heatpipe) to a small heatsink. One behind the other, they both are cooled when the fan starts to spin. (The whiny fan, terrible.)