By "consistent" I mean a fan that stays on the whole time at the same level and doesn't go up and down or switch on and off all of the time, like a desktop PSU fan.

Or a laptop with which you can use a programme to set its fans to a constant level and still use it without major slow down? Basically, a laptop when the fan never kicks in or ramps up... just stays the same the whole time. Is there one?

Thank you.

I would say ThinkPad. I have an R61 with T7100 cpu and even though the fan does cycle, it spins slowly when it does spin and it isnt "jumpstarted" so you have to concentrate if you want to notice it really. Obviously the fan ramps up a bit under heavy load on full power, but it never gets noisy per se. Mine has integrated video, so models with discrete graphics cards may be a bit noisier.

I also have a HP with Quadro gpu which retails for nearly twice as much, and the quality does not feel noticeably better than an El-Cheapo model and the software is way poorer than the ThinkPads. It's also noisy in comparison.

Also the thinkpad has survived several drops to the floor while running, and after a year of (ab)use it still works perfectly fine and is just as quiet as it was new. The only thing that's gone wrong is the original HDD, but i've had that happen on all my laptops.. A fujitsu which was DOA, and the the HPs HDD is just barely still working.

I have also tried the R61i, which is the cheapest model, and it's very nearly as quiet but has no Ultrabay, fewer ports, and the plastics are hard and shiny(ish).

Oh and the clit-for-a-mouse is way better than a touchpad in every way. My HP also has that, but for the HP i can't get just the new rubber cap, i have to purchase a whole new keyboard as far as i know. And even that works worse on the HP. So yeah, im pretty much recommending a ThinkPad. If nayone else knows of better laptops, i would be glad to hear.

I too would recommend a Lenovo. As the poster above said, they are very quiet. Also, there's a program called TPFanControl written specifically for Lenovo laptops that let you manually control the fan speed.

The only thing I'd change about my Lenovo is I'd want a screen with a little bit better quality. This could be because I got the baseline screen, however.

on most dells the fan speed can be controlled with a program called i8kfangui.

In front of me I have an almost new Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook S Series. The fan is on constantly, even at idle. It might go faster under full load, but I don't do full load that often. At 50% load it stays the same.

Cheers
Olle

Mac.

yeah the new macbooks have very consistent fan noise - at idle it's next to inaudible and the fan only kicks in under fairly heavy load and then stays at a consistent level - and even under full load fan noise isn't annoying, if I had to describe the sound charasteristic I'd say the fan sounds like a good 12cm fan at around 1000rpm under full load.