i have been lurking for awhile and finally decided to go for the dell mini 9 after returning 3 laptops in a row because of fan noise (2 acers and a macbook)

it was a good idea to get the mini 9

if you want silent, this is it .....

totally silent, dead silent as in zero sound

no hard drive noise and no fan noise because it doesn't have either a fan or hard drive

i have an 8 gig ssd card which has about 3 gigs free after windows xp home and adobe reader, itunes and a few other programs

i have 1 gig of ram

however, you can now buy 32 and 64 gig ssd cards and you can upgrade to 2 gigs of ram so this could easily become a workhorse

-the keyboard is small but totally adequate with a really nice solid feel , i am a hunt and peck typist and i am getting used to the keyboard very quickly but i don't think you could ever touch-type on this (and some keys are in wierd places)

-the touchpad is so-so but totally adequate (not as nice as the mac)

-the screen is very nice and bright

-the sound is adequate to pretty good, i can hear video podcasts really well

-it starts quick and you can multitask

-i wish the screen would bend back a little further as i have to put the mini on a box to raise it up so i get the right angle on the screen

-it gets warm but not too hot

-it's really well built and feels like a solid well made computer

-i would never consider using this as my only pc, it's just too small, i plan to get another mac mini when they come out in january as they are dead quiet but for a small laptop, this is great

and as i said before it truly is ........ SILENT ......no more fan noise

i would highly recommend this computer

Really nice mate...Dell's laptops in general are of my favorites..i've been waiting for the mini's to come in shops, i'm in search of a netbook...

Seems you're 100% satisfied....

Any photos available ?

dell has a very good product page with lots of pictures and a couple of videos but you can start with this link:

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/product ... kjcmVnaW9u

i bought mine from bestbuy.ca in canada for $379 Cdn

I've also got one. Dead quiet.

Mine has 1 GB RAM, 16 GB SSD, is running Windows 7 beta. I love it.

From the reviews I've read they use the Silverthorne Atoms which use less power but are a bit more sluggish. If quiet is all you are looking for is quiet, then absolutely go with the mini 9, but I got an Eee PC 1000HA and I am totally happy with it, even if it gets a little loud when you work it for a while. I am going to install Windows 7 Build 7000 on it tomorrow and hopefully get a touch screen for it in the near future.

I am also newly converted to the Dell Mini 9. Everything stated about it is absolutely correct. I got the super base model (4GB SSD, 512Meg Ram, no bluetooth, no webcam, no wwan slot, Ubuntu) for $269 plus shipping from the Dell Outlet. They had some white ones in the same configuration for $249. Check often throughout the day, the inventory changes frequently!

Here's my take on it. I pulled out the Dell Ubuntu install because the lpia kernel architecture was bugging the crap out of me for applicaiton compatability - it uses a different compiler which mean that apps need to be compiled with the same compiler - and I hate compiling my own apps.

I installed Ubuntu 8.10 i386 and with Compiz running it's darned near as fast and capable (in some cases actually faster) as my home desktop running the same - AthlonXP3k, 512M PC3200, WDC15BB, 256 meg Geforce 6200. The only thing that bugs me about Compiz is that the GMA 950 doesn't support any alpha blending so transparency based effects are out.

The mini9 boots faster than my home machine. runs Compiz smoother, launches Firefox faster (though pages seem slower to load). It is absolutely DEAD quiet. Decent upgradabillity of the ram and SSD.

Here's what didn't get mentioned - it's almost perfectly OS-X capable with the only requirement being a different sound and nic driver. You can find instructions on the intertubes that include links to not so legitimate OS-X iso's with the required dell mini9 drivers slipstreamed.

Other than the keyboard, it is possibly my most favorite machine in a long line of PC's of my past (though I do have a special place for my dual 16 meg Voodoo2 machine)

i had a voodoo 3 and 4. lol

unbelievable why all the netbooks would have some crappy little fan when it isn't needed. even when intel 1st showed off the atom, not only did it not have a fan, IIRC it didn't even have a heatsink!

what's the word on the mini 10 and mini 12... does anyone know if they are fanless too?

even though the eee 901 and acer aspire one have fans, these can be silenced very easily with software (eeectrl and AA1fancontrol respectively).

Mini 9 and 10 are fanless; Mini 12 is fanful.

mini 10 has lower resolution than 9, and is hardware limited to 1gb ram.

It's 1024x576 vs. 1024x600, right? The RAM limitation may be an issue for some but the chipset should take care of a better battery life.

Have any of you used both an EEE PC and the Dell? I'm curious how much better the Dell keyboard is, because the multi-touch on the EEE 901 is hugely compelling. Fanless is nice, but if that's controllable through software on the EEE then it really becomes a question of good touchpad vs good keyboard.

i had the first eee pc and i prefer its keyboard for the most part to the dell's. i got my eee pc for 399 and the dell for 299. i have since sold the eee pc since 4gb is not enough to work with.

8gb on the dell is much better. the trackpad on the dell is superior to the one on the eee pc.

Which EEE did you have? I haven't used the Dell, so I can't make direct comparisons, but the EEE 901 has a multi-touch touchpad which makes scrolling considerably easier than on more typical laptops.

4g surf

Mini 12 is fanless too.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Inspiron-Mini-12-Notebook.13607.0.html

Oops! Sorry for getting it wrong.

I bought a mini9 for my wife as well...the thing is pretty nice, I love the fact that it is 100% silent.

My last laptop only had one fan, but after it dies the first time (after about 18mo) I had to scour the web for weeks to find a replacement for about $50...not bad, but it only lasted about another 18 months and then a check on prices showed they had gone up to about $140

Back to the mini9...it's small, lightweight, and has a nice bright screen. I have a 64GB SSD and 2GB of mem (cheap upgrades if you don't buy them from Dell ). I encoded a bunch of my son's movies for entertainment on the road. My wife only uses it for web surfing and e-mail...overall, it's been great!

I'd like to see more battery life, I've only been getting about 4 hours surfing...a little less watching movies. But that's my only complaint so far.

I'd like to add another thumbs up for the mini 9. Mine was $360 shipped with the following specs: atom 1.6 processor, 1gb ram, 16gb ssd, and win xp home. It also comes with MS Works. (I didn't get the webcam, bluetooth or mobile broadband card.)

Since it had norton and other junk pre-installed, I wiped it and re-installed windows.

One odd thing about it: you can't tell when the hard drive is working. The ssd is silent and there is no hdd access light. So while installing programs and drivers, etc., I would sometimes wonder if it had locked up. But it never did--the ssd is just slow. You can swap it out for a faster/larger one, though.

All-in-all, it's a great little machine. Highly recommended.

This guy reviewed some netbooks here from a noise perspective.

http://portablemonkey.com/article/which ... t-netbook/

It's nice to read his review and the reviews here too.

But there are several issues at play, at least for me.

First there's the HD noise. For a note/netbook it must be a SSD.
Second there's the fan noise. For a note/netbook it must be fanless or have the ability to control the fan with software.
And finally, something that is hardly ever mentioned here (apart from me)
is the CPU!

I tried an Aspire One which had a SSD. I silenced the fan with software.
But I couldn't tolerate the Atom CPU. I could feel the EMF's coming from it.

If I'm not mistaken virtually all the new netbooks have the Atom CPU, so they probably won't work for me.

My eeePC 701 works for me, because it has an Intel Celeron M CPU.
I silence the fan with eeeControl software.

The only downsides to the 701 are the smallish screen and the fact that it gets quite hot with the fan on low/off.

mmm its a nice laptop

Another good thing about the Dell mini 9 is that it's 95% OS X compatible.

The other dell netbooks have hardware that OS X doesn't fully support.

Pity it's discontinued...

Discontinued yes, but it's legacy lives on in the Mini 10v (1011 versus the original 1010). N270, GMA 950, 1397 (broadcom) wireless. Light hacking needed to enable audio and wireless. Same big keyboard and annoying trackpad as the 1010 and sells at the same price as the 9 used to - $299 for the base model w/ 120 GB hdd and 1 GB (replacable with some effort) RAM.

Only available with 1024x576 resolution which knocks some buttons off screen for apps that are not resolution detecting in OSX and Ubuntu. Comes with standard SATA II 2.5" interface so your SSD options are virtually unlimited, the OCZ Vertex is the drive of choice right now. I keep hoping someone will have the cojones to buy the 1360x768 screen and see if it can retrofit.

I use this same screen name at mydellmini.com - if you ever want to hackintosh a Dell Mini, that's where you go.

Thanks for the info. I'll consider the Dell mini 10v 1011 as a choice as well.

so the 10v is also fanless?

Yes it is. And configurable with either a HDD or SSD. I checked one out at the local Best Buy this afternoon (a 1010) and couldn't hear or feel the HDD but that's not saying much considering the environment.

Bought 2 mini 10v's for the family.

They are AWESOME acoustically. The only thing that sucks is the touchpad a little.

I opted for the mechanical HD, it's really quiet anyway and I'm picky usually.

I just bought a used dell inspiron 1200 that came with a wifi card instead of internal wifi that was not offered by dell. Are there any provisions for internal wifi on this laptop and how hard would it be to add?

Any help is appreciated.