I live in the UK and need a new very quiet Windows 7 laptop (my previous one is dying). I previously wanted 8 gigabyte and quadcore, but having realised the tech isn't there, here are my new requirements:

1: Dual-core
2: Silent or near-silent. I'll maybe tolerate something like speedstep where I can set how powerful I want the CPU to be.
3: Under £1500, preferably under £1000
4: 4GB+ RAM
5: Apx. 14-15" screen
6: Lightweight, must be less than 2.5 KG. Less than 2kg much preferred.
7: GPU maybe? (less priority though)
8: Windows 7
9: Good battery life preferred, not too hot underneath for long use.
10: Extra keypad preferred.
11: Nice screen preferred for graphics work (OLED not necessary though).

What is considered the best laptop to meet these above points? I would rather the ideal be one be reviewed on a popular review site like Notebookcheck, Amazon or Reevoo, but failing that, I will trust the comments from you guys. I'm not too worried about SSD because I can buy that later when it's much cheaper.

I've heard Dell offer I8kfangui which is a bit like speedstep. Do all modern Dell laptops use this? I'm guessing also that any laptop that supports SpeedswitchXP will be quiet.

test

I'm pretty much at the same point as you, and I think I'm leaning towards a Samsung E251 (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Samsung-E251-T4200-Esilo-Notebook.23893.0.html) . The model NotebookCheck reviewed is still available, but there are also newer versions (Edoris) with slightly faster proc and Win7, and also one with discrete graphics (Elinah). These only seem to be available in Germany, which shouldn't be too much of a problem for you, but is somewhat of a problem for me, (finding someone who will ship to USA). One thing to be aware of is that the keyboard is German language and layout.

I8Kfangui is a great program for controlling a laptop fan, without it the noise from my current laptop would be intolerable. It was written by Christian Diefer (http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/), not Dell (in fact running it may void Dell's warrantee and is a little risky). Unfortunately I believe development on that program ceased some time ago and it is not compatible with newer Dells. There is a compatibility list on his website.

SpeedswitchXP was also written by Christian Diefer. It is quick and easy way to access the power mode settings of mobile CPU's. I think development on that also ended years ago, I don't know if it's even compatible with newer procs. It doesn't really matter though because there are other ways of accessing those settings. Just about any laptop you can get now will support power modes. It can certainly help but it's no guarantee of a quiet laptop.

Please keep us posted as to what you eventually get and how well it satisfies your criteria.

Hi Ron,
Thanks for the reply. I've been trying to do some research as well. In a very similar price range and feature specification to what you mentioned is this:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 568.0.html

It features a standard UK/US keyboard layout, and a keypad which is a plus for me. What do you think?

This one is also good, though (probably) more expensive and may be more difficult to get hold of:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asu ... 360.0.html

Others I checked too - I filtered down to this little lot, but they are less of a priority than the Lenovo, despite often being more expensive:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Son ... 234.0.html - mediocre display, no keypad
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sam ... 077.0.html - no keypad, mediocre display
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Ace ... 096.0.html - mediocre weight & display
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asu ... 057.0.html - 13.3" display
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Del ... 081.0.html - 13.3" display
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Len ... 037.0.html - middling
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Ace ... 315.0.html - 13.3" display
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Hands-On-D ... 217.0.html - no specs
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Fuj ... 733.0.html - mediocre weight & display
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asu ... 729.0.html - mediocre keyboard

According to the test, the G550 can get up to 36.6dB at idle and 41.3dB under load. NotebookCheck still gave it a high rating for noise, but that doesn't seem that quiet to me. The P50IJ was a little better at 32.7dB and 36.8dB.

NotebookCheck also reviewed the Lenovo T400 (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T400-6474-19G-Notebook.15861.0.html). I have actually spent some time with the T400 and it is a very quiet notebook, and would be my second choice after the E251. I did not encounter the "peep tone" they mentioned in the review. The T400 is more expensive than the G550 but you might be able to find a deal as it is being replaced by the new T410.

Once you go past the noise level (29.8dB under load!), there is nothing special about the E251, and all of the other notebooks you listed have their own advantages. So in the end it all comes down to how you personally weight the different factors.

As you probably know though, the 36.6 dB is only occasionally reached in idle mode, though I suppose that could be irritating in itself. I wonder if Speedstep could help here. You're right that the 96% seems a bit overrated.

It's a close call. The Lenovo Thinkpad is just under 3x the price, and apparently has an irritating 'high pitch' on load (unless power saving is used), so I may just plump for the G550 as a stop gap measure until silent 1 KG 16" 8-core OLED laptops come along

Unless there's something even better...

I don't know if this does you any good, but I saw this:

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1867395&p=27511331&highlight=lenovo#post27511331

Look at an Asus UL50vt.

While I agree, this is a pretty nice laptop given the application (lightweight & long battery life), it's still going to be slower than mainstream laptops even in Turbo mode. I have the 13" version (UL30A-X5) and it's pretty quiet in power saving mode and temps stay pretty low even on passive cooling. Plugged it into the Kill-A-Watt directly (no battery) and max power consumption I got was ~20W and idle at ~8W with brightness set to 10%.

Asus UL50vt seems interesting, though hard to get in the UK, and also since it comes with a NVidia gfx card, doesn't that mean it has another fan?

Hi people

Just wondering if there are any advances (newer models) on OPs comprehensive list as I've got similar search criteria.

Dell Vostro: anyone using this? Would love to hear about noise / build quality / issues / service from Dell. My bro advised against the company having owned two a few years back but I'm open.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Del ... 323.0.html or other models 13-15"

Thanks!!

Looking for a laptop myself, with a lot of the same criteria.. and I've stopped at the Lenovo T410 for now, seems to be a near perfect fit, albeit a wee bit expensive for my budget (student) at 11300 NOK, should fit comfortably inside £1500 though.

Hey again!

Surfed around a bit and checked out the local shops' websites (no point finding a good one if you can't buy it right?)

http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?P_I ... BM5LbDpmtQ

This Asus PL80Jt going with extra battery at the moment in Oz for about AUD$1500. The i5 520 UM is a low voltage one but better processing power than the SU7300 / 9400 in the Asus 80 / 50 ULV - and you'll get 10h? x 2 with the extra batt. Look out for the 'Lo Jack' software tho...

Check out for processor comparison:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Pro ... prime_32=1

No reviews found tho: post if you find some. Cheers!!!