In a search for new netbook, the title sums it up pretty much - there are only two requirements: cheap & quiet (best compromise of the too).
Well maybe third requirement - easy to get around here (EU).
cheap = sub 300€ (less is better)
quiet = I should not hear it from 0.5 meter distance while idle (or at office type of workload)

Can anyone help ? I am total noob when it comes to mobile PCs...
Will SAMSUNG N145 be quiet enough ? (as it looks to be among the cheapest)

I'm curious to read the answers in this thread. I don't know, do typical netbooks make any noise?

I bought a Gateway (Acer) LT3103u a couple of years ago that my girlfriend uses daily and I use occasionally. It has a 250GB HD in it (rotating disk) so I know it isn't totally silent but I've never noticed any noise of significance from it. I expect one of these days I'll take the HD out and put a SSD in and it'll become quieter (the only source of noise would be the CPU fan).

I suppose if I were to buy one now I'd be looking at something like the Acer Aspire One 522. It's a recent model with DX11 capable graphics and a dual core processor. Might have to wait a month or two for it to show up at a reasonable price.

Assuming you don't use it roughly and it doesn't have a failure like the Nvidia laptop graphics fiasco then I'd push the little extra to get one with a modern CPU/GPU design so it'll still be plenty useful a couple of years from now. And if you truly care about price more than anything you can wait for the AMD Fusion netbooks to become popular and watch the price drop on that cheap Intel Atom based netbook.

Yes I would like to know as well - basically if any NB will do or you have to aim for specific and SPCR tested model.
I think it more or less comes to question how do the 5400 rpm drives compare to WD Green or Samsung F4 5400 rpm desktop drives.
Are cheapest netbook drives quieter ?

I guess that with 5.5W TDP atoms the CPU cooling could be done passively, but is it ?
(btw imagine how HR-01 plus would perform on that chip )

There have long been fanless laptops but there's only a few of them. But then there are laptops you can run with the fan stopped. And some models have quiet fans.

There are quiet cheap laptop hard drives. The way they're mounted and the case can dampen or amplify the noise so that will impact the noise a lot. And you can't compare directly with the noise a suspeneded 3.5'' hard drive would make in a large case.

If you don't care for the GPU (it's a netbook!), a N550 wouldn't be much slower than a E350. But N550 boards ain't that cheap.

If noise matters a lot to you and you can't test-drive before buying, I'd stick with fanless or SPCR-reviewed models.

The Dell Mini 1012 is fanless and the noise level is down to the choice of HDD installed; fairly easy to swap out as well.
It might be an old model now so not sure if the replacement is also fanless.
I have one and my one complaint is that the trackpad is dire which is a serious failing.

Yes typical netbooks make noise. It's a shame but they do.
Most have fans to start with. And almost all have hard drives.
The fans can often be silenced via software and most of the hard drives can be swapped out for SSD's.

BTW, does anyone know if the iPad2 has a fan?

If you have the money, maybe you can buy my netbook :

Asus 1015PN, and change the HDD by and SSD.

Why? Because with an HDD, the computer is really hot (CPU at 90° = fan at high speed) and the stock HDD (WD) is noisy.

I have installed an SSD Onyx 32Go, and the CPU is really cooler (50degres), inaudible storage, and the fan is really really quiet!

Its a very powerfull netbook, one of the most powerfull, with optimus technology, 1080p capable, run recent games (low setting)...

Modern Samsung netbooks are very quite, I worked on some of them and I don't remember any noise at all.

my Lenovo T400 that I got for about 100 bucks is pretty quiet.

I upgrade the HDD to an SSD.

the P8400 that came with it is a 25W CPU and it rarely wake up the fans when i'm just surfing online ect...

and overall it's an enjoyable notebook to use to say the least.

The new Chromebooks announced this week should fit the bill. They're cheap and completely silent (no fan or mechanical HDD). May not be suitable for you for other reasons, but not cost and noise. So far only available in the U.S. and U.K.