Hi,

I'm looking for a quiet 12" laptop and I'm looking for some recommendations.

I primarily want to run business apps, but something decently fast and cool is what I want.

PC and not Mac (software reasons

DVI output, USB2, firewire req, gigabit a plus.

I've seen a compaq laptop, it's quiet until the fan has to come on which then it's louder than my PC!

Thanks.

Hi,
The IBM X31 laptop with silent hard drive is perfect (the new samsung hard drive 5400 tr/min).
Most of them have no problem of whine, electic noise or fan like the T41/40/p
No DVI but with ultrabase ou other base maybe it's possible.

I'll second the X31 - I've had an X21, X22, and now and X31. In some ways, I like the X22 better (just got the X31, so I'm not used to it yet), but for sound, the X31 is awesome - very quiet! Can barely hear the drive spin up and down like I can on the X22.

I've only got 256 MB onboard right now, so it's not screaming fast in XP - lots of paging. I'm going to get another 512 MB and see how much speed it gains.

The 4200 RPM drive is pretty slow, however. I'm tempted to get a 5400 or 7200 RPM drive... might have a 40 GB drive for sale soon! .

Reliability is top notch, too. I can't say enough good things about the X-series ThinkPads. Bundled utilities are pretty handy, too.

Desktop full docking stations are going for like $50 on eBay right now - they include both DVI, an ultrabay, 2 more PCMCIA slots, and even a 1/2 PCI slot. Pretty good deal!! They seem to have a fan for the power supply . I picked one up a few days ago, so I'll see how it sounds. I'd like to get rid of my iDeq that I use just for scanning.

-Dan

I've been looking into buying a laptop with about the same reasons. No games, mostly web, word processing and some programming.

The new ibook has been on the top of my list. It's definately a good price with good battery life and it runs cool. I haven't been in a quiet room with one yet, but from what I gather online, it seems like a quiet notebook. When the combo drive spins up, one can definately hear it and also feel the vibrations at the palm rest.

Another boon for my situation is having all those developer tool's bundled so I can save some $.

The screen isn't as bright as the Fujitsu S6210 (my other choice) but at the same time, the Apple is several hundreds cheaper...

Anyone have experiences with Apple laptops? I'm mostly a PC guy so I'm not too clear on the details.

Macs are really nice. I had an iBook G3, and it was a great form factor, fit and finish, etc. It was a generation 1, so it was DOG slow. I bought my sister an iBook G4/800, and it was almost identical, except it had a slot loading Combo drive (awesome!) and had nice speed & battery life for her (web, word processing, etc..). I don't like trackpads, though, and my Mac-ing is done with a Desktop Dual 2 Gig G5 with 4 Gigs of memory. Anything less is well, less. .

The iBook G4 is a great deal, and the price is right these days!

-Dan