Dell Latitude portable noisy?

More popular than ever, but some are still very noisy.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
feldt
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm
Location: Gothenburg, SWEDEN, EU

Dell Latitude portable noisy?

Post by feldt » Wed Oct 01, 2003 9:49 pm

Time to get new portable and I need a good and silent one. My employer prefers Dell.

Anyone got experience with the new Dell Latitude D Series? Are they noisy? Especially the Dell Latitude D800.

Are there any Dell portables that are exceptionally silent/quiet?

Personally I'm a bit reluctant to go for a Dell since the ones I've seen give a "plastic" feel. But maybe later models are better in this regard.

dukla2000
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1465
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2003 12:27 pm
Location: Reading.England.EU

Re: Dell Latitude portable noisy?

Post by dukla2000 » Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:05 pm

feldt wrote:My employer prefers Dell.
Ditto. I got the C400 because every gram matters to me: this week I am carrying the external optical drive for the first time in about 30 flights (have to reinstal from scratch for various reasons later today!).

Don't know how relevant this is to the D series, but the C400 is pretty solid - has survived at least 1 serious knock with no noticable damage.

Cooling/noise: all the hot components are on the bottom: cpu has a fan that is tolerable in an office environment, audible but bearable at home at 2am (it is noisier than my signature line system). Also at the bottom the memory (methinks, could also be VGA) gets hot on the case (see somewhere the story of the guy who damaged his family jewels with a Dell :roll: ) and also the hdd. I find it best when working at a desk to lift the back with a CD case to allow more airflow (also to the CPU fan intake). Without this cpu fan gets audible in office in summer temps (ambient > circa 25). Overall noise is OK - I can sleep in hotel rooms fine with the Dell folding: I stand it on its edge to keep the bottom cool and the fan on a slower setting.

(There is a Speedfan like utility somewhere for Dell Latitude so I could play with the fan myself: however I figure as it is not mine, and premature failure while I am on the road somewhere would cause serious inconvenience, I have avoided :) )

ps - have been carrying computers for about 13 years: previously Toshiba, previous to that a couple of IBM, my first was an Amstrad luggable 386. Would consider Dell (or Tosh or IBM - I do insist on a joystick mouse which I am comfortable with and avoids the need to carry a mouse) again based on current experience.

dago
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 445
Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2003 8:50 am
Location: BE, CH
Contact:

Post by dago » Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:27 pm

Ok, just got a D400 1 month ago and am very happy with it ...

But, a few things to consider for noise
- Optical drives : is in my docking station as I have the lightest one, but otherwise makes lot of vibrations, maybe due to the docking, but I'm not using it oftern (< 1/week)

- CPU : centrino/pentium-M runs cool and not much fan needed when in battery mode :)

- HDD - planned to replace it anyway, so I didn't bother about the awfully noisy (seek) default one (was it an Hitachi/IBM). Anyway, buy a OEM Fujitsu and swap it, they are quieter (for me) than a 'cuda V

Trip
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2928
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2003 7:18 pm
Location: SC

Post by Trip » Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:16 am

Get a Pentium M if you can afford it.

As far as PCs go, I've heard Dells are really quiet, but I was talking to a local the other day who told me Hewlett Packard was the better. Not recommending them, just suggesting that you compare the two.

Trip
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2928
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2003 7:18 pm
Location: SC

Evil Empire

Post by Trip » Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:19 am

Feldt, this is off topic, but why do you put the EU down as your location? Is it evolving into a sovereign state?

Ooh, that's scary :shock:

feldt
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm
Location: Gothenburg, SWEDEN, EU

Post by feldt » Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:47 am

Thanks to all; good suggestions and advice! I think it'll be a Dell Latitude D800 with the 1.4 GHz Pentium-M.

Trip: I put EU in there for folks who don't know where Sweden is...

Trip
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2928
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2003 7:18 pm
Location: SC

Post by Trip » Thu Oct 02, 2003 7:09 am

Good to hear, reading about the drafting of the EU constitution had bothered me a little...

most people have heard of Sweden though, right? Y'all are famous for your women :lol:

Good luck with that quiet laptop.

dago
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 445
Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2003 8:50 am
Location: BE, CH
Contact:

Re: Evil Empire

Post by dago » Thu Oct 02, 2003 10:55 pm

Few other details :
* the keyboard 'clicks' well, grave, but I like it ;)
* sometimes, when battery is loading, I have electrical noise (coil whine ?)
* again, be prepared for eventuall HDD change,
* RAM and HDD are user-replaceable (read warranty still ok), and, if dell pricing is same as here, you can save lot of money/ have much more

and also, the D800 is a desktop replacement, not something you'll take on the road to work.

I made the mistake of choosing the fastest/bigger latpop as my first laptop and he finished staying 100% on my desk @work.


[offtopic]
Trip wrote:Feldt, this is off topic, but why do you put the EU down as your location? Is it evolving into a sovereign state?

Ooh, that's scary :shock:
Well, more scary would be that Europe would be same as before world wars.

And a constitution is also usually a good thing to clarify things, the evolution of constitutions in Europe have a tendency to empower democracy more and more, for example, it introduces referendum powers to the ppl (note : not applicable to Liechstenstein).

<cynical/humor>scary ... or ist because US won't be the master of all anymore</cynical> ;)
Trip wrote:Good to hear, reading about the drafting of the EU constitution had bothered me a little...
most people have heard of Sweden though,

And for Sweden situation : it is usefull ... I wonder how many USians* tell the difference with Switzerland (and for that matter, see this CNN map) ;)

*(note, some (french) ppl already situated Belgium around Austria, for that matter, not typically US, but still ...)

[/offtopic]
Last edited by dago on Fri Oct 03, 2003 12:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

wumpus
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 946
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 9:57 pm
Location: Berkeley, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by wumpus » Thu Oct 02, 2003 11:43 pm

It is true, sometimes I forget that there are countries other than the United States ;)

wussboy
Posts: 635
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2002 12:34 pm
Location: Southampton, UK

Post by wussboy » Fri Oct 03, 2003 6:46 am

My friend just got the most expensive Dell laptop (designation escapes me now) as a desktop replacement. Upon powerup I was shocked at it's silence. HDD noise (both idle and seek) are extremely quiet, and there was NO other noise. Later he had it running on the coffee table and the fan kicked in, so at least it's speed controlled. It was difinitely noisey, but livable. It kicked off after awhile.

dago
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 445
Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2003 8:50 am
Location: BE, CH
Contact:

Post by dago » Fri Oct 03, 2003 7:56 am

It seems that the 2 following programs are missing from the web link section and are very relevant to dell laptop's.

i8kfan gui
I8kfanGUI is a graphical Windows application to show the internal temperatures and to control the fan operation on the Dell Inspiron 8000/8100/8200 notebook series and many other Dell notebooks.
SpeeSwitch XP
peedswitchXP is a small applet that sits in the system tray and allows dynamic switching of the frequencies of mobile Intel and mobile AMD CPUs under Windows XP. During the development of Windows XP, Microsoft decided to integrate dynamic frequency switching into the operating system itself. On a default Windows XP installation, the power schemes in the power settings of the system panel control the frequencies of the processor. On Windows 2000 and previous operating systems, it was possible to manually control the CPU frequencies with a SpeedStep applet provided by Intel, but this is not possible anymore under Windows XP. It is not very good documented what the different Windows XP power schemes do and it is impossible to fully adjust the schemes as the important settings are not accessible through the control panel.

Trip
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2928
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2003 7:18 pm
Location: SC

Re: Evil Empire

Post by Trip » Fri Oct 03, 2003 9:47 am

dago wrote:
<cynical/humor>scary ... or ist because US won't be the master of all anymore</cynical> ;)
hahahaha. We will always be the "world's only superpower" :twisted: Unlike every other hegemon that came before us, somehow history will not repeat and we will not lose our power

The EU concerns me, but so does the US... Large, aloof, central governments are bad (in my opinion)

And hey sorry to get off topic like this, if any of y'all want to discuss this startup a thread in the off topic section. I'm pretty open-minded, love to hear what you had to say.

Post Reply