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Newest Powerbooks - how noisy?

B

BIS2

macrumors regular
Original poster
I'm looking to get a PB this summer (95% sure it will be the 15%), but I have one question: how noisy is the latest version? My mother has a 15" TiBook and the fan is on constantly - it drives me crazy! By contrast, I have a 12" iBook from work, and the fan almost never comes on - when it does, its only for a second or two.

What experience have people had with the latest PB's? I just don't know if I can take that constant fan noise.
 
i have a rev b 12" and it is very quiet. in comparison to ordinary windows laptops its silent! the fan harly ever comes on and when it does it never bothers me as its so quiet!
 
If you are in a totally silent room, you will hear the hard drive clicking every few seconds or so (as you access stuff).

but, right now for example, I have a fan on and the window open, and I can't hear a peep from the PB (I have the new 15"). I don't think my fan has ever come on yet, and if it has, it's gotta be pretty quiet because I haven't noticed it.
 
My new 15" PB is so quiet I can hardly believe it's a computer. I can't even hear anything when I put my ear on it.
 
The fan rarely goes on. It turns only during games and other intense apps, which can sound like a dell but it shuts off afterwards, unlike a dell, and all I can here is the hard drive sometimes. You can't do anything about the hard drive because apple doesn't make them.
 
thanks!

Great, it sounds like the newer models are quieter. is there anyone who has used both a TiBook and an AlBook 15" who can compare them directly?

thanks again
 
my new 15in is essentially silent. the fans come up occasionally when doing intensive tasks. do note: the PB gets incredibly hot.
 
My Dell 600m is quiet in whatever it does. Like the PowerBooks, it does get obscenely hot at times.
 
I have the new 15" (1.5GHz) and it is silent.

DEAD silent.

It's been nearly a month and I haven't heard the fans, either ... strange. The only thing I've noticed is a brief hard drive click when my PB awakens from sleep.
 
For the most part my new 15" is silent.

On startup the fans spin for a few seconds and it is a little loud, but I have never had then come on while using the computer.

Also, the CD drive is a bit noisy when accessing a CD. But unless you are constantly running something off of a CD that is not a problem at all.
 
BIS2 said:
Great, it sounds like the newer models are quieter. is there anyone who has used both a TiBook and an AlBook 15" who can compare them directly?

thanks again
Click to expand...

My 15" 1.5ghz AlBook is MUCH quieter than the TiBook, although I think my TiBook is louder now after I dropped it (fan never kick soff).

I got the 5400 RPM drive and its got a distinct high-pitched noise thats noticeable on recordings and the like.

Still, damn good.
 
hmm when i play war craft or am wokring on photoshop the fan kicks in and you can hear it but otherwise its pretty silent

umm if u wanna test the loudness try repairing permissions
 
Yeah, I have a new 15" Al, one of my roomies has a 667 Ti. Mine is much quieter, the fan RARELY kicks in. Only after more than an hour of Warcraft.
 
My 17" is perfect!
I can hear my old clunky PeeCee from miles away... but sitting at my 17" Powerbook - can normally don't hear a thing!

Occasioanlly superdrive if I'm giving it a workout... and the fan? mmmm can't recall (much must be good).
 
My new 15 incher (1.5 Ghz) has been exceptionally quiet. Only when I have been using GarageBand, Photoshop CS, and Reason at the same time has the fan come on. And even then it was hardly noticable. I have been VERY impressed with the quality, overall, with this piece of machinery.
 
Hm, I'm definitely calling up Apple and sending my new 15" for warranty tomorrow. The hard drive started developing a noise I can only describe as somewhat like static, which is obviously an issue. However, when I first got the machine and turned it on, I thought a fan was going when the hard drive spun up. After using an old 600MHz iBook that was completely silent -- I literally could not hear any part of it, hard drive included, at any time -- my new 15" Aluminum PowerBook is definitely very loud. The fan rarely ever spins up, but my hard drive is unnecessarily loud... at least, after coming from a completely silent iBook. The hard drive also makes a very, very faint buzzing sound when asleep. I'll stop by an Apple store tomorrow and check out their PowerBooks to see what they sound like.

The hard drive is the 5400RPM 80GB, by the way.
 
bwawn said:
Hm, I'm definitely calling up Apple and sending my new 15" for warranty tomorrow. The hard drive started developing a noise I can only describe as somewhat like static, which is obviously an issue. However, when I first got the machine and turned it on, I thought a fan was going when the hard drive spun up. After using an old 600MHz iBook that was completely silent -- I literally could not hear any part of it, hard drive included, at any time -- my new 15" Aluminum PowerBook is definitely very loud. The fan rarely ever spins up, but my hard drive is unnecessarily loud... at least, after coming from a completely silent iBook. The hard drive also makes a very, very faint buzzing sound when asleep. I'll stop by an Apple store tomorrow and check out their PowerBooks to see what they sound like.

The hard drive is the 5400RPM 80GB, by the way.
Click to expand...

ok, you have me a little worrie now, i am thinking of getting a 15inch 1.5ghz fully loaed (128mbvram, faster hd ect)
but ive heard ppl say things about the faster hd and the noise levels, how much performance boost does it give??/
 
My fan comes on every day on my Rev C 12" PB. The reason, however, is plain to see: I always use my PB in bed, so it's resting on the duvet, which doesn't exactly lead to good airflow. If it's on a desk I don't think it's ever come on!

Mobile computing (read: bed computing) is sweet!
 
Hard drive prob?

bwawn said:
Hm, I'm definitely calling up Apple and sending my new 15" for warranty tomorrow. The hard drive started developing a noise I can only describe as somewhat like static, which is obviously an issue. However, when I first got the machine and turned it on, I thought a fan was going when the hard drive spun up. After using an old 600MHz iBook that was completely silent -- I literally could not hear any part of it, hard drive included, at any time -- my new 15" Aluminum PowerBook is definitely very loud. The fan rarely ever spins up, but my hard drive is unnecessarily loud... at least, after coming from a completely silent iBook. The hard drive also makes a very, very faint buzzing sound when asleep. I'll stop by an Apple store tomorrow and check out their PowerBooks to see what they sound like.

The hard drive is the 5400RPM 80GB, by the way.
Click to expand...

I've got the same problem (mine is the standard 60GB). Actually when I bought the machine it was totally silent apart from the occasional fan noise which was expected under heavy load. The disk started the noise some time ago and doesn't seem to go away. Lucky the warranty is still valid.
 
my 15" albook is quite silent still, although the hard drive WILL get noisier in time, when it's used. mine is on almost 24/7 and it is already noticeably louder than half a year ago. it will need a hard drive replacement within a year. but still, quiet enough, and the cooling fan is not a problem.

the tibook, however, is noisy by default. at least my old 667mhz dvi model was, because the cooling fan had to operate almost all the time. the reason for this was the stock toshiba 4200rpm hard drive, because after i changed it to a hitachi 7200rpm drive (which itself was quieter, too), the thing ran MUCH cooler and the cooling fan almost seemed to disappear. after the drive change i had to stress the cpu at +80% for some time to get the fan operating!

so for the original poster: change the hard drive of your mom's tibook to a new one. it will help a lot in regards of noise levels and hard drive performance. the stock drive is too slow and needs to work more than necessary, so it overheats. i recommend buying such a drive that has 8mb cache buffer and at least 5400rpm rotational speed. it is really worth it, and the drive is relatively easy to change by yourself if you can handle a screwdriver.
 
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