SO i just sold my beast of a machine MSI laptop , one of the main reasons was that I couldn't stand the fan and power noise during regular use (web browsing etc) , it just never shut up. I am now about to bite the bullet for 2015 MBP 13 inch (can't wait for the new one , also not too excited about the all USB C rumor , I love my HDMI output) . I know it will be for sure more quiet then the MSI I had but wanted to ask you MBP owners (specially the 13 inch ones) , how do i find the noise coming from the laptop during idle use (web browsing , emails , writing , watching videos etc) ? does the fans kick at all or is it completely silent?
In the scenarios you outlined, the fans on all my macbooks are silent except when watching video or visiting sites that push video content ads. Videos using flash seem to be the worse.
YouTube on my 2015 13" rMBP doesn't cause the fans to kick on(that I can hear). I use Safari, I have click to flash installed and I believe YouTube just defaults to HTML5 video streaming.
When I watch youtube videos and flash launches after 4 or 5 minutes the fan starts. But, unlike the others I use Firefox or Chrome and never Safari. It is not on all videos. Most of the time flash does not run, but on a few it does.
During light / casual / moderate use it's nearly inaudible (any fan noise is only discernible in a dead-silent room, with your head right next to the computer). The SSD can make an electrical scratching / chirping sound under certain loads as well, but this too is very feint, and infrequent under normal use. Under load it's a bit of a different story (it can give a vacuum cleaner a run for its money), but you have to push it pretty hard to get it ramping up like this.
Thanks guys@ I went ahead and got myself a used late 2012 MBP and its completely silent during everyday use , happy camper here