laptop fan noise expectations (now with added CPU musings...)

[GaryG]

Just picked up an MSI Modern series laptop, nice machine, all metal and stuff but the fans are on constantly.

It's an 11th gen i5 and assumed with it's 'silent' profiles and the like that browsing a couple of pages wouldn't stress it but even then they're on. I can only compare it to my old 3rd i5 dell, it basically sounds as loud as that does when that kicks up a notch (windows updates etc) except all the time. Am I expecting too much nowadays? And it's stone cold too so don't think they need to be on. Windows 11 (ad said 10... ) if that makes a difference.

Thanks.

(comments about M1s will be ignored )

[whyterabbyt]

My work system is a Scan with a 3060 and an 8 core 11th gen i7 in it. Fans by default were, erm, obvious, and kinda intrusive even on mundane tasks, but I found a wee utility installed that gave control over them (and presumably things impacting on the thermal output).
Finding that led to the discovery that fully on, its louder than some servers Ive had. Wee bitty more than just 'intrusive.'
However, there's a 'quiet' mode that basically puts them off, and a custom mode for tweaking the GPU/CPU fan curves.
Quiet mode works fine for ordinary stuff, its only 3d rendering and the like where it cranks up.

If it hadnt had that, I woulda looked for something 3rd party to control the fans. SpeedFan or HWmonitor are the two Ive used in the past.

[GaryG]

Thanks.

There is an msi control centre or something that does have performance profiles. There's a quiet mode that allegedly keeps it under 29db but doesn't make any difference, pretty sure it's significantly louder than that. There's a cooler boost mode too which turns it into a hairdryer so I know it's not at maximum all the time

I'll play with a 3rd party app, maybe it's a fault... Cheers

[kingozrecords]

hp fans have been rather quiet for Me in general. They're there though.

[sQeetz]

I used Speedfan to keep fan noise down. At the price of higher CPU temperatures, though....

[GaryG]

hp fans have been rather quiet for Me in general. They're there though.

Thanks. I expect any windows laptop to have some fan noise, my old one and ones at work etc all have a low level noise, it was the fact this one sounded like others do when updating windows etc, all the time. Anyway, I returned it, noticed the headphone socket was faulty too.

HP are high on my list at the moment, some decent deals, upgradable etc. Though they seem to have an obesession with silver keyboards, am I the only person who hates them? Very eye unfriendly I find, especially with a backlight. But that's another rant..

[kingozrecords]

hp fans have been rather quiet for Me in general. They're there though.

Thanks. I expect any windows laptop to have some fan noise, my old one and ones at work etc all have a low level noise, it was the fact this one sounded like others do when updating windows etc, all the time. Anyway, I returned it, noticed the headphone socket was faulty too.

HP are high on my list at the moment, some decent deals, upgradable etc. Though they seem to have an obesession with silver keyboards, am I the only person who hates them? Very eye unfriendly I find, especially with a backlight. But that's another rant..

I can understand that, but I like them for superficial reasons admittedly. I recommend you find a newer one with a dvd so to replace that dvd with a drive caddy. more storage is nice.

[sQeetz]

I can understand that, but I like them for superficial reasons admittedly. I recommend you find a newer one with a dvd so to replace that dvd with a drive caddy. more storage is nice.

Who still puts DVD drives in their laptops anymore? specially ones you can swap out? Haven't seen one for at least 15 years

[ghettosynth]

I recently replaced an expensive laptop with a small desktop for exactly this reason. To be clear, I still have the laptop and I don't need it, per se. It just bothered me so much that I couldn't use it every day in the specific setting that I was trying to use the thing.

Thin laptops, especially those with discrete video cards, have to spin the fans up further to keep things under control. This thing was like a jet taking off when I fired up remote desktop to view skype and it has an 8 core AMD, so it wasn't really stressing the CPU.

[sQeetz]

Thin laptops, especially those with discrete video cards, have to spin the fans up further to keep things under control. This thing was like a jet taking off when I fired up remote desktop to view skype and it has an 8 core AMD, so it wasn't really stressing the CPU.

I had a Dell XPS 15 with a discrete graphics chip once and it wasn't that bad. It was expensive though.... and still noisy(er) compared to my current laptop. But still allright (using Speedfan to control the fans down)

[ghettosynth]

Thin laptops, especially those with discrete video cards, have to spin the fans up further to keep things under control. This thing was like a jet taking off when I fired up remote desktop to view skype and it has an 8 core AMD, so it wasn't really stressing the CPU.

I had a Dell XPS 15 with a discrete graphics chip once and it wasn't that bad. It was expensive though.... and still noisy(er) compared to my current laptop. But still allright (using Speedfan to control the fans down)

Obviously there are many factors, but, this is a 14" and so there's just less space. Basically, the more you cram into a small and thin space, the harder it's going to be to keep it cool.

Also, it depends on how we each rate "alright." I want basically silent on my work desktop. Others have rated the XPS 15 as noisy.

https://www.theverge.com/22958468/dell- ... led-review

[sQeetz]

Also, it depends on how we each rate "alright." I want basically silent on my work desktop. Others have rated the XPS 15 as noisy.

https://www.theverge.com/22958468/dell- ... led-review

As I said, I had to tame the fan using a dedicated tool to do so. At the expense of the whole system getting hot.
That's something all x86 laptops have to deal with.
Handling heat dissipation on a desktop is a whole different issue here.

[ghettosynth]

Also, it depends on how we each rate "alright." I want basically silent on my work desktop. Others have rated the XPS 15 as noisy.

https://www.theverge.com/22958468/dell- ... led-review

As I said, I had to tame the fan using a dedicated tool to do so. At the expense of the whole system getting hot.
That's something all x86 laptops have to deal with.
Handling heat dissipation on a desktop is a whole different issue here.

Sure, but, the key part of my original point here is that I have not had this problem with equally thin and small laptops without discrete GPUs.

This is really not a mystery, it's harder to cool two heat generators that consume more power in a fixed space than one. I have two other laptops that are the same size or smaller and they don't need taming at all, and stay cool, even when running the same kinds of software. Of course, they don't have discrete GPUs.

Thickness plays a major role. BTW: When I say desktop, I mean a NUC with a discrete GPU, not a real desktop, The NUC uses similar cooling solutions to a thick laptop. So it's also very small, but because it's thicker and can use much better fans, it's dead silent.

OP is asking for laptop fan expectations. My expectation is that any thin and small laptop with a discrete GPU will be harder to tame, hence noisier. I would not buy such a machine unless you know that you need the discrete GPU. I did in this case, and ended up having to replace the machine with the NUC just so I could work.

[sQeetz]

OP is asking for laptop fan expectations. My expectation is that any thin and small laptop with a discrete GPU will be harder to tame, hence noisier.

Exactly. Agree. With one exception being Apple notebooks. As much as I hate bringing that up here.
If you want cool, silent, long lasting and portable... it has to be mentioned although OPs disdain

[sQeetz]

This is really not a mystery, it's harder to cool two heat generators that consume more power in a fixed space than one.

I also had an XPS 13 with integrated graphics and several others.... fan noise is an integral part of x86 based laptops. period. It either bothers you or it doesn't.