Quiet Laptop Fan?

wilton writes "Many places sell replacement cooling fans for desktop system, but where can I get one for my laptop ? Specifically a very quiet fan. I have a fan made by Sunon who appear to be the largest maker of fans. The model I have GB0545ADB1-8 is *supposed* to be the quiet model, but it certainly isn't."

Cool it with software

[Anonymous Coward]

To minimize when the fan turns on, try CPU cooling software like Rain or CPUIdle.

Rain [tweakfiles.com]
CPUIdle [tweakfiles.com]

Re:Only turn the fan on while needed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Even my old 486 laptop has a thermostat driven fan (which is seldom on). If your laptop has the fan constantly running, perhaps it's not a quieter fan you need, but a new thermostat.

Either that or pull it out of the oven.

Sunon is garbage.

[Wakko Warner]

They tend to start out sounding nice and quiet and deteriorate, often rapidly, into "mini-jet-engine" territory. What perplexes me is the large number of manufacturers who sell $5,000 networking equipment and then put $4 fans into them. We had (at the time) very expensive 3com 10/100 hubs at work with Sunons in them -- most of which failed after the first year or so in a relatively clean environment.

I'm guessing your laptop isn't new, and I'm guessing your fan started out sounding okay. You need (going by the model number) a 5 volt, 45 mm x 45mm x 8mm fan, and it looks like ADDA makes several [adda.com.tw] that will fit.

- A.P.

--
* CmdrTaco is an idiot.

Re:Only turn the fan on while needed?

[Chris Hiner]

Here's a place with power supplies with variable speed fans (and other cooling devices).
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/

I've had great experiences with IBM hard drives. The ones I've had have been extremely quiet. (Even the 7200rpm ones)

Re:Only turn the fan on while needed?

[wilton]

I use a muffler type device for my desktop. Get them from quietpc.com [quietpc.com]. Works great

Re:Only turn the fan on while needed?

[wilton]

The fan does only come on when needed, but when it does it is very loud. If i am watching TV it really gets annoying.

In the above comment about the muffler device, I was meaning for the hard disk, not the fan.

Mac fan-less laptops

[mr100percent]

The iBook I'm typing on doesn't need a fan. So far, I have yet to see a x86 laptop that doesn't need a fan. It's great, except when I leave it on for several hours with the vent holes covered, Yow! oh yeah, and I can't really overclock without practically melting it, but who overclocks laptops?

PCMCIA fans

[rehannan]

I've been getting most of my cooling supplies from 3dcool.com [3dcool.com]. They've got pretty good stuff. They have some external laptop fans [3dcool.com] (such as a PCMCIA fan).

Only turn the fan on while needed?

[mini me]

My laptop's fan only comes on when it gets too hot, which isn't that often (only a few times since I've had the machine). If your laptop does not have this feature maybe there is a way to implement it? Unless you are working in a extra warm environment it shouldn't be much of a problem for you the odd time that it does come on.

The biggest noise problem on my machine is the hard drive! Now if I could find a silent hard drive I would be happy! Anyone have any affordable solutions for silent hard drives (with decent capacity?)

Re:Mac^H^H^H x86 fan-less laptops

[mini me]

I have an old P-100 without a fan (yes, it was manufactured that way. no, I didn't remove it). So that disproves your theory! ;)

Sure it gets mighty hot, but so far so good. The thing is about 6 years old, gets left on almost all the time, and it just keeps on working.

I've been a fan of laptops for years

[danpbrowning]

I guess some people don't like them, but I've been a fan of laptops for years. Really, people don't tell me that I'm hot very often, but I they do say I move a lot of "hot air"!

My IBM 600

[kruczkowski]

I have a IBM 600 and I realy like it. The thing is loud as hell thou, After I upgraded my hard drive it ran very quite for about 2 months, now it runs loud again. Both hard drives are IBM travelstarts.