[NYCFarmboy]

Question:

I need a really quiet laptop computer for recording purposes..

My G4 12" Powerbook's fan comes on all the time which is quite noisey so I'm looking for something QUIET.

So....I"m wondering if the G4 iBooks also have a fan that runs alot under heavy use similar to the G4 powerbook?

[irockdabari]

Yeah, under heavy use my 12" iBook will run its fan, and its loud. However, I can prevent the fan from coming on by taking steps to maximize air flow underneath my iBook. the iCurve does a good job of this.

[TheoCryst]

Strange, my iBook's fan rarely comes on at all, and when it does it seems fairly quiet. Well, it's quieter than my girlfriend's HP lappy, to say the least. Can't personally compare it to a Powerbook, unfortunately.

[NYCFarmboy]

I have a g3 ibook, (500 mhz) that i use quite a lot, it is whisper quiet...fan never comes on...I'm just wondering how the g4 ibooks compare. thanks for the ideas irockdabari.

One thing I guess I can just wait and see if the intel ibooks are quiet whenever they come out with those.

[ghporter]

The only way we can tell our iBook's fan is on is to place something like a slip of paper (a tiny strip) near the vents to see if it moves. The thing is virtually silent, except for the DVD drive and the occasional tiny sound from the hard drive.

[Berman]

if i work my ibook, the fan comes on loudly. however, this rarely happens. then again, i don't exacty tax the thing -- i generally just use it for safari, word, and adium.

[harrisjamieh]

My iBooks fan has only come on once, and that was after using it for 3 solid hours with it being embedded in my bed, which cut off nearly all air circulation to it. When I heard the fan come on, I took the iBook and put it on a solid surface (my desk), and the fan went off within 5 minutes as the iBook cooled to what I guess was a decent temp.

[Eug Wanker]

The G4 iBook's big advantage over the PowerBooks is that the fan comes on much less often.

Sometimes slower speed is advantageous.

[demibob]

mines silent. Even when playing halo which uses a lot of power. It does get quite warm though after a few hours.

[SSharon]

I don't ever remember hearing the fan on my 14" in over a year. My girlfriend claims she heard it in the 3 days I let her borrow it, but I am skeptical. In a quite room I hear the HD spin up and the optical drive is pretty noisy, but otherwise it's silent.

[nJm]

My fan rarely comes on, and when it does it doesn't take it long until it cools it down enough not to need it. I wouldn't say its silent, but it is often hard to hear the fan over the DVD drive if it happens to be making all those wooshy noises it makes on some discs.

My fan generally only comes on when the graphics card is under heavy usage. 'Normal' stuff like compressing DVDs and watching mp4 videos won't kick it off.

[e-dard]

Depends how you use the Ibook...

My G4 1.33 12" fan is probably on full (loud) about 50% of the time i am at the computer as i use aall of these ptograms either alone or combined :

Photoshop / a Java IDE (intelli beans) / eDonkey (intensive on processor) / DreamWeaver / Fireworks / Office

Also i push a 19" widescreen monitor at 1440 * 900 which doesn't help...


So it depends what you use it for, if you are using music creation or recording software then don't bother with an iBook if the fan will be a problem becuase i gurantee you it will be on a lot...

edd

[jamil5454]

From what I've seen the iBook's fan usually only comes on when you're running graphics-intensive applications. In the year I owned my 12" 1.2 iBook , I only heard it come on maybe 10 times, all when playing intensive 3d games.

[JoshKurtz]

Mine just comes on when I've been in Photoshop for over 30 minutes or so. Other than that, all I hear is the hard drive every once in a while. But the 4200rpm one that it came with was silent. I didn't get noise until I upgraded to a 5400rpm.

[far200]

I find that the fan is still quiet even when it comes on compaired to almost all other note books.......