Concerned about noise

Its so loud people on the other side of town will complain bitterly, wild animals will be frightened away up to 20 miles distant.

It runs all the time, even when the machine is off. In fact, it runs double when the machine is off.

Nope, no matter what you choose, it will be louder, even if you choose not to choose something different.

That is the weight without battery and data, the battery adds about 200 pounds and each byte adds another ounce. It doesn't seem like a lot until you remember there are GigaBytes in there. Eventually, it will get so heavy, it will sink right through the floor, even through solid rock, even solid steel, right to the center of the earth which will set off a geonucleoid event ending the universe as we know it.

I've had the pleasure of having my hands on 4 different units (Branded "Clevo - D500P") and I own one of the 4 myself...

I'd say it's kinda loud and not as handy as most other notebooks I had... I'd probably place my D500P/5680 in the "Desktop replacement" category though it's in the light and portable end of that spectrum...

If I had to describe the fans noise emission, I'd guess that the fan has 3 speeds/noiselevels:

1. Off (Obviously very quiet and happens about 50-60% of the time when browsing the web, using small desktop software and office programs..)

2. Low (Loud enough to almost annoy my wife if I use it in the livingroom with her sitting 4-6 feet away... Probably uses this setting 40-50% of the time when the notebook is running software as in the "Off" description)

3. High (This is VERY seldom used when using light desktop software, browser or office... When running 3D games or heavy desktop software I'd say this setting is used close to 100% of the time... This setting is so loud that I can hear it when I enter the room next to the room with the notebooks but it's kinda low-pitch so it doesn't really annoy me, the wife's another story)

This is my impression and I have to say that I feel the noiselevel varied with the 4 D500P/5680 I've tested, the described one is a bit below average in noiselevel compared to the other 3 I've had my hands on... Maybe the fans and ducting varies in quality from unit to unit....

Given the power that resides in these units I dont find the noiselevel, low batterytime or weight too annoying, after all if you want power, it takes power and more heat and this is what I wanted, something to make my bulky desktop PC absolete ..

If you want portability, long batterylife and low noiselevel, I'd say go for a Pentium-M 1.4-1.7MHz notebook with a M9/R9000 mobility graphicschip and 4200 RPM harddrive...

Hope that this of some help,

Rgds,
Vic

Marquis has lost it
I think getting into the top 5 posters has turned his brain to mush.

Well my 5680 is very nice and quiet with the fans off or on low. One annoying issue is how the fans spin up to High before ever ever going to Low. The very interesting thing about my 5680 is that besides the spinup from Low, the fans rarely hit the High mark for any length of time EVEN while gaming BF1942, Freedom Force, or NWN... they just stay on Low while I game. I suppose if the ambient temperature were higher, or if say the vents were blocked then they might stay on more often.

The flip side to this is that the fans stay on low more often than I'd like even while at 0% CPU usage.. My concern isn't one of noise, but rather of life span... if the fans are always on low...they eventually will wear out. So I'm not sure yet how much a hasel that will become. I bought the extended 3 year warranty so obviously I will be covered if anything should happen. The fan in my old HP Omnibook died 4 times on me...and that was under occasional use!
The 5680 is a desktop replacement. I can accept the fan noise and the weight (though at 5' 6" and 135lbs its not a burden at all...) because I know it can deliver the power and performance I demand of it every day. Hence people refer to Sagers as "Eating the competition byte by byte". Its true! Some dudes ibefore my ECE375 class remarked on how much bigger my Sager was than their new Dell laptops (both cost same price).. When I loaded up UT2003 and was playing 1280x1024x32 with all options high and fragging the heck out of everything in sight they just drooled. Then for class I opened Word on one half the screen and these forums on the other half and smiled

edit - mispelling

it's louder than the desktop i had before it, which is dissappointing, but i can still use it for audio work. it's not that bad.

The fans on my 5620 aren't too bad at all. Keeping the heatsink clean will help keep the fans off as much as possible. As for the 2.8 vs. the 3.2, yes, the slower CPU will run cooler and improve battery life.

Would something like the utility CPUCool help by cutting the FSB when you don't need full power?

I think CPU cool just uses an ACPI feature that basically turns off the CPU when it's not in use. Windows XP and 2k do this automatically, so no, it probably wouldn't help. (unless you run Win9x)