I received my nc8000 a week ago, and am generally happy with it except for the noise of the hard drive fan. While I think most people wouldn't mind (and friends who have stopped by think it is fine), I want a PC as quiet as possible.

One friend has a low cost Averatec that is far more quiet (this isn't an ad for Averatec; he has had a variety of problems where I wouldn't want one for myself).

The PC fan rarely kicks on, which is good, and the hard drive fan is just a constant whirr (as opposed to some oscillating noise), but for $2500 bucks, I want near-perfection (which for me means near silence).

Within the power options of the Win XP control panel, I have indicated that the hd should turn off after 3 minutes of inactivity, but I suspect XP is looking for 3 minutes of system inactivity, not 3 minutes of hd inactivity (otherwise I would expand beyond my current 512K and load all my apps at startup and rarely access the hd).

I chose the nc8000 because of HP's reputation, annoyance with Dell, preference for a UXGA screen (not a 15.4" WUXGA screen, or a smaller resolution within 15.1"), reasonable weight, and lower cost compared to IBM. Most notebook makers seem to be moving to 15.4" screens for when they support UXGA (and thus they have WUXGA screens), but I think the pixels would be too small, I worry about distorting effects for games and presentations, and I don't think I would use the extra horizontal space. Even living in a metropolitan area, it's pretty much impossible to find a store with UXGA in stock, so I ordered directly from HP, and if I return this machine within my 30 day grace period, I will probably have to order something else online, too, and thus will not be able to judge for myself how quiet the machine is.

What do you recommend for someone who wants silence or as close as possible? I suppose I could replace the hard drive if you know of a particular hd product. Would a 4200 rpm hd likely be more quiet, or not necessarily? Is there a way to tell xp to turn off the hd while I am just web surfing or typing in word? If so, should I be concerned about stress on the hd turning on and off? I wouldn't care about startup delays - I just want the noise (whirring) to stop!

I rarely run on battery, but thought that the lower power Centrino / Pentium M would generate less heat and thus require the fan to be on less often. My friend's Averatec has some sort of AMD chip. Maybe when the Intel Dothan chips come out Dell will replace the Inspiron 5150 with something lighter that is not noisy that will be nice enough to make me overcome my annoyance with their bad support and bad build quality? I had heard good things about the Toshiba Tecra S1, but they don't seem to offer Tecra's with UXGA anymore.

Thanks for your advice,
Karl

hmm, just how loud is your fan? I recently got an nc8000 and it's barely audible, I don't even notice it.

Well, it is quieter than my desktop PC...I turned on my ceiling fan, and the nc8000 is more quiet than that (but the ceiling fan seems loud to me, too)...

I like to work in my Lazy Boy with the nc8000 in my lap and with no music or anything going, so that high-pitched hd whirrrrrrrrrrrrr just gets to me. I admit I could be hyper-sensitive, but I'm just kind of hoping there might be something I can do (telling myself to be less sensitive hasn't helped yet).

Is there a way for a normal person without a decibel sensor to objectively relate noise to others? I also sent an email to HP/Compaq, and I don't want to waste people's time if it's just me and the noise is normal and inherent to the system.

Which hard drive do you have in your nc8000? I have a Hitachi 40 gb 5400 rpm drive in mine and it is quite noisy.

Either way, a 4200 would be your best bet if you don't want any noise. The Toshiba 80gb 4200 rpm drive in my Compaq x1000 is completely silent and puts off just about no heat.

I have the HP-supplied 5400 rpm 60 gb HD. Not sure who the original vendor is for the hd (is there a way of telling without opening the notebook the next time I power off?).

flashram, could you please let me know the model # of your toshiba drive? I want to check its price and availability.

Thanks to both of you for your feedback.

Well, this is really the fist negative I have heard about the nc8000. I have one on order that is in the *build* process right now. I hope to have it by the end of next week. I will of course post my impressions when I get it. I will be comparing it next to my HP Pavilion ze4300, so it should compare quite favorably. If not then it may just go back to HP, but those are NOT my intentions. I am anticipating a very nice, quiet and powerful centrino based notebook to cover any situation I throw at it!

The model of the Toshiba is MK8025GAS.

As far as the model of your HD, download and install a program called AIDA32. You can google it. Should tell you everything you want to know about what is inside your computer.

Thanks for the AIDA32 tip, flashram. It seems slick. It says my drive is the FUJITSU MHT2060AH.

According to http://www.fujitsu.com/services/comp...x-catalog.html , the acoustic noise is "2.9 bels (typical) at idle", which seems like it would be quiet, so maybe: 1) mine is actually louder than that or 2) I am part canine and that's why I am driven crazy by the high-pitch whirring.

Doing some price comparisons, the Toshiba MK8025GAS goes for about $200-$250, as does the Fujitsu I already have.

Wierd, I just received an nc6000 and its 5400 RPM hardrive is very quiet. There is a barely audable hum in the backround (HD fan), but nothing really loud. I know these aren't quite the same computers, but they are very similar.

i have the 60 gig 5400 rpm as well and I barely hear anything.. I do however feel the cd/dvd combo is a little on the loud side when it's spinning full speed but then again I haven't heard one that isn't.

I am embarrassed to ask this question, because it seems like such a RTFM question, but my nc8000 shipped from HP did not come with any manuals (printed or PDF), so here it goes....

I can't find on the HP web site how to contact them via email for support. When I go to http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Nav?h...ent=s-a-r163-2 , they have an option for "HP Compaq Notebook PCs", but after selecting that link, the nc8000 is not listed.

I have tried using the nx9000 link and one of the Evo links to contact them, but after a week I have heard no response from the former, and for the latter, I got a message that I entered the incorrect serial number even though it's what is listed on the back of the PC and what their own diagnostic tool says.

I would just call them, but I hate waiting on hold, and I like to file away information.

Thanks again for your help.

Don't know if this is what you're looking for ... but -

- the specs/service manual here
- the Maintenance/Service Guide here
- for contacting HP support, try this blank form, and id your system as HP Compaq Business Notebook NC8000.
There is no specific email form for the nc8000 or nw8000
- one more you might be interested in, if you haven't found it already ... it's the IT Resource page for your system.
if you scroll down you'll see their very limited forum and a few posts on the loud fan issue.

HP sent me a replacement drive, but it was the same level of noise. I bought the only 60-80GB HD at the local CompUSA, the 80GB 4200RPM Fujitsu MHT2080AT. According to http://www.fcpa.com/products/hard-dr...fications.html , it should be slightly more quiet than the Toshiba MK8025GAS ( http://sdd.toshiba.com/cda/main.aspx...00659c0000157e ) and rather substantially quiet compared to the Fujitsu MHT2080AH ( http://www.fujitsu.com/services/comp...x-catalog.html ) that is standard with the nc8000. Sure enough, the MHT2080AT is far more quiet than the MHT2080AH, but the pitch is higher which nets to a way more annoying sound, so I will return the MHT2080AT and keep looking.

flashram, when you say that it is completely silent, do you mean that you can sit in a quiet room of your house and not hear whirring noise when the notebook is on your lap and sitting idle (not accessing the disk)? That's what I hear now with the standard nc8000 drive. How about if you put your ear to it? I don't want to belabor the point, but I seem to be more sensitive than most.

If anyone else has any advice (e.g., devices to make HDs more quiet, specific HD recommendations, etc.), I'll gladly listen (ha!).