New Dell Vostro V131

While playing music press "Fn+X". ?

 

I'm planning to buy a refurbished Vostro V131 (i5-2410) and replace the HD with a SSD. I use MS Word and Chrome (browsing). I write in a quiet room and certain sounds are distracting--mainly electric humming.

I just returned a gorgeous Toshiba Z835 because the fan made an annoying humming all the time.

Do the V131 fans hum?
Will it stay sort of quiet with Word Processing and Browsing?

 

The thresh point for triggering fan in full throttle seems 50 degree Celsius for me. And it can be little loud in quiet room unfortunately. But my CPU usually reach to that temperature if I game.

 

At my computer the fan turns on with light use as well... :/

Luckily it's not constantly on, still quite bothering though. But I guess it's a matter of how sensitive you are, it's not super loud but definitely noticeable.

 

Interesting... I'm sensitive to hum noises (i.e. the Toshiba Z835 Ultrabook).

I'm replacing an old 17.3 Toshiba Satellite (I know, it's a monster) and the noise it makes never bothers me (and it can get a little noisy). Saying that, would you recommend getting the Celeron version instead?

 

I have no personal experience with celeron cpu, but I would get at least i3 for the better functionality and productivity. I have i3 and it doesn't run into full throttle mode if just doing basic word processing, watching video and surfing internet. And the amount of noise is pretty minimal in quiet room (minus hard disk clicking but that's different thing).

 

for the purposes you mention, I recommend you take a look at the thinkpad x120e. I recently bought one off Ebay still under warranty, and updated it with a Crucial SSD and max'd out the ram. I can't hear a thing on this one. I can put my hand in front of the vent [left rear corner] and feel that the fan is moving air, but it neither gets hot nor makes ANY noise whatsoever. I got it "just to see" and ended up redeploying my desktop mule that has been my go-to machine for years. I just use it for file service and HTPC now. speaking of: I can just as well use the x120e for HTPC also. the graphics performance is spectacular for the price point.

v131 seems to be a good sys but if you read the whole thread, some do complain about heat buildup and fan on max.

 

The x120e looks pretty impressive. Unfortunately, I'm looking for a 13.3" to 14" screen. :~(

 

Guys, I think I've found a significant design flaw. The base of the chassis where the left hinge goes seems to become loose or flexible after a while. I thought my first chassis was a fluke or the screw was loose but it was in fact the entire bottom mount for the hinge moving.

I'm on my second chassis and it too is starting to rock the entire left hinge. Does anyone notice? move your lid back and forth like you're opening and closing it and look at the back seam of the left hinge. Does it close and open the seam a bit?

 

I've called dell technical support to replace the hinge for my vostro v131. And the onsite technician also said that it's the design that he couldn't do much about it to prevent left side of hinge moving. The best he can do was tighten up little bit so the hinge doesn't move as much.

The customer support is great, the laptop design, need to be thought out more thoroughly lol

EDIT: I still like my laptop, but I'm afraid this is similar event to previous Alienware M11x which had some flaw in hinge design as well.