Before I Buy a T420, How Tolerable Is The Fan/Hard Drive Noise Level?

After reading some of the forums at Lenovo and here at Notebook Review this morning, I'm getting last minute jitters about purchasing the T420. The T420 is going to be my primary notebook for at least a year and don't want a machine that is loud. I'm not so concerned about the heat levels but worried about two things:

(1) Fan noise

(2) Hard drive noise

I know there are threads on the fan noise on T420 and T420s and have read them both. I guess all notebooks have some level of fan noise or hard drive noise depending on usage. I've read that some have reported to be the sound of hair dryer and some making no noise at all. Would it be wiser to buy a SSD or a louder 7200rpm? How is the fan/hard drive noise levels of your T420? Does it bother you? How would you compare the noise levels to something?

I've had a really bad experience with HP and for that reason I developed a sensitivity to fan noise/hard drive noise on notebooks. My Pentium 4 notebook doesn't sound like a hairdryer but sounds like a spaceship about to take off into space. In the last 3 years, I've bought and returned at least 8-9 notebooks from Dell, Best Buy and Future Shop because of fan or hard drive noise. I don't want to make another notebook purchase and end up returning it. I've wanted a Thinkpad for a long time but decided it's time to pull the trigger. There's a sale on almost all Lenovo notebooks this weekend in Canada for the holiday weekend with coupon code and the deal is too hard too pass up.

I have some other questions:

1) Is it difficult adding memory to your T420 or any notebook in general? I'm going to get the 2GB and upgrade myself but I've never taken apart a notebook. I also don't want to pay extra money to upgrade memory when I can buy it cheaper online or instore.

2) How's the webcam? Is it worth the upgrade? It's about a $30 upgrade in Canada but would it better just to get to have it "just in case."

Thanks!

 

How's the fan noise? Minimal.

During normal operation, you won't hear the fan. Get an SSD and you won't hear the drive either.

The fan is quite audible when it spins up, but since the new Core i series are quite power efficient (compared to the early generations), it probably won't need to unless you're seriously exercising the CPU.

It depends on the notebook. The T420 is easy. Just follow the published Hardware Maintenance Manual and you'll be fine.

I'd skip it, but that's because I'm not smart enough to be a work-from-home expert making guest appearances on CNN, and not attractive enough to make money as a cam-boy -- and apart from that I can't think of a realistic use.

 

Compared to my T400, the fan noise is a little more audible. However, it is still very minimal. Plus, you can download a program called TPFancontrol to manually adjust fan speeds for various temperatures. I don't even hear the hard drive most of the time. I had two HP's previous to my Thinkpads and the difference between the fan/HDD noise is like night and day. Noise is the least your should be concerned about (if anything).

No, adding memory is really simple. I opted for the 2 GB stick as well and ordered a 4 GB stick off newegg. You just unscrew one screw on the bottom, pop open the panel and put the new stick in there.

The webcam is a decent quality. If you think you'll be using it, go for it.

 

i have seen the new T420 with i5 and intel GPU, the fan hardly makes a noise when viewing FHD movies. Not sure this is the case with the Nvidia GPU and i7 CPU.

 

I find mine is quiet 90% of the time when I'm doing typical work. I don't really hear the drive at all, but I did add an mSATA SSD for my boot drive. The HD is just for data, but even then I don't hear it when it's working. Even when I push the CPU running one of the stress tests it doesn't even get intolerably loud. Compared to an old Compaq N610c I have it's practically silent, that damn thing is like a jet engine...

The webcam is an inexpensive add-on. Saves you from having to bring along something else should you need a webcam. It's decent enough for stuff like Skype calls. But I do find it handy to use an external webcam for situations like our child opening presents from the grandparents out of town. It's hard to point the laptop webcam down at the right angle while still being able to see the screen.

 

I've just moved to a T420 from a Vaio S series - the S series was constantly spinning up the fan, making a decent amount of noise.

The T420 by comparison is silent for 90% of the same tasks i used the VAIO for.

I use the T420 for development work mainly, visual studio and sql server stuff, and like I say - it stays silent 90% of the time, and when the fan does start, I find it to be hardly audible - even under load - very pleased with this aspect of it personally.

 

In terms of fan noise, I find the T420 to be quite good - I actually set the fan to its maximum speed via TPFanControl. Even at around 4500RPM RPM, it's quiet enough, though audible.

As for hard drive noise, you can barely hear it, but I can feel the left palmrest vibrating whenever the motor is crunching away.

 

I must be a strange guy because IMO the fan is quite audible at idle. At full speed its noisy but acceptable for a laptop. But my wish is to have silent when i'm doing soft work and browsing the web. And the convination of my 7200 scoprio black and the fan is killing me..

I'm thinking of buying some quieter 5400 hd and for the fan, wonder if opening the bezel and replacing the thermal compound for a nice one will make any difference.
That's mostly because my lowest temps are 30º for 1 core, and 37º for the second, so there's a big difference, and wouldn't be the first time that a laptop heatsing isn't doing contact properly. I'm afraid it could void the warranty though. There're any "warranty voider" stickers in the laptop or its ok to play with??

I have actually updated the bios to the latest and no difference..

 

I wouldn't.

My machine is currently at 36 C under light load. Your temperatures don't look abnormal, and if I were you I'd hesitate to start messing about with cooling without a good reason to do so.

 

Get TPFanControl and change the lowest temperature for turning the fan on /off. I have my T420s set to turn the fan off below 55C. Like you, I was getting annoyed by the fan running when the CPU was cool. It's the thermal cycling that kills things (like the infamous Nvidia GPU) as much as heat.

John

 

Thanks a lot. But it's a bit strange that 7 degree difference between the cores isn't it?

Will try the TPF program will tell. Even so, the 7200 WD drive will be still pretty loud, so maybe I'll go for an SSD, will see..

As for the hard drive, the laptop came with an 160gb/7mm hd, with its concrete rubber brackets.
I wanted to swap it with my WD 500gb, so I went straight and cut the spacers isnide the rubber to make them work correctly for a 9.5mm hd/ssd. I did wrong? Maybe I should buy again some 7.5mm brackets in case of SAT support.. dunno.

 

I agree that 7C core temperature difference on idle is unusual. I have around 1C difference on idle but 5C under load. Use HWiNFO32 to show the temperature. It also shows the core utilisation so you can see if your hotter core is doing all the work.

John

 

There's two possibilites for why there's a 7C difference:

1.- It's just the behavior of your particular CPU. Some CPUs inherently have one core that runs hotter than the other, one of my friends had a Core 2 Duo where one of the cores was always just about 6 degrees hotter, no matter how many times he tried repasting.

2.- Uneven contact in the thermal paste job.

Only way to find out is to repaste it. If it bothers you, you can try that, otherwise, there's no real detriment to this unless your temperatures are too high anyway.

 

Checked with HWinFoO32. The result is even worse, min 38/48 current 47/56 max 49/57. I bet there's miscontact with the hotter core.

 

I have Core i5 and a 5400 RPM drive, no GPU. The drive sounds non existent. Quietest I've ever heard. Fan is quite good.

I'd stay away from TPFanControl. Used it on a T60 and it almost fried the GPU. I used the deafult settings and he wrote it orginally for a T60. What is built in works fine on T420.

 

Maybe Windows just likes scheduling things on the second core?