How cool&quiet is a Thinkpad these days?

I have finally become mighty tired of my Thinkpad T43 burning my thighs and slowly ehm, neutralizing my potential to one day become a father, all the while I AM READING PDF DOCUMENTS ON THE SCREEN.

Is there a Thinkpad notebook option for me, preferrably with a screen at least 13"? I don't need no horsepower more than what I have currently - an Intel Pentium-M 1.33Ghz CPU and I don't do any 3D, and if I would, I am pretty sure every other if not every mobile GPU out there today churns triangles like crazy anyway, so I would be covered. Same goes for any other component put in a mobile box today - RAM, storage, connections, so basically - all I need is a Very Cool Thinkpad (c)

Is there a salvation for me? Thanks!

 

If you don't need the latest and top of the line, you could get an inexpensive T400 or T500. By what I've seen on the forums and playing with some later-generation Thinkpads, the Tx00 generation is probably the coolest and quietest generation of the T-series as of yet.

My T500 is cool to the touch on integrated graphics mode everywhere except the top left corner with the heat exhaust, which is slightly warm--on idle and low loads, the fan stays off all the time. On discrete graphics mode, the fan usually spins at the lowest speed on idle, and the laptop warms a bit more. On maximum load, the laptop's base warms up a fair bit, and the fan spins up faster, but still remains whisper-quiet.

You can probably find a lightly-used and well-loaded T500 or T400 in the NBR Marketplace or on eBay for less than $600, perhaps even less than $500.

 

My T420s runs cooler than my T400.

 

My W520 is lukewarm at the hottest on the bottom when surfing the web.

 

My T500, T400, and X200 have all been extremely quiet, cool notebooks. I sold the T400 to a friend who absolutely loves it and he says the same thing. I get idle to minor load temps of around 40-45C, and noticed no heat whatsoever using my T500 on my lap on a road trip I took last night. However, said T500 is quite the lap-scorcher if you switch to the ATI GPU and fire up some games, but in normal use it runs very cool and very quiet.

 

The T43 is one of the more hotter running ThinkPads made of late. This is particularly true if you've got a higher end Sonoma Pentium M. You left out a few things that would help make an informed suggestion like price, battery life, mobility, etc. If you want something cool and don't mind used, I might suggest the X300 or X301. They use ULV Core 2 Duo CPUs, which run very cool. My X200t had a LV Core 2 Duo. It ran very cool and the fan rarely came on. Plus the X30x use a WXGA+, which will give you a bit more real estate.

 

My T420 is darn near silent.
Even when gaming the CPU fan isn't very loud.

 

I also agree that the T420 is wonderfully quiet, its certainly quieter and runs relatively cooler than my T61 despite having more power inside.

 

Generally, Sandy Bridge-based laptops run cooler than those based on previous generation CPUs (at least clock for clock), whereas in terms of performance they are more than adequate. And you don't need a dedicated GPU with Intel HD 3000. The HD 3000 should be more than plenty for everyday use as it has performance that is on par with some mid-range dGPUs.

Even my 45-TDP rated quad core 2720qm runs around 45C (core temp) with everyday use and the fan blows cool air out. The bottom temp is not much higher than the ambient temperatures (so you still can have some progeny ). The 35-TDP rated core i3s and i5s run even cooler.

If you can, wait for Ivy Bridge to be released next year. Those are expected to have even lower power consumption. But again, the waiting game may never end as the Haswells with a new architecture will come out next.

 

My T420 is MUCH cooler than my T61.

 

One of the main focuses these days is power efficiency. Sandy Bridge CPUs underclock and undervolt beautifully and barely get warm. My X220 gets maybe a little warm at the bottom and makes no noise at all when it's in maximum battery profile.

 

The Thinkpad W520 I am using right now is extremely silent (can't even hear the fans), maybe its because cars pass around my house 24/7. The W520 barely heats when I use Chrome to surf the web.

 

My Z61t's run cool after cleaning them out and running TPFanControl, idle is like 41C for a T7200 Core 2 Duo. Full load you barely feel it IMO.