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HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
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HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 8, 2008 20:05 UTC (Tue) by drosser (subscriber, #29597) [Link]
"Both sources are agreed on the fact that the 2133 is powered by VIA's C7-M processor, clocked at up to 1.6GHz - a CPU we found a tad noisy when tried in another sub-notebook." Ok, taking into account that a CPU isn't noisy, its cooling fan is, I'm still amazed these "Mobile Internet Devices" run hot enough to even need a fan. Will Intel Atom CPU's require a fan?
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 8, 2008 21:01 UTC (Tue) by maney (subscriber, #12630) [Link]
If they don't, they'll promptly be overclocked until they do. ;-)
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 11:26 UTC (Wed) by lacostej (guest, #2760) [Link]
If they do, they'll promptly be underclocked until they don't. ;-)
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 8, 2008 22:05 UTC (Tue) by hummassa (subscriber, #307) [Link]
The fact is, my eeePC gets hot enough to warrant its fan starting up sometimes... and I use it mostly as an XTerminal (not really, but I do start a lot of apps on my desktop a lot of the time)
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 8, 2008 23:21 UTC (Tue) by ibukanov (subscriber, #3942) [Link]
I am typing this on 12" Dell Latitude X1 laptop (which is re-branded Samsung Q30). It uses passive cooling despite having 1.1GHz Pentium-M CPU. It can get rather hot if left, say, on a sofa with heavy compilation running. Then CPU throttling kicks in and brings the CPU frequency down typically to 900MHz. But on a normal desk with room temperature at about 25C it would give just nice a warm feeling to the palms when touched no matter what it runs. For this reason I was really puzzled that Asus had to use a rather annoying fan on EEE with Celeron-M clocked only at 800MHz. The only reasonable explanation is that passive cooling would require to use expensive materials making noisy fan cheaper solution. So I would not be surprised to find fans even on subnotebooks with Intel's Atom.
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 13:30 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
Well the Asus EEE uses a Celeron ULV underclocked to 630mhz.. But I don't think that underclock makes much of a difference. I have mine at it's Intel-rated speed of 900mhz and it doesn't get any hotter or run the fan more. Trouble is that I think that plastic is a decent insulator and the very small size means pretty much zero convection goes on inside the case. Plus small fans run faster then larger fans and faster smaller fans are much more annoying. Personally I wouldn't mind having a clunkier or heavier device if that ment it had a couple features like extended batteries or enough metal intenally to spread the heat out and avoid the fan altogether.
Over-underclocked
Posted Apr 9, 2008 21:34 UTC (Wed) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]
I also think that such a small thing must be hard to refrigerate. You know, surface grows as the square of the length: a laptop half the size has one fourth of the surface and therefore dissipates one fourth as much heat. And the plastic case cannot help.Out of curiosity, how did you overclock your Eee? Not that I need it right now, but it might be nice to have.
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 7:33 UTC (Wed) by alecs1 (guest, #46699) [Link]
I am not able to give a link to a discussion, but CPUs can be noisy. I remember a discussion where some laptop owners had a high pitch sound coming from the laptop and they concluded it is from the processor. Please someone confirm (I haven't read that article linked from Register, so I don't know if that particular case is from the fan or not).
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 10:35 UTC (Wed) by broonie (subscriber, #7078) [Link]
You can get electrical interference from the CPU and associated components like memory to the analogue side of the audio subsystem if they're not well isolated, particularly when the digital side is busy (and therefore there is more activity on the bus).
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 12:43 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (subscriber, #15263) [Link]
Nope, that's not (only) it. My last system (a Centrino laptop) had audible noise from the motherboard itself (not the speakers), a few centimeters behind the CPU. Some simple LED display units in a company I worked for, had a similar noise from the control logic (No speakers, and no fan). I don't know what it is, but on those display units, it came from a single transistor, as far as I could hear (AFAICH? :)).
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 12:59 UTC (Wed) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]
I seem to recall that sort of noise being a sign that a component was about to fail.
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 13:57 UTC (Wed) by Los__D (subscriber, #15263) [Link]
Yep, the funny part is that it was not only mine, but several Centrino laptop we had in my class at college back then (3 or 4 laptops). OTOH, the backlight failed 3 years later, so it could have been the inverter making the noise (I guess a high voltage component is more likely to make audible noises), but it lived in imminent failure-state for a long time, then. :) - The displays at the company stopped doing it after redesigning the control system, and indeed it was a sign of a error, but in the design, not the component (I can't remember the details, I was just a lowly tester).
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 14:00 UTC (Wed) by zlynx (subscriber, #2285) [Link]
http://groups.google.com/group/linux.kernel/browse_thread... That's a link to a Linux Kernel thread about singing components. Apparently the problem became much worse on systems running Linux with a 1,000 Hz tick rate.
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 10, 2008 10:56 UTC (Thu) by NRArnot (subscriber, #3033) [Link]
There are magnetic components (transformers, inductors) in the power supplies, including the DC/DC converter that steps down battery voltage to the 1.something V that the CPU wants. You can see them on the motherboard usually clustered around the CPU. They almost inevitably vibrate as the magnetic field changes. They are driven at an ultrasonic frequency (up to a few MHz), but the frequency is modulated by the work that the CPU is doing, and it's possible for annoying audible squeaks or chirps to be emitted under some workloads.
HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival (Register Hardware)
Posted Apr 9, 2008 15:33 UTC (Wed) by hchristeller (subscriber, #4246) [Link]
Controlling electrical noise requires the use of large numbers of bypass capacitors. One type of ceramic capacitor used, due to low cost and high capacitance per volume, is somewhat piezoelectric. If the ICs are drawing current in a regular pattern at an audio frequency, you can hear the caps sing. Inductors used in switching power supplies can also sing, from magnetorestriction.