Any decent notebook can become nearly silent. My XPS 1330's fan almost never kicks in just surfing the net. If it does, its very very quiet. The Key is to use a program called RMClock to lock you computer at X multiplier and under volt your chip. For example on mine T7500 I run at the 8x multi when ever I am on battery and I was able to bring the voltage down to .900 volts. I am sitting at 48C with my fan off. I also replace the TIM with AS5. RMClock works with almost all processor including Intel's new Core 2 chips. Shoot me a PM if you want help in setting this up. Its a bit confusing at first, but its well worth it in the end.