Quietest Gaming Laptop for ~£1,500

Ginjarou · 30 May 2023 at 10:55

Hi all,

I'm looking into getting a gaming laptop for around £1,500. I'm looking at the likes of the ASUS ROG Strix G16/G17, Lenovo Legion etc. - cards with a 4060 card in (this is good enough my for my needs).
However noise is probably the biggest factor for me (yes I'm weird), so I'm trying to find out which of these is the quietest. Of course the marketing all says they're very quiet but how truly quiet are they :rolleyes:

Does anyone have any of these laptops and can comment on the fan noise on them?

From some reviews I've heard that the ASUS ROG Strix G16 (and larger models) is quiet when in 'Standard' mode but can get loud when in 'Turbo' mode. To me, when my Steamdeck is running certain games - that is way too loud for my liking :cry:

I've even returned games because the Steamdeck ran so loud it was just distracting (to me and everyone in the room).

Any advice and general advice would be appreciated as this will be my first gaming laptop having come from desktop.

Thanks!

d_brennen · 30 May 2023 at 11:14

i don't think there is such as thing as a quite gaming laptop, at least when gaming. Small fans moving large amounts of air are going to be noisy

Ginjarou · 30 May 2023 at 11:25

d_brennen said:
i don't think there is such as thing as a quite gaming laptop, at least when gaming. Small fans moving large amounts of air are going to be noisy

I agree, which is why I'm looking for the 'quietest'

Rroff · 30 May 2023 at 11:52

Yeah they definitely aren't quiet - some have "AI" fan software, etc. to try and tame it but in reality if anything it makes it more annoying as you get constant ramping instead of a more consistent noise.

I've a couple of Aorus gaming laptops and they are definitely not quiet when gaming though tolerable kind of (supposedly one of the worst for high performance power profile but I'd say the Asus were worse personally) - what I find worse is Windows 10/11 is just so often busy in the background the fans will periodically ramp up, sometimes for 15+ minutes at a time, even when just "idle" - which my older Windows 7 gaming laptops never do/did. Which personally I find irritating as **** stupid MS.

I know people with high performance Asus ones and they are definitely not remotely quiet when gaming.

Dell ones seem one of the quietest in my experience but not sure there are many options there (at least price competitive and around £1500) and sometimes they cheap out with a lower power version of the GPU, etc.

Can't really speak for Lenovo or MSI, etc.

Alexrose1uk · 17 Jun 2023 at 16:40

I have a Lenovo Legion 5 with a 6800H and a 3070Ti (so around 200-225W between the CPU and GPU peak, 300W brick), its not quiet at all, especially when everything is set to performance mode, albeit its not too bad on eco or balanced, but one thing I will say is compared to some laptops I've used previously, the fan noise is more of a drone/airflow noise than a high pitched fan noise, and the cooling pad I sit mine on is arguably more offensive in terms of sound; so it might be worth just going out and trying to test as much as possible, as decibel of the cooling fans definitely doesn't tell the whole story.

A higher pitched fan whine is arguably much more annoying than a lower pitched one at an equivalent noise level, especially if you will combine with any earphones or headphones, especially with ANC.

Bencher · 22 Jun 2023 at 21:14

Ginjarou said:
Hi all,

I'm looking into getting a gaming laptop for around £1,500. I'm looking at the likes of the ASUS ROG Strix G16/G17, Lenovo Legion etc. - cards with a 4060 card in (this is good enough my for my needs).
However noise is probably the biggest factor for me (yes I'm weird), so I'm trying to find out which of these is the quietest. Of course the marketing all says they're very quiet but how truly quiet are they

Does anyone have any of these laptops and can comment on the fan noise on them?

From some reviews I've heard that the ASUS ROG Strix G16 (and larger models) is quiet when in 'Standard' mode but can get loud when in 'Turbo' mode. To me, when my Steamdeck is running certain games - that is way too loud for my liking I've even returned games because the Steamdeck ran so loud it was just distracting (to me and everyone in the room).

Any advice and general advice would be appreciated as this will be my first gaming laptop having come from desktop.

Thanks!

Not a single laptop in existence will be quiet while gaming if you press that thing called Turbo mode. Period. The whole point of the Turbo button is to make the laptop go vroum vroum. Now depending on the size of the laptop, you might be able to cool more watts etc. My experience with my g14 is that, with a total combined power draw of 60w (45w for the GPU, 25w for the CPU), it's really quiet. Of course I pulled the fans all the way down and let it hit 80c, but who cares, 80c are fine. The performance at 60w is great, but itt's definitely not a desktop experience. If you don't plan on connecting it to an external monitor, then you can lower resolution anyways since laptop screens are small - they are insanely sharp even at 1080p.

A cooling pad always helps making a laptop quieter as well, since that big 120m on the bottom at very low rpm will be quiet while pushing much more air than the tiny laptop fans.

Last but not least, if you don't care about mobility that much don't buy an Asus g whatever. Those are made to be slim and as a consequence, they don't have great heat dissipation, they will make more noise than other bulkier laptops.

oweneades · 24 Jun 2023 at 17:31

Noise levels will vary widly between laptops and further still depending on the pitch of the fans cooling it.

Best thing I have found is a decent cooling pad (in my case a Coolermaster unit with the fans replaces with dual ML120's running over 5v USB) combined with decent ventilation on the bottom of the laptop. In this configuration my Legion 7 is relatively controlled from a noise perspective (at least compared to other gaming laptops I have used with such power level) and maintains <75C on both the CPU and GPU in sustained load scenarios.

The Zephyrus line up from Asus seem to be on the very meh scale when it comes to actually cooling anything. My wife's G15 is not much smaller than the Legion 7 but asking it to cool a lower TGP 3080M whilst the CPU is also under heavy load is a non starter.

If the Steam Deck noise level was a problem then pretty much any gaming tier laptop (and most non gaming tier laptops tbh) will be any issue noise wise. Saying that my Deck doesn't have a high pitched fan whine sound which I believe some had so it doesn't really bother me (the Ally is MUCH quieter mind).