Laptops are noisy too and cost a bundle + you have to buy cards (modem, network, scsi). You can buy two desktops for the price of one notebook if you shop around (I can buy at least three, but hey, I'm Dutch, I watch every penny :-). BTW, APM is for thing like CPU, PCMCIA cards, not HDs, etc. What you like to focus on is HDs and fans (both CPU as well as PSU).
I live in a one-room place and have three machines running all the time, without making me go crazy: Pentium 120, Pentium 200, Celeron 366 Laptop. Couple of tips for the desktops. Tip 1: stay away from Quantum HDs, all the ones I've had start whining after a while. IBM is what I use now and they are much better, but not perfect either. Tip 2: try to run the CPU fan on 7 volts instead of 12 volts. Slow down is marginal, noise reduction is huge. Might be a bit tougher now that most CPU fans plug into the motherboard for power. Tip 3: there are kits available which will control the speed of the PSU fan by means of an NTC. I bought them for US$10 in the local electronics shop and they work fine. Alternatively a resistor in the circuit of the fan might work too for fixed speed reduction. Tip 4: use hdparm with the -S switch to suspend HDs after being idle for a while. Tip 5: Rip out all the fans in your computer and move to Lapland, Iceland, Siberia, Antarctica..... Drill a hole in the wooden wall of your shack, buy some heat conducting pipe and lead it from the hole to the PC. Okay, I'm getting a little carried away now. Hope this helps a bit. Hans --- It's nice to be like, but better by far to get paid -- Liz Phair
