[nevi-me]

A single data point:

Fanless is important enough for me that when I was about to go home to a hot village over the Nov-Jan break (I was going to work till mid-December), I went and bought the M1 Air so I could ditch my loud work laptop. The work laptop was a Dell with a Quadro, known to overheat and get loud when temp > 45°C. The last time I was home I had observed that it idled at least below 40, while around 35 in the city, so with 10° warmer weather in December, it was going to be loud when idle.

Even when my new job gave me a new device, I hesitated to get the M1 Pro as it has a fan. Only got it after watching enough reviewers say it almost never turns on.

I'm 34 and my ears started constantly ringing in 2019 after my then employer gave me a faulty 'new' laptop whose fan was always at 100%. I complained about it numerous times to no avail.

We didn't fully grasp how loud it was until one day we were in the office past 5pm when the central cooling turner off. It contributed a lot to the office noise.

There were about 10 of us in the office, when I turned off my laptop almost everyone startled, asking what loud object had just turned off (we had been complaining that it's hot, so were aware the HVAC was off).

So yes most people compiling code may prefer beefier machines with fans, I've sadly started a lifelong journey of avoiding fans.

We live in a small apartment, I'm even considering getting a new fridge because our current one is loud.

[nordsieck]

I've really gotten a lot of milage out of wearing earplugs on a regular basis. It is a bit of an unusual practice, but I really like the quiet. Might be an alternative solution to your problem.

Alternatively, I've found that using a laptop pad with a large (200mm) fan can help to keep the machine cool without generating much noise.

[doubled112]

My wife seems to really like air moving around. There's a large fan in this room, and a small one, and an air purifier too. You get the idea.

I, on the other hand, find the noise overwhelming sometimes. Sometimes I wear my over ear headphones with nothing playing just to dull it.

Same idea, I suppose? Maybe I'll try some ear plugs.

[nordsieck]

> Sometimes I wear my over ear headphones with nothing playing just to dull it.

If you like the over-the-ear format, you can also get rated[1] earmuffs. I've tried out a set, but I also wear glasses and their clamping force causes my glasses frames to put too much force on my head for comfort.

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1. By rated, I mean they have an "NRR" rating.

[brokenmachine]

I'd be looking into a different wife before I'd accept the noise of unnecessary fans.

[capableweb]

Hah, I take it you are not married? Life with a longterm partner tends to be filled with compromises.

[brokenmachine]

My partner hates fan noise as much as I do. There's other compromises, of course... :-)

[quechimba]

I've had two MacBook Pros die in the Amazon rainforest due to humidity. I think the fans pull in humid air and that the water gets stuck. My brother has had an M1 Air for about 2.5 years in the jungle with no issues whatsoever. Also since there is no power grid, it's good to have more battery life (sometimes it rains for days).

If anyone reads this, any suggestions on how to make electronics last longer in such a humid environment? I've been thinking about building some sort of dry box with silica gel but I'm not really sure how... And to use an external monitor instead of the built in one...

[freehorse]

Very similar, I am pretty sure laptop fans were making my tinnitus worse. Noise canceling headphones help, but I do not wanna wear them all the time.

A fanless laptop has been a revelation for me. I am not going back ever.

[anonymouskimmer]

I've read anecdotes of active noise cancelling headphones sometimes making tinnitus worse.

[freehorse]

Yeah I have read such also, and indeed also for me it is not ideal to wear for long time, but it is still definitely significantly better than having to be listening to a laptop fan or similar. Listening to music with it I feel is better than just using it for noise cancelling, but I cannot be certain it makes a difference. Otherwise, if I do not have such mechanical noises around, I disable noise cancelling.

[nevi-me]

I'm conflicted on this one. I have really good Sony ones, and whenever I wear them for even 30 minutes, when I take them off I feel worse. I don't know if it's all in my head and they objectively don't make it worse, however I also now avoid wearing them.

I've probably used them for < 20 hours in the last year, half of that while driving long distance. My car also creates a lot of white noise.

[brokenmachine]

>My car also creates a lot of white noise.

Different tyres will change the noise of a car too.

When I bought my last car, it came with a mishmash of different brands of cheap crappy tyres. They were quite noisy all the time, but when you hit exactly 80km/h there was some kind of resonating drone as well, that was very weird...

When I replaced them with good, high-end softer tyres, the noise was reduced by a massive amount all the time, and no more drone.