Recommendations for Tinnitus Friendly Laptops

Some laptops are very loud and have powerful sound systems. I was wondering if any of you know of any good laptops that won't spike my tinnitus. I need a good processor too, preferably greater than 500 Mhz. Plenty or Random Access Memory. Operating system in English.

Any suggestions?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-A114-32...celeron+n4000&qid=1557459008&s=gateway&sr=8-3

When my tinnitus is bad, I use a cheap laptop, with a Celeron N4000 processor. The thing is low powered, no mechanical hard drive, and has no fan, so it is completely silent. It is not the most powerful, but fine for basic tasks like web browsing,, word processing and email. It ships with Windows 10S, which got switched to full Windows.

 

The MacBook. Not MacBook Pro. But MacBook. There are no fans and it's SSD (no spinning hard drives). It's dead silent. Makes no noise at all. Ants make more noise during sex. Without it I would have been screwed. How else would I browse Reddit in bed? Can't sleep without my dose of r/aww and r/freefolk

Top model specs:
1.4GHz dual-core 7th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz

You can configure up to 16 gigs of ram and up to 512 GB SSD drive.

Sometimes I connect it to an external monitor and keyboard and use it as a desktop in my studio to drive my 4K monitor and it handles tethering with my 50 megapixel camera. So it can do stuff.

If you're a Windows user then just install Windows on it.

 

What is your budget? Does it need to be a laptop?

If so, the suggestions above are good. For a quiet laptop, it has to be a good design regarding cooling and I recommend Intel with integrated (Intel) graphics.

Most will be silent until you try to do extensive stuff that is beyond what the processor etc. can do.

Other than Macs, the Lenovo Thinkpads and Dell Latitudes can be configured for more memory than the 8gb standard. The HP business line offers that, too, I believe.

Macs are probably the best but you pay a lot for what you get and configuration options are limited.

 

I'm sorry, I was totally joking when I made this post. Think about it, 500 MHz?

I will say that I was a Mac hater for a long time, but my company gives me a MacBook Pro to do my work on and it's awesome.

 

Intergrated graphics are bad for gamers but fine for everyone else.

I have a ASUS Q502LA that is near dead silent unless it is loading a lot of task.
It has 8 gigs of RAM and a 2.7 Ghz processor and 1TB hardrive. Also take note it can hold up to 16 gigs of RAM.
https://www.cnet.com/products/asus-q502la-bbi5t12-15-6-core-i5-4210u-8-gb-ram-1-tb-hdd/

Regarding my OS it's Linux Mint however obvious it came with Windows 10 and still has it along side in a duel boot. Both Windows 10 and Ubuntu based Linux distros are great choices IMO.

I never recommend anyone use a Mac. Mac sucks it has none of the professional usage that Windows 10 has and none of the privacy and customibility that Linux Distros have. If you browse tech forums you get so many complaints of Macbooks breaking within a few years. IMO Mac is literally a over priced locked down computer which makes it's user into a slave.

I heard some rich people just buy Mac's because they are rich and like symbolize it through a shitty over priced OS with a glowing apple on the back of it.

 

I've got an 8 year old Asus with 8 GB of Ram and an SSD. It still kicks serious ass.

 

Why wouldn't it? Computers can really last forever.

 

These are good for buisness and schools that need a bunch of cheap computers for there workers to use at home.

 

Integrated graphics is probably better for tinnitus users. I think a laptop with a dgpu is more likely to be loud as the fans work to keep it cool. It depends on what you do on it of course.

I recommended the business laptops for being more sturdy than consumer grade laptops. They are usually more configurable for cpu, ssd and memory options, too. Many laptops have the memory soldered in and 8gb is often the standard configuration.

 

Computer fans aren't loud enough for causing damage to hearing unless it's like a server room. I have an Alienware 17 inch laptop that has massive fans and it never gets above 50 dB.

Are you worried about the sound volume from the speakers?

 

Those fans were driving my H nuts at one point, and I doubt they were damaging anything. The fanless laptop was great for those occasions.

 

From his post, John seems to think loud fans might spike his tinnitus?

I guess people with hyperacusis might want to avoid loud fans, too. Although, everyone will have a subjective interpretation of what is loud for a fan, I want to limit fan noise, too. Most will be high pitched and can be annoying in general, not just according to tinnitus sufferers.

I am considering what to do myself. My old desktop seems too loud. I wanted a new computer for a while. I thought a laptop might get loud more often but then again, they are lower powered with smaller parts.

 

@another sean
@Digital Doc
Hey guys, I have a question. Possibly a silly one!
Just bought new HP laptop and I wonder if laptop is silent (no fan or hard drive noise) does it still emit some sort of sound which is not audible but can trigger ear sensitivity?

 

After a few hours on a new HP my ears were super sensitive and burning.
Apart from occasional fan noise the laptop seems to be silent.
Yesterday when my ears were feeling bit better I detected a fine buzzing/high pitch coming from the keyboard part.
Sound is similar to fluorescent light sharp buzz.
So after all I wasn’t imagining that my ears got worse from laptop.
I guess now I have to take it back to store and hope they will do exchange.

 

Sean is this any good in terms of noise?

Thanks!

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/apple-macbook-air-13-3-inch-128gb.html

 

Very unlikely a laptop fan is going to spike your tinnitus. If anything it will probably be a soothing white noise to help mask it, unless you have the reactive kind of tinnitus.

I use a huge fan on full power every night to sleep. When that broke and I was waiting for a new one I turned all the fans up on my gaming computer to 100% for white noise.

Buy whatever laptop you want and try not to worry.

 

I tend to agree with you but she didn't post what the HP laptop was.

The best thing would be to go to a laptop forum where all they do is discuss laptops (and ask there). Obviously, certain laptops (passive/fanless) are best but they're also expensive. Any modern laptop with integrated graphics with decent cooling design should be good enough. Even if a fan comes on, it shouldn't be bothersome. Most modern laptops use a SSD or that's what you should ensure it has. As long as you don't stress the laptop, you should be fine. Try to get get the best processing power you can and 8 - 16GB of memory. Don't game on it.

 

If the laptop is passively cooled, and has solid state for a hard drive (SSD or eMMC), than it will be totally silent.

 

There is a sweet spot for computer fan/HD noise. I actually prefer the noise when I had multiple physical HDs in my desktop but I switched to SSD for the sake of reliability.

 

This is what I got but 16 GB!

https://www.harveynorman.com.au/hp-15-6-inch-i7-1065g7-8gb-512gb-ssd-laptop.html

It’s not the fan noise that bothers my ears but the sharp buzz that I hear.

 

I wouldn't consider a loud laptop. But if you want absolute silence, then go with a MacBook instead. Not MacBook Air. A Macbook Air still has a fan. A MacBook has no fan at all. It's about the same price but apple stopped making them last year so you may only find them on eBay.

 

Of if you can locate a spot with reasonable physical separation between your computer and yourself, such as a closet or behind a wall, you can use a USB extension cord and hub for your keyboard and mouse and a longer hdmi cable for your monitor. There are also usb to hdmi adapters so you might not even need a long hdmi cable, but they may have distance limits. In my case, I drill a hole through a wall for the cables and put my computer on the other side of the wall.

 

Passive laptops are expensive. If you have money to burn. Go crazy and buy one.

But, if you are looking for a decent laptop that is relatively quiet, you need to look for two things.

A low power, energy efficient laptop so not too powerful a GPU and a decent CPU so it doesn't get throttled. You want it to run at the point that the fans don't get too stressed.

Which brings me to the 2nd thing to look for. Satisfactory fan design. Where are the fan vents? You want them in adequate locations. Look at laptops that you can order online and ones at local shops. Then research those especially check out what people say in laptop forums/online sites.

Pick a laptop with integrated graphics. AMD has some interesting laptops that will be released soon. Look at the lower powered ones with integrated graphics. They are more likely to be quiet. Equip it with SSD and it should be quiet when doing routine tasks (not including gaming).

 

The new MacBook Air has no fans and is faster than the old MacBook Pro.