Maybe we shouldn’t but my wife and I use our computers in the lounge, often while the TV is on. For instance the marvelous World’s Greatest Musical prodigies are on in their infant cleverness while I type this and my wife works on her Masters, or organizes her uni tuition work. Sometimes the TV or radio is silenced, and in those precious hours our brains don’t want rattling by computer CPU fans. I thought I’d cracked the noisy computer problem when I bought a Dell Dimension 5000 a few years ago. Cunning airflow design and only one fan certainly made it quieter than any I had before. However, on warm evenings using large applications or working on long novels, that fan struggled. “It’s whining,” I’d get in one ear while the other pretended all was well.
So I thought Dell might have improved on the Dimension 5000 and last week visited several computer shops and although I couldn’t hear most of them above the background noises, I picked another Dell. I was tempted by smaller machines like Advent but you could have cooked eggs on them. Last thing I wanted during hot summer nights was to be saunaed. The Dell was a Studio 540 – neat and simple to set up. Then I heard its noise. Aaarrggh, much louder and more annoying than anything the Dimension threw at me. So, the store manager said I was the first customer who’d brought back a new machine complaining of its noise. Another first. Googling the company – Currys – I’d discovered they have a reputation for denying responsibility. That maybe unfair so to make sure they knew who they were dealing with I put on my best shoes and wore a tie. And so it was, Curry’s refunded with no quibble at all. All that revising of the Sales of Goods Act (1979) ammended 2003, wasn’t necessary, what a waste.
I toyed with the notion of an iMac but found even some of those reported noisy fans and hums. After more rigorous research I ordered an Arbico Silent Intel Core 2 Duo. So come on, Arbico Computers Limited, build me a good ‘un, I’ve Xaghra’s Revenge to finish writing.
