Sorry, I actually cannot compare it to much... I had a Dell, but I got it used and it had an inherent problem with noise, thus I was able to get a deal... the reason I went with this MB is ofcourse OS X, but also needed something quiter for meetings - the Dell I did not bring in.
My friend has a Centrino winbook 12" and that thing does not have the turbo boost fans... At least I never heard them... some white noise is normal and does not bother me... that's what I get in the MB... but the turbo boost bothers me...
OK, now I've been running for about 30 minutes 1 firefox window with 4 tabs, microsoft word idle in background, parallels with xp, excel, and online bible software, adium, and the temperature monitor... All programs have been iddle, meaning I switch to them and type like 1 word just to keep them awake, but using only firefox... CPU A: 66C, the history window for the last hour shows minimum of 60 maximum of 68...
Fans are running right now at mild speed... at about 66 they go somewhat hire, but as soon as I do anything more I think I'm gonna get the turbo boost... let's see... Ha, it outsmarted me... not really, but basically I was already at 66, it was going to 67 so fans turned to about 50%... I started photoshop, but the fans were already fighting the temperature, so they just kicked in to about 75% and been stable at 75%, which is loud, but not horibly loud... the fact is that while in Photoshop, the fans just could not cool the processor, and it was shifting between 65 to 68C... More RAM may help me as the Photoshop still runs through Rosetta... I don't know... will report then... you got to consider that I have quite a few programs already opened and idling... including parallels...
Idle temperature right now at 63C again... (well, it's not idle, but basically without direct intensive tasks on the processor)... Fans running at about 30%... Percentages are subjective compared to the maximum speed... Up untill about 50% it is white noise, above that it is a fan but bearable, full boost is annoying...
I'd like to hear more feedback... Have 14 days to fully test it and return if it does not work for me, even though I think it will work... I've put way too much work into customization of everything... Honestly, I love OS X... hardware though, in my opinion, could be better... Like the left side wall, where all the ports are, well, it's not one piece with the top right - not only that, but it's not even glued together and it creaks when you push on it... That's unacceptable...
What are my options though - I want OS X and small form factor... Wish they had the 12" MBPs... Or I'd wait for the smaller size processors that Intel is brining in a year, but do not have the time... Oh well...
