OK, the Professional M2 is a quiet laptop, but the Professional M3 is even quieter. Sometimes, it won't be an exaggeration to call it silent. It is remarkably quiet - certainly one of the quietest laptops on the market. A lot of it has to do with all the clever cooling technology built into the Intel Pentium M architecture. The difference from previous models is that now you don't sacrifice power. In our business power and stability are EVERYTHING.

THE HEAT PIPE

The heat-pipe is employed to keep the 1.73 GHz Pentium M processor, the graphics circuits and the RAM cool. Here is how it works on the CPU. One end of the heat-pipe sits directly on top of the CPU socket. As the CPU heats up the heat-pipe, made of highly conductive copper, heats up too. The heat-pipe extends 4 inches beyond the CPU socket and fans are placed on the bottom of the M3 to funnel cool air from the outside and pass it over the heat-pipe to keep that end cool.

The hot air is then dumped out the back of the machine through the air vents. As one side of tech heat-pipe cools the heat 'travels' into it via passive convection. This allows heat from the CPU to dissipate quietly. The alternative is to place a big, noise fan directly on the CPU. Instead the M3 employs smaller, quieter fans that result in much quieter operation.