The first thought in my mind when I powered up my 4100 for the first time was - "This thing is noisy!"

this has nothing to do w/ the 4100 but i think the culprit could be the cpu fan, especailly if it's from a 3rd-party vendor-some of them are quite noisy. one way to find out is stick a pen thru the case cooling fan while the power's off, when u power on, it can't spin. then listen to the cpu fan go to work.

While I'm rapidly learning to hate Dell (as a corporation) I must admit that my six-week-old 4100 is extremely quiet, and I have it sitting right next to the monitor. In my case this is one thing, at least, they got right.

My Dimension 4100 933 Mhz is extremely quiet. I had a HP before and I never realized how noisy it was until I got this one. I haven't had any problems with my 4100. I am very satisfied.

I have a Dimension 4100 and a Dimension 8100, neither of which are noisy and both of which I am very happy with to date.

Earlier posts from the begining rollout of each system included complaints of fan noise, but I have not read similar complaints lately. They may have fixed the problem prior to my purchase of the two systems.

I just purchased an 8100, and my power supply is noisy as hell, WHEN THE MACHINE IS TURNED OFF!!! Figure that one out... The machine is constantly under power, unless you physically unplug it from the wall. WHY??? Why design a computer that needs a power supply to have all of its capacitors charged at all times???

I don't know about the 4100, but I know for sure that the 8100 is quite loud and annoying, even when it is turned off. (you can hear the transformer whining)

I have 2 4100's. One I would describe as quiet. The other moderately quiet. Neither seems excessive to me. Both are noisier than the P166 and R350's I had and Shhh! (the Quantex 266). Most of the noise is just the fan and not the hard drives or fan cage, because both have 2 hard drives and when I unplug any of the hard drives the noise is the same. One has IBM and Western Digital, the other has IBM and Maxtor.
If they made less noise I would be wondering if the fan was powerful enough to keep the processor cool.

Hi quasar,
After shutting down, keep the power button pushed in a few (6 or so) seconds. If you continue hearing it run I would call Dell. Not familiar with the 8100 so I may be wrong, but to me that doesn't sound right.

Glen
4100 933Mhz
19VH001
FFD4001
Win98SE

G E Lang,

I am on my 4th replacement power supply from Dell, and they all exhibit the same problem. (And no, my machine is actually OFF, and not in standby or any other power saving state so the holding down of the power button, doesn't solve the problem). It's the fact that they keep the power supply charging its capacitors even when the machine is totally off. Add to that the fact that their transformer is 'noisy', and you get a very irritating high pitched tone coming from the machine. The tech's I talked to blame it on the fact that the power supply is voltage auto-sensing. Hopefully the 4100 isn't, otherwise you all might end up with the same problem us 8100 users have.

Thanks for your help though,

-Quasar.

Have a 4100 and it is very quiet. I am very satisfied.