Hi. I'm a starving college student. My hand-me-down HP laptop finally gave up the ghost, and I need a new one because I relied on it heavily for class and for work. Was thinking of getting a "netbook" because of price and linux-compatibility.

Biggest issue I'm having trouble with in choosing which netbook to buy is the noise factor. In the past, all the laptops I've owned had cooling fans that gave off a level of noise in DB slightly below that of an F-14 Tomcat. I was hoping, this time around, to get a netbook which was quiet enough that I could use it for an entire hour in a quiet classroom and not draw any attention to myself.

I'm doing lots of online research but I'm having trouble sorting it all out. The Acer Aspire One looks like a cool netbook all-around, but the reviews I read say that it is annoyingly loud. And it seems like every time I find a review that says an Asus Eee PC model is quiet, I find another review of the same model which says it is noisy.

I live in a somewhat remote area, and so I don't have the luxury of handling the various brands in person before buying. Can anyone with personal experience cut through some of this fog for me?

Side note: Anything I get must be fully Linux compatible (i.e., it must have a linux-compatible wireless device) and I was hoping to find something in the $300 to $400 price range at most.

Hi, if you want completely fanless, I suggest smartbook (ARM based chip): touchbook, wistron N900z. As a bonus you get long battery life. A downside is performance... (Note : I never touched these, I just read about them and found the concept interesting, so I decided to share it)

Dell mini 9 is also completely fan-less. And I have an acer aspire one (with ssd) and I don't hear the fan (but admitted, I'm a bit deaf).

The Eee1000 is noisy (test in LXF121, August 2009).

The Dell Mini-9, though no longer available, is as quiet as machines get. I have one and can tell you: no noise at all. (It's fanless)

As a plus, they're available for a pretty reasonable price on eBay, even ones labeled as new.