There are fanless laptops,
here is a list from 2018 (or 2019?).
MacBook Air with M1 processor is fanless as well. It happened almost an year ago. Do you consider it "standard laptop"?
Most of the fanless ones don't have a physical network port so you are dangling something off of the USB for physical connection.
And they tend to have smaller drives. For the Apple ones, they are so overpriced that you can get 3 bitcoin machines for the price of 1 Apple
Well, modern ARM-based laptops that run without fans, are basically a latest-gen Pi with a screen and keyboard. It's both ARM and thus very energy efficient, so they are not producing too much heat. This means they can cool themselves using the chassis as a passive heatsink and run a very long time on battery.
But, yes again 256GB drives at most for many of them and no physical network connection.
Not surprising, laptop isn't good option if you're looking for fanless/noiseless device with 24/7. Barebone PC (such as Raspberry Pi and Intel NUC) is better option due to better ventilation.
NUCs are not always cheap or fan-free. I have a few of them at client sites sitting behind monitors.
I think the loop here keeps coming back to is 'the correct tool for the job' RPIs have many things they can do well, and many things they don't do well. You really don't want one for gaming, or as a desktop replacement if you are working on massive spreadsheets, etc. For things like being a node, they do work well.
Small fanless laptops are easy to carry for travel, carry around campus and whatever else. But they tend to have to make compromises like smaller drives and less features in order to make them smaller and lighter and extend battery life for a limited size battery. For the ones that don't the price becomes an issue.
Full size desktops and laptops are well, full size desktops and laptops which is not what this thread is about.
-Dave
