I've found that simply lowering maximum fan speed on my laptop works well. The fan on what I'm using is nearly inaudible at 30%, yet I still get 90% of the perf

I've found that simply lowering maximum fan speed on my laptop works well. The fan on what I'm using is nearly inaudible at 30%, yet I still get 90% of the performance on long-running tasks. Much as with desktop CPUs, you pay a lot for that last 10%. On that note, a lot of laptops have goofy fan curves. In theory, you want the fan to move just enough air that the CPU doesn't throttle, since the rate of heat transfer is proportional to the heatsink-to-air temperature difference.