I'm one of those who goes directly to the 1 star reviews to see the complaints right away.  I became reluctant to purchase this as I read through some. One person indicated that the fan sounds like a leaf blower. However, there were an overwhelming number of 5 star reviews and I decided to take a chance. So glad I did!!! This laptop is everything that the 5 star reviewers said it is. Boots up in about 15 seconds or less, stunning display, extremely fast and plenty of ports. I keep it on my desk and the fan rarely comes on. When it does it is not loud at all. I used it for 10 hours straight yesterday and it ran cool the whole time. Because the SSD size (upgradable) is modest I'm using a 2TB external hard drive I had and plugged it into the type c port via an adapter. No issues with response time due to I/O. I also have a 'My Passport' backup external drive connected. Again, no issues. I have a more expensive sound system that I connected to via the 3.5mm jack and it works great. I'm very pleased with the sound coming from the internal speakers. However, I have a more powerful system and it was very nice to be able to easily connect to it. I have been in IT for over 30 years and I can honestly say that for an entry level laptop, this surpassed all of my expectations!! :)