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Mac Pro: Quiet or Noisy?

Curren~Sea

Curren~Sea

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2006
178
0
Vancouver, BC
Just wondering if the new Pro's are noisy (you are constantly aware of the fan noise and/or harddisk) or quiet (is this thing on?)?

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.


Edit: Hey, the wonder of search!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/235857/

And yes, I would be interested in knowing specefically when the graphics card is chugging, i.e. heavy 3D applications, and I am leaning towards the x1900 card.
 
S

Silentwave

macrumors 68000
May 26, 2006
1,615
50
I was at the apple store and could barely hear a thing running shake with the 4x3GHz/X1900XT setup with my ear against the case.

So I'd say pretty quiet.
 
Transeau

Transeau

macrumors 6502a
Jan 18, 2005
869
13
Alta Loma, CA
2x 3GHz Dual core, X1900, 8GB, 2x 150GB Raptors and 2x Seagate 7200.9 300GB....

Silent except for the seagates... they are a bit clicky when under heavy load.
 
kered22

kered22

macrumors 6502
May 26, 2006
354
1
Torrance, CA
Same here, quiet, very quiet. The other night, I was exporting 3 H.264 movies out of QT player and importing a .DV clip into iMovie with no increase in fan noise.

I can hear the X1900 revving up a bit when I get to some very intense area of Call of Duty 2 (all settings maxed out), but that's the only time I hear it.

Only way you're really going to hear the system fans is if you put your ear up to the front grill. Other than that, it's silent, at least to my ears.
 
F

freezerburrn

macrumors member
Aug 20, 2006
79
0
La Habra, CA
Hmm, for me the loudest thing at idle is the X1900 fan. I think if the X1900 fan was more quiet, the system would be practically whisper like at idle.
 
S

slabbius

macrumors member
Aug 7, 2006
86
0
When I first bought it, the machine was silent. Now I have upgraded and added two 10,000RPM Raptors and it is very noisy. But I am used to working with noisy machines, so it doesn't bother me... I mean, some people like to have loud exhaust on their fast cars...
 
S

Simon R.

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2006
408
131
It is really quiet - with just one harddrive. But I added 3 WD harddrives (the new RE series, which are quite a bit less noisy than Seagates actually), and that can cause several types of vibrations in the casing, unfortunately. There's a deeper sound, that seems to be caused by the casing itself. I am "leaning" the Mac against my desk with some foam thingies inbetween, that seems to help quite a bit. I also have foam between the casing and the floor, which takes the vibrations out of the floor. Then there can happen some rattling noise as well, which seems to be the actualy PCIe cards making it. At least, fiddling with the DVI connectors and even the power connecter, can have an influence on the rattling sound. Right now it is gone and I hope it stays that way. Also, small variances in positioning the HD bays inside, can cause a difference in the vibration noise caused by the harddrives. So, pushing it up/down/left/right as much as it can, can help things.

In all, it is less noisy than my PC with 3 harddrives. I bought it with the Geforce 7300 btw. All of you people who have noise from the X1900 fan should buy a replacement, which is what I would do if I had gotten it with that card.
 
D

daveporter

macrumors regular
Sep 8, 2006
212
0
Green Cove Springs, FL
My 2.66 GHz Mac Pro is of stock configuration with the exception of two extra Seagate hard disk drives.

It is just about totally silent under most operating condtions. About the only time I hear it is when the hard disk drives are being accessed heavily and then it is still very quite overall.

Apple did a remarkable job with noise control with the Mac Pro.

Dave
 
Abulia

Abulia

macrumors 68000
Jun 22, 2004
1,786
1
Kushiel's Scion
The Accelero X2 is the replacement fan of choice. It makes the X1900 dead quiet, even under full load. There are multiple links out there of successful installs.
 
NATO

NATO

macrumors 68000
Feb 14, 2005
1,702
35
Northern Ireland
ljones said:
Silent until i place a CD or DVD in. Pisses me off that i paid all this money and this thing is loud like this and the Apple Store sees nothing wrong with it.

http://www.urbansory.com/video/?id=LoudMacPro
Click to expand...

High Speed CD/DVD Drives are loud because they're high speed - The Disc is spinning horrendously fast. Spinning something really really fast inside a small enclosure is inherently noisy. To solve the problem, get yourself a 2X CD-ROM Drive and put it in the secondary bay and use it from now on. You'll never know it's on!
 
L

ljones

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2006
232
0
Atlanta, GA
Well actually i will rarely ever use it. just the principle. But it also says 8x max in Toast, no media inserted into the drive. So... where is the 16x?????

Anyone else seeing this?
 
C

Cowinacape

macrumors regular
Jul 3, 2006
188
0
Surrey B.C. Canada
To the o.p., my Pro id absolutely dead quiet, even playing a games and the video card starts up. I was quite amazed, buy how quiet it is compared to the PC, that also sits on the same desktop, just a few feet away.
 
devmage

devmage

macrumors member
Aug 9, 2006
49
0
The Mac Pro is so quiet, its fabulous coming from a rev a G5. The only real noise I hear is when I have WoW going the ATI X1900 fan spins up enough to notice if there is no other sound in the room :)
 
Abulia

Abulia

macrumors 68000
Jun 22, 2004
1,786
1
Kushiel's Scion
Finally got a chance to run some games, hard core/under full load with the X2 installed on my X1900.

Dead quiet.

I can't get the video card to make a peep. Doesn't matter what I throw at it. Exhaust from the case seems the same as before.

Even when starting the machine up or waking from sleep, the card fan makes no noise. (The stock cooler on the X1900 makes a "whoosh!" when you wake the machine from sleep.)

So two big thumbs up from me! :)
 
S

seanf

macrumors 6502
Aug 8, 2006
310
0
UK
Abulia said:
Finally got a chance to run some games, hard core/under full load with the X2 installed on my X1900...
Click to expand...
Was this easy to install - the instructions seem quite simple? Also, what did you use to get rid of any existing thermal paste on the card (or was it a thermal pad)?

Thanks

Sean :)
 
M

Mantishead

macrumors newbie
Aug 16, 2006
21
0
The Big Gulp

The X1900 and case fans make no sound at all. The system takes a big gulp of air when you first turn it on, which actually makes you panic at first when you think that it's normal operating noise but then it shuts the hell up.

The HDs make more noise than the rest of the system put together. My advice, stick tonnes of memory in it to reduce the amount of paging and you shouldn't hear a thing. Mine sits on my desk next to my left ear and when I play 6 Quicktime movies, Garage Band, iPhoto, iTunes and iWeb it can't be heared over any music... And even with all this going on system monitor tells me that the proccessors are ambling along at a relaxed 50%, not even breaking a sweat...

These things are soooooooo good it makes you weep.
 
Abulia

Abulia

macrumors 68000
Jun 22, 2004
1,786
1
Kushiel's Scion
seanf said:
Was this easy to install - the instructions seem quite simple? Also, what did you use to get rid of any existing thermal paste on the card (or was it a thermal pad)?
Click to expand...
It's an easy install. I cleaned the GPU and memory with iso alchohol and lint-free cloth.

You will need to re-use some of the screws from the stock fan assembly; some of the X2 screws are too short.
The X1900 and case fans make no sound at all. The system takes a big gulp of air when you first turn it on, which actually makes you panic at first when you think that it's normal operating noise but then it shuts the hell up.
Click to expand...
Yes, until you stick a full load on it. The X1900 stock fan will make some noise once you get it going. In normal day-to-day operations it is, for the most part, quiet. Not silent like the X2, though. I was really bothered by the startup "whirl" coming out of sleep.
The HDs make more noise than the rest of the system put together. My advice, stick tonnes of memory in it to reduce the amount of paging and you shouldn't hear a thing.
Click to expand...
Or replace the drives with something other than a Seagate; they're notoriously noisy and lack AAM. I recommend WD's, but that's just a personal preference. My WD's are much more quiet than the stock Seagate.

But more memory is always a plus, too. ;)
 
V

vinylator

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2006
24
0
Just got my Mac Pro. I updated from an iBook G3 that was absolutey silent. Like 0 decibels. This new Mac Pro, it's silent, but not THAT silent. I can hear it all the time, it's like a mmmmmmm sound, a constant humming. I think that it are the fans? Is that normal?
I did the EFI update, heard the fans take off like a jet, to return the way they are now, the constant humming. It sounds like my brothers dell. :)
 
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