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tcmcam

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 14, 2002
54
0
I'm the proud owner of a new PowerMac G4 1gDP. That's the good news.

The bad news.... This thing is noisy.

The big fan is a Delta, notorious for moving air, also known for their noise. There are two small 40mm fans in the power supply that make a ton of noise.

Anybody seen any sites about Mod's to these fans to quiet this puppy down?

I love the box, but it is noisier than a refrigerator sitting on the other side of me!!
 

Mr. Anderson

Moderator emeritus
Nov 1, 2001
22,568
6
VA
That was one of my biggest concerns, damn, hate to hear that....I hope by the time I'm ready to get a new machine they've got a cooler system that doesn't need so much air.....

Good luck and post any progress in the noise reduction.

D
 

topicolo

macrumors 68000
Jun 4, 2002
1,672
0
Ottawa, ON
ah, you'll get used to it. My PC makes enough noise to drown out an airliner. You don't see me having any hearing problems.:rolleyes:


















WHAT? Speak up! I can't hear you!:)
 

ponyboy

macrumors regular
Jan 27, 2002
217
0
SLC UT/Italy
Re: Noise Reduction - New PowerMac G4 line

Originally posted by tcmcam
I'm the proud owner of a new PowerMac G4 1gDP. That's the good news.

The bad news.... This thing is noisy.

The big fan is a Delta, notorious for moving air, also known for their noise. There are two small 40mm fans in the power supply that make a ton of noise.

Anybody seen any sites about Mod's to these fans to quiet this puppy down?

I love the box, but it is noisier than a refrigerator sitting on the other side of me!!

Man the Powermac display section of an apple store must sound like a freakin tarmac!
 

porovaara

macrumors regular
Mar 7, 2002
132
0
sf
Dual platform owners?

Can someone compare the new powermac noise to say a high end Athlon of P4 box... louder? more quiet?
 

pgwalsh

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2002
1,639
218
New Zealand
Re: Noise Reduction - New PowerMac G4 line

Originally posted by tcmcam
Anybody seen any sites about Mod's to these fans to quiet this puppy down?
I'm also interested in knowing if there's an alternative fan. I'm sure there is, but where to find it?
 

Chryx

macrumors regular
Jul 8, 2002
248
0
Re: Noise Reduction - New PowerMac G4 line

Originally posted by tcmcam
The big fan is a Delta, notorious for moving air, also known for their noise. There are two small 40mm fans in the power supply that make a ton of noise.

Eek, how big exactly is the big fan?, is it a 120mm or 92mm fan?

(does the heatsink get even remotely warm?)

If it's a standard size fan you could simply swap it out for one of the Pabst L1A's (which are pretty damn quiet)
 

LethalWolfe

macrumors G3
Jan 11, 2002
9,370
124
Los Angeles
Originally posted by dukestreet
That was one of my biggest concerns, damn, hate to hear that....I hope by the time I'm ready to get a new machine they've got a cooler system that doesn't need so much air.....

Good luck and post any progress in the noise reduction.

D


I'm sure they'll have something better figured out w/the next gen of procs, but the current G4s get pretty toasty in a dual configuration and need a lot of air movement. But it's not really that bad. The sound of my Superdrive spinning up is much louder than the sound of the case fan.


I've got the original DP 1gig G4. Yeah, that's right. I said "original" 'cause I don't wanna be confused w/all you copycat wannabe's out there. ;)

Lethal
 

Chryx

macrumors regular
Jul 8, 2002
248
0
Originally posted by LethalWolfe

I'm sure they'll have something better figured out w/the next gen of procs, but the current G4s get pretty toasty in a dual configuration and need a lot of air movement. But it's not really that bad. The sound of my Superdrive spinning up is much louder than the sound of the case fan.


I doubt the new G4's get toasty with a heatsink THAT size on them.

Hell, a sink that size could probably passively cool a pair of AthlonMPs, they are many things, but cool running isn't one of them.
 

beez7777

macrumors 6502a
Aug 5, 2002
758
0
Notre Dame
Re: Re: Noise Reduction - New PowerMac G4 line

Originally posted by ponyboy


Man the Powermac display section of an apple store must sound like a freakin tarmac!

Hmm, i go into the Apple store almost every weekend, and probably will continue to do so until i get my 17"iMac, and while playing around with the power macs i didn't notice too much noise, but then again i wasn't listening for it:)
 

pgwalsh

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2002
1,639
218
New Zealand
I was just in the Apple store in Palo Alot and didn't hear the noise either, but then there were guite a few people in the store. I think the new machines are pretty cool looking. They did have a 2.2Ghz model in the store. I asked a sales rep if the new 1Ghz was much faster then the old model even though it had a smaller cache and he said he didn't know and then walked awayl

A couple people that had been using OS X 1.5 said they didn't notice a speed improvement. One man said he thought it ran slower. One thing I did notice was Illustrator wasn't much faster to load or to use. It is smoother when moving the documents around, but it's still a slug.
 

beez7777

macrumors 6502a
Aug 5, 2002
758
0
Notre Dame
Re: Noise Reduction - New PowerMac G4 line

Originally posted by tcmcam
I'm the proud owner of a new PowerMac G4 1gDP. That's the good news.

The bad news.... This thing is noisy.

The big fan is a Delta, notorious for moving air, also known for their noise. There are two small 40mm fans in the power supply that make a ton of noise.

Anybody seen any sites about Mod's to these fans to quiet this puppy down?

I love the box, but it is noisier than a refrigerator sitting on the other side of me!!

hmm... not too sure about how to quiet the thing, but if u have an air conditioner in the room, u can put that on high and maybe it'll drown out the sound of the power mac:D
 

pgwalsh

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2002
1,639
218
New Zealand
Re: Re: Noise Reduction - New PowerMac G4 line

Originally posted by beez7777
if u have an air conditioner in the room, u can put that on high and maybe it'll drown out the sound of the power mac:D
Air conditioners and computer don't get along.
 

tcmcam

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 14, 2002
54
0
More on Sound

Trust me. This thing is loud. It replaced a Pentium 4 system (running 2.26ghz) that had a bunch of pabst fans in it and an Enermax quiet power supply. You could barely hear the PC when it was running.

I'd like to change the big fan, I believe it's 120mm or larger. But the big fan has a custom 2 pin connector (not the normal 3 pin or 4 pin) so finding a replacement will be tricky.

The real problem is the power supply. It runs very hot, so I see the need for the fans, but the two small 40mm fans make a ton of noise.

I'll keep enjoying my new Mac with my earplugs in.... :)

So to answer the question, a "stock" PC bought at a White box manufacturer will be very loud, a Dell is relatively quiet, an iMac is super quiet. A modified PC (check out http://www.plycon.com) can be very quiet.

The new PowerMAC, NOISY.
 

bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
15,602
1,759
Lard
I got a big shock when I bought my dual G4/800. It was heavier and it was louder than my G3/400. Truthfully, after working with Windows on various PCs, the dual 800 is not so bad. It's just that, after so many years of very quiet machines, they're becoming more noisy and people familiar with Apple machines aren't quite ready for that.

Perhaps Apple should create an electronic muffler. They can put a microphone and speaker inside the machine. They input the current noise, move it out of phase 90 degrees, and output that noise at the same volume. You won't hear it anymore. This was actually an experiment for cars back in the 1980s and while it might have been deemed too expensive for low-tech cars, why not do it for computers?

You could always water cool. I've heard that the computer is much quieter a few minutes after dumping a quart of water onto the motherboard. :D
 

3rdpath

macrumors 68000
Re: Noise Reduction - New PowerMac G4 line

Originally posted by tcmcam

Anybody seen any sites about Mod's to these fans to quiet this puppy down?


http://www.xlr8yourmac.com has quite a few noise mods for the QSg4...some of them might be applicable to the new duals...that sight will have mods for the new machines in no time...cooling...overclocking...you name it.

warranties be damned.:eek:
 

robpage

macrumors newbie
Aug 16, 2002
5
0
Culver City
New G4 Noise

(I posted this elseware before I figured out it should go here. Sorry, I'm a newbie, don't flame me...)

Wednesday I bought a new Dual 1Ghz from the Apple store in LA (The Grove). I'm a old time Mac nut but this thing is going back. It's louder than my Dual G4/450 as it is but it has a second HUGE fan in it and when it kicks in it's like my wife turned on the vacuum cleaner.

Lots of goofy-ness with the ATA busses too. I installed a 40 gig ATA/66 drive on that bus and the Mac booted up from that drive, the stock 80 gig that came with it wouldn't mount. Disconnect the 66, the other drive mounts. I fiddled with jumpers in every configuration. Nada.

The Apple tech support guy said these Macs were so new he didn't have any info on them and couldn't help. (I had to point out these new Macs have seperate ATA/66 & ATA/100 busses, he didn't know that.) Finally what worked, if you can believe this, was setting the 66 as "master", the ATA/100 as "slave" (on a completely different bus, go figure) and, get this, starting from the OS 9 CD holding down the "c" key. The Mac didn't boot from the CD but it did finally "see" the ATA/100 and everything works now. The manual says all drives should be set to "cable select" but that didn't work at all. Weird. (BTW, there's a screw that has to be removed first from the vertical drive caddy that the manual neglects to mention.)

I'm also getting a grinding-static sound through the speakers (not the headphones) whenever I drag something on the screen.

I'm crushed. I really wanted to love this Mac.
 

topicolo

macrumors 68000
Jun 4, 2002
1,672
0
Ottawa, ON
The master/slave configuration has been around since IDE began. You're supposed to have two hard drives on separate channels because it speeds things up. There really isn't anything you can complain about with your computer (except for that static thing. did u check if the wires are properly shielded?). Is this the first time you've added a second hard drive?
 

pgwalsh

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2002
1,639
218
New Zealand
Many cables have a preferred drive order. Also many drives require two jumpers for slave configuration. Check the drive manufactures site for the configuration.
 

Hoagie

macrumors newbie
Aug 22, 2002
4
0
Calif.
Compare noise – old vs. new dual gigs?

Has anyone seen or done a direct comparison of the noise of old and new dual gig machines? I do digital audio, sometimes recording in the control room, and mac noise is a serious factor.

FWIW, I read somewhere that the PS fan in the new model is rated at 47dBA; anyone know the rating for PS fan in the old dual gig? I realize that case configuration would make it hard to make any direct comparison of specs alone (do they even have the same number of fans?), but if the numbers are hugely different that could provide some indication.

With my frankenbeige G4/500 the noise is barely tolerable even when I screen off the Mac's section of the room with heavy duveteen drapes. From what I'm reading, it sounds like either of the dual gig machines will require either a serious soundproof enclosure or banishment to a closet (with requisite extended cables for monitors and keyboard).

TIA,
Hoagie
 

kaneda

macrumors 6502
Oct 27, 2001
433
186
Powermac dual 1ghz

I just got my Powermac dual 1ghz and yes, the fan is pretty noisy...but it is not as bad as a PC...I used the PC at work, PC made noise like it is going to explode...

The new powermac noise doesn't bother me when I am asleep...so it is not that bad for me...

JAGUAR IS FREAKING FAST!!! FASTER THAN MAC OS 9....
 

robpage

macrumors newbie
Aug 16, 2002
5
0
Culver City
New Powermac Fan Noise

Hoagie,

All I can tell you about the new Macs is this: I'm a Mac nut. I've been making music on them professionally since 1989. I keep my Mac (and my crummy PC) in a cabinet, and still the fan in these new Macs is too noisy if you've got hot mics in the room.

I was really dissapointed but I had to take mine back.

I have to say, the Apple Store (The Grove) was really terrific about it too. They wouldn't have taken it back on the grounds that the fan made it unusable for me (of course, I wouldn't have bought it if it had gone off in the showroom), however they were able to reproduce the audio problem I was having so, with a wink and a nod, they acommodated me.

Now, about 10.2. I love OS X, and I love this update, but frankly, it didn't feel all that much faster than 10.1.5 on that Dual 1 gig (before I returned it). Get it...absolutely...Jaguar is a huge step forward, but the speed boost is not going to transform your life. We should all keep this in perspective.
 
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