2010 mac pro loud fans?

[rhuk]

This is my 4th generation intel Mac Pro. It's a 12-core 2.93ghz, 24 gigs of ram, ATI 5870. I've noticed the fan noise is much louder than any of my other machines even at idle. I barely hear the previous mac pros, but this one is not super loud, but annoyingly so. Has anyone else noticed these being louder than say 2008 3.2 ghz Octo?

According to iStat Menus these are my fan speeds:

http://polydeon.com/skitch/SystemUIServer-20100826-203526.jpg

Is this correct? 1500rpm seems a little fast for idle

[MacSince1985]

Is this an iStat Pro screen grab? It's strange because your fans have different names than my 8-core 2010 MP.

I get 11-1200rpm on BOOSTA and BOOSTB, and 6-700rpm on PCI, exhaust power supply and INTAKE. ANd it's very quiet.

[brentsg]

Your fan speeds there are fine. You're probably hearing the video card fan.

[Vylen]

It would help to know what the temperatures are as well... since, obviously, the two should be related.

[theBigD23]

I was hoping the 5870 was quiet. Many people mentioned that it is not that loud.

[corbuso]

I was hoping the 5870 was quiet. Many people mentioned that it is not that loud.

I don't do much 3D therefore I decided to stay with the 5770 since I have read that the energy consumption (i.e., heat) of the 5870 was several fold higher than the 5770.
My Power Mac 2010 (6-core) is indeed very quiet.

[theBigD23]

I don't do much 3D therefore I decided to stay with the 5770 since I have read that the energy consumption (i.e., heat) of the 5870 was several fold higher than the 5770.
My Power Mac 2010 (6-core) is indeed very quiet.

Thanks for the info. I would really only get the 5870 because of SC2 and the Star Wars MMO next year. I'm reconsidering my 5870 purchase to get the 5770. It should be good enough to run near max without the constant louder noise and heat just for two games.

[eponym]

I can pretty much run SC2 on ultimate settings @ 1920 x 1080 with the 5770.

(I lowered the lighting and shadows to "High" since my frame rate would suffer with lots of units on screen—or a really complex mechanical terrain)

[rhuk]

It's definitely not the ATI 5870 video card fan. I had just assumed that and have ordered an accelero cooler. While i'm waiting I put my Nvidia 8800 with passive (ie, no fan at all) accelero cooler in the 2010. And the noise is exactly the same. Here are my temps:

http://polydeon.com/skitch/System-20100827-084906.jpg

Note the Hard drive temp of 262˚F is for my SSD drive that has no temp sensor and always reads 128˚C/262˚F.

[Vylen]

That's probably why... I think when there's a lack of the appropriate temperature sensor, the system assumes the worst and acts accordingly - i.e. it ramps up the fan.

It's similar to using RAM with no temperature sensor - the system registers it as a hardware failure and the fan's run at full speed as a "just in case" measure.

Although, your Northbridge is fairly hot too... heh

[rhuk]

Well the weird thing is that no SSD has a temp sensor. Also, I had this same HD setup with same SSD in my 2008 mac pro 3.2 8 core and the thing was basically silent. Northbridge being hot, could be it though, i'm not sure what the regular temperature range should be for that. The ambient temperature here is not hot at all, and there is only 5% cpu load currently, the thing should not be hot at all. I guess i'll call applecare and see what's up coz something is not right.

[sboerup]

Ya, most of the noise we all hear from our machines is the exhaust and intake fans spinning . . . my 2008 MP was louder than the 2010, but those idle speeds do seem high. Where is the machine sitting? Here is mine:
http://www.spencerboerup.com/images/macprotemps.png

[rhuk]

it sits on the floor next to my desk. plenty of air circulation, and this is where all the mac pros have sat. it basically ramps up during the startup sequence so i'm not sure it can be a heat thing. It starts quiet, and then after the grey screen but before the login prompt it ramps up. And this is not a long timeframe coz it starts very fast on the SSD boot drive. Just frustrating... :(

[Vylen]

Have you tried booting the machine without the SSD? Even if your OS is on it, boot up a DVD or something (of course, if you do try booting a DVD, do it both with and without the SSD).

[sochet]

Mine's about 100 rpm below that of the OP's. I have the same amount of HD's as my old '08 (the same ones in fact).

It could possibly be the GPU, but I'm not sure. One thing I can say is that under gaming conditions (The Force unleashed at 1600x1050 with everything on max) the computer is way quieter (though it is much colder here when I was last gaming on my '08).

That being said it does run slower (maybe due to the '10's lower clock)


As long as the temperature inside doesn't get too high you should be ok.

[MacSince1985]

Although, your Northbridge is fairly hot too... heh

I noticed the Northbridge in my 2010 8-core is also always hot (130-140°F). I'm not sure if it's a sensor issue or if ti's an area that naturally gets hot.

[2contagious]

would be quite helpful if you guys could make a decision.. is the mac pro loud or is it not? :rolleyes::D

[rhuk]

Well i have an appointment with the geniuses tomorrow. In the meantime I dropped by drives back into my 2008 mac pro 3.2 and these are my temps and fan speeds. As you can see temps are overall cooler, northbridge is much cooler, and fans are all much slower. So in short, my fans in the 2010 are much faster and therefore much louder. Not pleased! supposed to be a more efficient processor.

http://polydeon.com/skitch/September_2010_Template_Chat-20100827-123833.jpg

[johnnymg]

Well i have an appointment with the geniuses tomorrow. In the meantime I dropped by drives back into my 2008 mac pro 3.2 and these are my temps and fan speeds. As you can see temps are overall cooler, northbridge is much cooler, and fans are all much slower. So in short, my fans in the 2010 are much faster and therefore much louder. Not pleased! supposed to be a more efficient processor.



Please clarify your statement about "..... dropped the drives back in...".

That profile you posted has the SSD installed. ???

Did you revert back to the original drive and then the fans slowed down?

[rhuk]

no, i put the drives i had in the 12 core 2.93ghz 2010 mac pro, back into my 8 core 3.2ghz 2008 mac pro, and that last screenshot was from the 2008 mac pro. The 2010 seems to have the fans running at the speed shown in the original no matter what drives i have installed, or what video card is installed.

[2contagious]

no, i put the drives i had in the 12 core 2.93ghz 2010 mac pro, back into my 8 core 3.2ghz 2008 mac pro, and that last screenshot was from the 2008 mac pro. The 2010 seems to have the fans running at the speed shown in the original no matter what drives i have installed, or what video card is installed.

So you think that what you're experiencing (faster fans speeds, therefore more noise) is not normal? (or is this true for all new Mac Pros) :confused:

[reel2reel]

So you think that what you're experiencing (faster fans speeds, therefore more noise) is not normal? (or is this true for all new Mac Pros) :confused:

Haha, 2contagious, you're freaking about the noise! I'm obsessive myself, so I understand, but I've never had a problem using Mac Pro's. Maybe my workplace is cluttered and noisy, though.

I wonder if these 5870's vary in noise levels. I'll post back when I set mine up (hopefully next week).

[rhuk]

This is definitely the loudest mac pro i've owned. Not as bad as my old dual 2.7ghz powerpc mac pro, but loudest intel. I hope it's not a symptom of all 2010 12cores, but am going to find out tomorrow.

[asnozz]

My intake fan seems to be much louder than my others at 800rpm. It almost sounds like it is rattleling (like when my fan went on my macbook). What was the outcome from your meeting with the "genius"?

I'm going to phone applecare and see what they say

[rhuk]

My intake fan seems to be much louder than my others at 800rpm. It almost sounds like it is rattleling (like when my fan went on my macbook). What was the outcome from your meeting with the "genius"?

I'm going to phone applecare and see what they say

Upon taking my mac pro to the geniuses it would not boot up. Seems it was a dud, I returned it for a refund and decided to wait on more info before ordering again.

[Novablas]

This topic is really strange to me because I just got a hex and it's the quietest mac pro I've ever owned. Even running something like starcraft 2 and fallout 3 with a 5870 I almost can't hear it. Forget about even trying to hear it on idle. I was really surprised at how quiet this thing was compared to my '06 and my previous G5. Something must be wrong with yours or it's that ssd screwing with your fans. It definitely shouldn't be the 5870, on max settings sc2 the gpu fan only goes up to about 26% fan speed which is still whisper quiet, and the card itself tops off at 60 degrees celsius after hours of use.

[rhuk]

It does definitely seem related to the dual processor systems rather than the single proc machines like the hex. It appears there are completely different fans in the dual processor machines. I might of just had something wrong though, so i'll be watching for more comments regarding noise/fan speed on dual processors before ordering a replacement.

[Schismz]

This is definitely the loudest mac pro i've owned. Not as bad as my old dual 2.7ghz powerpc mac pro, but loudest intel. I hope it's not a symptom of all 2010 12cores, but am going to find out tomorrow.

Dunno, I am experiencing the obverse, 12-core Mac Pro, 5870; quietest Mac Pro I've ever had sitting next to me. The only time I can hear fan noise is when rendering something which is actually using most of the cores and the video card, at which point everything ramps up and the sitting next to a wind tunnel effect begins, but that's not new, and what I was used to with older Mac Pros all the time.

If you hear strange vibrations or shaking noises, then it's often one fan which is not seated/mounted properly or dying, and costs .25 cents to fix (if it's a new machine it is of course not your problem, and Apple tends to just give you a new Mac Pro, fix the fan and sell the unit as a refurb).

This is about average and note that iStat sensors do not support the Radeon's own cooling, which can get quite loud, but show no reading.