Curing Noisy Mac Pro

[aliennerd]

My Mac Pro had become increasingly noisy recently, it had really become quite irritating.

I had a look around on line but couldn't really find a solution so I decided to take the machine apart and have a look and soon discovered the problem, dust and lots of it. The ATI Radeon card could hardly breathe.

I took some pictures, not for the squeamish but if anyone else has a similar problem it may be worth a look.

http://aliennerd.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/noisy-mac-pro-fans/

Charlie

[ventro]

Glad I installed a dust filter in my Mac pro the week I got it. Almost zero dust on the inside after nearly 2 years of continuous operation.

[mmulin]

My Mac Pro had become increasingly noisy recently, it had really become quite irritating.

I had a look around on line but couldn't really find a solution so I decided to take the machine apart and have a look and soon discovered the problem, dust and lots of it. The ATI Radeon card could hardly breathe.

I took some pictures, not for the squeamish but if anyone else has a similar problem it may be worth a look.

http://aliennerd.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/noisy-mac-pro-fans/

Charlie

Is this an ATI X1900 XT? Apart from being know to be a major dust catcher, this one is already loud itself. Here you have your major culprit. Replace it with a newer GPU. The 4800HD, for example, whispers nicely along.
Additional, yet costly, options are SSDs for your most accessed drives (i.e. OSX). And, of course dust catchers are always a good idea..

[aliennerd]

I have to say the machine is whisper quiet now that I've cleaned it. I might upgrade the graphics card but then I rarely stress it (apart from leaving it clogged with dust.) Interesting that you say the X1900 are known dust catchers.

With regards to dust filters what do you use?

Charlie