What is the most silent Mac?

[cvkaiser]

Hi all,
I´m currently owning a G4 867MhzDual which is maybe one of the most loudest Macs. I have to leave it running at least all day and would love to keep it one but the sound is just too much. I´m going to get a MBP this summer and want to exchange my G4 desktop maybe in a MacMini for a sort of constant server. Can you hear a MacMini at all or does he makes some noise? How would you compare it to other mac models? Is the MacPro even more silent? What would a list of current macs regarding sound look like?
Best regards - Christoph

[QuarterSwede]

Before anyone says the Cube, he wants a list of current most silent Macs.

Now that that is out of the way, I'd say a Mac mini or possibly an iMac (my Dad's 24" is near silent).

[netdog]

Agreed. A tie between iMac and Mini.

[WyLLyM]

I have a 24" Imac, and it's the quietest machine I've owned, pc or mac.

[freebooter]

My PPC Mac mini is silent until it has to do some heavy lifting and the fan makes a pleasant rushing sound.
My iMac 24" is virtually silent at all times. I can hear a slight hum if I put my ear right up to it in a dead silent room.

[CRAZYBUBBA]

My 12" pb is pretty good but the minis are def quiter

[cvkaiser]

thank you all very much for your quick and helpfull answers.
Best regards - Christoph

[someguy]

My 15" PowerBook and my mother's 17" iMac Core Duo are both practically silent, with the exception of the Superdrives in both machines, but I think that's normal.

I would imagine the mini's would be pretty silent as well, but I can't say from experience.

[Angrist]

Baffles.

If the PowerMac runs well and does what you need it to do, put it on the floor in the corner and stick something in front of it to muffle the sound.

OR

Move it. A buddy of mine knocked a 1.5" diameter hole in the wall and moved his gaming PC (sounded like a jet engine) to the adjacent closet. Run the cables through and viola, silent PC.

Alternatively, I've heard of people replacing the fans in those PMs to shut them up some ... but I can't put my finger on a link at the moment. IIRC it's not too hard, and only costs ~$40 in parts.

Cheap solutions FTW!

[miniConvert]

Out of the CD mini and the C2D 20" iMac I'd say the iMac. They really are very quiet.

Btw... I don't think you can grammatically have the 'most silent' Mac - just the most quiet.

[queshy]

My 24" iMac certainly isn't silent! Or maybe I'm just allergic to noise.

It's still pretty quiet though.

I also heard that the G5 Powerbooks will be pretty quiet.

[organic bond]

My 24" iMac certainly isn't silent! Or maybe I'm just allergic to noise.

It's still pretty quiet though.

I also heard that the G5 Powerbooks will be pretty quiet.

You are allergic to no noise. The iMac 24" is amazing, it's so quiet that it almost scares me. I don't understand why Apple doesn't advertise this number 1 feature of Minis and iMacs.

[srf4real]

I never hear my g4 mini that sits two feet away on my desk at ear level. Did I mention that my truck has 2000W of bass?:p ;) No, it really is quiet.

[FadeToBlack]

My mini is nearly silent.

I, too, had a Dual 867 MDD Power Mac and it was definitely loud, but honestly, it's no louder than most of the PC's I've seen. A couple friends of mine have custom-built PC's and they are LOUD.

[Father Jack]

I think the Mac Mini (by a whisper !!) :)

FJ

[roker]

Yeah minis are reasonably quiet untill you put something in the disk drive- then they really scream!

[queshy]

You are allergic to no noise. The iMac 24" is amazing, it's so quiet that it almost scares me. I don't understand why Apple doesn't advertise this number 1 feature of Minis and iMacs.

Wait, so you're saying that I am not allergic to noise?

[zap2]

Diskdrive will mess any thing up, but with out it in us my Mini is my most silent Mac.

[nuclearwinter]

I also heard that the G5 Powerbooks will be pretty quiet.

Yeah, I also heard that all the non-existent Macs are absolutely silent. ;)

[zap2]

If you want to work with some hacks, the most silent Mac you could make would use flash memory.

Keep your OS, Apps used the most, and key files on it, and get an external HD for big files.


I say go all out, and get a Cube, load it up with flash memory inplace of a HD, and if need be replace the disk drive with a hush hush disk drive!

(thats be pretty fun, and cool)

[jdiddy]

Have to agree the Minis are definately the most silent of the bunch.

[scottlinux]

I also heard that the G5 Powerbooks will be pretty quiet.

http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/14/powerbook-g5-coming-in-q2/

So quiet that they don't exist.... :-P

[juanster]

i think the:D macbook are the quieter macs..............................................................specially when the cpu starts hitting up and the fans start kicking up at around 6500

[dukebound85]

i think the emac is the quietest

and by quietest i mean maybe the loudest haha

[FadeToBlack]

i think the emac is the quietest

and by quietest i mean maybe the loudest haha

:D I didn't see the white text at all, then after I had typed my post, I looked up and read the quote.

My eMac (1.25GHz) was pretty quiet. Definitely MUCH quieter than the Dual 867 I had after that.

[4JNA]

intel mini wins the actual sound contest for me. at normal use level, i can't even tell that it's on. amazing little machines!

[ppnkg]

As far as I can tell, the most quiet mac is the mini. If the new Imacs are anything like my G5, you must be deaf not to hear the fans under any conditions, but especially with heavy tasks. When you're just typing text it's fairly quiet but not dead quiet by any means.

(you get used to that noise of jet engines gradually - I have, but it's not the most pleasant computing experience)

[theLimit]

My Intel mini is nearly silent. Even when encoding H.264 video I can still hear the crickets outside with my windows closed. It's even quieter than the scrolling noise from my Mighty Mouse.

[lamina]

I was doing a study today with a previous-generation cinema display and a G4 cube behind it. I could hear the hard drive spinning in the cube, nothing else. I couldn't believe how quiet it was.

[thestaton]

I have a Duo iMac 2.0 and its 15 months old now. When I first got it, it was whisper quiet. now its getting a little louder each day.