How quiet is your mac mini?

[buddy]

After many weeks of lurking on this forum, I have finally ventured into the mac world for the first time and bought myself a dual core mini (hooked up to a Viewsonic 2025M LCD). It's a beautiful machine, everything up and running in no time. But... it's not exactly 'whisper quiet'. In a quiet room with no music playing, the fan is definitely audible even in very light tasks. And to my ears there is a low-pitched humm or buzz; this is on constantly and only disappears when the mac is put to sleep. Is this normal?

I have to confess, the noise is far less problematic than my previous PC. And if I have some music on or am playing a DVD the noise ceases to be noticeable. But I had high expectations in buying my mac and this is the one thing that bothers me. I did get the RAM upgraded to 1 Gb and am wondering if this could have caused a problem.

Has anyone else experienced this? How quiet is your mac mini?

[beatsme]

Originally Posted by buddy

How quiet is your mac mini?

virtually silent

[orangezorki]

If it is indeed a problem, and not just you having ultra-sensitive hearing, then it is most probably the RAM upgrade. Apparently it is easy to leave a fan sensor cable disconnected, which results in the fan running at full speed. Take it back and get them to check.

David

[Dont Hurt Me]

G4s Mini's are silent, Intel Mini's arent from my experience. I think Apple went to a cheap fan or something. Sitting in front of my G4 you dont know its on unless the harddrive is doing something. Sitting in front of the Intel machine there is no mistake it was on. Very clear."edit" my Mini also was a 1 giger.

[superbloom]

Well I can hear my G4 Mini only if i put my ear up to it.

[buddy]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I don't think the fans on my mini are running on full - when I switch on, they seem to be running at full speed, making quite a noise but then after a couple of minutes they suddenly become much quieter (though still audible). I guess this is normal behaviour.

It's the constant humm or buzz that the mini makes which is more of concern. It could indeed be that I have ultra-sensitive hearing, or maybe it's magnified by my working environment (I have a wooden-floored appartment, no carpets). After doing some searching it seems that over mini owners have reported something similar. So I know I am not alone.

I guess I will get used to it. Using this machine is a very enjoyable experience, and as I said initially, it's still quieter than computers I've used previously.

[Whiteapple]

I have the buzz on my brand new mini, I don't really give a damn. I'll get used to it.
I also happen to find the combo drive very noise in "seek" mode. I wanted to have a silent DVD experience, not quite perfect for that one.

Neertheless, I am really pleased with this computer. I will make a complete review soon.

[Eidorian]

The fans are usually at 1500 RPM's. You don't notice them until around 3000.

[khisayruou]

Originally Posted by Eidorian

The fans are usually at 1500 RPM's. You don't notice them until around 3000.

About the same here, but I do notice them at about 2500-3000 rpms. I watch hdtv on it a lot and the fan maxes out after few minutes. Quite annoying. You should try one of those fan control softwares that have been coming out lately to adjust the temps that the fans goes at.

[4JNA]

mini core solo here. dead silent. even at 100% use, i can not hear it. put my ear on the case to tell if it's on kinda quiet.

second solo upgraded to core 2 duo @ 2ghz, 2gb ram, 7200rpm hard drive. also silent. with both cores working at 100%, i can hear the fan, but just. still way more silent than any computer i have built/owned.

the ceiling fan on medium speed makes more noise to put this in perspective...

[notkevin]

I have a Mac Mini Core Solo and the only sound I hear is from the hard drive.

[FadeToBlack]

Mine is pretty much silent. It's by far the quietest computer I've ever had. Specs are in the sig.