Are Mac Pro's Noisey?

[skotopes]

Thanks chaps, I plan to use the mac pro for everything, and lets face it the Mac Pro is the only mac that covers all bases.

Power
Storage
High Quality Gaming
Easy Upgrading
Movies

o`rly?

Power - oh yeah, 980 watt of power. it`s always at least +30 C in my room without conditioning.
Storage - 4 bays, hardly it`s a "storage"
High Quality Gaming - you`ll be unable to use hi end graphic cards
Easy Upgrading - forget about it, apple parts or gtfo. and it`s fukken expensive.
Movies - my phone can show movies too

One more question guys I have a 46" 1080p TV & a 24 inch monitor, both are 1920x1080.

I plan to have dual display support I hear the New MBP's pass Audio through the Display Port do the current GT120 & 4870's do this?

Iask because I have a digital Reciever Too

I got patched sapphire 4870, and there is no kext for audio device. Probably same for original cards

 

[gglockner]

Silent? No. Quiet? Yes.

As others have mentioned, the Mac Pro is quieter than the average PC. That said, the optical and hard drives can create noise and vibrations, especially if you have more than the stock configuration of one optical drive and one hard drive. In my Mac Pro, the vibrations can become noisy. I traced the main noise to vibrations in the side door; I happened to have a piece of Dynamat from an old PC, so I attached the Dynamat to the inside of the side door, replaced the door, which reduced the noise to nearly nothing.

And as others have noted, whether you hear the noise depends on your sensitivity, on other noises in your environment, and on your distance from the Mac Pro. In my case, my office is very quiet (unless the dog is snoring - ), and the Mac Pro is very close to where I sit.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[Transporteur]

o`rly?

Power - oh yeah, 980 watt of power. it`s always at least +30 C in my room without conditioning.

I guess what's meant is processing power. Anyway, 980W?
I can hardly push my octad Pro with two graphics cards (4870 and 120) and six hard drives over 320W.

Storage - 4 bays, hardly it`s a "storage"

Maximum internal storage capacity of a Mac Pro is 20TB+. Should be more than enough for the average home user without a dedicated storage server.

High Quality Gaming - you`ll be unable to use hi end graphic cards

ATI 5870 works just well in Windows. Personally I'd consider it tho be high end.

Easy Upgrading - forget about it, apple parts or gtfo. and it`s fukken expensive.

That's just nonsense. You don't have to use to use Apple parts for anything. PC graphics cards are flashable, DVD/BluRay drives are equal for Mac and PC and so are hard drives, RAM and CPUs. And most premium RAID cards come with Mac drivers, too.

Movies - my phone can show movies too

Yeah right...

I got patched sapphire 4870, and there is no kext for audio device. Probably same for original cards

Yes that is correct.

 

[Infrared]

Then I should hear the drive of my 24" iMac as well.

I'm very much into silent computing, and I would definitely notice the drive making a noise as it's right in front of me, behind the screen. I can hear the scratching when there is read or write activity, but that's really a low sound.

The iMac is nothing at all like the Mac Pro acoustically. E.g.,
the front of a Mac Pro is covered in holes, hundreds of them.

 

[Hmac]

My Mac Pro 2009 is very quiet under OSX. I also use it for gaming under Windows 7, however, and I've had to bump the fan on the 4870 GPU to a mildly annoying level to keep it in the 50-60 C range for that rather demanding application.

 

[drewsof07]

- The fans are loud on boot and when awaken from sleep.

This is the video card, I replaced my 2600 with a GT 120 and that "WHIRRR!" at boot/wake is gone.

Only time I even know my machine is running (other than using it), is when the house is completely empty and silent. Then you can make out idle HDD noise and fans spinning at low rpm.

Keeping the computer clean is also a huge factor in how loud your fans will be. The more they collect dust, the louder the machine becomes. This is especially true for the gpu. Plus, keeping the dust out allows everything to flow quickly and unobstructed as it was designed. I know I have to blow dust out about once every couple months to keep it from building up.

 

[skotopes]

I guess what's meant is processing power. Anyway, 980W?
I can hardly push my octad Pro with two graphics cards (4870 and 120) and six hard drives over 320W.

anyway it`s warm here

Maximum internal storage capacity of a Mac Pro is 20TB+. Should be more than enough for the average home user without a dedicated storage server.

mb

ATI 5870 works just well in Windows. Personally I'd consider it tho be high end.

So if you going to use windows it has sense to buy iMac and PC for gaming ;-)

That's just nonsense. You don't have to use to use Apple parts for anything. PC graphics cards are flashable, DVD/BluRay drives are equal for Mac and PC and so are hard drives, RAM and CPUs. And most premium RAID cards come with Mac drivers, too.

As usual, with a small remark. ;-) No - no, you absolutely right, but:
i have macpro1,1 (same **** for all other with fb-dimm ddr2) memory same but chilling system differ. Even if you got 3rd party heat sink, not all memory suites. Not all cards flashable, card can have different board revisions and so on (yeah i got sapph4870 with qimonda memory and i have had a nice sex when i was making bios for this card). And remember not everyone lives in US. So fully charged mac pro for me coast like helicopter. ;-(

 

[drewsof07]

i have had a nice sex when i was making bios for this card

LOL

I tell ya, those bios are just so darn seductive.

 

[nanofrog]

I guess what's meant is processing power. Anyway, 980W?

I think he meant the PSU's rated limit.

But most systems aren't drawing that much power, even with upgrades. Nor do we actually know if that value is nominal (continuous), or peak. Most units list their peak power output, not their nominal (sustainable values). But at 12a off the wall, I'm thinking it's nominal in this case (though they're not typically that efficient units anyway). Assuming 115V AC @ 12A (rather than 125 or 110V), then it can pull as much as 1380W running full power (71% effecient).

My Mac Pro 2009 is very quiet under OSX. I also use it for gaming under Windows 7, however, and I've had to bump the fan on the 4870 GPU to a mildly annoying level to keep it in the 50-60 C range for that rather demanding application.

Mine tends to idle at ~50C.

 

[Phantom Gremlin]

Maximum internal storage capacity of a Mac Pro is 20TB+. Should be more than enough for the average home user without a dedicated storage server.

What am I missing? Is there a way to get 10 hard drives into a Mac Pro? How do you get to 20 TB?

 

[Phantom Gremlin]

But at 12a off the wall, I'm thinking it's nominal in this case (though they're not typically that efficient units anyway). Assuming 115V AC @ 12A (rather than 125 or 110V), then it can pull as much as 1380W running full power (71% effecient).

Apple needs to "get with the times". What's Al Gore doing on the board???

Dell advertises an optional "85PLUS" aka "85 Percent Efficient Power Supply" for their T3500 workstation. Yes it's an extra $50, but with the margins that Apple has on their Mac Pro, they can surely afford to do better than 71%.

Fortunately, as you point out, neither system is likely to be drawing anywhere near the max power, so while the percentage differences on efficiency appear quite large, the actual wasted energy will be much smaller. At idle the most recent quad-core Mac Pro is only drawing 115 W.

 

[Transporteur]

So if you going to use windows it has sense to buy iMac and PC for gaming ;-)

Absolutely. Doesn't make sense to buy a Mac Pro as a gaming only machine, Windows based computers can do much better for less money.

What am I missing? Is there a way to get 10 hard drives into a Mac Pro? How do you get to 20 TB?

10 drives is absolutely no problem, you can get even more in there.

4 x 3.5" drives in the sleds = 8TB
8 x 2.5" drives in the ODD bay = 8TB
4 x 2.5" drives vertically mounted in front of the PCIe cards = 4TB

________
makes a total of 20TB internal

You could expand this to 28TB if you use two PCIe to 2.5" adapter boards. There are boards that just use the space of the PCIe slots and allow the proper mounting of 4 2.5" drives.

The other two PCIe boards would have to be occupied by a graphics hard and a very decent RAID controller.

But I'm pretty sure that no one ever did this because most people prefer external RAID systems or a dedicated file server.

 

[drewsof07]

What am I missing? Is there a way to get 10 hard drives into a Mac Pro? How do you get to 20 TB?

Lol, does it really matter? 8TB is the current "Apple official" maximum (using only the stock 4 bays with 2T drives), and as far as I know SATA has no restrictions on drive size. So the maximum will be determined by the max drive size offered. Of course there are those who fill their optical bays with additional HDD's. Heck, theoretically you could run it headless with a raid card and stack a few drives on the lower fan/cpu enclosure with the door off for ventilation. Not the prettiest solution though. lol