16” MacBook Pro heat/fan noise - base configuration vs fully loaded

[Camarillo Brillo]

Hello,

Im about to upgrade finally from a base model 2011 MacBook Pro I’ve been using to record in Logic Pro x. It has a 2.3 dual core i5 processor, upgraded to 16g ram, and a SSD. It does surprisingly well considering its age and processor. But definitely time to upgrade.

For my purposes, I need a computer that is quiet. I use microphones to record acoustic instruments and my voice, often right next to the computer. My old mbp does not get noisy while I’m recording, even when I’m trying to make it do more than it can handle in logic. It seems to run very cool and quiet, which I love about it.

my question is: would the base model 16” stay cooler and quieter than a fully loaded 8 core model? I started thinking maybe the 8 core processors and the upgraded graphics could just be introducing more heat that would cause me more noise issues. If I can already get by so well with this old i5, and the cheaper 16” mbp actually stays cooler than it’s more powerful variant, it would really make sense for me to save a thousand bucks or so and just grab a base model.
The temptation to upgrade everything BTO is huge. When I bought my old MacBook Pro I had a very tight budget and I bought the cheapest 13” I could get new at the time. I didn’t even consider upgrades. Now I have a lot more to work with and I want to make sure all of the extras wouldn’t actually make things worse thermally. Otherwise I don’t mind paying for the extra power.

my other option is to go with a Mac mini, but I’m afraid it might get updated in 2020 which would be disappointing. Or an iMac I guess should be considered. But this brand new MBP came out and has me reconsidering another laptop all over again.

 

[seangrimes590]

Both models will be thermally constrained and dump the same amount of heat into the cooling system, though the 8 core may spike the temperature a bit more quickly. If you're worried about sound to the point of needing silence for microphones I'm not sure *any* modern laptop with > 15 watt Intel CPU will be quiet enough for you. They all run pretty warm these days. I can't speak specifically for your work flow but if you're going to push the CPU at all, > 20% load, the fans are going to make noise that a decent microphone nearby can pick up. The noise isn't very loud and it's a good pitch as far as small fans go but I'd be shocked if a microphone in the same room didn't pick it up.

If you live anywhere that has an Apple Store, Best Buy, or any other MBP seller I'd strongly recommend going and testing it out. Quick and dirty way to load up the cpu: open terminal and run "yes > /dev/null &" a few times (or 16x if you want to fully load all CPU threads). The fan on my old 2011 13" is quieter at full speed.

The mac mini makes more noise than the MBP in my experience from 5+ feet away (it's seems a bit quieter closer than that). The mini is actually annoyingly loud with a very annoying pitch. Definitely a higher frequency vs the new 16" MBPs. I can hear the mini (when at 90-100% cpu usage) over a full tower desktop with 4 1080ti GPUs and a threadripper CPU all running at full load with 18 case fans going at 40-50%. Granted the case fans are good, quiet operation 140mm fans and the GPUs aren't blower-style cards, so not very loud, but it can still make some noise. The mini still lets everybody nearby know it's running hard.

 

[iemcj]

Honestly as a content creator myself, you need to invest in something to take out background noise. I personally use AudioDenoise 2 and it's great. Takes a few seconds of time then poof, away goes all the background noise, fans, hums, etc.

The other thing I'll say is the recording programs are very cpu lite. It takes basically nothing to record, there's really no reason the cpu is going to be working hard unless you're doing something intensive in the background. It'll likely kick in when you're exporting.

Also what is your mic setup? Hopefully you're invested in at least a hundred dollar external mic and aren't using the built in mic on your laptop lol.

 

[Camarillo Brillo]

I was just about set on just going with the i7, feeling good about saving some money, maybe it would even be superior for my purposes due to heat/noise, I also read that the graphics chip runs cooler in the i7 than the upgraded one in the i9. Then I saw some YouTube video where the guy says the i7 runs hotter and spins up the fans more than the i9 and that threw me off.

I’m now thinking about going with the base i9 model so I can have 1tb in a base configuration, and I’m hoping what I do in logic doesn’t get the fans blazing.

My initial plan was higher clocked i9, 32gb ram, 8g vram, and maybe 2tb. But it’s just too damn expensive and it probably won’t make a difference for my purposes. Also would be nice not to wait for a BTO configuration. I’m going to save like $1000 by resisting the temptation to BTO. I keep reminding myself I’m still using an 8 year old dual core, any Mac these days could beat it. I don’t really plan to do a lot of video work, but if I start, seems like even the base i7 model is very capable, maybe a little slower to render.

I guess I can always try it out and return it if the fan noise makes it unusable. I just hate returning expensive things like computers if I don’t have to, would like to pick the right configuration the first time. I don’t want to be the guy that returns more than one computer trying to figure this out.

Thanks

 

[iemcj]

I was just about set on just going with the i7, feeling good about saving some money, maybe it would even be superior for my purposes due to heat/noise, I also read that the graphics chip runs cooler in the i7 than the upgraded one in the i9. Then I saw some YouTube video where the guy says the i7 runs hotter and spins up the fans more than the i9 and that threw me off.

I’m now thinking about going with the base i9 model so I can have 1tb in a base configuration, and I’m hoping what I do in logic doesn’t get the fans blazing.

My initial plan was higher clocked i9, 32gb ram, 8g vram, and maybe 2tb. But it’s just too damn expensive and it probably won’t make a difference for my purposes. Also would be nice not to wait for a BTO configuration. I’m going to save like $1000 by resisting the temptation to BTO. I keep reminding myself I’m still using an 8 year old dual core, any Mac these days could beat it. I don’t really plan to do a lot of video work, but if I start, seems like even the base i7 model is very capable, maybe a little slower to render.

I guess I can always try it out and return it if the fan noise makes it unusable. I just hate returning expensive things like computers if I don’t have to, would like to pick the right configuration the first time. I don’t want to be the guy that returns more than one computer trying to figure this out.

Thanks

For your needs as an audio guy? You don't need 32 gigs of ram, that'll be completely wasted with your setup. If you start doing 4k video editing or you feel the need to run a ton of lightroom stuff though then also have photoshop working at the same time then sure, but for LPX that is extreme overkill.

You also really don't need that 200 dollars worth of extra GPU. Again unless you're working on 4k video (it's hard to justify for gaming because a 350 xbox 1x blows this thing out of the water), you don't need that.

With cpus the main consensus on this board is either get the i7 (which is still a crazy good cpu) or get the top 2.4ghz i9. That middle option is the worst bang for the buck.

Storage space is a personal thing but I see 1tb as plenty. I don't have a lot of situations where I'm going to need to have massive amounts of data but I'm not using an external hard drive. For the insane price hike between the 1 and 2 tb internal drives, you could literally get a RAID external drive with a pair of 5 tb harddrives mirroring each other as a constant backup in case of a drive failure.

It's your money and I want you to be happy but if you were my own family member asking this question, I couldn't in good faith justify having you get those extras. The "base" model is already a fantastic machine and it's silly to pay hundreds to a thousand dollars more for something you will get no use out of for your workflow.

 

[leman]

Cooler, no, quieter, possibly. The 8 core will generate more heat under heavy load and will need more airflow to be cooled down.

If you are looking for a laptop that will not get loud, your options are somewhat limited. The 16” MBP is one of the quietest powerful laptops on the market right now.