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2018 Mac Mini coil whine

Has anyone pointed their iPhone oscilloscope at the mini and done an FFT to tell what frequencies are emitted and how strong they are?
Defective ears is a real possibility. I used to be able to hear 21kHz at reasonable volumes now it's 15 kHz on a good day.
Eyes do the same thine as you age. Used to see mag 7.5 objects, now it's more like 5.5 under dark skies.

I don't see why Apple would have to put a big enough inductor in a mini to produce audible whine. There's not that much high power stuff going on. Maybe Apple bought cheap fans with unbalanced Impellers? Centrifugal fans like in the earlier minis can spin pretty fast. The old 2012 Mini fan ran at about 2000 RPM on idle. If Apple used bushings instead of bearings that could make for a pretty good whine.
 
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Partron22 said:
Has anyone pointed their iPhone oscilloscope at the mini and done an FFT to tell what frequencies are emitted and how strong they are?
Defective ears is a real possibility. I used to be able to hear 21kHz at reasonable volumes now it's 15 kHz on a good day.
Eyes do the same thine as you age. Used to see mag 7.5 objects, now it's more like 5.5 under dark skies.

I don't see why Apple would have to put a big enough inductor in a mini to produce audible whine. There's not that much high power stuff going on. Maybe Apple bought cheap fans with unbalanced Impellers? Centrifugal fans like in the earlier minis can spin pretty fast. The old 2012 Mini fan ran at about 2000 RPM on idle. If Apple used bushings instead of bearings that could make for a pretty good whine.
Click to expand...


It is 100% not the fans. I’ve heard my fans spin up and it’s a ‘whoosh’ sound - like a fan. The coil whine is like an old HDD spinning up under load. The main time I’ve heard it has been when installing software, and when I first turned on the machine to set it up. Other than that the noise has been rarely experienced.
 
I've got an i7, 1 TB Mac mini and it's got the issue. It does sounds like there's a mechanical disk working away. It's a little annoying but for me it's not bad enough to warrant a return/replacement.
 
i7, 265GB here with severe coil whine, not to mention the issue where my Mac mini only displays an image on my monitor after logging in.... Think this will be going back.
 
i7/32/512/1 Gb here. Has coil whine. It sounds like an old 2.5" HDD seeking, just like the prior recordings. Seems to be most noticeable during initial setup and installing software. Benchmarks as 1.9 GB/sec write, >2 GB/sec read as expected. Interestingly, the drive is completely silent during sustained read/write tests.

It is rather lame that best-in-class parts are not used with the prices charged...
 
nyskifan said:
i7/32/512/1 Gb here. Has coil whine. It sounds like an old 2.5" HDD seeking, just like the prior recordings. Seems to be most noticeable during initial setup and installing software. Benchmarks as 1.9 GB/sec write, >2 GB/sec read as expected. Interestingly, the drive is completely silent during sustained read/write tests.

It is rather lame that best-in-class parts are not used with the prices charged...
Click to expand...


What is more lame they solder it in, so one simple question begs an answer: is the whine a fine whine and it will get smoother with age?
 
Got mine today. Very very slight sound. I have to put my ear next to the Mac mini to really hear it.

Seems like (unfortunately) is a wide spread thing so I'm going to not return this, but rather get AppleCare ($89).

Everything else seems great!
 
head honcho 123 said:
Got mine today. Very very slight sound. I have to put my ear next to the Mac mini to really hear it.

Seems like (unfortunately) is a wide spread thing so I'm going to not return this, but rather get AppleCare ($89).

Everything else seems great!
Click to expand...


Send apple another 100 for their build error. An error that the part can never be replaced.
 
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Got my Mac mini replacement today, and it has coil whine too...
i dunno what to do, replace it one more time ? try a different build ? go for a Hackintosh ?
 
jean512 said:
Got my Mac mini replacement today, and it has coil whine too...
i dunno what to do, replace it one more time ? try a different build ? go for a Hackintosh ?
Click to expand...

If it's distracting you from using it/doing your work, then I'd say replace it one more time and if it happens again, maybe a different machine?

If it's not distracting, or you have to force yourself to hear it, then maybe just keep it? I'm just going to keep mine. I have to really force myself to hear it...
 
but if apple fix it next year, who would buy a Mac mini with an old crappy HDD sound ...
value 0
 
Odd. My i5 512GB has not made a sound since setting it up. Really has run flawlessly and cool. Probably the best mac experience I have had. Really love it.
 
how many Mac replacement can we do ?
I guess if I ask 10 times a replacement they will ban me from buying apple product, like amazon do...

My Mac mini is updating iCloud photos at this moment and I can hear the non stop coil whine...

BTW, how can I get in touch with someone in Apple who can understand what coil whine is ?
 
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i7/8/128 here with the same SSD-whine previously mentioned in the thread. However, the only time I noticed it was when I put my ear next to it, and it's on my desk next to my monitor.

(cc @jean512)
 
Alexandberg said:
i7/8/128 here with the same SSD-whine previously mentioned in the thread. However, the only time I noticed it was when I put my ear next to it, and it's on my desk next to my monitor.

(cc @jean512)
Click to expand...

thx you, I was asking me if coil whine could be less noisy with the 128Gb as it is less performant.
Btw did you make a benchmark to get read/write speed ? I'm very curious. :)
 
Has anybody listened to a demo Mini in the Apple Store? Maybe too loud to hear it there, but would indicate whether or not it's a common sound with this machine.
 
Sadly its a common sound. All Toshiba SSDs have this coil wine. Same with the Macbook Pros of 2018. Even all other devices with the same Toshiba SSDs are having this Coil Wine. Its sad Apple switched from Samsung SSDs to Toshiba SSDs, just because they are cheaper for Apple. Well but apart from that Toshiba SSDs are great SSDs.
 
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