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Are the new G5's really quiet?

Grokgod

Grokgod

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 26, 2002
906
0
Deep within the heart of madness!
I would love to hear from some people out there that have the new G5's.

Are they really quiet?
How Quiet?
QUiet as a Laptop?

Does it fluctuate badly?
I have read some threads about the 747 PROBLEM with some units
where the fans are not calibrated properly or that there are motherboards problems that cause the machines 9 fans to roar!

How many here have G5's that are actually quiet on an objective decibel level.

I refuse to buy another mac that has problems!
My ALubook was insane with them.

appreciate any help!
 
Don't have one

But I have been in two apple stores, and 3 other computer stores that have the g5 out for public use. They were extreamly quiet. I couldn't even hear it as I was surfing the web and doing some iPhoto, iMovie stuff. Hell, just stand right in front of it and you can see the fans inside for the processors moving, and they are barely moving at that. Only if you get a bad sensor or doing some high power number crunching things will they speed up. I never did it so I don't know how loud it can get. I have heard that the video card fan can make noise, and end up being the loudest thing in the g5. And no, the g5 where not on the floor, they were right up on the tables where you can put your ear right up too it. Just go to a Comp-USA or Apple Store to see them for yourself.

Can't wait to gather up the money to get one myself, after the revisions. :D
 
Grokgod said:
I refuse to buy another mac that has problems!
My ALubook was insane with them.
Click to expand...
Ah, you bought an Apple Rev 1 product didn't you? My 1Ghz TiBook (the last refinement of the Titanium form factor) has been flawless for nearly 18 months now.
 
I have a dual 2ghz model and i rarley hear it, the only time i do is when there is very little ambiet noise and i open something like halo...then it makes this bizarre crunching noise when is processes the info. VERY quiet
 
Very very quiet. Quite nice if you ask me. But I don't get to appreciate it much, because I have a switch sitting next to it with a rather noisy fan. :)
 
mactastic said:
Ah, you bought an Apple Rev 1 product didn't you? My 1Ghz TiBook (the last refinement of the Titanium form factor) has been flawless for nearly 18 months now.
Click to expand...


Awww I miss my Titanium.. wish I never sold it. Far less trouble than the AL!
 
Interesting

ok hearing the G5's in a store really doesnt count because there is SO much ambient noise in a store, that I am sure the G5 would sound very quiet.

I am trying to find out if it is quiet in a quiet room, when quiet matters.
In a department store with music playing is not the arena to test its silence.

Also I do not have the opportunity to see or hear these unit since I live in a small town and there are no APPLE stores here or any APPLE products sold here or near.

Yea, i bought the REV a of the ALubook and that is something that I will never do, AGAIN!

So, i have been waiting ofr REV B of the Powermacs.
Since they may appear soon, <wishful thinking >
I am considering them but I NEED quiet when working.

Even the fan noise from my Ti 1 giger is bothersome to me.
I thought that if a G5 is close in noise level and I put it far away from my desk with some long cables that it might be ok, but not if its a 747!

Bizarre crunching noise doesnt seem quiet to me.
And sitting next to a switch with a fan is still a situation where
you cant really consider what the G5 is doing.

ANyone out there, with a need for quiet and using a G5?


No doubt that the Ti's were the best of the BEST!
I sold my Ti 800 and got the ALU, I was horrified!
Got rid of the ALU and got a Ti's 1 giger

I still miss my Ti 800!
I was stone quite most of the time except for photoshop etc!
but for script writing and surfing , SOOOooooo quiet.
Biggest mistake I ahve ever made in the computer realm.
was selling that Ti 800.....

One day I will buy anotherone!
I will be like a brother coming home!
 
Grokgod said:
1. Are they really quiet?
2. How Quiet?
3. QUiet as a Laptop?
Click to expand...


1. pretty much.
2. a G5 with 9 fans only makes half the noise of a G4 tower with 1 fan.
3. no! are you kidding me?

I sorta know a guy that has a G5 and have seen it and used it twice. very fast.

would you not buy a G5 it it was a bit loud? out of all traits to look for in a system the noise factor should be near the bottom of the list. my blue G3 tower is a bit loud but i'm used to it and even if the room is silent other than the fan sound it doesn't bother me at all.
 
no worry

Got my dual G5 1st part of Sept. 03. I has a low fan sound that on occasion will kick up alittle louder. Usually when doing some heavy lifting. When you wake it from sleep it spins up 2 different fans just for a second. Over all it is the best designed - box I have ever had. Fans that speed up only when needed. I have mine sitting right on my desktop. If you put it down under the desk I would guess you might not even realize it was running. It can't get much better than this.
 
Grokgod said:
I would love to hear from some people out there that have the new G5's.

Are they really quiet?
How Quiet?
QUiet as a Laptop?

Does it fluctuate badly?
I have read some threads about the 747 PROBLEM with some units
where the fans are not calibrated properly or that there are motherboards problems that cause the machines 9 fans to roar!

How many here have G5's that are actually quiet on an objective decibel level.

I refuse to buy another mac that has problems!
My ALubook was insane with them.

appreciate any help!
Click to expand...

Very very quiet, and powerful too. I was playing around with one at my campus computer lab the other day (dual 2 gig with 1 gig ram) and i had 40 apps opened before I noticed any interface lag (we are taking heavy hitters like the Adobe CS and MS Office suites). Admittedly the total probably would have been a little lower if I were doing any serious work with the apps, but it shows just how well OS X can multi-task.
 
Quieter than a mouse...

I got a dual 1.8Ghz G5 at work 2 weeks ago.
The room I am in has 4 other HUGE PC's + a 42 Rack with 2 servers and 2 huge Gigaswitches. I can put my ear to the G5 and not hear a thing when its on.
Later in the evenings when all machines are off, I can be sitting at the G5 working hard away at FCP4 doing major renders and only hear the slightest of hums.
At home I have a dual 1Ghz MDD G4 tower (or the 'Windtunnel') even with the recall / replacement on its Power Unit and its 1 CPU fan, its still one of the noisiest machines I have ever heard.

The G5's are as quiet as a 17" iMac, possibly even quieter.
 
blue&whiteman said:
would you not buy a G5 it it was a bit loud? out of all traits to look for in a system the noise factor should be near the bottom of the list.
Click to expand...
Well...not if you're an audio producer. The noise level is actually a serious consideration when I buy a computer. However, the g5 is the quietest desktop I've ever heard. And yes, I've heard (or barely heard) them outside of the store...my friend has one. All in all, quite a quiet machine.
 
I have my dual1.8 G5 in a very quiet room and I can definitely hear it. With some ambient/background noise it would be almost silent I suppose.
 
musicpyrite said:
My 15' iMas is pretty loud, I can hear it 15 feet away; even when I'm not using Photoshop CS. :confused:
Click to expand...

as is my 15" iMac 800... i thought it would be quieter, but it is a refurbished unit, and i did save $300+ at the time of purchase, so i'm not complaining (whoa. 4 sentences linked together with but, and, and so. cool.)
actually when i think about it, absolute silence can bother me a lot (that's why i fall asleep with the radio and can be blamed for humming a lot) i'm usually listening to iTunes at only 3 notches, so no biggie...

reality
 
Not allways

It depends a lot on the ambient temperture.

My 1.6 was allways quiet but the dual 1.8 can get quite noisy. If the machine is normal use and its a cool day or the air conditionor is on I cant hear it.

If I am playing a game and folding is running in background I hear a little noise.

If its a warm day and I have the air conditioner off and I am working the machine hard it roars. On hot days I have turned on the air conditioner just to cool the room as the machine is louder than the inbuilt speaker.


mmm just checked the Technical Specs. 10-35 Degrees celsius. I guess it would be as high as 35 inside. Outside can be as high as 30-38 in the shade.
 
define noise

To my mind there are a few different kinds of noises.

There is the WHOOSH of i think its pushing air, that is a kind of sound that i can handle, i think. My Ti 800 would often make that low deep sound.

Then there is the High pitched noise that comes from , uhh not sure, maybe its the power supply or its fan.

Then there is the " Oh crap what is that" All the fans are on and its being overworked.

With 9 fans in this box that can be quite a noise maker.

Now if there is a low frequency roll of the fans moving slowly most of the time, then I might be able to handle that, if the box is across the room.
I can get a radio keyboard and a LONG Fideo cable.

There is that CLOSET in the hallway that would love a G5.> lol

But a high pitched constant noise that soem computers make is very painful to me.

What is the most constant type produced by this box.?

*interesting, why would a 1.6 be quieter than an dual 1.8 ,,,,
maybe a 1.6 would be better for me, ?

anyone understand this?
 
Grokgod said:
*interesting, why would a 1.6 be quieter than an dual 1.8 ,,,,
maybe a 1.6 would be better for me, ?

anyone understand this?
Click to expand...

Straight heat output. I dont have the numbers in front of me but from memory a dual 2.0 or 1.8 uses significantly more power than a single 1.6 on the order of 120-150%?

As long as its cool I cant hear the G5 over a dual 500 g4+p4 1.4 that I have a couple of meters away. As for when its warm remember an Australian summer does get pretty warm... At its loudest is a howl with all fans going.
The only time it gets louder is the sleep crash when all fans run at maximum speed. I do have a cupboard I used to store my 800 g4 in but I worry about what sort of temperture it would reach.
 
I ask a worker at my local Apple Store on Sunday about the G5 noise problem. He said that wheen nobody is in the store, don't notice any noise.

My G4 has a constant fan noise.
 
I have a dual 1.8 folding 24/7. So the procs work day and night full. Never heard anything out of them. I can sleep next to it not disturbing me. It's about 30 db, aka a silent room. BTW, the acoustics of a room also depends if you hear anything or if any sound is reaching the ear. I have my machine on the ground under my desk on carpet. This absorbs also any sound coming out of it. But my G3 B&W,if it's on, sitting idle is definately there, you hear the fan. The G5, nothing but silence!
 
The dual 2GHz (the only one I've heard outside the stores) is nowhere near as quiet as the current PowerBooks (and the TiBooks and iBooks too I assume). But I bet it's quieter than the combo of Lime iMac and beige G3. :)
 
Rev 1, followed by Rev 1, and six months later: Rev 1

mactastic said:
Ah, you bought an Apple Rev 1 product didn't you?.
Click to expand...

HA! Heaven forbid we buy new products less than one year after they are announced now! The world would go to hell in a hand basket!

Errr.... wow.... must have been channeling my Grandpa... sorry.

Anyway, just don't tell anyone that the 3 GHz Powermacs they are waiting for are essentially Rev 1 all over again, as they are the first G5 Powermacs with a 90 nm chip. Then next we get Rev 1 of a multicore G5! Apple will stop us from avoiding Rev 1 productsa by only ever offering Rev 1 products... new form factor and architecture for every Mac from now on! It's an endless cycle of fear! Why should I live in fear of my computer SUCKING?

I kid... I kid...
 
_

So, sometimes my laptop is TOO loud for me.

But I was thinking that a powermac that is farther away from me even if it is louder might be better,,,
Its great to hear that there are some people saying that the G5's are really quiet.

I wonder if the new G5 chip will produce less heat and therefore be even quieter! UNless there is a constant on of one of the fans.

I do think its unusual to hear some people say that they are Almost silent.
I dont get that, it must be a subjective thing.

I thought that the new 2.5 that are coming were going to be .90 process!!
Are you saying that makes them a REV 1??
 
I just set up my new 1.6 today :) and it is not silent, there is a quiet fan sound, louder than my Cube with Panaflo was, about the same loudness as my Sawtooth, much quieter than most of the computers in the house.
 
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