Fan or Hard Drive Sound???

[chilli42]

I have just got a new Macbook Pro base 15inch model. I'm new to mac and have a quick question:

I use the mac in a very quiet room and can hear the fan or hard drive on the right hand side running (albeit very quietly) all the time. If I were using it anywhere else I wouldn't be able to hear anything. The fan noise fluctuates every few secs from slow to a little faster when I am running no apps and the mac is cold. Is this normal?

If I were to take it to an apple store they wouldn't be able to hear anything. When I asked a guy in the apple store he said that the fans always run to some extent, is this correct?

I was expecting it to be pretty much silent when it is idle, but I guess there is always going to be some slight whirl/hum.

Any thought would be appreciated!

Thx

 

[steveca]

it is possible that the sound is from the fan but my macbook pro runs very quiet when cold and idle... difficult to hear it in fact...

 

[spinnerlys]

The fans always spin, the low speed is 2000RPM and the maximum speed is 6000RPM.
You can use iStat Menus or iStat Pro to monitor fan speed, CPU and other temperatures and the CPU activity.

The internal HDD is audible, as the platter has to spin for you to have access to your files and for the OS to work.