I finally decided to break out the M2 Max Studio that I purchased a few weeks ago from Costco on sale. Coming from the 2018 Intel Mac Mini, it will be a huge upgrade. I am convinced I would be happy with the performance but disappointed/annoyed with the noise from an M4 Pro in this "cute" little form factor.
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First review about sound... fan noise
- Thread starter Cape Dave
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Different design doesn’t translate to a better design.
You’re correct. I don’t know for sure.
Please explain how this statement is factual without speculating.
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If you look at the breakdown of the new Mini and then that of the old Mini, you can see the new one occupies the entire space while the old one has lots of empty room. The latter could have been used, perhaps, for a different fan system or a larger, more effective heat sink design.
This is a non story IMHO.
Been goofing around with Cinebench and a few other apps on my M4 Pro Mini and a few other of my devices. Fan noise is on par with my M3 Pro MacBook Pro, yet far quieter than my 2015 i7 MacBook Pro.
None of these come close to the sound a G5, a G4 MDD, or even a cMP make when they are at full chat.
Been goofing around with Cinebench and a few other apps on my M4 Pro Mini and a few other of my devices. Fan noise is on par with my M3 Pro MacBook Pro, yet far quieter than my 2015 i7 MacBook Pro.
None of these come close to the sound a G5, a G4 MDD, or even a cMP make when they are at full chat.
mine is set to automatic by default, but I haven't heard any fan noise on my m4 pro
is it recommended to keep it in auto or low ?
If I understand this setting correctly, on a Mini it only affects the fan speed profile (I might be wrong).
More aggressive, Balanced, Less aggressive.
In turn, in certain circumstances, this might have a small effect of the amount of throttling.
I have a vague memory of someone benchmarking the various modes and recording only a minor difference in performance.
If fan noise is important to you and it becomes intrusive, I would switch to low and see what difference it makes, if any.
EDIT
I found this: https://www.mactrast.com/2024/11/high-power-mode-expands-to-macbook-pro-and-mac-mini-models-with-m4-pro-chip/#:~:text=As noted on an an,such as 8K video work
”In his Mac mini review, Cunningham said High Power Mode performance gains were “essentially negligible” despite “considerably increased” fan noise.”
Review: M4 and M4 Pro Mac minis are probably Apple’s best Mac minis ever
First Mac mini redesign in almost 15 years highlights how good the insides are.
arstechnica.com
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I've been on the verge of pulling the trigger on the Mac Mini M4 Pro for a few days now. The only thing holding me back is the lack of reports about fan noise. As I've been using the MBP M1 Pro for the last 3 years and I never heard the fans no matter what I do (music production) on the computer. I still remember my amazement when I first got this machine—the idea that a computer with such power could run in complete silence was unbelievable. Every moment of working on this MBP has been a joy, free from the stress-inducing fan noise I constantly hear on my Lenovo work PC.
If upgrading to the Mac Mini M4 Pro means reintroducing fan noise, it’s a deal-breaker. It would feel like going back to a 5400 RPM HDD after years of enjoying the speed of an SSD.
I'm glad I found this thread right in time but also very disappointed.. I was so exited to get this Mac Mini.
I'm waiting for https://www.youtube.com/@MarkEllisReviews final verdict on the Mac Mini M4 pro. He said that he will be testing the fans in his full review.
If upgrading to the Mac Mini M4 Pro means reintroducing fan noise, it’s a deal-breaker. It would feel like going back to a 5400 RPM HDD after years of enjoying the speed of an SSD.
I'm glad I found this thread right in time but also very disappointed.. I was so exited to get this Mac Mini.
I'm waiting for https://www.youtube.com/@MarkEllisReviews final verdict on the Mac Mini M4 pro. He said that he will be testing the fans in his full review.
Cooling occurs due to heat exchange, in this case cooler air moving over hotter components/heatsink. The case only has an effect in the sense of allowing air to move freely over all parts, how easily cool air can get in and warm air out and if there is ventilation holes to allow natural convection to occur or if it is restricted. Unless components are in direct contact with the case or a heatspreader is attached to it, the case plays almost no part in the cooling of the processor or components. However, the internal heat warms up the air and that heats up the case too, which in turn, once the heat source (power supply & processor load) is reduced, then the internal air flow has to cool the components and the case as it is acting as a heat source now too. The ambient air surrounding the case aids to cool the case down somewhat. This means for a while after a heavy load the case will heat the internal air reducing its cooling capacity.
Old Mac mini total volume 1382.98cm2
New Mac mini total volume = 806.45cm2
The larger mini takes longer to warm up as it has a larger thermal capacity, in turn it will eventually hold more heat and take longer to cool. It might also cool slightly faster due to its larger surface area. The smaller mini exposed to the same amount of energy will reach the same temperature quicker as it has a lower thermal capacity, it will hold less heat overall requiring less air movement to cool. It might cool slightly slower due to its smaller surface area. Pros and cons both ways and net result is not much in it.
In a nutshell, the case size has much less of an effect on the cooling performance than the actual case design. Could the design be better from a thermal efficiency perspective... absolutely. Is it form over function, it is both.
The new mini has a more powerful chip and a higher thermal output, so more heat, but over a shorter period. This means it needs more immediate cooling capacity, hence fans running sooner and/or harder but it won't be needed as long. This would also be true if the logic board was sitting on a desk in the open, so zero case influence, as it is a result of the higher thermal output of the processor.
This is based on direct comparison of the Mac mini M2 pro vs M4 pro chips. From the only measured results I can find, off the same (multithreaded) handbrake MP4 encoding test, the runs drew an average of 36.2 watts and 43.1 watts respectively. Making the M4 pro higher in power use, but when taking the processing time into account to calculate total energy used we get 6.05WHr vs 3.85WHr respectively, making the M4 pro more efficient. In comparison the base M4 is Apple's most efficient chip to date using only 2.39WHr by comparison.
So without speculation the new minis do have more powerful chips that put out more heat faster due to their processing power, but they do it for less time, so less overall. Is Apple's redesigned copper cooler in the M4 pro enough to tame this power? Initial indications say no but I don't think there's enough "real" evidence yet. Tweaking of power curves in updates to come from feedback will likely occur and we do not know how aggressive the curves have been set yet to keep chips cool.
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The M2 Max Studio never makes any noise no matter what you throw at it. It also supports up to five (5) external displays. Somehow I have found a way to use up all of that capability.
Whilst I appreciate the software library is chalk and cheese, I wouldn't mind seeing a comparison between the PS5 Pro and the M4 Mini running the same game. They both sit around the same price mark and whilst I'd love a better games console, a Mac has infinitely more uses.
Yeah I'm the same, the first week has mostly brought apple sanctioned infomercials and rehashes of marketing material with little to no real data. From what I have picked from actual accounts and reading between the lines, I am leaning back towards picking up the M4 pro mini. Mind you I don't have a mac currently so it is replacing nothing in that department. Though if you haven't been able to spin a fan up in the MBP to notice it, you have to ask yourself if you've ever come close to stressing it out yet? Might have plenty of use yet 😉, then wait for the studio or M5/6.
The big unknown is so many of the tests you have read are with high power mode on or not mentioned, and we all knew high power mode produced more noise well before the M4 variants came out so nothing new there. That and most loads were full CPU/GPU stress tests which are not applicable to music production. Funny though how through dozens of articles the same test has produced all these opinions.... quiet, silent, about to lift off, a hum, loud, like an Intel mac mini, barely noticable, fan noise is considerably increased under high power mode, dramatically quieter than an Intel iMac, the fans rarely kicked in, fan gets loud with heavy workloads, like a calming white noise machine, never gets loud even under extreme duress, fans stay extremely quiet or inaudible at all times, fans can be noisy under load, fan noise was also basically the same (M2 pro mini), which is very quiet in my opinion, mostly inaudible most of the time.
So who is telling the truth and who is exagerating for clicks AND why isn't there more db readings!! Haha
I'm thinking that those who really want or need a Mini will buy it regardless and see (hear) for themselves, especially with the extended holiday return window. The breathless expressions of relief from bullet dodging are just the relief from not having to change their previous Mac upgrade plans.
I don’t think negative stories are made up or exaggerated just for clicks. If anything, it’s the overly positive, ad-like reviews that generate clicks and revenue.
That said, fan noise is a highly subjective issue. If you’re not generally bothered by fan noise or similar sounds, feel free to ignore those reviews. For the rest of us, such reviews are crucial in helping us decide whether to buy or not.
Right? I did not think that there would be much chance of noise, but maybe I was wrong. I am also waiting for further hard data.
Spot on. My comment was meant to point out it is extreme in both directions and you are right again, it is an extremely subjective issue. One persons loud is anothers quiet and vice versa. That is why dB measurements and also now we are starting to get actual recordings of the "noise", or better yet recordings of comparisons, actual objective data, that is what will help people on the fence decide
Honestly every YouTuber small and large has seen an opportunity to get views complaining about fan noise… honestly if you think you need an M4 Pro but are complaining about fan noise do you really need the Pro? And high end windows desktop sounds like a jet engine taking off when exporting video or rendering… heat equals larger fan noise… 😂
Again, you can ridicule people all you want but you are wrong here.
Studio is silent, M4 is silent, the problem is M4 Pro.
I tested both and even though I would need the M4 Pro I can get away with M4 for now which is most likely what I'll do.
The new design is fantastic but the Pro has noise issues under high load.
As some mentioned - once you get used to a silent computer you don't want to go back to a noisy one.
So please, don't laugh it off when there are other examples (from Apple) that actually have no sound and work great.
Studio is silent, M4 is silent, the problem is M4 Pro.
I tested both and even though I would need the M4 Pro I can get away with M4 for now which is most likely what I'll do.
The new design is fantastic but the Pro has noise issues under high load.
As some mentioned - once you get used to a silent computer you don't want to go back to a noisy one.
So please, don't laugh it off when there are other examples (from Apple) that actually have no sound and work great.
Good point! My MBP has 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD so that is starting to get annoying and I always use it like a desktop computer in clamshell mode so Mac Mini would be the perfect upgrade.
I don't care what a Windows desktop does or doesn't do. I'm buying a Mac and spending a lot of money on it. So excuse me if my expectations are high.
Even if your fans come on, it will NOT be like your work PC. I can't stand my work HP laptop for the same reason.
In your use case I highly doubt you would ever hear the fans. I replaced my M1 13" MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro Mini the other day. My M1 fans only came on when exporting long form 4K HDR video. Machine was silent while editing such video, or doing RAW edits within Lightroom.
I could (especially in warm environments outdoors) sometimes hear the fans come on during large batch exports, or when exporting a long form video in 4K.
Even then, the sound was negligible, with the new Mini being no louder than my outgoing M1 when I was able to trigger the fan in Cinebench testing.