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If by old design you are not considering the 2018 Intel Mini sitting on my desk at this moment and sounding like it is spinning up for launch.

Yes, that old design but with Mx chips. My M1 Mini runs 24x7 at over 50-70% CPU/GPU load and I've maybe heard the fan once or twice in 3 years.


I am looking for a YouTube review that does noise. Looked at three so far with NO MENTION of noise.

Dave2D mentions it briefly.

 
As I threw benchmarks, games and encoding jobs at the Mac mini, I was constantly impressed by how much it could tackle without making any discernible fan noise. But Apple can’t escape heat. The Mac mini has a large intake fan along its bottom that sucks in cool air and spreads it out throughout the entire system. However, when I started running Cinebench's multithreaded benchmark, the fan kicked into high gear and the Mac mini sounded like it was getting ready to take off.


It's not an unpleasant sound — it's more like a calming white noise machine than the obnoxiously loud Mac fans of yore — but it's certainly noticeable. If you're typically wearing headphones or blasting music, it may not be an issue, but it could make the Mac mini very annoying in a shared office setting. If you're planning to constantly throw heavy workloads at it in high power mode, you might be better off with the larger Mac Studio, which can better handle heat.


The sound of Apple Silicon humming away is quite pleasant compared to the roaring fans of the Intel days.

I also like the sound of 3090 and 4090 Founder Edition GPUs under full load. The coil whine is kind of the same sound that Automan made.

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Yes, that is why I still have this unopened M2 Max Studio in a box that I can return to Costco if I decide not to go with the M4 Pro. You still don't get my point, there was no need to compromise. I've never heard someone say they wish the Mini was smaller.
The need to compromise comes from this computer likely making up, at the most, 1 million or so Mac sales (out of the 20+ million) in a year, and I believe I’m being VERY generous. If it was a top dog like the MacBook Air, they would have pulled out all the stops to ensure it met the needs of the widest number of folks possible. As it is, anyone primarily wanting a cheap M4 macOS desktop? Well, this is it.
 
Yes, that old design but with Mx chips. My M1 Mini runs 24x7 at over 50-70% CPU/GPU load and I've maybe heard the fan once or twice in 3 years.




Dave2D mentions it briefly.

thank you! I have seen 8 reviews now, and except for this one, none talked of noise :(
 
That base M4 spec is great for something that size, no? As many of use have experience with the M2 version, this is welcome.
 
Was about to pull the trigger on the maxed out M4Pro for music production (and replacing a MacBook Pro M1 Pro)…but this could be an issue. Gonna have to investigate a bit more, I guess!
 
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Was about to pull the trigger on the maxed out M4Pro for music production (and replacing a MacBook Pro M1 Pro)…but this could be an issue. Gonna have to investigate a bit more, I guess!

How is a little fan noise from a computer an issue for music production?

You must be making music in some unique way I’ve never seen before
 
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Wouldn't a low noise floor be important in Music production? I would absolutely think so.

I can’t imagine a scenario where it would be relevant

Maybe if you are trying to record sound directly in to the built in microphone?

Which I don’t think it even has? And also no one buying a computer for music production would ever do
 
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Fan noise is relevant in any circumstance, let alone one where careful sound reproduction is involved.

Fan noise is distracting also. Fan noise is a drag. It's also a tolerance thing, like weight. People complain about weight, and some helpful suggestions include: go to the gym. Or better: Man-up.

Here, I guess it would be to use headphones or ignore it, again, helpful.
 
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I can’t imagine a scenario where it would be relevant

Maybe if you are trying to record sound directly in to the built in microphone?

Which I don’t think it even has? And also no one buying a computer for music production would ever do
It's very relevant just for music listening let alone music production. Especially music with a lot of dynamic range, you don't want the quiet parts of a musical piece drowned out by fan noise.
 
Reel to reel? Yes I've heard of that!

And, my bedroom suffers 'bass amp fan' issues.

Given that, how is the tiny fan on a tiny computer, I’d guess only when you are bouncing out tracks, possibly an issue?
 
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