First review about sound... fan noise

[ubinko]

It appears that fan noise is just fine on the pro mini:

M4 Pro Mac mini Review: Pro Performance in a Tiny, Affordable Package

This cute little computer packs a serious punch.

petapixel.com

"This is as good a time as any to note that the Mac mini, which has a fan, never gets loud, even under extreme duress. I could hear the fan while running the benchmark tests, but it never rose above a faint hum. During typical use, the machine is entirely silent."

 

[whosthis]

We need comparisons between different power modes.

I am still using my M1 MBP, and have it on low power mode basically most of the time. But even with full power, it is only hot and audible when I do things like video conversions. And it's exactly for those tasks that I use the low mode. Who cares if it is a bit faster in those cases... it's working in the background, mostly at night, and not having it cooked and fans going on tilt will do wonders to my health (and probably to the hardware, too).

 

[throAU]

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.

What I found with my m1 MacBook Pro is that if you set low power mode there's a lot less fan noise and negligible impact to performance. I mean it's a bit slower, but if you're just running something in the background while doing something else... more pleasant. And still faster than anything intel from previous.

Presumably low power mode on other M chips is similar.

 

[throAU]

Dave 2D says it's not great, but is way better than the one in the previous Mac minis.

Modern monitors connected via HDMI usually have audio, basically the internal speaker in a mini is purely for boot diagnostics really.

 

[throAU]

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.

Would you not be using a proper set of noise cancelling (or at least, over ear cans) headphones for that?

 

[Igantius]

From Six Colors Review today:

Apple also says that the Mac mini includes a redesigned thermal system where all air flows through the foot. In my tests, I tried maxing out both CPU cores and, separately, GPU cores and in either case I had to literally hold the mini up to my hear to maybe hear something that could have been a fan. We’re a long way from having a machine nicknamed “Wind Tunnel”.

Note review model:

The review model Apple provided me is the $799 configuration with the base M4 chip (10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores), 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

So this wasn't the M4 Pro chip.

Chris Welch at The Verge had the same model and he commented about the lack of fan noise. (Not sure whether he tried maxing things out as well.).

 

[torana355]

Would you not be using a proper set of noise cancelling (or at least, over ear cans) headphones for that?

Well I have a set of floorstanding speakers that I prefer to listen to music on.

 

[MajorFubar]

Old people like me who grew up with PCs the size of a safe with clattering hard-drives and gronking floppy-disc drives are probably never going to understand the upset caused by something that never gives off more noise than a quiet desk-fan, even when you push it into overdrive.

 

[loliii123]

I got the base model M4 mini, when pushing it hard (gaming through Whisky/wine) it draws ~46W, the fans spin up to around 2500-3000RPM. 20cm away the Apple Watch 7 reads about 41dB, noise floor is 31-32dB. Ambient 25.4C. AVG CPU is ~89C, hottest CPU (performance core) 103C. At this level I'd call it noisy/obtrusive, you're probably gonna want to slap on headphones if you had to keep it at this level and work long term.

I'll call the machine quietly audible at 33dB (non obtrusive wooshing), drawing 32W, fan ~1450rpm. (I capped fps to 45, 4 P cores maxed and gpu at around 70-80%) This would be a pretty moderate load.

The machine is practically silent at anything below say 27W, fan <1250RPM, it disappears into my noise floor. (4 P cores still 90%, GPU at 15%) It's about as silent as the hissing of my Neumann KH80 studio monitors, at 70cm away its a struggle to hear anything from the mac or my speakers over my mild tinnitus.

I let the machine idle and the fan reports 1000RPM. With my ear up against the machine you can still hear the fan hum (almost like quiet mains transformer humming) but when say moving my mouse around while watching a 4k60 YouTube video there's no sharp coil whine noise or anything, so it's very well behaved.

I've tried raising it so the intake/exhaust can breathe better, but the increase in noise level more than offsets any gain in cooling efficiency. Hope this helps.

 

[Gezellig]

Would you not be using a proper set of noise cancelling (or at least, over ear cans) headphones for that?

Depending on what you’re doing, headphones are not always the best choice.
For mixing and mastering, it is highly recommended to use external monitors and only use headphones for particular needs and specific tasks.
So, a fan noise could be annoying at best and counter-productive at its worst.
I know it can sounds picky to most people. But that’s why the priciest investment in my studio is the soundproofing. Over time, a quiet (and yet not dead) environment is crucial when working with audio.

That being said, the reports vary a lot and I have still yet to find reviews addressing the M4Pro MacMini for audio production.

 

[nathansz]

Would you not be using a proper set of noise cancelling (or at least, over ear cans) headphones for that?

You’d never use noise cancelling headphones in the studio

They colour sound too much

(This is what also makes them terrible just for casual listening)

 

[GDF]

The review unit is an M4 Pro and not an M4. You are running an M1. M2 Pro reportedly engages the fan more often than M1 and M2.

I have never once heard a fan running on my M2 Pro mini. Was not even aware it had one. 🙂

 

[EugW]

Old people like me who grew up with PCs the size of a safe with clattering hard-drives and gronking floppy-disc drives are probably never going to understand the upset caused by something that never gives off more noise than a quiet desk-fan, even when you push it into overdrive.

While it was not really possible 40 years ago, even 25 years ago, I built my PCs to be as quiet as possible.

It’s not as if this is a new fad.

You’d never use noise cancelling headphones in the studio

They colour sound too much

(This is what also makes them terrible just for casual listening)

I also do not like the sound from most noise cancelling headphones, for this reason and because they give me a headache. The only place I liked to use them was on airplanes, but even then I’d use ear canal headphones instead.

 

[mgscheue]

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.

It's funny, I have mine running distributed computing stuff (PrimeGrid and Einstein@home), which keeps mine busy all the time, and I'm not hearing much fan noise. Though maybe it's because I have enough other sounds in my office area that it's not bothersome.

 

[TallManNY]

I think the m4 Pro is only offered here to ensure they have full SKU coverage all the way up to the bottom of the Studio line and can induce the Tim Cook Special

(getting customers to think ... "hmm...MAYYYYBE I should just go up to a Studio?")

Definitely SKU coverage. But more likely they have to really bump the Studio to make it worth going from M4 Pro to Studio. The M4 Pro reviews are making it very clear that it handles professional work flows. Yes, there will always be pros who can use more and are not price sensitive to dropping another $1,000. But the M4 Pro is going to satisfy a lot of needs.

 

[Wando64]

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 is not uncommon in small set-ups to have the computer in the recording room.
I can only imagine you’ve never seen and used a condenser microphone before, and have no idea of what you are talking about.
If I were you I’d probably quit digging.

On the other side, the load on a computer during acoustic recording is minimal, and therefore it would be highly unusual for any fan to be spinning any more than idle, but this is a different matter altogether.

 

[nathansz]

It is not uncommon in small set-ups to have the computer in the recording room.
I can only imagine you’ve never seen and used a condenser microphone before and have no idea of what you are talking about.

If I were you I’d probably quit digging.

I’ve used plenty of condenser mics

And seen computers in a recording room

The fan on a Mac mini isn’t going blow hard enough while do vocal takes to be an issue

 

[Cape Dave]

While it was not really possible 40 years ago, even 25 years ago, I built my PCs to be as quiet as possible.

It’s not as if this is a new fad.



I also do not like the sound from most noise cancelling headphones, for this reason and because they give me a headache. The only place I liked to use them was on airplanes, but even then I’d use ear canal headphones instead.

I have been all about silent computing since about 1997. Like you say, not even really possible back then, but I tried

 

[Gezellig]

I’ve used plenty of condenser mics

And seen computers in a recording room

The fan on a Mac mini isn’t going blow hard enough while do vocal takes to be an issue

Depending on multiple parameters (mic distance to the computer, fan noise, etc) and the amount of pre/post processing you’ll do, there are many scenarios where you’d hear the noise.
Granted, we’re talking about home/project studios more than pro studios.
But the Mini is aimed at this market. So it makes sense to, at the very least, wait for reviews to document this.

 

[nathansz]

Depending on multiple parameters (mic distance to the computer, fan noise, etc) and the amount of pre/post processing you’ll do, there are many scenarios where you’d hear the noise.
Granted, we’re talking about home/project studios more than pro studios.
But the Mini is aimed at this market. So it makes sense to, at the very least, wait for reviews to document this.

not quite the same but i am picking up an m4 pro macbook pro today

i would expect it to to have worse heat dissipation and thus would expect it to be easier to kick the fans in hard then the mini

i will definitely throw what i can at it in logic and see what it takes to get the fans going

 

[joshmv]

I've got a maxed out Mini on order, but I hate fan noise so I've been waiting for the reviews to see if I want to cancel and wait for the studio.

My question is, my normal setup is (3) 60hz 5k monitors, does that alone raise the heat levels from the GPU quite a bit? I usually have video running on one of the screens.

 

[Fishrrman]

hmmmmm....

Smaller Mini = smaller fan = has to work harder to move equivalent amount of air than would a larger fan = more noise when doing so.

I've got a 2018 Mini that still works ok.

Think I might just "hold out" until the new Studios are released (probably May/June next year), then make a choice...

 

[EugW]

Smaller Mini = smaller fan = has to work harder to move equivalent amount of air than would a larger fan = more noise when doing so.

I don't think the M2 Pro fan is significantly bigger.

First look: Mac mini with M2 Pro

MacStadium's Brian Stucki gives a first look at (and teardown of) the Mac mini with M2 Pro.

www.macstadium.com

M2 Pro on the left, M2 on the right.

 

[toypadlock]

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.

mine had been like that too for a couple of years, and i reckoned it was getting worse. then at the weekend, i opened it up, removed the fan unit and cleaned it. now it only comes on when the mini's booting up or under particularly high stress. can really recommend it, i'm much less annoyed by it now!

 

[nathansz]

mine had been like that too for a couple of years, and i reckoned it was getting worse. then at the weekend, i opened it up, removed the fan unit and cleaned it. now it only comes on when the mini's booting up or under particularly high stress. can really recommend it, i'm much less annoyed by it now!

i do this once every 6 months or so with my 2012 mini that's our home server

the attatched hard drives make some racket every once an awile, the mini stays quiet