My 2.6 with the ATI card is very quiet until it really gets pushed and then the video card speaks up a bit but never noisy.
It does put out the heat however...
-mx
It does put out the heat however...
-mx
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How noisy are Mac Pros...
- Thread starter netdog
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Mine is quiet, but I guess it's all about what you're used to. In my case, my PC was much noisier and against that it sounds much quieter. I also have a (slighly old) Dell Precision Xeon machine in my office, and that is noisier, but only a fraction (albeit I hear it less as it's headless and sits at the other side of the room).
My measurement is that my peripherals are noisier than my MacPro. That tells me it's a quiet system.
-mx
-mx
Hard part about that is that all the components are right in front of your face. The nice thing about the mac pro is that you can tuck it under a desk.
The thing that will make a mac pro loud will be hard drives. I have all 4 bays filled and I can hear them all spinning. it isn't bad, because the read/write is really quiet. I do set them to spin down if possible, but because 2 of them are a mirrored raid, there is always a constant noise from the system. Just a slight hiss from the drives, that's all... nothing that bothers me.
The thing that will make a mac pro loud will be hard drives. I have all 4 bays filled and I can hear them all spinning. it isn't bad, because the read/write is really quiet. I do set them to spin down if possible, but because 2 of them are a mirrored raid, there is always a constant noise from the system. Just a slight hiss from the drives, that's all... nothing that bothers me.
i'm the pcsilentreview kind of PC user, so I'm a fanatic about noise. I'd rate my imac at a 1-2/10 scale (excellent) and the mac pro (3ghz with 1900ATI upgrade) about a 4.
It's fairly quiet but certainly not even close to silent. It doesn't bother me tremendously, but I've done better with DIY Pc in the past.
It's fairly quiet but certainly not even close to silent. It doesn't bother me tremendously, but I've done better with DIY Pc in the past.
flyinmac
macrumors 68040
Yes, I completely agree. The issue with the iMac was that it's fans were right in-front of your face. And, the noise from the bottom one would reverberate off the top of the desk.
The desk would act as an amplifier or redirector of sorts just like it did with the speakers on the bottom of the computer.
illegalprelude
macrumors 68000
if its anything like the PMG5, it will be indeed quite. I only hear mine when I turn her on and she revs up.
Other times can be when its hot and im doing alot of work with Final Cut and etc, Other wise, she barely hums
Other times can be when its hot and im doing alot of work with Final Cut and etc, Other wise, she barely hums
My APC UPS makes more noise than the Mac Pro... and the UPS is pretty quiet when running off of the wall power.
Seriously. You'll barely hear a hum.
Seriously. You'll barely hear a hum.
..really, not even close.
Compared to a "silenced" PC, my MacPro 2.6 was quieter. Compared to either of my 24 al iMacs, one 2.4, one 2.8e, the MacPro HOWLS. It is far from silent, but far from loud, if that makes sense.
Yah, I had all four bays filled, but not in a RAID array, and drives shut down when not in use... ATI card which may have some factor, but hell, running Safari?
The MP was under my desk but still, was much louder than either of my iMacs. Not even close.
rt
Compared to a "silenced" PC, my MacPro 2.6 was quieter. Compared to either of my 24 al iMacs, one 2.4, one 2.8e, the MacPro HOWLS. It is far from silent, but far from loud, if that makes sense.
Yah, I had all four bays filled, but not in a RAID array, and drives shut down when not in use... ATI card which may have some factor, but hell, running Safari?
The MP was under my desk but still, was much louder than either of my iMacs. Not even close.
rt
Sesshi
macrumors G3
It's not too bad for a computer with no truly overt silencing features - and yes, you can do better. My XPS 710 H2C is not far behind the MP (it has a slightly different class of noise) and it has an OC'd quad-core with two 8800GTX's.
The problem is that it has no overt silencing features, and therefore the noise level it's running at provides - like the iMac - just barely enough airflow for stable operation.