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Is a 2008 Mac Pro (or later) quieter than my original, 2006 Mac Pro?

PowerMac G4 MDD

PowerMac G4 MDD

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 13, 2014
1,900
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I am kinda wondering... my 2006 Mac Pro isn't abnormally loud, but the frontal intake fans are louder than those in my brother's 2008 Mac Pro, while ours are both running at the same RPM. Are these fans not lubricated as well / need oiling?

His Mac is full of dust and lint, yet those fans run nearly silent. I just removed my entire fan assembly and completely detailed both frontal fans, removing ALL dust and lint from the blades. It might sound a bit better, but STILL not as quiet as the 2008 model.

What's the deal? :-/
 
The whole layout is completely different between the models, personally I find my 2009 fairly loud and I wish I could easily swap the fans to some more efficient ones like say Noctua fans.
 
I've only owned the 2006 (4x2.66ghz) and 2010 (12x2.93ghz) machines.

The 2010 is definitely quieter then the 2006 while idle or when performing any CPU heavy tasks. However, whenever the RAID card is cycling itself (I've got an Apple RAID card installed in the '10), the PCI-e fan spools up a bit which makes the machine a tad noisier then the 2006. Likewise, the PSU and PCI-e fans seem more apt to rev up in the 2010, which means the machine as a whole is a lot more nosier when I'm playing games, but that noise isn't nearly as intrusive as the X1900 GPU fan (damn, that thing was LOUD).

Also, my 2006 machine had a weird harmonics thing going on with the disk drives. There was this constant building and receding humming noise which drove me nuts most of the time. The 2010 doesn't do that at all, probably because the disk drives are mounted on rubber grommets instead of directly to the aluminum caddy.

-SC
 
ScottishCaptain said:
Also, my 2006 machine had a weird harmonics thing going on with the disk drives. There was this constant building and receding humming noise which drove me nuts most of the time. The 2010 doesn't do that at all, probably because the disk drives are mounted on rubber grommets instead of directly to the aluminum caddy.
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I definitely have that kind of annoyance in my 2009 dual cpu Mac Pro, and it's not caused by the disks (since I don't have any mechanical drives installed).
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
I am kinda wondering... my 2006 Mac Pro isn't abnormally loud, but the frontal intake fans are louder than those in my brother's 2008 Mac Pro...
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There's more noise variations in Mac Pros due to differences in disks and video card fans than anything else. I've never noticed a consistent difference between the two versions.
 
chrfr said:
There's more noise variations in Mac Pros due to differences in disks and video card fans than anything else. I've never noticed a consistent difference between the two versions.
Click to expand...

It's really odd... I almost considered just picking up a new fan assembly off eBay, but I don't want to go through all of that and find out that the new fan isn't any different. When I spun my current fans, they felt VERY fluid. IDK what's causing this extra noise.

My card is louder than his, but I am able to distinguish between the noise of the fan and the noise of the GPU.
 
Rezar said:
I definitely have that kind of annoyance in my 2009 dual cpu Mac Pro, and it's not caused by the disks (since I don't have any mechanical drives installed).
Click to expand...

Do you know your fans' RPM? My frontal fans run at 500, which is the minimum, yet they are still louder than those on that 2008 Mac Pro.
 
The main annoyance in my 2009 is the vibration from the hard drives (the two WD20EARS are totally silent but the two ST3000DM001 are awfully noisy while spinning, as was the case with all my previous HDDs). The original HD4870 was pretty bothering too, if you don't need GPU power, a fanless card is an interesting choice (or one that stops its fan when idle like the 970). Other than that the rest of the machine still hums but nothing really bothering, I wish I could swap the fans for more silent ones though, the open case design is unforgiving. I suspect the fans became slightly louder with time but there's no way to be sure, I guess that would also be the case with most second hand MPs. When I first bought it I remember being very pleased with its silence despite the original HDD and GPU.
 
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benjaprud said:
The main annoyance in my 2009 is the vibration from the hard drives (the two WD20EARS are totally silent but the two ST3000DM001 are awfully noisy while spinning, as was the case with all my previous HDDs). The original HD4870 was pretty bothering too, if you don't need GPU power, a fanless card is an interesting choice (or one that stops its fan when idle like the 970). Other than that the rest of the machine still hums but nothing really bothering, I wish I could swap the fans for more silent ones though, the open case design is unforgiving. I suspect the fans became slightly louder with time but there's no way to be sure, I guess that would also be the case with most second hand MPs. When I first bought it I remember being very pleased with its silence despite the original HDD and GPU.
Click to expand...

It's rather annoying that that happens, but I guess the fans CAN get louder over time. I saw a replacement front assembly for $20 on eBay, but the only way to be sure if it's silent is if the part is brand new.
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
It's rather annoying that that happens, but I guess the fans CAN get louder over time. I saw a replacement front assembly for $20 on eBay, but the only way to be sure if it's silent is if the part is brand new.
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I went down that road I bought new of every fan in the machine and it didn't make it any quieter.

In an off topic jab at the MP, one of the things I like about my z600 is it's quieter than any of the MP's I've used 1,1, 3,1, and 5,1.
 
lowendlinux said:
I went down that road I bought new of every fan in the machine and it didn't make it any quieter.

In an off topic jab at the MP, one of the things I like about my z600 is it's quieter than any of the MP's I've used 1,1, 3,1, and 5,1.
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I almost find it hard to believe... people have said that their 1,1 Mac Pros are barely audible. I feel like the frontal fans on mine could be worn out from hours of use, and that a replacement could maybe work.
 
My old 2008 Mac Pro made an awkward grinding noise from the exhaust fan. Otherwise, it was about as quiet as the 2006 Mac Pro that I owned. Can't speak about the 2009 and newer Mac Pros though, but I'd imagine they're just as quiet.

However, I recently built a Hackintosh with a Fractal Design Define R4 case and a Phanteks TC14PE with a GTX 960 Strix GPU... it's whisper quiet. Even at full load its creates a low hum thats WAY quieter than my 2008 Mac Pro.
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
I almost find it hard to believe... people have said that their 1,1 Mac Pros are barely audible. I feel like the frontal fans on mine could be worn out from hours of use, and that a replacement could maybe work.
Click to expand...
Well without having tried to replace the fans, it's difficult to figure out if they are louder or if I got used to silence with time and become more demanding. The MP was very silent compared to the G4 it replaced, but that was 6 years ago.
 
bladerunner2000 said:
My old 2008 Mac Pro made an awkward grinding noise from the exhaust fan. Otherwise, it was about as quiet as the 2006 Mac Pro that I owned. Can't speak about the 2009 and newer Mac Pros though, but I'd imagine they're just as quiet.

However, I recently built a Hackintosh with a Fractal Design Define R4 case and a Phanteks TC14PE with a GTX 960 Strix GPU... it's whisper quiet. Even at full load its creates a low hum thats WAY quieter than my 2008 Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

Interesting... maybe one day I'll build a Hackintosh, but there are certain disadvantages - at least, in my book. I am sure no Mac Pro 1,1 fan can be THIS bad, so if it bothers me enough, $15 for a new fan assembly isn't bad.
 
benjaprud said:
Well without having tried to replace the fans, it's difficult to figure out if they are louder or if I got used to silence with time and become more demanding. The MP was very silent compared to the G4 it replaced, but that was 6 years ago.
Click to expand...

That's my name! My MDD is pretty darn loud as well, but I still get somewhat irritated by the fact that my Mac Pro seems as though it's louder than it should be. I've been using loud computers for a while, so the quieter the better.
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
I almost find it hard to believe... people have said that their 1,1 Mac Pros are barely audible. I feel like the frontal fans on mine could be worn out from hours of use, and that a replacement could maybe work.
Click to expand...

With mine I though it was the fans around the the RAM. A local AASP (http://www.seibold-partner.de) had all new fans sitting in a box and I bought them for about ~75 Euro it made no difference. If you think they'll work pick some up on ebay and give it a shot the worst thing that will happen is you'll have new fans
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
Do you know your fans' RPM? My frontal fans run at 500, which is the minimum, yet they are still louder than those on that 2008 Mac Pro.
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The intake/exhaust on the 2009-2012 macs can't go lower than 600 rpm.

I don't think the vibrations in my mac comes from the fans themselves but to the plastic bits they are attached to, some day I will check exactly what it is.
 
lowendlinux said:
With mine I though it was the fans around the the RAM. A local AASP (http://www.seibold-partner.de) had all new fans sitting in a box and I bought them for about ~75 Euro it made no difference. If you think they'll work pick some up on ebay and give it a shot the worst thing that will happen is you'll have new fans
Click to expand...

Are you possibly just used to EXTREMELY quiet fans and thought that the Mac Pro was louder in comparison?
 
ScottishCaptain said:
I've only owned the 2006 (4x2.66ghz) and 2010 (12x2.93ghz) machines.
Also, my 2006 machine had a weird harmonics thing going on with the disk drives...
-SC
Click to expand...

If the harmonics were an octave-perfect fifth-perfect fourth-major third etc. then your disk drives were french horns! Just make sure to listen for the difference tone. The faster the difference the more out of tune your drives were! :p This of course was for the musicians out there.
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
Are you possibly just used to EXTREMELY quiet fans and thought that the Mac Pro was louder in comparison?
Click to expand...

I don't use Mac's at home unless it's to bring a work one home to update it or whatever. I replaced the fans in 2009 because for a little bit of time we had an OS X GM so I used it as the network connected computer in my office and used the 3,1 we'd gotten as my workstation. Then it was decided that there was to be no more OS X on the networks so it got turned in. That 3,1 turned into a 5,1 last year and the 5,1 is single processor and quieter than either of it predecessors but none were loud.
 
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