Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mac Pro fans are now audible with Snow Leopard?

RazorWriter

RazorWriter

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 19, 2004
52
18
Anyone notice that the fans that used to run silent are now audible? It's not full-blast, but I can hear the fans on my 2008 8-core Mac Pro which is sitting on the ground next to me -- that I used to be so quiet I had to put my ear up to the machine to hear them. Just wanted to confirm if others are noticing this, or if it's just me. It's the same amount of noise under any condition.

I've got a 2008 Mac Pro 2.8/octo, just installed Snow Leopard on release day.
 
Early 2008 here, RPMs are the same as before. Perhaps your computer heated up a lot during install and is cooling off? Try shutting it down for a few hours and turning it back on.
 
Mac Pro fans are now audible with Snow Leopard?
Click to expand...

Gawd I hope so! One of Apple's biggest blunders EVER is with their improper airflow. And I can only guess all from their anal obsession with trying to be noiseless.
 
RazorWriter said:
Anyone notice that the fans that used to run silent are now audible? It's not full-blast, but I can hear the fans on my 2008 8-core Mac Pro which is sitting on the ground next to me -- that I used to be so quiet I had to put my ear up to the machine to hear them. Just wanted to confirm if others are noticing this, or if it's just me. It's the same amount of noise under any condition.

I've got a 2008 Mac Pro 2.8/octo, just installed Snow Leopard on release day.
Click to expand...

Aren't the fans controlled by firmware (i.e., independently of the OS)?

If so, does Snow Leopard include firmware updates?
 
Tesselator said:
Gawd I hope so! One of Apple's biggest blunders EVER is with their improper airflow. And I can only guess all from their anal obsession with trying to be noiseless.
Click to expand...

Tesselator, I find myself oftentimes agreeing with you, but here I am shocked you would make such a statement.

Computers should be seen, NOT heard [just like small children].

Loud multi fan enclosures with overclocked PC hardware and 15K scsi arrays - pure speed at the expense of noise: been there, done that, don't EVER want to go back.

If anything, apple needs to reduce noise further.
 
pprior said:
Tesselator, I find myself oftentimes agreeing with you, but here I am shocked you would make such a statement.

Computers should be seen, NOT heard [just like small children].

Loud multi fan enclosures with overclocked PC hardware and 15K scsi arrays - pure speed at the expense of noise: been there, done that, don't EVER want to go back.

If anything, apple needs to reduce noise further.
Click to expand...

I think apple has come a long way with reducing noise. I bought my mac pro in 2007 after owning a PowerMac Mirror Drive Door model for about 7 years. That thing was the loudest computer of any kind i've ever come across.

I think the cheesegrater design apple introduced into the new macs has been an awesome addition. I personally think thats greatly helped with airflow, cooling and reducing noise.
 
Well, if they were coming from systems with too much noise then I would say they have come too far in fact. Now systems are being posted that make no noise at all yet are running on the very edge of critical as far as heat is concerned. That's stupid! Especially when you consider that almost NOTHING AT ALL has been engineered into the case design as measures for suppressing noise. No baffles. No cowls. No rubber-mounting. No foam. No nothing, except the rather retarded idea to run the fans at extremely low speeds and let the system run extremely hot (and potentially fail prematurely).

With the design Apple has chosen for the mac Pro's (all years so far) the system needs to be making some noise unless running in a refrigerated room or something. Apple's embedded SMC fan profile and the OS's control profile is probably the stupidest I've ever seen from any manufacturer but for the lack of one all together.

Computer's shouldn't be too loud I agree. But silent? That's not needed. And silence at the cost of system stability and longevity? That's dumb! A mild whirring is acceptable as well as expected.
 
Tesselator said:
Well, if they were coming from systems with too much noise then I would say they have come too far in fact. Now systems are being posted that make no noise at all yet are running on the very edge of critical as far as heat is concerned. That's stupid! Especially when you consider that almost NOTHING AT ALL has been engineered into the case design as measures for suppressing noise. No baffles. No cowls. No rubber-mounting. No foam. No nothing, except the rather retarded idea to run the fans at extremely low speeds and let the system run extremely hot (and potentially fail prematurely).

With the design Apple has chosen for the mac Pro's (all years so far) the system needs to be making some noise unless running in a refrigerated room or something. Apple's embedded SMC fan profile and the OS's control profile is probably the stupidest I've ever seen from any manufacturer but for the lack of one all together.

Computer's shouldn't be too loud I agree. But silent? That's not needed. And silence at the cost of system stability and longevity? That's dumb! A mild whirring is acceptable as well as expected.
Click to expand...


Gotta back you up on this. I increased the fan speed manually on my machine because my CPU temperatures were climbing into the high 70s during encodes. It's a workstation, not a masturbatory celebration of consumerismstation. If I want to have a stupid, extremely compromised toy that looks pretty to show off to people, I'll buy a MacBook Air. …but I'd rather have a reliable workstation operating within a respectable thermal environment, even if it adds a bit of white noise.
 
Tesselator said:
A mild whirring is acceptable as well as expected.
Click to expand...

Sorry, just don't agree. Silence should be a major goal for apple, in fact it's one of the things that really attracts me to apple computers.

Now I agree with better thermal engineering layout.

I guess we're just sensitive to varying amounts of noise. There is not much that irritates me more than a whirring box sitting next to my desk when I'm trying to concentrate.
 
pprior said:
Sorry, just don't agree. Silence should be a major goal for apple, in fact it's one of the things that really attracts me to apple computers.

Now I agree with better thermal engineering layout.

I guess we're just sensitive to varying amounts of noise. There is not much that irritates me more than a whirring box sitting next to my desk when I'm trying to concentrate.
Click to expand...

Maybe try putting it on the floor where it belongs? I don't get why anyone would want a gigantic metal box wasting desk space.
 
raziel777 said:
2009 2.66 quad quieter after Snow Leopard. Temps. appear to be the same.
Click to expand...

That is good to hear. I am worried however that as the graphics card takes over more general computing jobs the fans will start to go up.
 
grue said:
Gotta back you up on this. I increased the fan speed manually on my machine because my CPU temperatures were climbing into the high 70s during encodes. It's a workstation, not a masturbatory celebration of consumerismstation. If I want to have a stupid, extremely compromised toy that looks pretty to show off to people, I'll buy a MacBook Air. …but I'd rather have a reliable workstation operating within a respectable thermal environment, even if it adds a bit of white noise.
Click to expand...

CPU in the 70s on a workstation and you were concerned with them overheating?
 
How many people have actually had a Mac Pro fail due to
overheating?

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but in thousands of posts
I've read I can't recall a single obvious instance of it having
happened.
 
Tesselator said:
<snip>Especially when you consider that almost NOTHING AT ALL has been engineered into the case design as measures for suppressing noise. No baffles. No cowls. No rubber-mounting. No foam. No nothing</snip>
Click to expand...
This

What is it with this? I remember looking at pics of the G5, and noticing that the big CPU fans (the 3-blade ones) not only seemed fatter than usual, like they were 120x35 instead of the usual 120x25, but they were actually attached with rubber pins. I remember the first time I saw a pic of the Mac Pro's side panel on the inside, and being shocked to see it didn't have any sort of foam on the side. Putting a foam sheet on the side panel is one of the easiest, cheapest, most inconsequential ways to quiet down a tower.

Btw, I've never had an opportunity to try this, but has anyone ever done a "knuckle rap" test on the Mac Pro's side panel? Does it make a ringing noise? It shouldn't. A high-end "quiet" machine should have some sort of damping materials applied to it's panels so they don't transmit vibrations. And what happened to the G5's drive mounting setup, that didn't have any metal-touching-metal to carry drive vibrations into the chassis?
 
I actually find that mine is quieter/slower in snow leopard. The default speed was 600rpm but is now 500rpm.

Not much difference to be honest. But certainly not louder.

On the noise v heat discussion going on here. I personally leave mine quiet when I'm just doing normal stuff. I'm happy for the CPU temps to get into the low 50's. But if they start getting into the 60's or 70's if I'm doing intense stuff I'll up the low fan set point a little bit. And when I'm doing large batches of video encodes I'll actually put it way up.

Personal preference. I like the fact that with a little add on piece of software you can have the choice. That's one thing none of my old pc's had. I used to have to 'Mod' the thing with a manual fan controller which obviously never looked quite right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back