Mac Pro noise: How to reduce it?

[Inconsequential]

All you need to do is manually stop the various fans one at a time and determine which one is the loudest. Focus on quieting that one, then move on to the next loudest sound, and so on. In the pc world, companies like Zalman make a little resistor box with a knob that you can put in-line with the fans to reduce their speed manually. Not sure if these would be compatible with the Mac, or if they would interfere with the software fan control, but this is how we used to do things before software control became common.

Saying that - it seems like somebody must have written a little program for OSX to give you control of the fan speed?

DONT do the first bit and yes people have written fan control software.

I developed Fan Control from the MacBook Pro fan control software of someone else. Personally I think dynamic fan control is better than SMC Fan Control...

My Mac Pro is 2 feet away from my face, and I cannot hear anything coming from it. There is more sound from the default fan speed from my Macbook Pro than my Mac Pro.

I doubt that somehow, mines 2 feet away from my face with all the fan speeds turned down and I can *still* hear it.

Not that it bothers me.

Main sources of noise:

4870 fan (GT120 is silent in comparison) and the Hard-disks.

 

[Kissaragi]

Only thing I ever hear from my mac pro (quad 2009 model with 4870) is the hard drive sometimes.

Like others have said, test each fan and see where the noise is coming from. I like Noctua fans in my pcs, very expensive but whisper quiet.

 

[brentsg]

Only thing I ever hear from my mac pro (quad 2009 model with 4870) is the hard drive sometimes.

Like others have said, test each fan and see where the noise is coming from. I like Noctua fans in my pcs, very expensive but whisper quiet.

For sure, my 2010 MP is quieter than my PC that was using all Noctua fans.. Even for the CPU!

and I moved all my hard drives over.

 

[timbloom]

I have the current 6-core Mac Pro with the 5870 GPU. This machine is incredibly silent relative to everything else, but you can't expect as much power as in a Mac Pro without some noise. Sure, Apple spends a lot of design time making it as silent as possible, but you can't completely eliminate it. I have ran the machine with video games set to max setting, while running the SMP version of folding@home. I never once have heard the fans turn up. I hear the hard drive and optical drive with ease, something that is rarely possible on a workstation-level computer.

I had the Mac Pro right next to the monitor for a while, and now its on the floor with plenty of open space around it, that may help.

Some people have stated that repositioning the SATA/Power cable in the optical bay so that it's not putting pressure on the PSU fan enclosure. I was getting a low freq oscillating sound. I don't hear it anymore after moving around the cable a few times and installing a second optical drive.

 

[MutantRooster]

I have the current 6-core Mac Pro with the 5870 GPU. This machine is incredibly silent relative to everything else, but you can't expect as much power as in a Mac Pro without some noise.

I have a 2009 Mac Pro and upgraded the 4870 to a 5870. My Mac Pro was quiet before. I rarely heard any fan noise even while playing games with the graphics set high.

Now, that I plugged in my 5870, the fan on the 5870 runs fast and noisy non-stop. I love the 5870 and what it can do, but going from quiet to loud has been annoying and is taking some getting used to.

Anyone else having this issue or know of a fix?

 

[Mattww]

Just done the same 4870 to 5870 upgrade on my 09 and the overall noise level is much the same so what you are seeing doesn't sound right. The 5870 doesn't do the fan spin up the 4870 did when starting or waking from sleep so it is actually quieter there and may be quieter when working hard - although that is subjective at the moment.

 

[wonderspark]

I have a 2009 Mac Pro and upgraded the 4870 to a 5870. My Mac Pro was quiet before. I rarely heard any fan noise even while playing games with the graphics set high.

Now, that I plugged in my 5870, the fan on the 5870 runs fast and noisy non-stop. I love the 5870 and what it can do, but going from quiet to loud has been annoying and is taking some getting used to.

Anyone else having this issue or know of a fix?

I have an '09 Mac Pro, and the first thing I noticed was that the 5870 fan is quieter when running fast, and quieter at start-up, but louder when at minimum speed. I was surprised by the louder "idle" speed noise, but I've gotten used to it since then. It's not that it's *so* much louder... it's just loud enough that I notice it, whereas the 4870 went unnoticed until it worked harder.