Mac Pro noise

[Jimmymck]

How noisy is the Mac Pro compared with the iMac or a Mac Mini. I have a Fair new and powerful Mesh PC which sounds like its about to take off!!

 

[Tallest Skil]

The loudest part of the Mac Pro is generally the hard drive. I'm serious.

Unless something goes wrong and the fans REALLY spin up.

Then you're sitting next to the space shuttle.

 

[Infrared]

The loudest part of the Mac Pro is generally the hard drive.

Yes, indeed. A lot of people don't realize that and think it
must be the fans. But the fans are virtually silent except
in extreme scenarios 🙂

To the OP: louder than an iMac, but not by much.

 

[Jimmymck]

Thanks, i've had enough of Microsoft. I bought a mac mini on trial and love it, especially the fact of no noise!!!

 

[kirkbross]

I have a Mac Pro 2008 and it's relatively silent, except when the fans initially burst on boot before the drivers kick in.

Compared to my former dual 867 G4 MDD (Loudest. Mac. Ever.) the Mac Pro is extremely quiet.

 

[TravisReynolds]

Well, I haven't owned an iMac but I would have to guess the iMac because My mac Pro is SILENT! I never hear it! Even when i'm working in iMovie and Photoshop.

So I would have to vote for the Mac Pro

 

[J the Ninja]

I have a Mac Pro 2008 and it's relatively silent, except when the fans initially burst on boot before the drivers kick in.

Compared to my former dual 867 G4 MDD (Loudest. Mac. Ever.) the Mac Pro is extremely quiet.

Why does the Mac Pro have a "fan startup surge"? My MacBook Pro doesn't, the system comes up with the fans at 2000rpm (idle). Since this thing goes from silent at 2000rpm to F22 takeoff at 6200rpm, I'm sure I'm not hearing things. I guess a better question would be why the MBP doesn't...Is it just the GPU fan that does that, or do the case fans do it too?

 

[Mackilroy]

It's just the GPU fan, the system hasn't yet told it it doesn't have to run at max upon startup.

 

[product26]

I think it is generally the video card that surges when starting up the mac pro.

I put a huge passive heatsink on my mac pro's video card. 🙂

Why does the Mac Pro have a "fan startup surge"? My MacBook Pro doesn't, the system comes up with the fans at 2000rpm (idle). Since this thing goes from silent at 2000rpm to F22 takeoff at 6200rpm, I'm sure I'm not hearing things. I guess a better question would be why the MBP doesn't...Is it just the GPU fan that does that, or do the case fans do it too?

 

[wheezy]

As stated above, MacPro's should be silent. I had the base ATI card in there, and my first one was defective, the fan would moo... speed up and slow down all day long. I finally called Apple Care and had them send me a new card and it's silent.

Even with all 8 cores chugging away encoding a DVD with Handbrake the fans never bump up 1rpm; the thing is fast, cool and quiet. The Seagate drive that came with from Apple is by far the loudest. I look forward to replacing that sometime soon (probably with another Samsung F1, I have 2 of those installed in Bays 3&4 and they're silent)

 

[Consultant]

Thanks, i've had enough of Microsoft. I bought a mac mini on trial and love it, especially the fact of no noise!!!

Yes that's a great thing about Macs, the overall silence compared to PCs.

Typically it cost more to silence a PC then to get a Mac (and you don't even get the benefit of OSX).