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Miltz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 6, 2013
887
506
I'm considering getting a New Macbook Pro 15" to replace my desktop. My question has to do with noise levels. I know this is subjective, but it's Extremely important to me. My 2013 macbook air was SILENT. I don't think I ever heard it at all, even under load. It really spoiled me. My desktop sounds like my Fridge and I'm sick of it. My question is can you macbook pro 15" model users hear your fans when the unit is running? I'm almost considering going with a Macbook because it's fanless, but if the Macbook pro sounds like the air then I'm sold. I tried to go to the store to see, but it's too loud in there to really find out. On a side note, I had a Acer chromebook I had to get rid of because the fan would randomly spin up while typing and it really annoyed me.
 
No laptop is totally silent

I'm considering getting a New Macbook Pro 15" to replace my desktop. My question has to do with noise levels. I know this is subjective, but it's Extremely important to me. My 2013 macbook air was SILENT. I don't think I ever heard it at all, even under load. It really spoiled me. My desktop sounds like my Fridge and I'm sick of it. My question is can you macbook pro 15" model users hear your fans when the unit is running? I'm almost considering going with a Macbook because it's fanless, but if the Macbook pro sounds like the air then I'm sold. I tried to go to the store to see, but it's too loud in there to really find out. On a side note, I had a Acer chromebook I had to get rid of because the fan would randomly spin up while typing and it really annoyed me.

It has a fan it won't be totally silent, if your air remained silent you never put it under load stick a agame on and you'll soon hear the fans spin up.

They are very quiet however and under normal use you won't hear much at all. Check this review towards the end there is a whole section on noise.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-15-Late-2013-Notebook-Review.120330.0.html

However if you are replacing a desktop then a Mac Pro will probably be quieter.
 
I'm considering getting a New Macbook Pro 15" to replace my desktop. My question has to do with noise levels. I know this is subjective, but it's Extremely important to me. My 2013 macbook air was SILENT. I don't think I ever heard it at all, even under load. It really spoiled me. My desktop sounds like my Fridge and I'm sick of it. My question is can you macbook pro 15" model users hear your fans when the unit is running? I'm almost considering going with a Macbook because it's fanless, but if the Macbook pro sounds like the air then I'm sold. I tried to go to the store to see, but it's too loud in there to really find out. On a side note, I had a Acer chromebook I had to get rid of because the fan would randomly spin up while typing and it really annoyed me.

Well...one cool thing the rMBPs have are asymmetrical fan blades that decrease fan noise. Iʻve always thought that was a neat feature.

As to if youʻll hear yours. That will completely depend on what youʻre doing with your laptop. Contingent on your processes, your fans will spin up....or not. Iʻve had a few MBAs and Iʻve, on occasion, caused the fans to spin up and temps to spike. Sounded like a jet. lol

I think all Macs are fairly quiet at idle when not running CPU/GPU intensive tasks. I guess the newer Macbooks donʻt really have a choice since theyʻll be fanless to begin with.
 
Well...one cool thing the rMBPs have are asymmetrical fan blades that decrease fan noise. Iʻve always thought that was a neat feature.

As to if youʻll hear yours. That will completely depend on what youʻre doing with your laptop. Contingent on your processes, your fans will spin up....or not. Iʻve had a few MBAs and Iʻve, on occasion, caused the fans to spin up and temps to spike. Sounded like a jet. lol

I think all Macs are fairly quiet at idle when not running CPU/GPU intensive tasks. I guess the newer Macbooks donʻt really have a choice since theyʻll be fanless to begin with.

Yup there's this thing about how the lower frequency of the rMBPs fan noise makes it more palatable. I've had a 2011 air and shifted to a 15" 2013 rMBP, I can't say that either are silent after a few minutes of a rendering workload in premiere. They are both equally noisy and the lower frequency on the rMBP does not make it less noticeable. Though at lower loads, the fan noise on the rMBP is less distinguishable, additionally, the surfaces of the rMBP are cooler.
 
I'm considering getting a New Macbook Pro 15" to replace my desktop. My question has to do with noise levels.

I would avoid i7 models, as i7 heats up very much, which in turn causes bigger fan speed and than noise.
 
The only time I ever hear the fans on my rMBP is when I'm playing a Facebook game or doing something rather extensive, which is very rare. Otherwise, it's completely quiet. This is by far the quietest laptop computer I have ever owned! You won't be disappointed.
 
Thank you All for your comments. I won't be using it for games. The most intensive thing I'll do is work with RAW files in Adobe or other photo programs. None of these programs seemed to make the air fans get loud. But I know the Pro has 2 fans and a lot of stuff that gets hot. It's a big purchase so I want to be sure....:)
I was looking at a fully loaded model.
 
They use the same TDP as the i5. There is very little difference.

I would not call the difference of 30%-50% as "very little" :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i7_microprocessors

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But all 15" are i7.

That is true for models released since 2011.
This one 15'' has i5, as example:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...5-2.4-aluminum-15-mid-2010-unibody-specs.html
 
the fan noise on my late 2013 rMBP is pretty loud even when watching an HD video on youtube for 5+ minutes...
 
The SSD is what makes it silent.

Upgrade to SSD did not make my MacBook Pro 15'' silent. The CPU load is about 20%-30%, but anyway it behaves as a noisy tractor.

Perhaps I should clean it inside and apply new thermo paste, they say it might help to drop the temperature to 10C or so.

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Hi everybody again,

Are there any third-party 'good/silent' fans that could replace native fans in MacBook ?
 
None better or quieter

Upgrade to SSD did not make my MacBook Pro 15'' silent. The CPU load is about 20%-30%, but anyway it behaves as a noisy tractor.

Perhaps I should clean it inside and apply new thermo paste, they say it might help to drop the temperature to 10C or so.

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Hi everybody again,

Are there any third-party 'good/silent' fans that could replace native fans in MacBook ?

or that would even fit I imagine.
 
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