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MacPro 2009 noise level?

N

Nautigar

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 4, 2007
121
7
Hello,

how loud are the new machines in general? How much louder do they get under load? How much of the noise is contributed by the graphics card? How do they compare to the 2008 MacPro or to the PowerMac G5?

Many questions, I know. I have a G5 Quad 2.5 at the moment, at it is rather loud, especially under load. Back then, I bought it with a better graphics card (7800) and exchanged the graphics card fan with a quieter fan from Zalman. This eliminated the annoying, high-pitched sound, but the complete machine is still very audible.

A friend of mine has a 2008 MacPro, and compared to mine, it is a very quiet machine. So how do the new MacPros compare?

If you answer to this thread, please state the processor frequency and the type of graphics card. Thank you very much in advance! :)

Matthias.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

My dad just bought a new MacPro and it makes a heck of a lot less noise than my Quad 2.5 G5. I was astonished that even under a pretty good load it didn't even come close to the G5 at idle. Hope this helps.
 
What frequency/graphics card?

Thanks for the reply! Do you know what graphics card it uses, and the frequency of the processors?

I want to buy a new MacPro with the ATI graphics card, but only if it is not louder than the Nvidia card.
 
Nautigar said:
Thanks for the reply! Do you know what graphics card it uses, and the frequency of the processors?

I want to buy a new MacPro with the ATI graphics card, but only if it is not louder than the Nvidia card.
Click to expand...

The Radeon 4870 is MUCH louder than the GT 120... because the GT 120 has no fans.

It makes no noise.

If you're somewhere that noise is a problem, consider putting the Mac Pro in a different room.
 
GT120 has fans

According to the pictures at Apple's website, the Nvidia GT120 has a fan as well.
 
Tallest Skil: Do you own a new MacPro with the ATI? Can you report about the overall noise level of the computer?
 
Nautigar said:
Tallest Skil: Do you own a new MacPro with the ATI? Can you report about the overall noise level of the computer?
Click to expand...

I cancelled my order, but I am in the process of reinstating it.

I am getting BOTH cards, one of each, and will be running them simultaneously.

If it is desired of me, I will run each card individually to determine the difference in sound.
 
Why did you cancel your order?

Yes, I think a direct comparison of the two cards would be of great benefit for many readers here! Looking forward to that, and thanks in advance!
 
Nautigar said:
Why did you cancel your order?
Click to expand...

I'm going to chalk that one up to idiocy. :p

Yes, I think a direct comparison of the two cards would be of great benefit for many readers here! Looking forward to that, and thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

If Apple is cooperative, I should have it sometime next week (not this week, next week. The one after next weekend), so I can certainly do so.
 
Tallest Skil said:
I'm going to chalk that one up to idiocy. :p



If Apple is cooperative, I should have it sometime next week (not this week, next week. The one after next weekend), so I can certainly do so.
Click to expand...

Ah, so you are ordering one! Congrats again. I assume your getting the 2.93ghz octad?
 
graphics cards

I have a 2009 (2x2.93) sitting next to a 2008 (2x2.8). The new machine has 3 of the Nvidia cards. I was disappointed at how much louder it was than my old (2x 2600XT cards) machine. However, in all cases, my disappointment is in the video card fans, and not the Mac fans.

In the 2009 machine, I removed all but 1 card. Still an annoying almost-hum from the video fan. Just to be sure, I removed ALL video cards from the 2009, and it was a pleasantly quiet machine then... but vnc'ing defeats the purpose of having the box on my desk instead of another room...

Same is true with the 2008 -- the video cards cause not just more noise than the Macs, but almost tonal noise, which is annoying; as against the Mac fan noise, which is more like white noise. The new Nvidia cards are "lower" in their tonality than the 2600XT, which bothers me more.

So, I am trying to learn how to modify the card with either a Zalman fan or an Accelero passive heatsink. But neither manufacturer yet provides compatibility info for the GT210, so I don't know what to buy. Does anyone know which Zalman/Accelero models would fit?

Finally, just to be clear, the Macs are still relatively quiet, even with the video cards -- I have evicted all of my Windows machines to another room and they won't be invited back...
 
I think if people can take the macbook/macbook pro's fans in a quiet room, the desktop cards shouldnt be so bad.
 
ThreeTwo said:
I have a 2009 (2x2.93) sitting next to a 2008 (2x2.8). The new machine has 3 of the Nvidia cards. I was disappointed at how much louder it was than my old (2x 2600XT cards) machine. However, in all cases, my disappointment is in the video card fans, and not the Mac fans.

In the 2009 machine, I removed all but 1 card. Still an annoying almost-hum from the video fan. Just to be sure, I removed ALL video cards from the 2009, and it was a pleasantly quiet machine then... but vnc'ing defeats the purpose of having the box on my desk instead of another room...

Same is true with the 2008 -- the video cards cause not just more noise than the Macs, but almost tonal noise, which is annoying; as against the Mac fan noise, which is more like white noise. The new Nvidia cards are "lower" in their tonality than the 2600XT, which bothers me more.

So, I am trying to learn how to modify the card with either a Zalman fan or an Accelero passive heatsink. But neither manufacturer yet provides compatibility info for the GT210, so I don't know what to buy. Does anyone know which Zalman/Accelero models would fit?

Finally, just to be clear, the Macs are still relatively quiet, even with the video cards -- I have evicted all of my Windows machines to another room and they won't be invited back...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the informative post! Would you say that the Mac Pro 2009 2x2.93, if video cards are removed, is noisier than the older 2x2.8 or are they at similar levels? And then, how does noise they behave/change under load?

I am kind of a noise freak regarding computers, it makes me extremely irky. Knowing this is top priority for me.

As mentioned in some other topics, the new Mac Pros have an additional (or two?) 60 mm booster fans inside the heatsink, whereas the 2008 models only have the four case fans, all running at around 600 rpm (the PCI one runs at 800 rpm). That should make the base 08' model quieter, imho.

Thanks again for your insights!
 
ThreeTwo: Thank you very much for the informative post!

To conclude, the GT120 are pretty audible, and we don't even know for sure yet that the ATI is worse?
 
Found on Phoronix:

"While the Radeon HD 4850 graphics cards only need a single slot cooler, the Radeon HD 4870 occupies two expansion slots. The Radeon HD 4870 has a much larger fan and heatsink than the Radeon HD 4850. While the fan is larger, it isn't loud during operation and its heatsink design is similar to that of the ATI Radeon HD 3870. Powering the Radeon HD 4870 are two PCI Express connectors. However, these connectors use both 6-pin interfaces so you need not worry about your power supply having a new 8-pin connector. The peak power consumption for a single Radeon HD 4870 is about 160 Watts".

Encouraging .... I think I'll order the ATI ....
 
amoergosum said:
You make it sound like the 4870 is exceptionally loud...is that the case?
Click to expand...

From what I've heard from PC users the 4870 with stock fan can be pretty noisy.

the noise the mac one gives out will depend on whether Apple have used a better cooling system.

If it fits you could use these options to quiet down the 4870 coolers.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-030-AR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-057-TR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=787

Both are reported quieter than most PC stock coolers, and have claims that they do a better job, that's if you don't mind a bit of fiddly work (and maybe voiding the warranty??)
 
Cards

Hey Tallest Skil,

I thought that (at least in previous versions) that you cannot use both an ATI and an Nvidia card at the same time in a Mac Pro, at least under OSX? That's why you can't mix them on the BTO page?
 
my octad 2.66 is really "whisper quiet" except at start-up and wake-up. then the fans go ape for about two or 2 and spin down... it scared me the first time i fired it up after putting it to sleep, but even then it was only as loud as my PPC dual 2.5 always was.

edit... i meant two or three. little slow today.
 
Fomaphone said:
my octad 2.66 is really "whisper quiet" except at start-up and wake-up. then the fans go ape for about two or 2 and spin down... it scared me the first time i fired it up after putting it to sleep, but even then it was only as loud as my PPC dual 2.5 always was.
Click to expand...

Great news! Maybe I don't need to replace the cooler of the 4870 at all ... :)
 
Nautigar said:
Great news! Maybe I don't need to replace the cooler of the 4870 at all ... :)
Click to expand...

You could just get one of these

G5_slide_tray_001.jpg


from

http://www.custom-consoles.com/isobox-studio.php

That'll keep everything quiet and cool :)
 
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