I installed a crucial M4 SSD drive and upgraded the RAM to 8GB yesterday and since then I've noticed excessive fan noise. When the computer is working the fans start up and it sounds like a mini jet engine. I've never had a computer with such noisy fans. Is it normal to be so loud and to sound like a small jet engine? I assume it's more noticeable since installing the SSD as the processor has more demand on it due to the hard drive speed? It kicks in with 'simple' tasks such as importing photos into iphoto. They are importing much much faster than they did with the HDD though.
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REALLY loud fan since installing SSD, is this normal?
- Thread starter snerkler
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Using an SSD is not more CPU demanding than using a regular HDD.
Have you tried an SMC reset yet?
Have you tried an SMC reset yet?
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) (Apple Support Site)
If the first link does not work, as the Apple Support Pages are bit funky these last weeks:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) (PDF from that Apple Support Page about resetting the SMC)
If the first link does not work, as the Apple Support Pages are bit funky these last weeks:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) (PDF from that Apple Support Page about resetting the SMC)
No, I've never heard of it. I'll look into it. Is it a common thing then, and is it a one time fix?
I've just been reading about SMC, and it appears that you can get SMC firmware updates. However, my system says it has 1.69f3 already which is the latest one according to this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237. Mine is Macbook pro 8,2.
If I do the SMC reset is there any way to tell if I've done this correctly?
Edit: I assume my MAcbook is intel based? (It's brand new)
If I do the SMC reset is there any way to tell if I've done this correctly?
Edit: I assume my MAcbook is intel based? (It's brand new)
Follow Apple's instructions for resetting the SMC, there's no way you could do it wrong. Yes, your Mac is Intel based.
A reason could be some faulty chips in the SSD reporting wrong S.M.A.R.T. data, even if this is unlikely. What's the reported temperature?
I don't know, how would I find this? Also SMART cannot be enabled on aftermarket SSD's, only apple SSD's.
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Well I've just done a SMC reset and the fan still kicks in when I import large quantities of photos into iphoto.
What else would cause the fans to kick in that I can easily check? How do I measure the CPU temp?
Missed that the first time.
As it is probably CPU intensive, the fans start to spin faster.
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Have a look at Activity Monitor (Applications / Utilities /) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.
image below uses sorting by CPU as an example
Further reading:
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Have a look at Activity Monitor (Applications / Utilities /) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.
image below uses sorting by CPU as an example
Further reading:
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iStat Pro.
So I ran the Activity monitor and imported a large quantity of photos, %CPU went up to just over 480% and then the fans kicked in. Page ins was about 480MB. Does this explain it? don't really know what this means but 480% sounds a lot to me, why would importing on iphoto be so CPU intensive?
istat showed a max CPU temp of 90 degrees, max fan speed of 6200RPM and user CPU went up to about 40%
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As you have a Mac with an i7, it has four cores and two threads (virtual cores) per core, thus it has 8 threads, thus the CPU activity gets reported up to 800 %.
Why iPhoto has that high CPU usage I don't know, maybe it is because of the format of the photos you import, maybe it is something else (USB connection?). As I don't use iPhoto, I can't give you further advise regarding iPhoto and its mannerisms.
I just edited my previous post with istat readings. So would it appear that my MBP is running OK (ie you'd expect the fans to kick in so much with that sort of CPU usage) and it's just that I'm doing labour intensive stuff? I don't want the fans to be kicking in like this every time I do work such as video editing etc. I've done importing everything to iphoto now anyway, so I'll see how it behaves over the next week.
Any thoughts on this I posted?
I'm obviously far from an expert but my logic tells me that if data is being retrieved much more quickly, as it would be from a SSD, this would require the CPU to work more quickly (or will process more data/second) and so more demand will be placed on it?
With the SSD iPhoto can now import thousands of photos in seconds, and the majority of photos are relatively large as we're taken on a 16MP camera on ultra fine setting.
I've been monitoring the fan noise and CPU temp etc over the weekend and the only time I run into "issues" is with importing photos into iphoto or itunes (for sync with my iphone). I don't know why processing photos puts so much strain on the CPU? They do import and process very very fast now since putting the SSD in. It will be interesting to see what happens when I start editing HD video in imovie/FCP as no doubt these are pretty CPU intensive?
Importing photos into a photo management software can become CPU intensive due to thumbnail creation. The same happens with Lightroom.
Why iTunes does it, I don't know, it depends on what exactly you do I suppose.
Depends on the format of your videos, as discussed in some of your other threads.
If you use highly compressed video footage and don't transcode it to an editing format, then editing will be CPU intensive. The transcoding process is CPU intensive too though, but that could happen over night.
I've just rewrapped mts files into .mov using clipwrap. I can't believe how fast clipwrap is, rewraps movies in seconds
I've just rewrapped mts files into .mov using clipwrap. I can't believe how fast clipwrap is, rewraps movies in seconds
Because no transcoding is involved. The high CPU usage part will be the editing, if you don't choose to transcode to ProRes 422 in FCP X.
But again, we discussed that already in one of your other threads. Just see, if you are comfortable editing such and don't mind the CPU usage.
Yeah I'll see what works best. Won't transcoding be CPU intensive though anyway? The reason I went this route was due to the the .mov file size after transcoding, as I mentioned before.
Yes, transcoding will be CPU intensive, thus it can be done overnight (how I do it and most editing facilities do it), thus the editing experience will be more fluent. But if it is for private purposes and you don't mind the extra CPU intensity during playback or frame precise editing or effects editing, which will introduce a slight, but noticeable lag, there is no need to transcode.
Maybe do a comparison using the method I showed you* and edit with transcoded footage and apply some effects and do some frame precise editing, and then repeat that process using the same effects and editing techniques using rewrapped footage.
If you don't see a difference, then by all means use rewrapped footage, as that saves time transcoding it.
* Transcoding .MTS files (AVCHD footage) to an editable format (.MOV)
What sort of lag will notice? Will playback issues only be apparent during playback in the editing suite, or wil it be noticeable on rendered files or DVD's/Blu-rays burnt from a project? I don't mind playback issues during the editing process, but want my final rendered videos to be as smooth and fluent as possible, for viewing on both computers and TV's. I'm hoping to copy and play future videos via the PS3.
Only during editing.
A small anecdote:
We once shot a TV pilot, were we recorded the footage as 1080i/25fps video using an MPEG-2 codec (XDCam), we shot with two cameras, and then we had to synch both cameras (multi-cam project), thus the editor could choose the angle himself.
We had a Mac Pro 3,1 with two quad core CPUs using Avid Media Composer (4 or 5, though it didn't use multiple cores, which invalidates the anecdote for this purpose I guess) and we didn't transcode the footage, only rewrapped it, due to time constraints, thus the playback one stream was okay, but as soon as we wanted to play back two streams at the same time, it would take a second to actually play after hitting play.
As one hits play a lot during editing, it was noticeable and frustrating.
An older G5 PowerMac was able to play up to eight SD streams back at the same time, but those SD streams were properly transcoded.
Now with FCP X being capable of using multiple cores and threads, and your MBP having a 4-core CPU and 8 threads, you might not notice anything.
If you properly export the finished sequence for whatever application you use next, it will play properly on any display device it is meant for.
Thanks. I've got to see what export options there are as the PS3 is pretty picky about what files it can play. The only ones I've got i t to play so far are AVCHD m2ts. It can play some mp4 files but not all, and I don't know which
As thought rendering movies is pretty CPU intensive (up to 400%) and so the fans work overtime (up to about 6300rpm), but the CPU doesn't go above 90 degrees. I can't believe how loud the fans are though, I've never had a computer with fans so noisy, why is this? A 'quirk' of Macbooks? I'm guessing also it's a case of the computer being too big for its boots with the i7 chips, causing high temps? What is it with Apple products running hot? My iphone can get quite hot at times
As thought rendering movies is pretty CPU intensive (up to 400%) and so the fans work overtime (up to about 6300rpm), but the CPU doesn't go above 90 degrees. I can't believe how loud the fans are though, I've never had a computer with fans so noisy, why is this? A 'quirk' of Macbooks? I'm guessing also it's a case of the computer being too big for its boots with the i7 chips, causing high temps? What is it with Apple products running hot? My iphone can get quite hot at times
The fans are small, thus the loudness. It is a laptop/notebook after all.
And as the iPhone has a CPU with at least 600 MHz, using such a small device without a fan to its limits can cause higehr CPU temps.