"Silent Macbook"

[Miltz]

One of the reasons why I almost bought a rMB 2015 was that it has no fan and is "silent". Nothing bothers me more than a computer that I can hear working. Drives me nuts. When I had a 2013MBA for 6 months, it was dead silent which I found to be amazing and surprising. I picked up a rMBP 13" recently and I'm surprised and happy to report this thing is also silent. Even during photoshop and other image editing programs. Clearly these devices still have a fan but apple has done such a good job with the fan design they are truly silent computers. I even went so far as to put my ear right on the unit, and it's still silent. So if anyone is sold on the Macbook having no fan and being Apple's "first silent" macbook, well don't buy into that marketing because while the no fan is true, the silent part is not.

I wanted to add my usage is mainly photoshop, lightroom, and web.

 

[3bs]

It's silent because you're not pushing it enough for the fans to ramp up. It's not a gimmick....

The rMB being silent just means it won't handle sustained loads as good since it can't actively cool the device.

 

[PDFierro]

That's not even close to the reason I like the new MacBook, but it certainly adds to it. I love that it's fanless.

 

[Miltz]

It's silent because you're not pushing it enough for the fans to ramp up. It's not a gimmick....

The rMB being silent just means it won't handle sustained loads as good since it can't actively cool it the device.

While I agree that I'm not running my laptop at 100% full loads for longs periods of time, I don't know in what case that would happen anyway? Perhaps long 4K editing or something of that nature, but no one says hey, I'm going to get at new Macbook so I can edit for 4K video.

 

[3bs]

While I agree that I'm not running my laptop at 100% full loads for longs periods of time, I don't know in what case that would happen anyway? Perhaps long 4K editing or something of that nature, but no one says hey, I'm going to get at new Macbook so I can edit for 4K video.

I rarely push my laptop too but when using Twitch (flash) the fans ramp up and it's annoying. I look forward to seeing how the rMB will handle it.

 

[Miltz]

That's not even close to the reason I like the new MacBook, but it certainly adds to it. I love that it's fanless.

Yeah, there's lots of reasons. I think it's extremely sexy hardware. No question. The fanless part adds to it mentally, but in practice the rMBP 13" is also silent.

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I rarely push my laptop too but when using Twitch (flash) the fans ramp up and it's annoying. I look forward to seeing how the rMB will handle it.

This is good info, I don't even know what twitch is. What model laptop do you have? Is that program GPU or CPU intensive?

 

[3bs]

Yeah, there's lots of reasons. I think it's extremely sexy hardware. No question. The fanless part adds to it mentally, but in practice the rMBP 13" is also silent.

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This is good info, I don't even know what twitch is. What model laptop do you have? Is that program GPU or CPU intensive?

Late 2013 rMBP i5 2.6 GHz. It's a streaming website mainly for gaming and I think it's just Flash which is horrible. I'm not sure, CPU I think.

 

[vanimal]

I rarely push my laptop too but when using Twitch (flash) the fans ramp up and it's annoying. I look forward to seeing how the rMB will handle it.

I use twitch and have used it with a 2015 MBPR and I haven't heard it push the fans, dead silent. Now I would be more interested see how "hot" or warm the MBR would get watching Twitch.

 

[fisherking]

try exporting audio in logic, or converting video in handbrake...on any macbook pro or air...

fans can and will come on for some things. but you'll NEVER hear the fan in the new rMB. i like that idea...

 

[cfedu]

One of the reasons why I almost bought a MBP 2015 was that it has no fan and is "silent". Nothing bothers me more than a computer that I can hear working. Drives me nuts. When I had a 2013MBA for 6 months, it was dead silent which I found to be amazing and surprising. I picked up a rMBP 13" recently and I'm surprised and happy to report this thing is also silent. Even during photoshop and other image editing programs. Clearly these devices still have a fan but apple has done such a good job with the fan design they are truly silent computers. I even went so far as to put my ear right on the unit, and it's still silent. So if anyone is sold on the Macbook having no fan and being Apple's "first silent" macbook, well don't buy into that marketing because while the no fan is true, the silent part is not.

I have the same issue with noise and I hate it. My MBA is pretty silent, I can hear it on the odd occasion which is ok as it is so infrequent. The new MB is a pretty nice machine but the fan less part is both positive an negative. A MBA or MBP will speed up the fan if it reached a certain temp, the MB has to downclock the CPU is this happens. If one can live with more decreased performance from an already reduced performance machine the MB is a good choice.

I will be interesting to see real world results. I would say most people who by this will not even know its fan less nor care.

 

[Hankster]

Maybe I'm just old so I don't care if there is fan noise or not. While it's nice newer computers do not have much fan noise it doesn't mater me at all.

 

[thadoggfather]

I use twitch and have used it with a 2015 MBPR and I haven't heard it push the fans, dead silent. Now I would be more interested see how "hot" or warm the MBR would get watching Twitch.

I believe on 2015 rMBP, they idle at 0rpm unlike previous gens that are 1200rpm or MBA I had that was 2000rpm. BUT, when it ramps up, it ramps up quick and you most definitely hear it. Jarring to some, a returnable offense to OCD'ers who doubt their equipment.

I'm not sure what can be gimmicky about its lack of fan. Try firing up a few tabs with flash on the webpage and compare results

 

[newellj]

It's silent because you're not pushing it enough for the fans to ramp up. It's not a gimmick....

The rMB being silent just means it won't handle sustained loads as good since it can't actively cool the device.

I have to respectfully second this. I have had plenty of occasions when the fan in my rMBP is extremely audible. I can't say it's ever bothered me, but it is there and it can be surprisingly loud.

 

[mikeray]

The rMB being silent just means it won't handle sustained loads as good since it can't actively cool the device.

I don't think it means that necessarily. What it does mean is that the TDP is small enough that the heatsink is able to passively cool the device.

 

[3bs]

I don't think it means that necessarily. What it does mean is that the TDP is small enough that the heatsink is able to passively cool the device.

Or that

 

[thadoggfather]

yeah as much as I don't mind pointing out apple's faults as needed, if you want to point the finger at someone for a gimmicky design, make that Intel.

Attaching a fan to a Core M would be as useful as attaching a fan to an ARM device

 

[vanimal]

I believe on 2015 rMBP, they idle at 0rpm unlike previous gens that are 1200rpm or MBA I had that was 2000rpm. BUT, when it ramps up, it ramps up quick and you most definitely hear it. Jarring to some, a returnable offense to OCD'ers who doubt their equipment.

I'm not sure what can be gimmicky about its lack of fan. Try firing up a few tabs with flash on the webpage and compare results

I actually have never heard the fan once on my 2015. Maybe I'm not listening hard enough. I use flash and YouTube. Granted I'm not editing videos etc.

 

[noobinator]

It may or may not be a gimmick but it's true. They can't call a MacBook that is capable of noise, silent. It's only silent if it's well, silent all the time. No matter what.

 

[SmOgER]

try exporting audio in logic, or converting video in handbrake...on any macbook pro or air...

fans can and will come on for some things. but you'll NEVER hear the fan in the new rMB. i like that idea...

yeah, but you could simply set a cap for cpu usage on MBP and have everything silent but slower, just like the rMB.
Or force constant idle fan speeds and let the CPU throttle on it's own.


So which is better - having a choice of silent or powerful working modes, OR being forced to have silent and less powerful permanently?

 

[Miltz]

I believe on 2015 rMBP, they idle at 0rpm unlike previous gens that are 1200rpm or MBA I had that was 2000rpm. BUT, when it ramps up, it ramps up quick and you most definitely hear it. Jarring to some, a returnable offense to OCD'ers who doubt their equipment.

I'm not sure what can be gimmicky about its lack of fan. Try firing up a few tabs with flash on the webpage and compare results

This could be a possibility... The rMBP has been around for a while now and I'm sure apple has tweaked it even though they all look the same. That's one reason why I didn't want to get a 2013/2014 model.

I'm also talking about the 13" model. The 15" model has a separate GPU and more stuff to keep cool. And since I've never used it at home I don't know if it's also silent. It's impossible to tell at the store. I've seen people on youtube with a fully loaded 2015 rMBP 13" with the i7 doing 4K video encoding and the fans do kick in. That's one reason I stayed away from the top chip available in the laptop. It runs the hottest and the loudest. That being said I had a acer chromebook for a while last year... and even though the chip ran cool and the fan never ran at full load, it sounded TERRIBLE. Every few seconds it would spin and stop, spin and stop. Not load but annoying to say the least.

I just wanted people who care about noise and silent computing to be confident the new rMBP 2015 is silent when used for the same things that someone would likely use a 2015 Macbook for, that's all.

 

[fisherking]

yeah, but you could simply set a cap for cpu usage on MBP and have everything silent but slower, just like the rMB.
Or force constant idle fan speeds and let the CPU throttle on it's own.


So which is better - having a choice of silent or powerful working modes, OR being forced to have silent and less powerful permanently?

it's not a speed issue, but a processor-intensive one. bouncing audio in logic X ALWAYS brings on the fans on my mbp...

 

[vanimal]

This could be a possibility... The rMBP has been around for a while now and I'm sure apple has tweaked it even though they all look the same. That's one reason why I didn't want to get a 2013/2014 model.

I'm also talking about the 13" model. The 15" model has a separate GPU and more stuff to keep cool. And since I've never used it at home I don't know if it's also silent. It's impossible to tell at the store. I've seen people on youtube with a fully loaded 2015 rMBP 13" with the i7 doing 4K video encoding and the fans do kick in. That's one reason I stayed away from the top chip available in the laptop. It runs the hottest and the loudest. That being said I had a acer chromebook for a while last year... and even though the chip ran cool and the fan never ran at full load, it sounded TERRIBLE. Every few seconds it would spin and stop, spin and stop. Not load but annoying to say the least.

I just wanted people who care about noise and silent computing to be confident the new rMBP 2015 is silent when used for the same things that someone would likely use a 2015 Macbook for, that's all.

I have had a 2015 MBPR for 2 weeks and have not heard the fan once. I use Twitch TV to watching video game streams which is flash based. I have watched Sling TV streaming service, HBO Now, and so on. Granted i have not edited 4k video, but for the tasks i use it for. Well it runs like it doesn't have a fan. basically I just got it price matched today at BB. I originally bought it on sale for $1234, with 10% movers.

Noticed today they had it dropped to $1,099 . REALLY good deal for someone in the market for the base 128GB one.

 

[SmOgER]

it's not a speed issue, but a processor-intensive one. bouncing audio in logic X ALWAYS brings on the fans on my mbp...

"CPU intensive" is relative.
If you compare how many calculations Core M gets done with that workload and give the same task to do in the same amount of time to MBP - it will be silent. When it gets louder, that's only because it's doing more work (doing it faster) than rMB could possibly do. There is no magic behind it - make something less powerful or limit it's performance and it will become silent.

PS.
It took them 4 years to archieve the Sandy Bridge U (mobile) performance in fanless package, I recon it will take at least 3 more to make it as powerful as Broadwell-U.

 

[Miltz]

I have had a 2015 MBPR for 2 weeks and have not heard the fan once. I use Twitch TV to watching video game streams which is flash based. I have watched Sling TV streaming service, HBO Now, and so on. Granted i have not edited 4k video, but for the tasks i use it for. Well it runs like it doesn't have a fan. basically I just got it price matched today at BB. I originally bought it on sale for $1234, with 10% movers.

Noticed today they had it dropped to $1,099 . REALLY good deal for someone in the market for the base 128GB one.

Nice to hear you're having the same experience as me. $1,099 for a rMBP 2015 is a excellent deal. I think they are doing it because you can't get the macbook in most stores. Honestly, it's a tough sell for someone to buy a rMB over a rMBP at that price.

 

[vanimal]

Nice to hear you're having the same experience as me. $1,099 for a rMBP 2015 is a excellent deal. I think they are doing it because you can't get the macbook in most stores. Honestly, it's a tough sell for someone to buy a rMB over a rMBP at that price.

YUP! They had one Gold MBR on display, but none in stock. They did have a base model SG about a hour from me, really didn't feel like driving. But at $1,099 with a 10% movers coupon was WAY too good to pass up! Personally, i don't travel and like the bigger wrist space on the keyboard as well as the 1.3" screen bump. I'll cross my fingers for a 14" MBR in version 2 or 3. But i got the MBPR for $1041 with tax out the door . No way i was passing that up. I'm a bigger muscular guy 6'2 about 220lb. Moving the MBPR around my house is light work .

Funny another guy was buying one, and he kept asking the lady "Are you sure you have the right model and not the non retina" Lol. Because the non retina Pro and the Retina are actually the SAME PRICE right now .