Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

ZLurker

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 25, 2005
147
0
Sweden
I got a iBook 1Ghz G4, and i like it, ALOT!
Its so damn quiet, i almost can't hear if its on or not.
Now I refuse to use any other computer in an office or a other room unless its dead quiet. I turn the computer off. Otherwise i can't think. Did I mention that im a researcher? In scientific computing.

I was soo looking forward to buy a new mid range PM in september, but now im horrified about the noiselevel. I plan to keep the uptime to 24/7 so i can access files and run programs remotely. Now, my home workspace is in the same room as my girlfriend, and its not comfy to have a noisy fan in there if she are working.

You PM G5 users out there... anyone who use it in a dead quiet room?
Whats your experience?

Offcourse the loadlevel matters but if you just surf och check email, access the hard drive?

/ZLurker
 
If you have it sleeping it should be fairly quite. Unless its running all night long then you will hear something.
You will never get it super quite, just think of it as white noise.
 
Sleep with mine on

Hey,

i have a Rev. B 2GHz PowerMac - and leave it encoding H.264 files overnight. CPU usage is quite high, but the CPU fans never get loud - I have no problems with leaving my Mac running while i sleep 2m from it.

FireArse
 
FireArse said:
Hey,

i have a Rev. B 2GHz PowerMac - and leave it encoding H.264 files overnight. CPU usage is quite high, but the CPU fans never get loud - I have no problems with leaving my Mac running while i sleep 2m from it.

FireArse
Thats exactly what i need to hear. Do you have "as it is", or do you use some encaseing?
 
If you go into the energy saver control panel and set everything low, including the processor, then all the Macs I've ever used (I don't know about the PM G5 specifically) won't ever have a fan go on. Conversely, if you change it to highest performance instead of automatic it will make a very big increase in performance.
 
combatcolin said:
Its a feature of Mac OS X

So yes, all Macs have it.
I believe it is only available on G5's and desktops. The eMacs and minis do not have this feature.
 
We know you like the PowerMac G5, but this is going a bit too far.

MacNut said:
Oh I thought you were actually sleeping with your G5. :p
I also thought this was another thread about sleeping with something that was cold and hard one minute and hot the next.

Basically something that probably isn't recommended by Apple, unless you really are in love with the new design.

But then again, it's probably just lust.
 
topgunn said:
I believe it is only available on G5's and desktops. The eMacs and minis do not have this feature.

The portables, powerbooks and ibooks, have the full energy saver settings as well. I've never checked on an emac or mini, but I'm surprised to hear that they don't have it. Just to double check, you're looking in the system preferences and you're saying there's no energy saver control panel???
 
motulist said:
Just to double check, you're looking in the system preferences and you're saying there's no energy saver control panel???

There's an Energy Saver panel, but no processor settings. My old iBook had them, but my G4 tower doesn't.

I sleep in the same room as my G4 with no problems whatsoever.
 
Nermal said:
There's an Energy Saver panel, but no processor settings. My old iBook had them, but my G4 tower doesn't.

I sleep in the same room as my G4 with no problems whatsoever.

Yep, nothing on a Mini either. It's easily quiet enough anyway, I've only heard the fan fire up once while playing a game.
 
To each his own, but...

I for one would not buy a computer from this guy. You never know what he might have slipped into those FireWire 800 ports.
 
Sol said:
I for one would not buy a computer from this guy. You never know what he might have slipped into those FireWire 800 ports.
You have to understand, i would never sell my computers. I love them too much! :D
 
motulist said:
If you go into the energy saver control panel and set everything low, including the processor, then all the Macs I've ever used (I don't know about the PM G5 specifically) won't ever have a fan go on. Conversely, if you change it to highest performance instead of automatic it will make a very big increase in performance.
Thanks for the info!
Exellent! Do you know if you can put a time schedule on these settings?
 
Nermal said:
There's an Energy Saver panel, but no processor settings. My old iBook had them, but my G4 tower doesn't.

I sleep in the same room as my G4 with no problems whatsoever.
I think sleeping wouldn't be a problem for me either, my fridge sounds quite alot and a can sleep with that noise.
Its more the annoying sound that breaks the complete silence when im working on it and thinking that worries me.

But i guess the energysaving settings is the solution then.

Cant wait to buy one!
 
I surf the net and do basic stuff with my PB hooked to an external display. Nice and quiet. However, the PM G5 are very quiet compared to the old G4s. This reason alone was what prompted me to buy a G5.
 
Noisy G5 fans

ZLurker said:
You have to understand, i would never sell my computers. I love them too much! :D

So there is more than one. The plot thickens...

Seriously, computer snoring, I mean fan noise, annoys me too. In the Steve Jobs biography The Second Coming Of Steve Jobs there were claims that the man hated computer fans so much that his engineers would avoid using the word 'fan' in case he threw a hissy fit. With the Cube and the 2nd generation G3 iMacs Apple had gotten rid of the fans competely. It is a bit dissapointing that fans came back with a vengeance in the PowerMac G5s. I use the dual 2.5 model at work and the computer fans start and stop all the time. This is more noticable than a fan which is constantly on because of the noise that interupts the silence.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.