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How quiet is a mac mini with an ssd?
- Thread starter davidoloan
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A biet quieter than with an HDD, but depends on your real use. The loudest component is the fan, which idles at around 2,000 RPM, but if the CPU gets hotter due to more CPU intensive tasks, the fan can spin up to 6,000 RPM if it gets hot, and that is audible, depending on the location of the Mac mini and your ears and the space in between.
I'm really happy with the MacBook Air.
If the mini was similar I would be pleased with that. it's not really something you can test in the store.
The fan on the Air is virtually silent.
If the mini was similar I would be pleased with that. it's not really something you can test in the store.
The fan on the Air is virtually silent.
As said above, it's essentially silent in normal use, I have the Fusion Drive version and you occasionally hear little mechanical noises from the HDD which I assume wouldn't be there with full SSD.
The fan is what makes the noise and if you're gaming or encoding or anything else that runs the GPU/CPU constantly then it can get pretty noisy - maybe similar level to a kettle boiling - but most of the time it's quiet enough that it's inaudible over background noise, even from less than a metre away. The fan very rarely runs anywhere between silent and noisy, it's one or the other.
The fan is what makes the noise and if you're gaming or encoding or anything else that runs the GPU/CPU constantly then it can get pretty noisy - maybe similar level to a kettle boiling - but most of the time it's quiet enough that it's inaudible over background noise, even from less than a metre away. The fan very rarely runs anywhere between silent and noisy, it's one or the other.
I have both the 2012 Air and a brand new Mini (arrived this week).
Both are equally silent on normal loads. Both can sound fairly audible when the fans kick up past 4000 rpm.
I'd say they're about even, soundwise.
(And yes, I have installed an SSD into the Mini).
Both are equally silent on normal loads. Both can sound fairly audible when the fans kick up past 4000 rpm.
I'd say they're about even, soundwise.
(And yes, I have installed an SSD into the Mini).
I had a mini with a standard hard drive and can't say that I ever heard it... I wouldn't worry, unless it's in a spot where it's likely to get warm and cause the fans to kick into high speed.
I have a 2011 mechanical hard drive Mac Mini (low end dual core). It's summer here in Hong Kong, and mostly my room is around 25-35C. When I arrive home from work in the evening, the fans are full tilt it's that hot even when idling (my machine idles on about 20-50% due to what services I have on it). I would consider the fans rather loud, especially compared to a Mac laptop, or my custom build PC that's sitting right next to it (the PC is literally silent even when under load, I have not heard it once).
I guess it really depends on what you consider "quiet"...
I guess it really depends on what you consider "quiet"...
I put a hybrid drive in my 2011 mid-range mac mini and it had this pulsing hum that reverberated through my desk. hhmmmmmMMMMMMMmmmmmmmMMMMMM....
That was returned the next day. Now I have an SSD and love it, but the fans still spin up again after boot because I have it running BOINC.
Honestly, I got used to the fans. It's sort of a disease research white noise machine. Quite nice at night to hear that in a bad neighborhood instead of the occasional backfire and wondering if someone got shot.
That was returned the next day. Now I have an SSD and love it, but the fans still spin up again after boot because I have it running BOINC.
Honestly, I got used to the fans. It's sort of a disease research white noise machine. Quite nice at night to hear that in a bad neighborhood instead of the occasional backfire and wondering if someone got shot.
I've had 2010, 2011, and 2012 mini's, the second two with SSD's. The 2012 is very quiet. I basically never hear the fan and play a lot of video, both files and streaming. The 2011 fans were extremely loud, even with an SSD, because the fans would crank up to 5500/6000 rpm's during normal video playback. There were more than a few threads started here on the fan noise and methods to quiet it.
There may have been a design change between the 2011 and 2012 mini fan as noted in this thread http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30927&sid=c55d9c3367580a04a6c407d4abf126ac I know that apple introduced asymetrical fans to the MacBook Pro line to reduce noise, but I'm not sure if those designs have been expanded to the mini line. When the fans get going on my 2012 is sounds like rushing air instead of a humming. It seems pretty quiet to me.
Either drive is fine. I have a 7200rpm Scorpio Black, and can't hear it. Only the fans, but they stay sweet all the time (never the sounds you can have with other desktops where the case starts sounding together with the fans). Just a very nice white noise! If you glue it under your table, you won't notice fan sound either, only slightly when doing some full core rendering for longer than a few seconds.
