Mac Pro Fan Speed / Noise

[mister880]

I downloaded the new firmware / smc software for my Mac Pro and it's still quiet. However when it booted up the first time after the update it got LOUD louder than I have ever heard it before! (Even my Dual GHZ MD mac didn't get that loud)

My question is there any kind of software or hack to trick the mac into running all the fans? I would like to reproduce this effect for someone.

Kevin

 

[NATO]

When you start up your system, do your fans not spin up to that 'loud' level you mentioned? I don't know if you can trick the system into doing it otherwise

When I start up my Mac Pro, the fans spin up to max for a few seconds before they go back to normal... is this normal behaviour?

 

[Silentwave]

dunno if it'll get hot enough to get everyting running at full speed, but open up terminal and type in yes> /dev/null and it'll run a core up to 100%. You'll need 4 windows open running this to max out your mac Pro.

 

[seanf]

When I start up my Mac Pro, the fans spin up to max for a few seconds before they go back to normal... is this normal behaviour?

Yes

Sean

 

[alexprice]

Boot into target disk mode perhaps. Theres no software fan control and after a couple of mins the fans may fun at full speed. This may not work on a Mac Pro.

 

[NATO]

Yes

Sean

Phew... It never bothered me, I just questioned myself when it seemed like it was unique to my system

 

[kered22]

Glad to know others MacPros do this too. LOL I get the fans going at full speed for a second or so, then the hard drive starts loading everything.

 

[rgomez]

Mhm... I don't have that behaivour in my MacPro. Mine starts without making any noise, except maybe for the hard disks spinning.

The only time that I have hear the fans was when installing the SMC update. It was pretty scary I have to confess Reminded my of my PowerMac 2.7 when encoding something in Final Cut or something like that. :-D

I have been running Seti@Home with the MacPro, since long before the SMC update, and even if the processors are beign used at 100% I never hear the fans.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

My Mac Pro's fans spin up and make quite a bit of noise for a second or two, twice during startup. Once very soon after pressing the power button, the second time just before the loading bar appears.

The graphics cards fan (X1900XT) gets noisy while playing games.

 

[chatin]

Mhm... I don't have that behaivour in my MacPro. Mine starts without making any noise, except maybe for the hard disks spinning.
.

Same here! I don't here any fan noise on my Mac Pro. Ever. Period. Even when rendering all cores are 50%!

 

[seanf]

Mhm... I don't have that behaivour in my MacPro. Mine starts without making any noise, except maybe for the hard disks spinning

Which graphics card have you got in yours?

Sean

 

[Mackeyser]

I got a 2.6 w/ X1900 and with HW floors (which reflect the sound rather than a carpet which absorbs it...I only say because some don't know why that makes a difference) and if I weren't typing on it, I wouldn't know it was on.

I mean, it is 1:36 am PST and I live on a quiet street. Even in the quiet of the middle of the night...I can barely hear it and my head is not 24" from it.

Now, coming from a Powerbook, I do hear the HD accessing stuff, but that stuff doesn't bother me. My wife's PowerComputing Powercenter 120 (yes, we still use it, but for $40, we can get something at dealmac.com, so I may just put her out of her misery...that said, the machine has lasted 10 years and still works pretty well) sounds like a mini-vac or dustbuster. It's RIDICULOUSLY loud. My Mac Pro has been whisper quiet. Haven't stressed it too much, but with basic stuff, it's whisper quiet.

 

[freezerburrn]

did getting the update kill the intro chime when turning on the Mac Pro? Mine stopped playing it.

 

[daveporter]

I got a 2.6 w/ X1900 and with HW floors (which reflect the sound rather than a carpet which absorbs it...I only say because some don't know why that makes a difference) and if I weren't typing on it, I wouldn't know it was on.

I mean, it is 1:36 am PST and I live on a quiet street. Even in the quiet of the middle of the night...I can barely hear it and my head is not 24" from it.

Now, coming from a Powerbook, I do hear the HD accessing stuff, but that stuff doesn't bother me. My wife's PowerComputing Powercenter 120 (yes, we still use it, but for $40, we can get something at dealmac.com, so I may just put her out of her misery...that said, the machine has lasted 10 years and still works pretty well) sounds like a mini-vac or dustbuster. It's RIDICULOUSLY loud. My Mac Pro has been whisper quiet. Haven't stressed it too much, but with basic stuff, it's whisper quiet.

My experience is similar. My Mac Pro is the least noisy computer that I have owned. I own a recording studio and have built a number of very low noise PCs in the past and the stock Mac Pro is at least as quite as any of them. Apple did a great job with noise control overall; the only thing that could have been better would have been to add noise reducing gromets on the hard drive attachment screws to lessen the transfer of hard disk noise to the case of the computer. As soon as I have the time I will experiment with finding a gromet material that works in this situation. My experience with other computers is that this greatly reduces the preceived noise generated by hard disk drives.

I have a stock Mac Pro 2.66 with the stock video card except that I have 2 GB of RAM and three hard disk drives.

When I installed the update the fans ran at full speed very briefly right after the update completed and before the machine re-booted (just as the text box said they would). Since then, my fans have not run at full speed at start-up or in any way noticable changed how they ran before the update.

Dave

 

[Trekkie]

knowing nothing about the hardware implementation Apple chose to use but knowing a lot about how we do it at my employer usually it takes a few moments for the intelligent management device (we call em Baseboard Management Controllers or BMC) to 'boot up' it's firmware software and during that time the default is 'pedal to the metal' on the fans until it wakes up and gets data from the temp sensors in case anything is wrong.

My Mac Pro with the latest EFI and the Latest SMC when you first powers it up does a really fast whoosh up and then is silent. I'm even running the BOINC client on the world community grid that is loading up all four processors.

While the room is a bit warmer, the Mac Pro is silent. Heat wise though it's even less than my single Pentium 4D Sony I used for windows tasks.

Still having a heck of a time getting Parallels to run Vista though, the dang thing is completely freezing my system when I try to start the VM up.

 

[NATO]

Still having a heck of a time getting Parallels to run Vista though, the dang thing is completely freezing my system when I try to start the VM up.

Parallels is freezing the bejeasus out my Mac Pro any time I try to start up Windows XP...

 

[mister880]

Parallels is JUNK!

Parallels is freezing the bejeasus out my Mac Pro any time I try to start up Windows XP...

Parallels is software I wanted from the time I first heard about it! The first time I downloaded the software it crashed and their website had no mention of it not working on a mac pro.

Then after the upgraded to support mac pro it still crashes. I have tried to use it with Windows XP, Mandriva Linux, and Suse. Windows locks up in installer, Linux has ZERO video modes that work! I tried about 30 of them!

This software at best is ALPHA quality, and not worth installing on any mac pro!
If you send me $79.95 I will send you a link to software the promises the world but doesn't deliver ANYTHING!

 

[Digidesign]

Parallels gives me kernel panics every time I try running Windows XP.

I'm glad I just downloaded the trial, instead of paying $80 for something that doesn't work (on my MP at least)

 

[chatin]

Don't mistake fan for optical drive

The high RPM spinning of the optical drives can sound like a fan to mac pro newbies!

 

[bob5820]

The high RPM spinning of the optical drives can sound like a fan to mac pro newbies!

If you read the original post mister880 said that the noise 'which sounds like fan noise' was louder up on booting after he installed the SMC update. In otherwords the noise had not been there before the update. How would this be the optical drive?