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

sixers22

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 9, 2022
19
51
I bought a Mac Studio Max. It’s replacing a mid 2010 iMac running off an external SSD (a real trooper) and joining forces with my MBP 16 inch. Let me start off by saying that I've been so excited for the Studio. It's what I have wanted from Apple for a long time. From what I had read in the lead up to the Studio’s release, I knew there was going to be some potential fan noise. But I’ve got to be honest, at first I thought there was something wrong with my unit because its a constant, pretty annoying whirring sound even when under the most basic of use (using Notes with no other applications open). I'm finding it hard to gauge whether or not I'm being overly sensitive to the sound and noticing it more and more because of it, so I would love your thoughts on your own experiences with the Mac Studio Max fan noise.

Of course all of this is completely based on personal factors like the environment and surrounding noises, sound sensitivity, etc. I will add that my office is very quiet and that my Studio also has plenty of space around it to breathe. I’ve spent the last few hours doing some light web browsing and watching Youtube in Safari, and the fan noise has been apparent the whole time. To add to this, I didn’t think that when I lay on the couch 3 metres away from the Studio and watch a video on my iPad that I would still hear the the Studio in the background (whilst running no apps).

I don’t think we’ve heard from a lot of the big Tech YouTubers about this as they all mostly bought Ultras, of which use the copper heat sink over the aluminium found in the Max. I’ve heard a number of the tech YouTubers with the Ultra say that their units are near silent. I’m having a very different experience with my Max. I just really did not expect it to make more noise than my 2010 iMac (yes, the iMac could sound like a fighter jet occasionally under load but at least it wasn't a constant high pitched whirring sound)

I've seen a few people tweet about the Max and its fan noise and found this one interesting "Bought a Mac Studio this morning, but I ended up returning it in the evening as the continuous “whistle-quiet” fan noise was too much for me in my quiet room, compared to the virtually inaudible Mac mini. I didn’t realize that I was more interested in silence than in performance."

I understand the design but his thing is always blowing quite a decent amount of cool air out the back and it almost seems unnecessary to me personally, given the amount of noise it makes. Other than that I love the Studio. Just curious if others have experienced the same thing?
 
Last edited:
I don’t think I’ve been able to hear anything out of mine yet. Did you start fresh or import all your stuff from previous Mac? Also my update failed when trying on startup. Said I need to do it normally now. Will do that and put it under some heavier load and report back this weekend. Subbing out of interest,
 
  • Like
Reactions: Matt Leaf
From the Ars Technica review:

>But in both cases, the size of the cooler and the power efficiency of Apple’s chips keep the Studio nearly dead silent no >matter what you’re doing with it.

From the Verge review:

>Even when we were doing elaborate things in Adobe After Effects and Blender, stuff that would have had the fans on
>any Intel desktop I’ve ever used absolutely roaring, the Studio was inaudible. I’d put my ear to the case, and while I
>could literally feel the fans vibrating beneath me, they were still silent. And the only time we ever felt it blowing hot
>air was during gaming, which we’ll get to later.

Unfortunately, both are reviews of an Ultra model. While I don't wish a bad unit on anyone, I hope this isn't an "Ultra silent / Max noisy" situation. I guess we'll see as more people start receiving their units. I would sadly, pay the extra for the 48-GPU ultra if this does turn out to be the case.
 
I don’t think I’ve been able to hear anything out of mine yet. Did you start fresh or import all your stuff from previous Mac? Also my update failed when trying on startup. Said I need to do it normally now. Will do that and put it under some heavier load and report back this weekend. Subbing out of interest,
Started fresh. Mine updated fine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: George Dawes
My current M1 Mini fan never spins up (at least I can't hear them) and I came from a nightmare Mini (Intel i7 Mini server) that ran all the time and made more noise than my dogs.:mad:

Can't wait to see how "noisy" my new Studio Max base will be when I pick her up today at the Apple store.

:D
 
Any chance you could make a video of its noise in average use? i.e. when typing etc. The one video of the noise I think is from very close up and amplified to make it sound way more than it actually is.

I'm very interested in the studio max, but given some of the comments, i'd like to be able to hear what it sounds like before buying ( and you're not going to be able to do that in store with all the noise around either ).
 
I did pick up the Studio Max and hold it to my ear. From what I could tell, the fan wasn't spinning. I also opened most of the apps and was using Safari and Final Cut Pro. The store had just opened. There were more employees than customers, so the ambient noise was lower than you would expect. I hope the fan spins only intermittently, depending on use.
 
My Mac Pro 5,1 produces more than 35 db of fan noise, so I think the Mac Studio will be more silent.
 
Yeah, I can clearly hear the fan noise on my unit as well but it’s constant instead of fans revving up or down due to workload. Still it’s much less noisy than the 5,1 Mac Pro it replaces.

I’m definitely sensitive to noise and the ambient sound level pressure is very low.
 
None of these YouTuber reviewers loaded a fan program just to see what the rpms are?
It has to be part of the NDA where they cannot talk about system level negatives, or they will face consequences.

except for The Verge review, I don't think I've seen anyone else talk about the fans, which does seem strange.

though maybe I couldn't hear them talk about it over the roar of my i7 2019 Mac Mini. ;)
 
Last edited:
interesting. guess i will have to keep watching youtube vids now on the Max lol... Sixers22, did you get 24 core or 32 core? i got the 32 core and still waiting on shipping
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.