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Mac studio v1 fan noise - it's going to be one of the loudest Macs at idle.
- Thread starter AdamSeen
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Apple made the Mac Studio as small as possible. Perhaps that is the reason that it's noisy. I think I stay with my Mac Pro 5,1 for now. Perhaps a larger iMac 27-32 (pro) inch in the future would be a better choice. Or hopefully a firmware update will solve the problem for the mac Studio. I find the price for the base model acceptable.
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I'm a 52 year old veteran of the early 1990's rave scene, with the ears to match. I don't consider myself partially deaf but it seems unlikely a 15dB whirring of the Studio Max's fans will bother me much.
I am 51, I can't hear my MP6,1 that is rated at 14dB idle. Ambient level is 28dB measured by NIOSH app. Measuring the MP6,1 at 25cm above it shows 44dB, and I still can't hear it sitting 1 meter from it.
Its stated that the M1 Max in a MBP is so great that you never hear any fan noise, even when rendering/exporting....
The same chip in the Mac Studio should be even better considering it has a huge heatsink now, and more fan-power. So why should it make any fan noise at all??
The same chip in the Mac Studio should be even better considering it has a huge heatsink now, and more fan-power. So why should it make any fan noise at all??
Because Apple decided so, and it seems totally unreasonable to me at these low temperatures - default 1300rpm is too much, and I think also 1100rpm is too much. Not to mention the high rpm will introduce more dust in the computer.
Take MP6,1 for example, CPU is at 50-60°C at idle and fan is at 800rpm, and PCIe switch is at 68°C. It only starts ramping when the machine is under load and CPU goes to 65-70°C and it does it gradually onwards.
Why can't the M1 Max/Ultra have a similar thermal scheme? Why is Apple insisting on keeping them cool below 50-60°C I can't understand... is the M1 CPU package less sturdy in terms of thermals? I doubt it, it is silicone...
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It shouldn’t.
There seems to be two issues.
1. Sample to sample variation - the same ears in the same environment perceive two different samples of the same model as distinctly different. Unfortunately this is difficult to assess without a reasonable sample size.
2. Fan speed vs. thermals response curve. This one is unquestionable, really. Just about everyone agree that the fans do not speed up much or even at all under load. Which of course means that they move unnecessary amounts of air (and dust) when at idle or lighter load. Why Apple has done this is an open question. It could be an underlying assumption that the system will operate in a somewhat noisy environment. It could be that the fans start having issues with reliability at lower RPMs. It could be excessive safety margins regarding heat. We just don’t know.
I was wondering this too. I think possibly, that Apple run fans slightly higher for initial OS releases for new machines, then a subsequent OS update lowers fan speeds if all goes well in the wild across different climates. I think this is what happened with my 13 M1 MBP, M1 Mac Mini and possibly the M1 Pro and M1 Max MBPs. Possibly more cautious on the laptops as people sit with them in close proximity...
Could be complete BS, but I can imagine Apple will alter something in the OS if Fan speeds of 1300 RPM keep everything on track with customers after a period of time.
Someone should test the fans outside of the Mac Studio enclosure and see what they sound like when moving unobstructed air.
Has apple ever changed the fan speed of a product after launch?
To make it slower and quieter?
I can't see it happening, they likely didn't just 'guess' that ~1300rpm would be 'fine, probably'.
To make it slower and quieter?
I can't see it happening, they likely didn't just 'guess' that ~1300rpm would be 'fine, probably'.
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Are people just overstating things here? Posts like “I have never heard a louder Mac” seems a bit concerning. Yet every video I have watched with the mic placed directly behind the computer shows it’s silent. So which is true? Are people actually expecting a 0 db system?
I think those people are coming from laptops and possibly iMacs, not Mac Pro's or desktop PCs (or older G4/G5 Macs)
There are also confirmed instances of varying sounds levels/tones that will come on the exact same machine i.e. it's the luck of the draw.
There are also confirmed instances of varying sounds levels/tones that will come on the exact same machine i.e. it's the luck of the draw.
I'm a 62 year old professional musician with 40+ years of getting my hearing pummeled on a daily and/or nightly basis. My Apple Watch warns me nearly nightly that 100db has harshed my buzz once or twice. Yeah, once my Mac Studio arrives I doubt it will register a peep on these well-worn ears. Just to humor myself I checked the ambient noise floor in my office with Decibel X: Mac Mini 2018 and Apple Thunderbolt display running at full blast. Phone on a stand near my ears: around 30db. Every click of the magic mouse shot it from there to about 38-40db. How annoying knowing that keyboard and mouse clicks are assaulting my hearing at these obscene levels! /sarcasm
Perhaps the loose use of words might have something to do with it.
You just said the system is “silent” and I would argue that if Apple claims it is however many dBs at idle, then it cannot be silent.
Also, one poster claimed he could not hear it, only to then admit that he wears an hearing aid, and his wife could actually hear the fans.
Bottom line is that we are all different in how and what we can hear, but also in what use we make of the computer and what level of noise we are willing to put up with, in the context of our location and usage.
I don’t have one yet so I cannot comment on the actual noise level, but for my particular use case, in a small music studio used to record quiet acoustic instruments, there is a fine balance between the amount of power I need and the amount of noise I can tolerate. I used to have to noise isolate my computer back in the days when fan noise was unavoidable, but over the last 10 years I got spoiled and used to just have a silent system.
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Coming from a PC set up with a massive Silverstone enclosure and a total of 5 fans (Noctua ones included) whirring away non-stop, believe me the studio is pure heaven.
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I think I'm going to stick with my iMac Pro for now. Too much uncertainty around both the Mac Studio (noise level) and ASD (crappy webcam). I'll wait to see if anything happens with firmware/software updates and quality control. My iMac Pro is still going strong, and it's completely inaudible.
Looks like MP 6,1 is becoming a low-level noise winner! Surprise, surprise!
My MP 5,1 is not annoyingly audible when running, but then my hearing is not of a young person (pity, but that's it). And the truth is, almost always I use the Macs with the music on from an external 2+1 system plus Boom 3D.
My MP 5,1 is not annoyingly audible when running, but then my hearing is not of a young person (pity, but that's it). And the truth is, almost always I use the Macs with the music on from an external 2+1 system plus Boom 3D.
So, I guess you think Bigfoot, flying saucers, the Loch Ness monster, fairies, and ghosts are all real?
People are convicted on mistaken witness testimony all the time. Your senses are not completely reliable. The difficulty of sound location has been confirmed by a number of studies.
Where did that noise come from? Memory for sound locations is exceedingly eccentric both in front and in rear space - PubMed
Few studies have examined the stability of the representation of the position of sound sources in spatial working memory. The goal of this study was to verify whether the memory of sound position declines as maintenance time increases. In two experiments, we tested the influence of the delay...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
If that were true, rock music would not be a booming business.
I had the same enclosure 7 year ago before I switched to Mac. It is an awesome enclosure, motherboard is rotated 90° and it really keeps those beasts inside cool. Fans are big but low rpm. It sat on the floor below my desk, and I was used to the noise. But then came the iMac and oh, what a silence
This website overstates *everything*. Notches, chins, white bezels, fan noise, everything is a major outrage. They ran multiple articles complaining about polishing cloths, of all things. And many of the commenters are just as bad.