Yeah, I have an open back cabinet off to the side of my desk that can house the Mac. Might not be a problem.
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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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To test my Ultra to see if the whine was present I placed a microphone on my desk midway between (6" both directions) the rear of my MS Ultra and a speaker pointed directly at me. There was a monitor about 3" behind the Ultra which would reflect any sound from the Ultra back toward me and directly toward the microphone. I hear absolutely no whine from my Ultra even if I place my ear inches away.
I was seated 18" directly in front of the speaker. I played the YouTube test tone recording from the comment above at a volume that was just barely detectable to me seated 18" in front of the speaker in a very silent room. (So barely detectable I would have had to look to be sure the test tone was playing if I wasn't controlling it.)
Here's a picture of the audio spectrum with the Ultra always on with and without the test tone playing.
Notice the barely detectable test tone is more than 30 dB above the Ultra's noise level in the frequency range around the test tone.
I was seated 18" directly in front of the speaker. I played the YouTube test tone recording from the comment above at a volume that was just barely detectable to me seated 18" in front of the speaker in a very silent room. (So barely detectable I would have had to look to be sure the test tone was playing if I wasn't controlling it.)
Here's a picture of the audio spectrum with the Ultra always on with and without the test tone playing.
Notice the barely detectable test tone is more than 30 dB above the Ultra's noise level in the frequency range around the test tone.
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Received my Max today. 32/32/1TB and with my home as silent as possible... it is below the noise floor, no whines, ticks, hoots, or hollers. At 1400 RPM it just starts to emit the sound of a gentle flow of cool air. 1500 and you hear it without straining. About arms length plus 15 inches directly in front of my seated position. Try as I may the machine stays cool and silent, for practice purposes, just off idle. I will manually spin the fans up to blow out the dust from time to time. My sample of one is a keeper.
It really seems that there are production and/or assembly quality problems with mac studio as I see many differences with fan noise from mac studio owners (perception and tolerance should maybe be taken in account)
In addition I read in another thread :
> The fans are still on even when mac studio goes to "sleep". I think it is not the expected behavior
> The led is always on, even when mac studio is "sleep". Maybe it's a feature, but why a sleeping device should have its led lit on all the time ?
As I only "need" the 32go from mac studio (and not power) and according all those problems, I really think I'll stick with a mac mini 16go (I will survive with some swap, ok ...) and wait for either Apple solve mac studio problems (fan noise) or launch a brand new powerfull mac mini with Mx "pro"
By "chance", i'm not a pro, just a prosumer
So I can wait for a good product from apple that meets my needs.
In addition I read in another thread :
> The fans are still on even when mac studio goes to "sleep". I think it is not the expected behavior
> The led is always on, even when mac studio is "sleep". Maybe it's a feature, but why a sleeping device should have its led lit on all the time ?
As I only "need" the 32go from mac studio (and not power) and according all those problems, I really think I'll stick with a mac mini 16go (I will survive with some swap, ok ...) and wait for either Apple solve mac studio problems (fan noise) or launch a brand new powerfull mac mini with Mx "pro"
By "chance", i'm not a pro, just a prosumer
So I can wait for a good product from apple that meets my needs.Probably will return mine, coil whine has reared its head. I'll see if it disappears by Monday.
Hello, I receive mine on Monday. I cross my fingers but for the moment, I have not ordered the screen. I will test with an old 22 inch. I hope I will have some luck.
I have the same problem with the whistling. Sometimes it's not audible and if it starts whistling it can be heard all over the room. It's about 2.2k Hz and annoying. A preview of the spectral frequency when running Studio. Immediately after start up it is not audible until after about 25 seconds. At higher speeds the whistling is more audible, only then does it fade into the airflow noise.
I’m probably totally wrong but this made me wonder if there are manufacturing inconsistencies with some of the tiny holes on the back. If some of those holes where ended up smaller than intended or were an odd shape or not angled correctly… Maybe the air being pushed through imperfect holes would create these unusual overtones that ‘whine’? Which would explain why there is some variation… It would depend how many imperfect holes your machine has and where they are placed…
The cloth test backs this up, maybe?
Interesting. I wonder if the frequency changes at different fan speeds? This would indicate whether or not the noise is caused by the fan through vibration or friction as it spins.
On second thought, if vibration/friction was the cause, you’d expect this to cause the noise immediately, not 25 seconds after startup. Hmm.
1300 rpm = 21.6 rp sec = 1/100 of the frequency shown above. (Probably meaningless, just thinking out loud).
At higher fan speeds, the fan changes intensity, gets louder, and increases in frequency.
At normal speeds, covering the left side of the vents, as viewed from the rear, can dampen this whistling. Overall, the noise is immediately less audible. Maybe it just doesn't penetrate to the outside.
At normal speeds, covering the left side of the vents, as viewed from the rear, can dampen this whistling. Overall, the noise is immediately less audible. Maybe it just doesn't penetrate to the outside.
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Some have proposed that the holes in the case could be causing the whine. Unless I’m mistaken, if the whine was caused by the holes in the case, then increasing the fan speed would cause the the sound to get louder but the pitch would not change. Your chart shows the pitch changing.
This is not really my area of expertise though, so correct me if I’m wrong. My knowledge of fluid dynamics as it pertains to acoustics is limited to “blowing air across the top of a bottle”.
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I played your recording through a speaker and the first image clearly shows the 2.2 kHz "whistle" about 30 dB above the noise floor.
The 2nd image is my Ultra (made in Malaysia) with the same mic 2" from its rear, in fact facing its rear - not a good idea in general, but I didn't want to miss a higher frequency whistle if it was there. There's nothing around 2.2 kHz that's above the noise floor.
I'm simply trying to show the "whistle" is not a "feature" of every unit - likely faulty fans.
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Very interesting ! I concluded (but without any facts) to potentials production inconcistencies. Your analysis demonstrate that there are "build inconsistencies".
I conclude that your mac studio ultra is very silent and inaudible at idle, right ?
Could be cool if someone could do the same analysis with a noisy and another with a silent "max" to confirm.
Check out this fcp.co interview with Apple reps:
fcp.co
Idustrial Revolution for Final Cut Pro FCPX Plugins and Templates
FCPX, Final Cut Pro X, Motion, Templates, Titles, Themes, Transitions, Generators, Tutorials, Tools and more.
fcp.co
Yes, my Ultra is very quiet. Absolutely no high pitch sound no matter how close I put an ear.
I don't know what your distinction would be between production inconsistencies and build inconsistencies? That would be the same thing in this engineer's book.
I haven't seen enough evidence to positively prove whether the "whistle" is from a power supply component or faulty fans, but I'm leaning toward a batch of faulty fans. It seems that the M1 Max is much more susceptible to the problem than the Ultra, but since both the fan/cooling system design and power supply current draws are different, that doesn't prove which it is.
However, since the fans don't speed up under power supply load, and no one has indicated the "whistle" changes pitch or volume with changing power supply loads, it doesn't appear to be a power supply component. And there have been reports that changing the fan speed manually (with fan control apps) does affect the "whistle" volume or pitch, and that points to a fan problem.
Early on, there were reports of the "whistle" in units manufactured in China, and not Malaysia. But most people don't report where their problem units were manufactured. So I don't know if that is still true or not. But if it is, that could also point to a fan batch problem, but not necessarily since we don't know if both countries got fans from the same batch or not.
Sorry, my english is a little bad
Don't matter : "Build" & "production" inconsistencies are the same, there is no distinction.So you said the problem would be the fans, but I was believing that was the rear air event holes that creates "air disturbance" (don't know how can I tell this in english) that create "whisle" (drilling/machining quality problems)
Maybe you're right and the noise is linked to fans quality problem.
I hope Apple will quickly solve this problem
Check out this fcp.co interview with Apple reps:
Idustrial Revolution for Final Cut Pro FCPX Plugins and Templates
FCPX, Final Cut Pro X, Motion, Templates, Titles, Themes, Transitions, Generators, Tutorials, Tools and more.
Pitch, as in the amount of slope, inclination.
Thanks for the clarification. I went in looking for acoustics related information so naturally looked at this thinking it meant frequency of the produced noise.
However he did note next "we get better thermal performance and also better acoustics", this meant they did take noise output into account and what we get is already the best they managed?
I'm sending a preview and audio. From idle speed to max and then back to idle speed again. Microphone about 10 cm away.
I noticed that after the first run, the beeping sound came after a few minutes. Maybe something must have warmed up.
This is an Ultra model made in China.
I noticed that after the first run, the beeping sound came after a few minutes. Maybe something must have warmed up.
This is an Ultra model made in China.
Wow, this is audible and very annoying. I would definitely send the machine back if I were you if it isn't an april joke.
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Unfortunately, it's not April.Wow, this is audible and very annoying. I would definitely send the machine back if I were you if it isn't an april joke.
I’m not sure at all why anyone is so surprised. M1 Max is roughly an equivalent of i7 (and Ultra of i9/Xeon), all that in lunchbox sized enclosure. Do you guys not understand that this amount of computing power needs active cooling? Same like it was with Mac Pro 2013, the fans are always on to avoid ramping up and down all the time with heavy/light workloads.
The closest equivalent in PC world is Corsair One series, which is water cooled and still more noisy than the Studio.
In other words, buy Mac mini for web browsing and office work, it will be silent.
The Studio is a workstation for heavy workloads and it is whisper-quiet as Apple promised, they didn’t say “SILENT” - no one misled you, there is no “noisegate” - you either don’t understand how computers work or your noise expectations were pulled out of… thin air, let’s say
The closest equivalent in PC world is Corsair One series, which is water cooled and still more noisy than the Studio.
In other words, buy Mac mini for web browsing and office work, it will be silent.
The Studio is a workstation for heavy workloads and it is whisper-quiet as Apple promised, they didn’t say “SILENT” - no one misled you, there is no “noisegate” - you either don’t understand how computers work or your noise expectations were pulled out of… thin air, let’s say
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