Mac studio v1 fan noise - it's going to be one of the loudest Macs at idle.

[funkahdafi]

Maybe the fact that both Mac Pro 2013 and Mac Pro 2019 have fans going on all the time (they may be quieter at idle, though) should give you the hint about my boldness

It's not about the fan noise, though. I think most people here can live with a faint fan noise. The problem is the high-frequency "whine" that some units have. People initially thought that was fan noise, too, but as it turns out, it's more likely to be coil whine related to the PSU. This is what people actually complain about.

If that's actually how Apple designed it - which I doubt - then that's just terrible, inexcusably bad design.

The point was, though, neither you nor I know. You might think you know, but you absolutely and 100% don't.

 

[AlphaCentauri]

It's not about the fan noise, though. I think most people here can live with a faint fan noise. The problem is the high-frequency "whine" that some units have. People initially thought that was fan noise, too, but as it turns out, it's more likely to be coil whine related to the PSU. This is what people actually complain about.

If that's actually how Apple designed it - which I doubt - then that's just terrible, inexcusably bad design.

The point was, though, neither you nor I know. You might think you know, but you absolutely and 100% don't.

I was talking about the fans being on all the time and the likely reasons for this in relation to Apple’s previous workstations. Many here cannot understand why the fans in the Studio do not ramp up and down (depending on the load), like they do in M1 mini or MB Pro.

As for the whine, I’ve said several times already that coil whine is UNACCEPTABLE and a reason for returning the Studio (it would be for me). I think this is manufacturing fault and that’s why we have (at least) two revisions of PSU board so far. So I am not sure why are you contesting my post - I’m in agreement with EVERYONE regarding the coil whine.

 

[StudioMacs]

there were two users who covered some of the fan exhaust holes with tape. They said that stopped the wine but were concerned about the effect on cooling.

if something about the holes on the back of the unit (shape, spacing, edges) is causing a wine or whistle, that could be confused with coil wine as the pitch would remain constant.

Post in thread 'Mac studio fan noise - it's going to be one of the loudest Macs at idle.'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...he-loudest-macs-at-idle.2337251/post-31013886

 

[marklcfc]

Has anyone found any cabinets or small enclosures to keep the studio in to reduce noise?

 

[JippaLippa]

Ok, I understood how the replacement works (just spoke with Apple).

If you have a standard unit (the ones that you start with from the website), you have to send it back and order a new one.
If you configured your unit (like I did with the 128GB of Ram) you can get a replacement and keep the current unit while you wait, without counting as an Apple Care repair.
I just did that and I'm super happy! I'll keep my current, allbeit noisy, unit and get a replacement in June/July.

If you configured your mac and are within the 14 days, I'd strongly advice following this route!
When I buy a mac I also think of resale value, down the line, and I'd find a noisy Studio to be harder to sell (eventually).

Always amazing assistance at Apple.
Hope I helped!

 

[jtkiley]

Ok, I understood how the replacement works (just spoke with Apple).

If you have a standard unit (the ones that you start with from the website), you have to send it back and order a new one.
If you configured your unit (like I did with the 128GB of Ram) you can get a replacement and keep the current unit while you wait, without counting as an Apple Care repair.
I just did that and I'm super happy! I'll keep my current, allbeit noisy, unit and get a replacement in June/July.

If you configured your mac and are within the 14 days, I'd strongly advice following this route!
When I buy a mac I also think of resale value, down the line, and I'd find a noisy Studio to be harder to sell (eventually).

Always amazing assistance at Apple.
Hope I helped!

I went a different way and swapped for a MBP14 with the same specs I ordered in the Mac Studio: Max/32gpu/64gb/2tb. That's more money, but it resolved the issue quickly. The tradeoff with a replacement is that you're letting the 14 day return time pass. If you get one back, it bothers you, and they consider it in spec, you're in a bit of a difficult spot. That's not to say that they wouldn't help you out.

Everyone at Apple was really helpful, and, in particular, they were really good at linking up what they could do with what I needed to accomplish. That helped me frame the choice with more precision and get to a good place.

So, even if you (the reader of this point/counterpoint on options) aren't in love with the idea of a desktop laptop, give it some consideration. I already had a base MBP14, so it was weird for me to go this route, but it's awesome so far. I haven't decided what to do with the other MBP14, but that's a downstream decision of the replacement one.

 

[StudioMacs]

If you configured your unit (like I did with the 128GB of Ram) you can get a replacement and keep the current unit while you wait, without counting as an Apple Care repair.

Did you have Apple Care+?

I know that is required for the express replacement option on iPhone and iPad where you keep the unit until the replacement is mailed.

 

[dunanos]

Ok, I understood how the replacement works (just spoke with Apple).

If you have a standard unit (the ones that you start with from the website), you have to send it back and order a new one.
If you configured your unit (like I did with the 128GB of Ram) you can get a replacement and keep the current unit while you wait, without counting as an Apple Care repair.
I just did that and I'm super happy! I'll keep my current, allbeit noisy, unit and get a replacement in June/July.

If you configured your mac and are within the 14 days, I'd strongly advice following this route!
When I buy a mac I also think of resale value, down the line, and I'd find a noisy Studio to be harder to sell (eventually).

Always amazing assistance at Apple.
Hope I helped!

Apple didn't tell me this over the phone, but they have multiple departments and everyone knows something different. If I waited 3 months for a new Mac, I'd definitely have to patch the holes - I'm allergic to the "whistling" anymore. I have trained my ears to hear even a Mac Mini M1. ?
Strangely enough, the return to the "slower" Mac is not that noticeable unlike the PC.

 

[JippaLippa]

Did you have Apple Care+?

I know that is required for the express replacement option on iPhone and iPad where you keep the unit until the replacement is mailed.

I had but the person at the phone told me this doesn't count as an apple care thing.
I don't know if the apple care is required, but this replacement doesn't count in the 2 reparirs per year.
It's just an extra feature for the configured computers.
They don't provide this solution for standard packages (like the 512GB, 32GB M1 Max 24-core)

 

[reallynotnick]

It's not about the fan noise, though. I think most people here can live with a faint fan noise. The problem is the high-frequency "whine" that some units have. People initially thought that was fan noise, too, but as it turns out, it's more likely to be coil whine related to the PSU. This is what people actually complain about.

If that's actually how Apple designed it - which I doubt - then that's just terrible, inexcusably bad design.

The point was, though, neither you nor I know. You might think you know, but you absolutely and 100% don't.

Everyone seems to be suggesting the noise changes with fan speed though. Unless the coil whine is caused by the fan drawing power from the PSU and no other component, I just don't think that's the case.

 

[Joestanxx]

OMG 15db! 20dB! 25DB! The horror.....

Everyone realizes a ticking watch is 20db right?, Rustling leaves outside? 20db. BREATHING is 10dB...

This is a nonissue....

I agree a non issue mine is on my desk maybe 18 inches from me and I have never heard a sound even under load.

 

[eddie_ducking]

I agree a non issue mine is on my desk maybe 18 inches from me and I have never heard a sound even under load.

I get that there might be variations between devices and some people may be suffering but my Ultra is tucked up behind my screen (elevated not on the desk) and similarly I'm 18" from it ... it's silent (and it's been under 100% CPU load for the last 2 weeks) ... demonstrated manually turning the fans up to max earlier to the other half and she asked for it to be turned down cause it was getting in the way of her hearing the birdsong outside (the 2010 Mac Pro would have made conversation difficult, never mind hearing the faint birdsong)

 

[jtkiley]

Mine had the whine, and that wasn't something I think anyone would want to listen to. It's not that loud, but the dead-flat continuous tone makes it noticeably uncomfortable. For me, it seemed like about 45 DB(A) of background noise was where it wasn't consistently audible, so it took quite a bit to drown it out (and my house is basically always quieter than that).

The broadband fan noise was totally fine to me (and quieter/nicer than my 2020 iMac 5K, which I didn't mind for a solid 1.5 years). And, I think it's cool that it never ramps up under load. The iMac could have flown itself to trade in with the fan under load (and even that didn't really bother me).

It seems pretty likely that the whine is a defect and the continuous fans regardless of load are a design choice. If not for the whine, I'd still have it (and I'd probably still have one if replacements were immediately available, too). That said, the MBP is great, and the lower fan noise (zero most of the time, and more-or-less inaudible at 2500rpm in a quiet room) is a nice feature. This doesn't apply if you have an Ultra, but it's awesome at the Max level that there's no performance tradeoff to switching to a MBP (cf. the heat, throttling, and noise with recent Intel MBPs).

 

[JippaLippa]

Mine had the whine, and that wasn't something I think anyone would want to listen to. It's not that loud, but the dead-flat continuous tone makes it noticeably uncomfortable. For me, it seemed like about 45 DB(A) of background noise was where it wasn't consistently audible, so it took quite a bit to drown it out (and my house is basically always quieter than that).

The broadband fan noise was totally fine to me (and quieter/nicer than my 2020 iMac 5K, which I didn't mind for a solid 1.5 years). And, I think it's cool that it never ramps up under load. The iMac could have flown itself to trade in with the fan under load (and even that didn't really bother me).

It seems pretty likely that the whine is a defect and the continuous fans regardless of load are a design choice. If not for the whine, I'd still have it (and I'd probably still have one if replacements were immediately available, too). That said, the MBP is great, and the lower fan noise (zero most of the time, and more-or-less inaudible at 2500rpm in a quiet room) is a nice feature. This doesn't apply if you have an Ultra, but it's awesome at the Max level that there's no performance tradeoff to switching to a MBP (cf. the heat, throttling, and noise with recent Intel MBPs).

The macbook pro is amazing (tested an M1 Max in december), however I'm not a laptop guy.
My work machine will always be a desktop.

That said I of course like laptops too and I always have one on the side; not having a TV I was actually thinking of buying an M1 Pro 16GB 14" to be used as a light portable machine and media consumption unit, especially since I love a good image and I want to consume content in HDR.

On the other hand, though, I always wanted an iPad and I might end up getting an iPad Pro instead; hopefully apple will release an iPad Pro 11" with the liquid retina XDR Panel.

On the other hand...
I have an apple TV 4K, so maybe buying a "fairly cheap" LG OLED to attach to it, would be the best solution.

Ideally, I'd get a 15" macbook air with the M2 and the liquid retina XDR display at 1500$, but I think Apple will stick to the LCD to cut the costs...

So many choices...

 

[jtkiley]

The macbook pro is amazing (tested an M1 Max in december), however I'm not a laptop guy.
My work machine will always be a desktop.

That said I of course like laptops too and I always have one on the side; not having a TV I was actually thinking of buying an M1 Pro 16GB 14" to be used as a light portable machine and media consumption unit, especially since I love a good image and I want to consume content in HDR.

On the other hand, though, I always wanted an iPad and I might end up getting an iPad Pro instead; hopefully apple will release an iPad Pro 11" with the liquid retina XDR Panel.

On the other hand...
I have an apple TV 4K, so maybe buying a "fairly cheap" LG OLED to attach to it, would be the best solution.

Ideally, I'd get a 15" macbook air with the M2 and the liquid retina XDR display at 1500$, but I think Apple will stick to the LCD to cut the costs...

So many choices...

This second MBP14 is pretty much going to be a desktop for me. I've been desktop first (with a separate laptop) for most of the last 20 years.

In my previous house, I had a TV in my home office, but there's not a good location in my home office here (despite it being a larger space). I have a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and I mount it in a bracket that is on a mini tripod. It's actually a great option for TV in the office (even better with Universal Control), though our main use for it (when mounted that way) is for grandparent video calls with our toddler.

 

[JippaLippa]

This second MBP14 is pretty much going to be a desktop for me. I've been desktop first (with a separate laptop) for most of the last 20 years.

In my previous house, I had a TV in my home office, but there's not a good location in my home office here (despite it being a larger space). I have a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and I mount it in a bracket that is on a mini tripod. It's actually a great option for TV in the office (even better with Universal Control), though our main use for it (when mounted that way) is for grandparent video calls with our toddler.

Considering I also want to get back into drawing (with Procreate) and I want to use Illustrator on the iPad I think, all things considered, the iPad Pro could be the best solution for me.
The main reason while I'm still waiting a bit is the fact that Apple could release an updated model this year and I wouldn't exactly be thrilled if I bought a very expensive iPad pro, only to have a better model released the next year.

 

[StudioMacs]

Considering I also want to get back into drawing (with Procreate) and I want to use Illustrator on the iPad I think, all things considered, the iPad Pro could be the best solution for me.
The main reason while I'm still waiting a bit is the fact that Apple could release an updated model this year and I wouldn't exactly be thrilled if I bought a very expensive iPad pro, only to have a better model released the next year.

Im using my 2021 12.9” iPad Pro with universal control with a 2017 12” MacBook in clamshell mode connected to the Studio Display while I wait for my Mac Studio.

I normally do a lot of Premier and After Effects (working in element 3D where needed), so obviously I’m not using the underpowered MacBook for much, but the overall experience of using universal control (and sidecar in photoshop) is worth the price of admission. If you can, my unsolicited advice is to jump on the iPad Pro now. You can always trade it in if you want to upgrade.

I regret not upgrading from my 2013 iMac sooner, but as it was the last Mac with an NVIDIA video card, it was competitive considering Lumetri and a few other tools were optimized for CUDA. I never worked on an iMac Pro to compare, but I didn’t notice much of a difference between my 2013 iMac and the 2013 Mac Pro or 5K iMacs I used at work. I connected my wife’s old MacBook since it was the only thing (besides my iPad) that would drive the monitor, and I prefer the iPad with the laptop combo for day to day usage.

 

[JippaLippa]

Im using my 2021 12.9” iPad Pro with universal control with a 2017 12” MacBook in clamshell mode connected to the Studio Display while I wait for my Mac Studio.

I normally do a lot of Premier and After Effects (working in element 3D where needed), so obviously I’m not using the underpowered MacBook for much, but the overall experience of using universal control (and sidecar in photoshop) is worth the price of admission. If you can, my unsolicited advice is to jump on the iPad Pro now. You can always trade it in if you want to upgrade.

I regret not upgrading from my 2013 iMac sooner, but as it was the last Mac with an NVIDIA video card, it was competitive considering Lumetri and a few other tools were optimized for CUDA. I never worked on an iMac Pro to compare, but I didn’t notice much of a difference between my 2013 iMac and the 2013 Mac Pro or 5K iMacs I used at work. I connected my wife’s old MacBook since it was the only thing (besides my iPad) that would drive the monitor, and I prefer the iPad with the laptop combo for day to day usage.

I actually just found an amazing offer on the 2020 iPad Air (new).
Basically about 1/4th the price of a Pro.
Considering I'm still on the fence about this whole iPad thing and I don't need any of the raw power (I'd only do some frame-by-frame and drawing in procreate) I might get it before I lose this offer.
I don't mind the fact it's a 2020 model, as long as it handles 2 more years of updates, I'm fine.
I'm growing a lot professionally, therefore I'll probably be able to afford a 12,9" Pro (2023) next year.

 

[jtkiley]

I actually just found an amazing offer on the 2020 iPad Air (new).
Basically about 1/4th the price of a Pro.
Considering I'm still on the fence about this whole iPad thing and I don't need any of the raw power (I'd only do some frame-by-frame and drawing in procreate) I might get it before I lose this offer.
I don't mind the fact it's a 2020 model, as long as it handles 2 more years of updates, I'm fine.
I'm growing a lot professionally, therefore I'll probably be able to afford a 12,9" Pro (2023) next year.

From someone who has bought the last three 12.9 iPad Pros, I think it's fair to say that "Apple is releasing software to use all of the power of iPads any day now" is the new "this is the year of Linux on the desktop." They tend to work really well for quite a while, because there's not much software that will actually tax the power that's there (subject to change, but I've been waiting for years), so a great deal on a 2020 Air could be compelling and last a while.

 

[JippaLippa]

From someone who has bought the last three 12.9 iPad Pros, I think it's fair to say that "Apple is releasing software to use all of the power of iPads any day now" is the new "this is the year of Linux on the desktop." They tend to work really well for quite a while, because there's not much software that will actually tax the power that's there (subject to change, but I've been waiting for years), so a great deal on a 2020 Air could be compelling and last a while.

Indeed.

I think I'll get it.

 

[Bones13]

Set up my new Ultra 64/1t this morning. Silent throughout setup and synching.

 

[drewaz]

Max, totally silent.

 

[falconer.]

At this point I'm convinced it's totally subjective. I would bet that there aren't any significant variations in how different Mac Studio units sound, it probably all comes down to individual perception and environment.

 

[Traverse]

At this point I'm convinced it's totally subjective. I would bet that there aren't any significant variations in how different Mac Studio units sound, it probably all comes down to individual perception and environment.

It is because there are *no* silent Studios. They all have programmed fan noise, it’s just that based on biology and environment people can’t hear it.

 

[falconer.]

It is because there are *no* silent Studios. They all have programmed fan noise, it’s just that based on biology and environment people can’t hear it.

Exactly, yeah we've seen enough to know that every one of these things has fans running at 1300rpm basically all the time, so it's largely just a matter of whether you can hear it or not in the room it's in and whether the way the air blows out the vents in the back is perceptible to you and/or bothers you or not.