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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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Unfortunately, CTO. Now I'll wait months for a new one, because the service has kept the unit...
I’ve gotta ask for no own sanity at this point but I’m assuming you hear it as well and since everyones perception can be subjective do you find the high pitch noise both irritating and annoying and would you consider it abnormal especially from the Apple ecosystem standpoint of above std. quality control?
Just curious what to do if your using a ASD with the thunderbolt cable being the limitation of how far away you can put the computer. I have created a similar set up as you’ve described and put the Mac Studio under my desk as far away as possible and the high pitched noise is still there.
I've written before, the sound bounces off the walls, some places you can't hear it and some places you can, for several meters. Within a week I hated the sound and recognized it even with headphones (open type). Quality control fell asleep. It will definitely help if more users speak up so that Apple will finally notice and find a solution/fix. And I don't just mean lowering the RPM, as a quiet unit will be far less disturbing even with the same RPM.
This might not help with your setup, but years ago I used to run Digital Performer on a noisy G4 Quicksilver to record demo tracks for bands. My solution was long XLR cables to run the microphones into another room (also a headphone amp). I could talk to the artists on a mic in the room I was in.
Sidebar for curiosity’s sake: Not sure about this direct correlation between rpm and kHz. kHz is a measurement ‘per second’. Rpm is a measurement ‘per minute’. (1330 rpm = 22.2 revs per second).
Obviously pitch can be directly related to any cyclical event such rpm, but I don’t know if you can calculate kHz from rpm in such a simple way. Glad you raised the idea though. I’d been wondering about this.
Sorry to bore everyone with my mental rambling. Carry on…
good point!
if there was a direct relation to fan speed and pitch, lowering the fan speed by 1/2 would lower the whine by 1 octave. Inversely, doubling the fan speed would raise the whine by 1 octave.
Going to cancel my order and either buy a MBP M1 or hold out for the Mac Pro. Thanks for the feedback everyone, I don't have the patience to deal with another defective high end product from Apple after suffering with this $5,000+ 16" Intel MBP. At least the M1 MBPs are solid by nearly all accounts.
Good luck to everyone, I hope they resolve this satisfactorily for you & those that don't have the problem I hope it continues to be that way.
Good luck to everyone, I hope they resolve this satisfactorily for you & those that don't have the problem I hope it continues to be that way.
I own a Studio Ultra as well as the new Mac Pro. Both are quiet to my ears.
That's the config I'm expecting to arrive one 7th to replace my loud as heck 15" 2019 i9 MBP. I hope I'm not dissapointed.
I've just settled on putting the Mac Studio in a drawer and that makes it completely inaudible to me. Temps seem to be about 5-10 degrees higher, but that just puts it on par with my M1 Max MacBook Pro.
Shame I can't have it on the desk where I can access the ports, but as far as trade-offs go that's better than being driven crazy by the constant noise (or switching to a PC).
I'll just sell it when something faster / quieter comes out.
Shame I can't have it on the desk where I can access the ports, but as far as trade-offs go that's better than being driven crazy by the constant noise (or switching to a PC).
I'll just sell it when something faster / quieter comes out.
There’s a rod next to my house. They changed the guard railings and the next day, it made a high pitch “whistle”. It’s only on specific days with wind coming from a special angle and direction. They did some testing and basically they created organ pipes. They machined/grinded the entry point on the pillars.
Like this…
I think this Studiowhine is (I don’t have a Studio…YET) exactly that issue.
My guess is either alu case is sourced from two different suppliers which has slight variations in manufacturing but still within spec or the milling varies slightly from case to case. Either the new bits create the whineholes because the angles are too sharp/perfect or when they are worn out and it becomes angled differently. My guess this would only be noticeable under micron microscope.
I like the holes, they look nice, very sharp details.
But I always wondered why they felt the need to mechanically limit the airflow regardless of this issue. Sure, they did the maths and the flow % is enough. BUT it is a mechanical limitation and we don’t know if it make parts wear out faster without reason, eh this whistle sound is not totally unheard of (ride your bike without handlebar plugs and you sometimes experience this), smaller holes WILL get clogged more easily AND faster AND be harder to clean out.
Perhaps Studio owners will need to bring out the gim….I mean the DREMEL!
Like this…
I think this Studiowhine is (I don’t have a Studio…YET) exactly that issue.
My guess is either alu case is sourced from two different suppliers which has slight variations in manufacturing but still within spec or the milling varies slightly from case to case. Either the new bits create the whineholes because the angles are too sharp/perfect or when they are worn out and it becomes angled differently. My guess this would only be noticeable under micron microscope.
I like the holes, they look nice, very sharp details.
But I always wondered why they felt the need to mechanically limit the airflow regardless of this issue. Sure, they did the maths and the flow % is enough. BUT it is a mechanical limitation and we don’t know if it make parts wear out faster without reason, eh this whistle sound is not totally unheard of (ride your bike without handlebar plugs and you sometimes experience this), smaller holes WILL get clogged more easily AND faster AND be harder to clean out.
Perhaps Studio owners will need to bring out the gim….I mean the DREMEL!
Just keep in mind you have a 100% chance the MBP will experience thermal throttling on extended, heavy workloads due to less cooling. The 16 inch will be less prone to throttling than the 14 inch.
On the other hand, there is not a 100% chance you will receive a defective Studio with a noisy fan, and it will be much harder to bring the machine to its knees even if you do get a noisy one.
I've just had a dispatch notification for my replacement Studio. Place your bets on whether it sounds:
a) Identical
b) Still noticeably loud at idle compared to other Macs, but without the whistle
c) So quiet you have to put your head next to it to know it's on
I'm 50/50 between A and B. I suspect people saying C have got other stuff like AC obscuring the sound of their machines, or don't have great hearing in the first place, but I'd be delighted to be proved wrong.
Either way, I'll keep the replacement, as it's the only Mac in the lineup that works for me at the moment. Ironically if it does continue to annoy me I'll probably end up selling it for something else far sooner than I otherwise would've.
a) Identical
b) Still noticeably loud at idle compared to other Macs, but without the whistle
c) So quiet you have to put your head next to it to know it's on
I'm 50/50 between A and B. I suspect people saying C have got other stuff like AC obscuring the sound of their machines, or don't have great hearing in the first place, but I'd be delighted to be proved wrong.
Either way, I'll keep the replacement, as it's the only Mac in the lineup that works for me at the moment. Ironically if it does continue to annoy me I'll probably end up selling it for something else far sooner than I otherwise would've.
Apple’s Mac Studio firmware will not allow decreasing the speed below 1100 RPM, at present.
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At least for me there is not good balance. If the fan speed is 1100 I hear more high pitch if 1350 the fans squeal till they get ramped up then settle
this could be correct but if that’s the case a MBP should never show 0 or off at idle cause the fan speed is set by default higher according to both TG PRO and Mac’s Fan Control
I meant this is Apple’s arbitrary choice with Studio. Should they choose to alter the fan curve, then it can go much lower, but will they? Nobody knows.
I kinda knew that but we can only hope we get confirmation of a solution
Very good point. I'm going to hold off entirely until the Mac Pro comes out, I know the 14" is a compromise machine - I meant the 16" but you're right to specify the difference which I didn't do when I posted initially, and anyone who chooses that machine should know what they're in for.
Given that some people have gone through 2 or 3 of these in a return cycle I think the likelihood is 'somewhat' that Apple will try to address this issue so if I had an order pending for July or something I'd keep it and track how new arrivals are performing. But then again, we all thought the 16" MBP Radeon 5300M/5500M would receive driver or firmware updates to correct the power draw problems but it never did even after 3 new OS versions. I can't go through that again. Putting a $7,000+ desktop (as in, literally intended to sit on the desk given the SD card reader etc.) machine in a drawer to shut it up is ridiculous, but if you need the power and M1 Architecture there's no alternative at the moment.
A lot of my plugins are still Intel so I can get by for a little while longer.
I have a solid working hackintosh system ready to go that was waiting on a better video card which I got early this week finally at MSRP, so I'll probably use that for the next 6+ months to hold me over. I doubt the Mac Pro will be shipping in quantity until 2023, unless it's so low production that the costs are outrageous.
Maybe everyone who hears the whine has tinnitus. Hey, anyone remember the 90's and early 2000's power PC's. The ones with all the fans and water coolers, crazy lights, and pumps and things? I had one with a freezer on the cpu at one point. Now THOSE were powerful noise makers!
Man I had every PowerPC Mac and could not disagree more. Had a Quicksilver on the floor under my desk and nothing irritating about it. Had a first gen PM G5 and nope not anywhere as irritating as the Max Studio. JMO. Only thing irritating in those days were the HDD noise.Maybe everyone who hears the whine has tinnitus. Hey, anyone remember the 90's and early 2000's power PC's. The ones with all the fans and water coolers, crazy lights, and pumps and things? I had one with a freezer on the cpu at one point. Now THOSE were powerful noise makers!
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Maybe Power PC mac, but I'm talking heavily overclocked super PC's with all sorts of exotic cooling. Those things ran super hot, so people did all sorts of wild things to keep then cool when highly overclocked. It was a thing for a while. Any way, luckily my Ultra doesn't seem to be one that whines. I recently had to throw out a backlit keyboard because it whined so loud when lit up that I could hear it from upstairs.