Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Mac studio v1 fan noise - it's going to be one of the loudest Macs at idle.
- Thread starter AdamSeen
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hi guys, I've been waiting for the mac mini M2 for a while but I can't wait any more, I think I'm gonna give a try to a M1max Mac Studio despite of those noise problems. I'm a music producer and it might stay 80 inches away from my ears, hope I won't hear it. Right now I have an old Mac Pro (2011 I guess), I think that can't be worst...
I’ve had my Max now 3 weeks and I haven’t noticed any out of the ordinary noise issues so far 👍🏻
It's a good time to try because you have the extended return period over Christmas.
Mine is still, to all intents and purposes, utterly silent.
I bit the bullet on a Max Studio over waiting to see what a refreshed mini would bring to the table.
I have the Studio orientated with its rear facing my right side about 2ft away. I don’t hear it, rather than can’t hear it. By which I mean I have to actively listen for noise coming from it. Now the novelty has worn off and it’s simply my editing tool, I’m unaware of its presence. The environment I’m in is generally quiet, quiet enough that I can hear the hard drive chatter of my NAS a good 5ft away.
None of this is to say that those that are experiencing issues are mistaken.
My ears can't hear it from 12 inches but my Microphone can. But it doesn't pick up the fan noise at 2 feet away so it's fine for my desk recording. This is just the fan noise. I don't have the other noise issues. I wonder if those have been declining as I've seen fewer cases reported here. BTW, the support for additional monitors and the extra ports are most welcome.
I have prepared my M1 mini for sale and am going to list it today.
Thanks for your answers, I'll let you know in a few weeks if I hear anything.
@pshufd I sometimes record with a pair of AKG C414 in my monitoring room (guitars/vocals), that's when that kind of noise can be a real problem. But the recording space is 4/5 meters from the mac so that should be fine. Maybe I'll have to construct kind of a small booth (for the mac) for this purpose if it ends being too noisy. Something with a door I could shut when I need perfect silence.
@pshufd I sometimes record with a pair of AKG C414 in my monitoring room (guitars/vocals), that's when that kind of noise can be a real problem. But the recording space is 4/5 meters from the mac so that should be fine. Maybe I'll have to construct kind of a small booth (for the mac) for this purpose if it ends being too noisy. Something with a door I could shut when I need perfect silence.
You can also tweak the fan with MacsFanControl, and I find running it higher than idle tends to keep the ramp-up fan to a minimum
My Max occasionally produces (albeit quietly) the whining/whistling sound but when it comes on I find that I'm able to get rid of it by adjusting the fan speed so I'm not bothered by it. This evening it started to whine and I placed my hand over the vent. After a couple of seconds the pitch of the whine grew higher before it disappeared entirely. After removing my hand, the noise didn't return and still hasn't at this point nearly 3 hours later. I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this, but I thought it might prompt someone with greater knowledge than I to speculate on why that helped and the implications for the source of the noise.
Well, it happened...
After about 6 months the whine made it's appearance.
It's about 120cm away from me and last night I suddenly heard a high pitched noise.
First I thought it was some monitor, crt or converter but it turned out to be the studio.
Right now I have the fans manually set at 1368-1378rpm, which removes the whine.
So I'm good for now, though disappointed.
Question, I'm using an external boot disk. If I ever get the studio replaced, will it be plug and play (with the right permissions for external boot)?
Or is the OS installation in some way linked to the specific studio and I need to re-install everything.
I just realized a replacement will be locked to ventura.... the horror...
After about 6 months the whine made it's appearance.
It's about 120cm away from me and last night I suddenly heard a high pitched noise.
First I thought it was some monitor, crt or converter but it turned out to be the studio.
Right now I have the fans manually set at 1368-1378rpm, which removes the whine.
So I'm good for now, though disappointed.
Question, I'm using an external boot disk. If I ever get the studio replaced, will it be plug and play (with the right permissions for external boot)?
Or is the OS installation in some way linked to the specific studio and I need to re-install everything.
I just realized a replacement will be locked to ventura.... the horror...
Well, it happened...
After about 6 months the whine made it's appearance.
It's about 120cm away from me and last night I suddenly heard a high pitched noise.
First I thought it was some monitor, crt or converter but it turned out to be the studio.
Right now I have the fans manually set at 1368-1378rpm, which removes the whine.
So I'm good for now, though disappointed.
Question, I'm using an external boot disk. If I ever get the studio replaced, will it be plug and play (with the right permissions for external boot)?
Or is the OS installation in some way linked to the specific studio and I need to re-install everything.
I just realized a replacement will be locked to ventura.... the horror...
That's a big disappointment. That's a good distance away too. Any thoughts of bringing it into the Genius Bar to have them take a look at it? I think that I'd give that a try if it happened to me. Mine is only two months old and it's silent to my ears from a foot away and silent to my microphone at two feet away.
The manual fan control sounds like a good solution for now. I do recording on the Studio and sound would be a problem but I can also record off my MacBook Pro where the fans never come on.
My 128K Mac floppy drive made a louder noise than this when it ejected a disk. Should I have complained and returned it? Oh, the horror.
In the old days, you had a physical room for recording and the equipment was outside of the room. If your computer is silent, then you can just record in the same room with your recording equipment and many content creators do this.
I record in my basement and I turn off my air cleaner and wait for the furnace or air conditioner to go off before recording. If the landscaping people are here, then I have to wait for them too.
I will re-shoot if there is sufficient random noise.
are you certain of that?I just realized a replacement will be locked to ventura.... the horror...
When i remember that dial-up handshake sound i feel old 😁
We forgot how the internet looked at 56 kbps speeds 😂 . Compared to the modern gigabit … That’s what ? more than 15.000 times slower ? 😂
Ps: sorry for the off-topic
I'm not going to schedule an appointment or have it replaced for now.
It's silent for now and I have applecare on it, so I can wait it out.
I wasn't. Good to hear this is possible, thanks.
Have people actually managed to get Apple to replace or repair their units over the whine? Mine has had the whine for quite a while but I just put up with it. It's annoying/disappointing but not loud enough to be a deal breaker. However, I am considering selling it to get an M2 Max MacBook Pro when they come out and can't in good conscience sell this one to someone with a defect. Seems like a roll of the dice as to whether Apple would consider this loud enough to be a defect but it definitely ain't silent (fan noise is good, just the high pitched ringing).
I posted a forum post of someone who got Apple to replace the fans which helped with the sound somewhat. I think that it was in one of these noise threads.
For people who’ve purchased new Mac Studio’s recently, are yours without whine? And if so, do you have Max or Ultra?
You can’t rely on people’s ears. Witnesses are known for bad contributors to truth.
1. Max bto whined
2. Max refurbished whines (now inside under table mount)
I have an Ultra and there is no whine or fan noise either even on 3D rendering sessions, I have use it everyday for long hours. There is only a kind of annoying sound which came from spinning disks. Otherwise there is no sound or heat from Ultra.
Only 1 time I heard the fan last 4 months and it was a software issue ( Corona Renderer ) I guess.
I observe if all CPU cores maxed out yes there is a fan noise but this situation is rare.