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

[mikeboss]

FYI. I've been looking for someone who has actually pushed their M2 Pro Mini and Dan Moren from Six Colors has chimed in and said his fan is virtually silent. The M2 Pro Mini has a larger heat sink so good to know it is doing something.

M2 Mac mini Review: Whatever you want it to be – Six Colors

canceled my order after having seen the video posted in this thread:

So how silent is the M2 Pro Mac Mini?

 

[hoodlum90]

canceled my order after having seen the video posted in this thread:

So how silent is the M2 Pro Mac Mini?

It looks like someone in that thread is returning their Mini Pro as their fan was audible even when idle. We will see if that thread grows like this one. Disappointing indeed.

 

[darkus]

For those of you with the noise, do you remember how long it takes to show up?

is it something that will be there from day 1 or takes time to develop?

 

[Horizon Man]

Day 1 for me.

 

[hoodlum90]

I guess this is going to be the "normal" for Apple desktop MACs.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/so-how-silent-is-the-m2-pro-mac-mini.2378290/page-3?post=31912167#post-31912167

Bad news all: my M2 pro mini is “loud.” And it’s not just fan noise - the PSU has noticeable whine/electronic buzz. The good news: I pushed it at 100% cpu for hours last night (10 core) and the fan didn’t spin up beyond the baseline setting. That’s good. But the buzz is bad. I’m unfortunately returning it since the noise drives me crazy. I’ll chug along on my M1 iMac for another year.

 

[pappl]

Seems like:
-Mac Studio permanent silent fan noise even when at full load, sometimes with whistle noise at 2kHz.
-Mac Mini M2 Pro no noise at normal workload, gets louder than Studio at high loads.

 

[CoMoMacUser]

My M1 Max is about two months old, and I'm thrilled with how quiet it is -- at idle and with multiple apps going simultaneously. No whine, either. I'm glad that this issue didn't deter me from buying it.

 

[pshufd]

My M1 Max is five months old and is silent from 18 inches away. I run my microphone from about 2 feet away and there's no fan noise. There is fan noise picked up by the microphone at 18 inches though my ears don't pick it up. I've heard that it shows up between day 1 and 6 months so I'm looking forward to getting past that.

 

[now i see it]

My guess: its an aerodynamics issue with air flowing through the zillions of tiny exhaust holes. On many machines, it’s the holes that create whistling.

Why don’t all the Studios whistle?
My guess: slight differences in the machining of the exhaust holes. They’re not all exactly the same.

 

[pappl]

Maybe, but in a video xy pages back there is a user setting fan speed manually (Macsfancontrol) to 1320rpm and it whistles.
At 1350 it still whistles.
At 1400 not, at 1450 again….
At 1300 not, at 1250 again, at 1200 not….
This contradicts the exhaust hole theory, doesn‘t it?

 

[bobcomer]

Maybe, but in a video xy pages back there is a user setting fan speed manually (Macsfancontrol) to 1320rpm and it whistles.
At 1350 it still whistles.
At 1400 not, at 1450 again….
At 1300 not, at 1250 again, at 1200 not….
This contradicts the exhaust hole theory, doesn‘t it?

It actually makes it more likely. Try whistling yourself, then try whistling by blowing as hard as you can or as soft as you can...

It could be air pressure or humidity differences why some have studios that don't have the whistle and those that do --- I wonder how to test that..

 

[Crispe]

My guess: its an aerodynamics issue with air flowing through the zillions of tiny exhaust holes. On many machines, it’s the holes that create whistling.

Why don’t all the Studios whistle?
My guess: slight differences in the machining of the exhaust holes. They’re not all exactly the same.

I also think it's air whistling through the holes. I don't hear it if I cup my fingers over the leftmost holes.

 

[designerdave72]

I also think it's air whistling through the holes. I don't hear it if I cup my fingers over the leftmost holes.

Seems like it’s the holes on the curved edges only then. Bad design.

 

[DirkSchreib]

I also think it's air whistling through the holes. I don't hear it if I cup my fingers over the leftmost holes.

This may or may not be true. When I put my fingers over the leftmost holes when the fan is on, it reduces the rotation speed from ~1320 rpm to ~1310 rpm. This change may be enough for another resonance inside the system.

(Not really visible with this chart resolution. But you can see that the rpm value is not 100% constant.)

 

[furmonster]

My M1 Studio is real quiet.

I live in a 240V country.

I wonder...

 

[DirkSchreib]

I‘m in a 240V country as well. My wife can‘t hear the Studio at all but it is too noisy for me even without the „whine“. The whine is sometimes there sometimes not. Probably based on temperature or atmospheric pressure. It will go away if you lower the fan rpm a little bit only to find out the next day you have to raise it again to get rid of the „whine“.
I returned my first Mac Studio and kept the second one, which was better for the first two month.
Nowadays I use my small script to automatically turn on the fans at 60°C and turn them off at 44°C. This is currently alternating between 10 minutes with fans on and 40 minutes with fans off. Other usage pattern will have completely different results.

 

[pappl]

.....Nowadays I use my small script to automatically turn on the fans at 60°C and turn them off at 44°C. ....

This may be a bad idea.
In the Mac Mini forum there is a benchmark test showing thermals. The CPU/GPU is there at ~40C at the beginning, but PSU temps are already over 85C! This is with Mac Mini when fans run constantly at 1700rpm.
If you disable the fans completely it may blow a capacitator or something else inside the PSU because there is no cooling and the components may go over 100C temps, even if CPU/GPU is still at 40C and all seems cool.
Be aware.

P.S. If you can disable fans completely, can you set them to e.g. 1100rpm too?

 

[DirkSchreib]

This may be a bad idea.
In the Mac Mini forum there is a benchmark test showing thermals. The CPU/GPU is there at ~40C at the beginning, but PSU temps are already over 85C! This is with Mac Mini when fans run constantly at 1700rpm.
If you disable the fans completely it may blow a capacitator or something else inside the PSU because there is no cooling and the components may go over 100C temps, even if CPU/GPU is still at 40C and all seems cool.
Be aware.

P.S. If you can disable fans completely, can you set them to e.g. 1100rpm too?

I agree to the first part. That is the reason why everyone should do this on her/his own risk. I monitored all available temperature sensors and found the temperature of the Thunderbolt port rising the fastest. Therefor I check these sensors in addition to a CPU sensor per default.

Yes. I can set any rpm value, but values between 1 and ~550 rpm don't work reliably. (I have not tested the highest possible value ;-) but 3500 rpm is ok.)

 

[gojo]

After reading these threads, I am thinking about waiting to buy a mac studio for when the M 2 Mac Studio arrives. Maybe it will be quieter. Has anyone heard anything about when that might happen?

 

[pappl]

Technically it could happen immediately, M2 Max chips are available.
M2 Ultra are 2x M2 Max.

Apple might wait until new Mac Pro models are released, worst case next year 2024.

 

[dunanos]

I recorded Mac Studio whistling at a sampling rate of 96000 Hz. I edited the sound, limiting the frequencies outside of 2000 Hz, about 2048 Hz and 2700 Hz I highlighted. The second sound is 2x slowed down from the original sample rate to 48000 Hz.
Despite all this, it's impossible to tell if it's the coils or the mechanical sound. When listening, the harmonics of the two frequencies can sometimes be heard, unfortunately not in the recording - this could be a problem of the dual fans.

Normal speed

2x slow speed

 

[DirkSchreib]

this could be a problem of the dual fans.

Interesting idea. I will check and use the fans in an alternating mode.

 

[sam_dean]

I recorded Mac Studio whistling at a sampling rate of 96000 Hz. I edited the sound, limiting the frequencies outside of 2000 Hz, about 2048 Hz and 2700 Hz I highlighted. The second sound is 2x slowed down from the original sample rate to 48000 Hz.
Despite all this, it's impossible to tell if it's the coils or the mechanical sound. When listening, the harmonics of the two frequencies can sometimes be heard, unfortunately not in the recording - this could be a problem of the dual fans.

Normal speed
View attachment 2152156


2x slow speed
View attachment 2152157

Is this worse than your previous Mac/PC?

 

[Johnf1285]

I've been following this thread since the beginning and have been an M1 Max Mac Studio user since late March of 2022.

I have to agree with people on here suggesting the faint sounds heard when the machine is running is likely a result of the exhaust on the rear and not coil whine.

When I go out of my way to hear it, I can hear it. I personally do not need a silent computer, but there's just something about this frequency that makes it less pleasing on the ears. If I move my hand over the exhaust vent on the rear or temporarily block portions of the exhaust vent with some sort of material (right now, a wool coaster that's about 4x4"), the sound and frequency can change and/or dampen to the point of barely hearing it if at all.

Aside from this minor annoyance, this is a solid computer and has been serving me well. My original aim was to get 10 years out of this device, but if this sound is gone in future generations, say M2 or M3, I may have to consider switching it out much earlier than expected.

For those of you who blocked the exhaust successfully with tape or whatever, do you mind posting pictures to demonstrate where the exhaust was blocked, materials used, and how the computer is situated relative to where you sit?

 

[dunanos]

Is this worse than your previous Mac/PC?

The previous Studio had one whistling tone that could be heard throughout the room for several feet constantly. Here again, the tones vary over time. No worse than the previous one...