Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Velin

macrumors 68020
Jul 23, 2008
2,118
2,187
Hearst Castle
Whisper-quiet, even under some load - like all applications open, plus maybe 20 browser windows, Apple Mail downloading 20,000 messages, and a VPN connection to a remote office using Cisco VPN -- and doing all of this using wireless internet. Even with all this, the machine was on battery and silent - didn't even hear the fan.

Gonna try some games tonight and try some ultra settings to really press the processor and GPU in a single intensive task.
 

bossxii

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2008
1,754
0
Kansas City
Only time I can really push the fan to 6400 limit is gaming such as WoW, Eve online, Starcraft etc... I have run hours of Netflix, Hulu, streaming 1080 type video and it remains silent, the fans at best (outside gaming) run around 3k to 3400 at best when I load up 4 or 5 tabs of Youtube and let it run for 10 mins or so, keeping the videos going.

Compared to my Rev B 18/128SSD this thing is silent. Even at full fan, it's still much quieter than the older MBA which sounded like a damn jet fighter about to take off lol.

Color me impressed.:)

Oh, and as I just downloaded Eve online to test out this 13" 1.8/2gig/256ss MBA after 20 mins of messing around in the tutorial of the game the fan was on full but the CPU temp never went past 76 C, my other air would quickly approach 85+ C and the bottom while warm is not hot/burn your hand as in previous model.
 

chrono1081

macrumors G3
Jan 26, 2008
8,721
5,194
Isla Nublar
I haven't heard mine yet and I've messed with ZBrush on mine, played lots of flash video, and compiled some programs. No noise, no heat, and it was sitting on blankets (I was in bed) while doing it.
 

ReallyBigFeet

macrumors 68030
Apr 15, 2010
2,956
133
Been using mine all day under MS Office + CS5 loads....only heard the fan once and that was after installing some software and a reboot. Otherwise, dead silent.
 

barefeats

macrumors 65816
Jul 6, 2000
1,058
19
Quiet until I run Portal or WoW -- then the fans go crazy -- 57 dB is what I measured.
 

jahman

macrumors regular
Feb 12, 2010
130
1
UK
Quiet until I run Portal or WoW -- then the fans go crazy -- 57 dB is what I measured.

Are you sure!? I've got a Dell T7400 dual X5482 @ 3.2GHz and 15k SAS raptors that's not much louder than that with all cores going full pelt. Are you sure there weren't road works going on outside;)!

Cheers,

jahman
 

barefeats

macrumors 65816
Jul 6, 2000
1,058
19
Are you sure!? I've got a Dell T7400 dual X5482 @ 3.2GHz and 15k SAS raptors that's not much louder than that with all cores going full pelt. Are you sure there weren't road works going on outside;)!

I was in my home office. I used a dB meter. My ambient noise level is around 40 dB (normal for a private office or residence). That's why 57 dB was clearly noticeable.
 

aberrero

macrumors 6502a
Jan 12, 2010
857
249
I'm doing a time machine and it is very loud. It is normally borderline silent though, so i wont complain TOO much.
 

barefeats

macrumors 65816
Jul 6, 2000
1,058
19
fans and temps

I made several runs with Portal. Using iStat Pro, I was able to monitor fan speeds. It got up to 6500 RPM. When I quit, it dropped to 1994 RPM which is usually were it is when I'm doing "light" computing.

CPU temp climbed up to 171 F. Afterwards, it dropped to 115 F.
 

jahman

macrumors regular
Feb 12, 2010
130
1
UK
I was in my home office. I used a dB meter. My ambient noise level is around 40 dB (normal for a private office or residence). That's why 57 dB was clearly noticeable.

That's a little concerning then I have to say! That's very intrusive although I imagine I'd make allowances if it were being hammered. Hopefully, for some light web browsing in a cafe the fan won't be going the whole time.

Cheers,

jahman
 

Nautilus007

macrumors 68030
Jul 13, 2007
2,667
1,416
U.S
13

my 13 1.86 with 4 gb ram's fan seemed pretty loud today. I opened it up set it up and my fan was going at full blast when installing apps.
 

re2st

macrumors regular
May 2, 2007
207
4
San Jose, CA
Pretty loud when I did migration, did the software update, partitioned bootcamp, wincloned my old bootcamp, and installed drivers on bootcamp. So loud that I was like, "Are you kidding me?"

But during normal stuff it's pretty silent. So, we'll see.
 

ReallyBigFeet

macrumors 68030
Apr 15, 2010
2,956
133
Just got my fan roaring....pretty quiet still, but its definitely noticeable.

Trick was to get VLC running a 1080p MKV blue-ray rip + Steam loaded and running Left 4 Dead 2 + Skype + Firefox with Youtube running all at the same time.

The kicker was Steam...until then, still no fan. Once Steam kicked in, fan started up and now its been running 10 mins on full speed.

I need to download iStat and check RPM's.
 

gwsat

macrumors 68000
Apr 12, 2008
1,920
0
Tulsa
Where did you guys get your 2.13Ghz MBAs? From the Apple Online Store, I assume. I have been looking everywhere in OKC, including the Apple Store, for the 2.13Ghz model with 4GB of RAM but none are in stock anywhere. I am resisting directly ordering from Apple because I simply won't order something on the Web that I have to pay sales tax on. I am perfectly happy to pay sales tax for something I can buy from a local vendor's inventory but I won't both wait and pay sales tax, too.
 

netdog

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 6, 2006
5,760
38
London
Ordered online when the Apple Store reopened after Jobs introduced them in California.
 

bcaslis

macrumors 68020
Mar 11, 2008
2,184
237
Where did you guys get your 2.13Ghz MBAs? From the Apple Online Store, I assume. I have been looking everywhere in OKC, including the Apple Store, for the 2.13Ghz model with 4GB of RAM but none are in stock anywhere. I am resisting directly ordering from Apple because I simply won't order something on the Web that I have to pay sales tax on. I am perfectly happy to pay sales tax for something I can buy from a local vendor's inventory but I won't both wait and pay sales tax, too.

All the stores in my area have this configuration. I bought one on Monday night from the closest Apple store to me.
 

gwsat

macrumors 68000
Apr 12, 2008
1,920
0
Tulsa
All the stores in my area have this configuration. I bought one on Monday night from the closest Apple store to me.
Thanks, appreciated your prompt feedback. I suspect that only those who ordered direct from apple have been able to buy the 2.13Ghz 4Gb model of the 13 inch MBA. That will no doubt change over time, I just hope it changes soon.
 

ReallyBigFeet

macrumors 68030
Apr 15, 2010
2,956
133
Thanks, appreciated your prompt feedback. I suspect that only those who ordered direct from apple have been able to buy the 2.13Ghz 4Gb model of the 13 inch MBA. That will no doubt change over time, I just hope it changes soon.

Like others, I ordered mine on keynote day at 2PM Pacific, received it this past Tuesday morning here in Chicago. I'm quite thankful I spent the money for the extra CPU and memory.
 

JimKirk

macrumors 6502
Oct 6, 2009
442
0
This thing is loud.

It's way easy to get fans 6000 rpm. Mine kick on just installing software and if you've heard Mbp at 6000 rpm than you know it's loud.

No different here. It's actually worse because CPU fans kick in way before Mbp would.
 

tdream

macrumors 65816
Jan 15, 2009
1,094
42
Whisper-quiet, even under some load - like all applications open, plus maybe 20 browser windows, Apple Mail downloading 20,000 messages, and a VPN connection to a remote office using Cisco VPN -- and doing all of this using wireless internet. Even with all this, the machine was on battery and silent - didn't even hear the fan.

Gonna try some games tonight and try some ultra settings to really press the processor and GPU in a single intensive task.
That is not load.
 

hachre

macrumors 6502a
Sep 26, 2007
690
43
That is not load.

That is what most people will be doing, or less with their MacBook Airs. It is silent under those conditions.

If you wanna know if it's loud under 100% max load, then yes - it has a fan - of course it will be loud.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.