MBA Fan Noise Insane. Probably Gonna Return It.

[Scott6666]

I look at my Istat, and sure enough I'm soon going at 6200 rpm's. If that happens to your MBA and it doesn't bother you, that's great, but the fan noise at that level is very loud to me. It's very distracting, and I simply could not ignore it.

LOL. I remember getting to the point where I spent as much time looking at iStat to see what the fans were doing as I did doing anything real.

I even had screen caps of the fans/heat readings throughout the day. I just finally deleted them out of my iPhoto a few weeks ago.

Ahh, takes me back....

 

[buildingsteam]

I definitely challenge anyone who says the rev B/C 1.86/2.13 SSD MBAs have fans blowing loudly all the time. I do everything from output HD video to a 24" LED ACD to watch YouTube to opening flash pages and etc etc. The fans rarely ever are even noticeable.

This is probably pointless, but I want to know more details. Are you saying that with your MBA on the AC adapter, outputting to the ACD, playing Flash or HD video for five minutes or more, the fans stay at 2500 RPM? Or are you simply saying that you don't notice them, which basically means nothing. Mine go up to 6200 RPM when I watch Flash video, especially when on the AC adapter, charging an iPod, with an external display, and then go down again when I am finished. Not the same for you?

 

[GeekGirl*]

Scottsdale, I'm really starting to question what you are trying to do here. You continue to trump the performance of a SSD MBA and tell me essentially to "get real, you got what you paid for, you should have done your homework beforehand".

First of all, I did not exactly go "the cheap route". I found a great deal on a Rev B, but the Rev B retails for $1100 at Macmall as I type this (and that's the cheapest online price on the web). Yes, that is cheaper than the models you continue to talk up, but not exactly the "cheap route".

On top of that, It appears that several members have said that the fans rev up on all the MBA models once video applications are being used like Youtube. Including the last post on this thread. I'm not sure if that is true, but I'm definitely not paying a luxury price just so I can avoid fans blaring like crazy for basic applications like Youtube.

I don't need to "lower my expectations". I honestly never imagined that the MBA would get so hot so quickly doing something simple, in my mind, which is watching vids on Youtube. I'm not ripping on the MBA, I've only expressed my dissatisfaction that this computer has its fans go on so quickly. My tone in all my posts has never been "ripping" but rather expressing surprise and disappointment.

I will say it one last time: I did not expect the performance of a high end MBA. I honestly thought throwing Youtube at my MBA would not cause it to make noise. The fact is that it did, I returned it and got a MBP, and now I'm happy.

I would appreciate it if you would stop replying to every thread I respond to essentially saying the same thing over and over again.

The HHD is the Same as the SSD, Not worth the price at all in my opinion Scottdale is in love with saying how great the SSD is and itts not all that.

 

[blairh]

Scottsdale:

The problem is not me "not getting it", but rather you insisting on essentially replying to every thread from the MBA arena that I'm a part of and saying this: "you should have spent a little more money and got the SSD, you can't expect great performance if you don't pay for it, you should have done your homework beforehand".

Here is the issue: I'm not bashing the MBA. My whole point with ALL of this, that you apparently cannot or will not understand, is that I am disappointed that the MBA could not handle me playing Youtube videos without its fans revving to 6200 rpm's. That is all I'm saying. I'm disappointed. I said that in a few other threads when appropriate. I'm not going around "bashing" the MBA. And still you continue to follow me on threads and repeat THE EXACT SAME THING. I get it. The SSD MBA's would avoid the issue I was having. I. Get. It.

What I don't understand is your need or desire to continue to essentially say the same thing to me. Again, I get it. You were wrong to accuse me of a) bashing the MBA. b) needing to "do my homework" c) expecting top performance out of my Rev B HHD.

When it really comes down to it, I didn't think my MBA would make any fan noise while watching Youtube videos. SD or HD. And yet it did. And that was not going to be fine by me. So I moved on. I never said "the problem was it being a MBA". The problem clearly was the model I was using (Rev B HDD).

Lastly, I've watched several HD and SD videos on Youtube tonight on my MBP and the fans haven't made a sound. I'm happy with what I have now. Please stop repeating yourself here and in other threads.

 

[ayeying]

Here is the issue: I'm not bashing the MBA. My whole point with ALL of this, that you apparently cannot or will not understand, is that I am disappointed that the MBA could not handle me playing Youtube videos without its fans revving to 6200 rpm's. That is all I'm saying. I'm disappointed. I said that in a few other threads when appropriate. I'm not going around "bashing" the MBA. And still you continue to follow me on threads and repeat THE EXACT SAME THING. I get it. The SSD MBA's would avoid the issue I was having. I. Get. It.

While I do agree with you that Scottsdale is going overboard in bashing you personally, I do want to know one thing.

Flash for OS X is a dead killer. It takes up a lot of CPU cycles for and it just makes the system hot. MBA being so thin and small and limited capability for thermo control, it's not uncommon for the fans to rev up to 6200rpm. The MBP you have is less noticeable because of its massive (by comparison to the MBA) heatsink and larger fan.

I don't care what choice you make or how you make them. As long as you're happy, then I'm happy for you.

Scottsdale: Stop bashing on the HDD vs SSD. It's not relevant in this case. The OP is talking about heat, not speed. Just stop it.

 

[phatcat]

My fans also jump to 6200 whenever watching youtube. I recently did a clean install to snow leopard and there was no difference. Even though the fans jump that high, they're barely audible. I can hear them but only in a silent room.

IMO returning your air due to the fan noise is a little silly.

 

[Scott6666]

IMO returning your air due to the fan noise is a little silly.

Why do you feel that way? You are totally oblivious to fan noise?

 

[Jimmie22]

My fans also jump to 6200 whenever watching youtube. I recently did a clean install to snow leopard and there was no difference. Even though the fans jump that high, they're barely audible. I can hear them but only in a silent room.

IMO returning your air due to the fan noise is a little silly.

I agree that the fan is not really noticable unless I am in a completely quiet room. Did your former MBA make fan noise above this nearly silent level?

 

[fehhkk]

I think I'd more concerned about your battery health being 94% with just 4 charge cycles

 

[GeekGirl*]

Some people like to work in a silent room with a quiet Laptop, I am one of them. Mine was dead silent and never jumped i dont watch uTube or videos.

 

[duky]

I definitely challenge anyone who says the rev B/C 1.86/2.13 SSD MBAs have fans blowing loudly all the time.

I have a 2.13 SSD MBA and the fans do blow loudly quite a bit. It's not even necessarily when I'm doing anything taxing. I noticed this a lot more in the beginning because I paid attention more but it eventually just stopped bothering me. It really depends how quiet your work area is. I often listen to music or am watching when on my laptop these days hence I don't notice the fans. Having said that, I will rarely use my laptop in a quiet place and not notice the fans--they're just not a dealbreaker (the first few days it seemed like they might be). In fact, last night I was watching an MKV file off my Air connected to the TV and it was breathing loudly for about 30 minutes until it started having slowed framerates and I realized the file was 7GB. Popped it into my girlfriend's unibody MacBook and her laptop treated the file fine. I've never heard her (or my old unibody 2,4GHz) MacBook fans go as loud as my MBA--given the placement of the vents on the MBA you just have to expect it and this is something I didn't realize in the beginning and hence was shocked/very very disappointed; you learn ways of avoiding it though through interesting placement that allows the computer to breathe better..

 

[blairh]

I use my laptop a lot in my bedroom before bed, watching movies, etc. It's a very quiet room setting so fan noise is definitely an issue with me if they are indeed revving strong. I would describe the fan noise I was hearing on my MBA at 6200 rpm's as "very loud". Not a "quiet fan noise". It wasn't as if I could just block it out and continue watching a film, etc. It was loud. To say it was "silly" that I returned it for this reason is actually "silly" in itself.

Thanks for explaining the limitations of the MBA in terms of why it was making said noise. It's disappointing, but I've moved on. Contrary to what Scottsdale kept ranting on about, it appears owners of SSD MBA's do indeed deal with a lot of fan noise at times. Lastly, my MBP with full brightness, bluetooth off, mail & firefox & tweetdeck open gets 4 hrs & 20 mins in a full charge. With the same settings on a MBA I was getting 2 hrs & 30 mins. That's close to two hours extra of battery life. I'm very happy in that regard.