I have no idea if you can hear that noise at all - but here you go: recorded with the mic being placed on top of the Mac Pro case.
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New 2.26 (2009) Mac Pro Humming Noise
- Thread starter newtown
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Same sound here, Dragonforce. Seems to be normal. Unfortunately
Sounds like a distant sports airplane.
Same sound here, Dragonforce. Seems to be normal. Unfortunately
Sounds like a distant sports airplane.
Yep. I'm through 3 quad core Nehalem Mac Pros and ALL sound the same.
annoying -.-
Maybe you're hearing impaired
HAHA!!..
So glad i didn't wait for the upgrade. Things are still fine on the home front with my MP '08 Octo... 3.2.
I have received my octo 2.26 mac pro 2 days ago. Things were going fine till I have read this post, lol. to me it was whisper quite compare to my old system. anyways I notice the noise and started the hunt. The ATI was the loudest in the system, but the oscillation was also there. To make it short the sound was a combination from my external 1TB WD Home Edition and the mac pro although both run quietly alone.
So Why does it Oscillate?
The sound-waves overlap and create what is known as the beats for Guitar players as a friend told me (in physics called the wave packet) . it depends on the frequencies.
In my case the sound was amplified by the desk, since both sit on it. And now it is Whisper quite again.
the box has some oscillation but I would say it is very very very low
I hope that helps
So Why does it Oscillate?
The sound-waves overlap and create what is known as the beats for Guitar players as a friend told me (in physics called the wave packet) . it depends on the frequencies.
In my case the sound was amplified by the desk, since both sit on it. And now it is Whisper quite again.
the box has some oscillation but I would say it is very very very low
I hope that helps
I received my 2.26 Tuesday and so far it's been pretty perfect. I have on top of my desk for now and since it's right on top of a pretty hollow cabinet, it resonates a bit. But it's better than I expected.
The only bothering noise so far has been the intake fan at the front, which kind of resonates in sequences (comes and goes). I guess I'll try to take out the processor tray tomorrow and see if there's any easy fix for it, I'd hate to complain about such a tiny problem and take the computer to the store for a fix.
Otherwise I like this, even the noise is plain solid.
The only bothering noise so far has been the intake fan at the front, which kind of resonates in sequences (comes and goes). I guess I'll try to take out the processor tray tomorrow and see if there's any easy fix for it, I'd hate to complain about such a tiny problem and take the computer to the store for a fix.
Otherwise I like this, even the noise is plain solid.
These cases are aluminum, and the HDD mounds aren't very well dampened. Find some rubber washers, and re-mount the hard drives.
"The Aluminum Drawback - One consistent acoustic property seems unavoidable: Aluminum cases tend to pick up hard drive and fan vibrations more readily than steel cases, and make a higher pitched, more audible humming or buzzing sound. This quality is directly related to the density of aluminum: It has only about 30% of the density of the cheaper, more commonly used steel. Internally applied panel damping materials (especially the heavier kinds) appear to damp the resonance down fairly effectively, but it can be difficult and expensive to eliminate entirely."
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page2.html
"The Aluminum Drawback - One consistent acoustic property seems unavoidable: Aluminum cases tend to pick up hard drive and fan vibrations more readily than steel cases, and make a higher pitched, more audible humming or buzzing sound. This quality is directly related to the density of aluminum: It has only about 30% of the density of the cheaper, more commonly used steel. Internally applied panel damping materials (especially the heavier kinds) appear to damp the resonance down fairly effectively, but it can be difficult and expensive to eliminate entirely."
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page2.html
I listened to your audio file and that's exactly the oscilating sound I'm hearing on my new Nehalem Mac Pro (2.93Ghz Octo). When I first got the machine, I thought it was so quiet, I was thrilled.
Then, as I started to work for long periods of time in my quiet office, I would hear that low oscillating sound come in and out, in and out. It's driving me crazy because it's constantly changing.
At first I thought it was the ATI 4780. Then I thought it was one of my older internal drives, so I took all hard drives out of the machine (I'm running a Vertex SSD in the Drive 1 slot, so I know that's quiet).
But it's not the hard drives. Instead, it's something deeper inside the machine. I'm not sure what, but I'm going to call Apple about this next week. If this machine simply emitted fan noise, it would truly be whisper quiet. But the constant throttling up and down, in and out, of this hummmm sound makes it way more annoying than other Mac Pros I've had. Apple should do better...
It's not the PSU, I had mine replaced by Apple with no effect. It's not the hard drives, I removed them one-by-one. The aluminum case and the placement in a corner under my desk makes it worse so I'm going to try acoustic foam to help out.
The problem is that the fans run in pairs i.e. exhaust/intake, CPU1/CPU2, and as temperature rise the fans speeds rise together. This causes the hum to oscillate from the "beating" of two same-rpm fans.
Use smcFanControl to raise the minimum rpm for the exhaust fan to 847 rpm to help with the oscilating part of the hum. The hum itself is from six fan vibrations being amplified by the case, I believe.
The problem is that the fans run in pairs i.e. exhaust/intake, CPU1/CPU2, and as temperature rise the fans speeds rise together. This causes the hum to oscillate from the "beating" of two same-rpm fans.
Use smcFanControl to raise the minimum rpm for the exhaust fan to 847 rpm to help with the oscilating part of the hum. The hum itself is from six fan vibrations being amplified by the case, I believe.
Exhaust fan
The noise is not that loud but it is definitely aggravating because it is not a typical fan noise. The machine is way quieter than my old dual G5-- but the nature of the noise is worse.
I temporarily stopped the exhaust fan at the back / bottom of the case by sticking a pencil in it and the noise stopped. So I definitely think the culprit is the exhaust fan.
The noise is not that loud but it is definitely aggravating because it is not a typical fan noise. The machine is way quieter than my old dual G5-- but the nature of the noise is worse.
I temporarily stopped the exhaust fan at the back / bottom of the case by sticking a pencil in it and the noise stopped. So I definitely think the culprit is the exhaust fan.
This is not the case because the same thing happens to the quad core (single cpu) machines.
Guys this noise has been driving me insane! I recently bought a 2.66 quad and I'm having exactly the same issue. I have spoken to applecare and they aren't ready to admit fault with the machine but they did say i was not the only person with this issue. The replacement machine is coming tomorrow, though i am not hopeful i will post up the results of a swap.
I'm starting to get the impression that every single Nehalem Mac Pro has this oscillating sound.
I think some people who claim that they dont have it are either not sensitive to noises or are not looking hard enough.
I have a feeling this noise is very normal in the new machines. Its probably due to the different design as to the last years model that this sound is the result of it.
I think some people who claim that they dont have it are either not sensitive to noises or are not looking hard enough.
I have a feeling this noise is very normal in the new machines. Its probably due to the different design as to the last years model that this sound is the result of it.
When I had buzzing/humming problems with my Mac Pro, it was because some of the hard drives didn't handle vibrations very well when they were mounted up-side-down, as they are in the Mac Pro. Try replacing some of the drives for WD GP drives, they are great.