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New mac - 5770 fan making too much noice!!

Went into a reseller's yesterday to have a look at the MacPro there.

They had last years 2.66 quad core.

I could not hear the thing, monitor was off and I thought the machine was off, certainly wasn't.

This was the 2009 model.

This shows that either;

a) the two 2010 models I have had are flawed
b) the 2010 models use different components (inferior)
c) I should really get over it.
d) give up on the MacPro !

Damn.

To cheer me up, I have purchased a Vertex 2E for my MBP, gave up on upgrading the firmware from 1.23 to 1.24, what a pain in the ass!
 
Well option a would seem to line up with users such as myself that can't tell if ours are on or off.

Also, you weren't in a quiet home setting, so you had a higher level of background noise. As such you weren't able to focus and pick out the MP sounds. That would line up with c.
 
Thanks :)

Shop was empty, 2 employees, no music.

Also listened to the one in their office.

:apple:

brentsg said:
Well option a would seem to line up with users such as myself that can't tell if ours are on or off.

Also, you weren't in a quiet home setting, so you had a higher level of background noise. As such you weren't able to focus and pick out the MP sounds. That would line up with c.
Click to expand...
 
My 2008 Mac Pro is extremely quiet except for the six hard drives stuffed inside. I replaced an 8800GT with the 5870 and it got louder, which I expected, because here's my 8800GT + ATI HD2600XT setup:



I did this because the HD2600XT fan was always loud and it changed speeds so I couldn't get used to it. The 8800GT was a Craigslist find and came with a huge "PowerCooler" nonvariable dual-fan cooler with LED lights driven by a 4-pin Molex connector and that just had to go. So I replaced it with another Accelero S1.

The 5870's noise (which I'm assuming is louder than the 5770's) doesn't bother me because at idle it's so quiet, although audible, and when I start up a game, hell, it's pushing four million pixels out around seventy times a second. Of course it needs more cooling than the other cards. It's certainly not loud though, and it's not an unpleasant note.

You mention an oscillating noise, though. Try removing your hard drive and powering the Mac on and see if it's gone. I have a Sun Microsystems computer where the hard drives create that effect and I agree it's very annoying.
 
My New Quad 2.8 Mac Pro much noisier than my Dell!!!

My shiny new work computer is a Mac Pro Quad 2.8 - I just got it today but it is very noisy. The fan speeds are standard (PCI 799rpm, BOOSTA 856rpm, Exhaust 599rpm, Power Supply 599rpm, INTAKE 599rpm) and there are no funny knocking sounds as reported by some - just a lot of wind noise.

I have a Dell T5500 workstation at home (with 2 Xeon 5570s and 24GB of RAM as well as 3 hard drives) and this is much quieter than the new Mac Pro! (My Dell even has an extra two fans I added myself to get improved cooling.)

Is there any point in trying to get my employers to get Apple to check it out? This may be difficult and I don't want to be without my new machine - I've only just started today and need a computer.
 
Gonk42 said:
My shiny new work computer is a Mac Pro Quad 2.8 - I just got it today but it is very noisy. The fan speeds are standard (PCI 799rpm, BOOSTA 856rpm, Exhaust 599rpm, Power Supply 599rpm, INTAKE 599rpm) and there are no funny knocking sounds as reported by some - just a lot of wind noise.

I have a Dell T5500 workstation at home (with 2 Xeon 5570s and 24GB of RAM as well as 3 hard drives) and this is much quieter than the new Mac Pro! (My Dell even has an extra two fans I added myself to get improved cooling.)

Is there any point in trying to get my employers to get Apple to check it out? This may be difficult and I don't want to be without my new machine - I've only just started today and need a computer.
Click to expand...

I'd say let it be unless you're asked for feedback. You're the newbie................ and it's probably not a smart move to complain about something relatively trivial.

cheers
JohnG
 
In the contrary, far from trivial, this is a 2k+ computer not a £300 dell desktop, so, in hindsight, he's totally correct as I was rather frustrated by the noise and now, considering the thought all together of a mac pro!

Noise is an issue, I know it's relative but there is a standard and if last years are quiet compared to the 2010 model then what can I say, in fact, feck it, I will upload a recording so you can hear it ( not of good quality )

johnnymg said:
I'd say let it be unless you're asked for feedback. You're the newbie................ and it's probably not a smart move to complain about something relatively trivial.

cheers
JohnG
Click to expand...
 
Perhaps it's the PCI expansion bay fan? Can you check it with iStat Pro?
Had problems with noise in my MacPro with an ATI 5770 but not with the 5870.
 
Update

Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions and comments on my post.

Despite being British and therefore very reluctant to complain about anything, I did raise the matter of the excessive noise and it turns out that it is definitely the 5770 fan. The labs computer technician stopped it (for a moment or two) and everything was blissful quiet.

The machine will probably have to go off for repair even though a simple replacement card would do the trick. (Though I fear that perhaps a lot of the cards are this noisy.)

If it was my own machine I'd probably follow the suggestions of getting an after-market cooler but this is not an option.

As far as not whining in my new job - my concern is for my employers getting value for money - they've paid a lot for this machine and if it is faulty then Apple should sort it out, I don't think it would be very responsible of me to lay low and not say anything. Incidentally it is not a trivial fault - the noise makes the machine unpleasant to use, it is far noisier than the no-name linux workstations in the shared office that I'm in.

Though I'm sure I'll be very happy in the long run I'm not impressed with my first Mac Pro. It cost approximately the same as my personal Dell T5500 workstation though it only has 6GB of RAM and a single 2.8GHz Quad Xeon while my Dell has 24GB of RAM and dual Xeon 5570s (2.93GHz) and on the Dell I get on-site support while Apple demands the machine is transported to them. On top of that the Mac is a lot noisier.
 
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Well despite the price of the PC, Mac, whatever.. it's still just a crappy $2 fan on an ATI card. They should all be quiet but some percentage of them will simply be defective.

Glad to hear they're going to sort it out.
 
T u r b o said:
I disagree with this statement. My Mac Pro (2008) is so quiet I can't tell it's on unless my ear is within a foot of the case.
Click to expand...

That's reflective of my experience with the early 2008 (3,1) Mac Pro as well. I recall telling a friend that it darn near seemed like my new Mac Pro had noise-cancelling technology built in—because the room seemed quieter after I'd turned it on.

I have an 8800GT video card that I tried swapping for a 5770, and I found the 5770 was unacceptably loud. I ended up sending it back and sticking with the 8800GT.
Click to expand...
Hmmmm… curious about this, as I'm moments away from ordering a 5770 to replace / compliment my 8800GT.
 
Gonk42 said:
It cost approximately the same as my personal Dell T5500 workstation though it only has 6GB of RAM and a single 2.8GHz Quad Xeon while my Dell has 24GB of RAM and dual Xeon 5570s (2.93GHz)...
Click to expand...

Honestly, I highly doubt that.
The 5570s are about $1500 a pop, so the processors of that machine alone cost more than the base Pro.

Gonk42 said:
the Dell I get on-site support while Apple demands the machine is transported to them.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true as it depends on your location. If you're within a given range from the next store or AASP (IIRC it was 100 miles), they provide on-site support as well.
 
jasone6 said:
Hmmmm… curious about this, as I'm moments away from ordering a 5770 to replace / compliment my 8800GT.
Click to expand...

There's no reason to avoid a nice graphics card due to a possible fan issue here. I have to get down on hands and knees in my quiet home office, and press my ear close to my MP. Otherwise I can't tell if it's on or in sleep mode.

This is a 2010 6 core 3.33GHz unit with an ATI 5770.

It's amazingly quiet even with video encodes running and playing a game.
 
brentsg said:
There's no reason to avoid a nice graphics card due to a possible fan issue here. I have to get down on hands and knees in my quiet home office, and press my ear close to my MP. Otherwise I can't tell if it's on or in sleep mode.

This is a 2010 6 core 3.33GHz unit with an ATI 5770.

It's amazingly quiet even with video encodes running and playing a game.
Click to expand...

I'll concur on that. The 5770 fan in my MP is essentially silent.

Wish I could say the same for the processor fan(s). :eek:

cheers
JohnG
 
Transporteur said:
Honestly, I highly doubt that.
The 5570s are about $1500 a pop, so the processors of that machine alone cost more than the base Pro.
Click to expand...

It is, in fact, essentially true - my Dell was about £100 more than the Mac Pro with education discount but was cheaper than the Mac Pro list price; but your point is valid - I was being slightly disingenuous in that my Dell was a bargain refurbished unit at 60% discount though it was brand new and still had 3 years on-site.

But even so the Mac Pro Quad is about 40 to 50% more expensive than the equivalent Dell. An expense that may be worth it if Apple live up to their reputation for design and quality but when they supply sub-standard graphics cards in very expensive workstations it makes me wonder where the extra cost is going!
 
johnnymg said:
I'll concur on that. The 5770 fan in my MP is essentially silent.
Click to expand...

That is good news - hopefully Apple can replace my 5770 with a nice quiet one. If it is the case that there are just a few rogue 5770s with noisy fans then I don't understand why Apple don't filter them out at the factory as part of the burn-in test process. Perhaps I have too rosy a picture of Apple quality control!
 
Gonk42 said:
An expense that may be worth it if Apple live up to their reputation for design and quality but when they supply sub-standard graphics cards in very expensive workstations it makes me wonder where the extra cost is going!
Click to expand...

That's what people are wondering about since the 2008 models (which were priced extremely good compared to other workstation), especially considering that although the price for the 2009 octad models went up, the CPU's they used were much cheaper than in the 2008 models.

It just seems as if Apple has adopted their horrible quality control (if it at all exists) to the Mac Pro line as well. Premature release of the 2009 model and the fan noise issues (both GPU fan and case fans) with the 2010 model. Not nice Apple. Not nice.
 
I think fan noise would be a pretty difficult thing to QC. I've had a lot of various pet peeve PC noises over the years, and my wife .. or a friend either couldn't hear it or they'd think I was nuts.

And I'm confident if I had taken the device out of my quiet home office to an Apple store the noise would have been completely inaudible. Any kind of subtle noise gets lost pretty quickly in a workplace that's got a bit higher level of background sounds.

It's one thing if you have a bad fan bearing, or a cable that's making contact with a fan blade. It's quite another if you simply don't like the sound of "moving air" or some low level oscillation that can sometimes be present.

I've got friends who wig out on hearing any kind of hard drive seek noise. Personally, I don't notice that a bit. But if I can hear a high pitch from the drive platter spinning, it's like nails on a chalk board.
 
You're joking right?

If all the mac pro's where loud, then we would get over it and chin up, however, as some are extremely quiet i.e the 2009 I use, then nope, no wonder people get annoyed.

:)

brentsg said:
It's absolutely trivial when you just started a new job and your first order of business is to whine about your awesome new computer being too loud.
Click to expand...
 
Was dead serious. I've worked places where they hand you a 3 year old laptop and 19" CRT when you walk in, and we're talking Fortune 500 engineering work.

So yeah, complaining about "the movement of air" noise from a fan (ie not an obstruction or bad bearing type thing) on a brand new Mac Pro .. and the new guy gets stereotyped as a *^%$ whiner on day 1. Good luck shedding that one.

I wasn't suggesting you sit on something that bugs you forever, but just keep your head down and let things settle.

But anyways it sounds like the folks where you are reacted properly and are actually mature grown ups. Props for that, sounds positive.

B

gabicava83 said:
You're joking right?

If all the mac pro's where loud, then we would get over it and chin up, however, as some are extremely quiet i.e the 2009 I use, then nope, no wonder people get annoyed.

:)
Click to expand...
 
Awesome :)

Well, I do have around 200 people complaining to me on a regular basis about their computers (I'm an IT manager for an insurance broker in London) so I am used to it.

Just depends on what you are doing, where.

If it was in a large office, I would not care too much about the noise, if you are locked in a room, deadly quiet, that's different.

I see what you are saying though :D


brentsg said:
Was dead serious. I've worked places where they hand you a 3 year old laptop and 19" CRT when you walk in, and we're talking Fortune 500 engineering work.

So yeah, complaining about "the movement of air" noise from a fan (ie not an obstruction or bad bearing type thing) on a brand new Mac Pro .. and the new guy gets stereotyped as a *^%$ whiner on day 1. Good luck shedding that one.

I wasn't suggesting you sit on something that bugs you forever, but just keep your head down and let things settle.

But anyways it sounds like the folks where you are reacted properly and are actually mature grown ups. Props for that, sounds positive.

B
Click to expand...
 
brentsg said:
Was dead serious. I've worked places where they hand you a 3 year old laptop and 19" CRT when you walk in, and we're talking Fortune 500 engineering work.

So yeah, complaining about "the movement of air" noise from a fan (ie not an obstruction or bad bearing type thing) on a brand new Mac Pro .. and the new guy gets stereotyped as a *^%$ whiner on day 1. Good luck shedding that one.

I wasn't suggesting you sit on something that bugs you forever, but just keep your head down and let things settle.

But anyways it sounds like the folks where you are reacted properly and are actually mature grown ups. Props for that, sounds positive.

B
Click to expand...

I should say that it is not a case of me being fussy, I'd work with what ever I was given. My position is rather different from the scenario that you envisage. I have just joined a new project as a researcher and was given a budget for my workstation and allowed to choose what I liked (within budget and with the constraint that it would run Linux or OS X) - I went with the Mac Pro to be consistent with others on the project and because my priority was to get a quiet workstation for programming.

So, in a sense, I was responsible for what the university spent their money on so I feel I am partially responsible for ensuring that they get good value and aren't ripped off. Accepting an excessively noisy graphics card in a workstation that is designed to be quiet may make Apple happy but I don't think it would be behaving as a responsible employee.
 
Gonk42 said:
Accepting an excessively noisy graphics card in a workstation that is designed to be quiet may make Apple happy but I don't think it would be behaving as a responsible employee.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you have a nice situation, and you work in an environment that is far less pathetic and petty than some I've been in. :D
 
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