New owners: under what conditions do the fans spin up?

[C64]

From everything I've read so far, the new MBAs stay very cool and silent with all the basic things. But what I'd like to know is when you do start to hear the fans. So.. when the fans start to become audible / annoying, what are you doing exactly? And is that on the 11 or 13 inch Air?

 

[stridemat]

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I would imagine that anything flash based will spin the fans up.

 

[BruiserBear]

The fans are almost not audible. Ultra quiet even at full speed.

 

[C64]

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I would imagine that anything flash based will spin the fans up.

Flash 10.1 has hardware acceleration support, so most of that load will be covered by the GPU.

 

[AppleGoddess]

I have not even heard mine at all yet.

 

[naujoks]

Fan is always on, but under normal conditions (browsing) it's so quiet that you have to have your ear right next to it and stop breathing if you want to hear it.
Under full load it's just a "wooosh" sound, no particular note, so it's not bad at all.

 

[epictempo]

I would imagine that anything flash based will spin the fans up.

I watched some pretty hardcore flash last night and dead silence, only minor heat.

 

[pvmacguy]

The fan unit in both the 11" and 13" use te same fan design that is in the current uni-Mac mini. So it's ultra quiet and will only emit a small "wooshing" sound as other users have described making it virtually silent.

 

[AppleGoddess]

I have over sensitive hearing and i dont hear a woosh sound at all.

 

[tdream]

What does it sound like when you play a game? That's full speed.

 

[chp5592]

I watched some pretty hardcore flash last night and dead silence, only minor heat.

I guess it wasn't "hardcore" enough....


Couldn't resist.

 

[Scott6666]

The TDP of the 13" processor is considerably more than the 11".

I'd be interested in those with the 13" in particular posting about their fan noise.

I'm convinced that the 11" is quiet under most circumstances. Not sure about the 13"

 

[ct2k7]

The TDP of the 13" processor is considerably more than the 11".

I'd be interested in those with the 13" in particular posting about their fan noise.

I'm convinced that the 11" is quiet under most circumstances. Not sure about the 13"

TDP is 70% more.

 

[hachre]

I am also very interested in the 13" fan noise... I am also a bit reluctant because of the 70% higher TDP...

 

[ghileman]

Not sure about the 13"

There have been reports on other threads that the 13" fan can crank up (e.g., I believe the Starcraft game thread made this observation).

Also still waiting for news on heat for the 13"...

 

[Kaidan]

Wow and L4D2.... after a few minutes the fans definitely crank to over 5000rpm. Runs beautifully tho. - 13"

 

[gecis]

Same here, the fans cranked up after five minutes into halflife2. Sound comparison would be equivalent to a small battery operated table fan. Otherwise this thing is quite as mute. Im running the base 11 inch model, just an fyi.

 

[rockyroad55]

Hulu for an hour cranked it up.

 

[hachre]

Hulu for an hour cranked it up.

How loud does it get? Is it annoying? Is it mainly a wind sound or do you hear the motor in the fan mostly?

 

[bcaslis]

I was doing installs, charging, and copies yesterday and the fan ran most of the time. However, it's pretty quiet fan but ran most of the time. Today it seems to be running very little doing normal tasks. It seems to run most of the time but most of the time it so quiet you don't know it. Pick it up and put your face with the bottom left and you faintly hear the fan and feel the air coming out.

 

[ghileman]

the fan ran most of the time

does the fan run about the same volume as previous Airs?