I am hoping to get a Mac Pro sometime this year (waiting to see if Apple updates the line). But I was wondering that since the machine has 4 HD bays does it get noisy? I used to get annoyed by the spinning and grinding noise of the hard disk in my iMac so I swapped it out for a much quieter and faster SSD. I know I can still put SSD's in the Mac Pro buying 4 of them would be a fortune right now. I'd start off with one as the primary drive then add more as time went on. I assume that drives 2-4 wouldn't spin up until something is accessed on those drives, therefore eliminating some of the HD noise? Anyone that has all 4 bays full of spinning HD's, how noisy is the machine?
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Question about the noise of 4 HD's in a Mac Pro
- Thread starter SteelBlueTJ
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It will depend on what drives you fit... One SSD and three Caviar Blacks will make a lot more noise than the same SSD and three Caviar Greens.
The four drive bays don't make much noise, their are pretty good at damping vibrations from the mechanical drives.I put a fifth HDD in the optical bay and that makes a hell of a racket though. I'd say an SSD is best in there.
Yeah, I have 4 HDD in my mac pro at work, and I can't hear a thing above the AC/heater fans in the building (which are not by any means loud). I can't remember exactly, but I think 3 of them are this drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844
Not all Caviar Greens are silent. The new 2TB 6Gb models are noisy as hell.
Like use the WD20EARS not the WD20EARX. I am sure they all differ. All HDD's need to be vetted for noise. Can't just say Greens make less noise. Depends on what Green you are talking about.
Mostly quiet for me with all four bays in use. Only sound is booting up or sometimes when Spotlight would index.
Only the first bay is in constant use though since the other three are setup as a RAID with indexing disabled on them.
Recently I moved OSX to an SSD. I still use the original HDD for saving everything to but the noise has reduced.
The drive in use is a 2TB Deskstar 7K2000.
Only the first bay is in constant use though since the other three are setup as a RAID with indexing disabled on them.
Recently I moved OSX to an SSD. I still use the original HDD for saving everything to but the noise has reduced.
The drive in use is a 2TB Deskstar 7K2000.
One of my MP's has 3 1TB Caviar Blacks, and I cant hear them at all.
My Other MP has the stock 640GB Caviar Black (i think it is), a 1TB Caviar Black and a 2TB Caviar Green. I sometimes hear them click when they access data, to be expected, but thats not a problem.
My Other MP has the stock 640GB Caviar Black (i think it is), a 1TB Caviar Black and a 2TB Caviar Green. I sometimes hear them click when they access data, to be expected, but thats not a problem.
I keep the drives quite in my MP by putting a little rubber grommet between the HD and the mounting sled. I would imagine a a nylon washer would have the same effect, the idea is to isolate the vibration.
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I have three each of the EARX and EARS, they aren't any different in terms of noise?
And to the OP, I have four drives fitted, the quietest (WD Green) at the front and the loudest (WD Velociraptor) at the back.
If you turn them off one by one it get's quieter, but you don't 'notice' them spinning.
Same as most here: loaded the MacPro years ago with a variety of HDs and those are never the noise you hear. I hear the fans before I ever hear the HDs. And the fans aren't nearly as bad as the old Mac towers before the Pro.
The fans depend on where you are keeping your Mac. If you keep it in rooms above 70ºF, and you are doing lots of CPU use, you might need to up them and they get louder. If you do as I did--BESL modding and putting in new, faster CPUs--you almost have to up the fans when doing anything aside from text. Then the noise increases. When I do 90% CUP usage, the machine gets so hot that it needs fans at 70%+.
But, the HDs don't make the noise unless they are somehow improperly seated in their trays.
The fans depend on where you are keeping your Mac. If you keep it in rooms above 70ºF, and you are doing lots of CPU use, you might need to up them and they get louder. If you do as I did--BESL modding and putting in new, faster CPUs--you almost have to up the fans when doing anything aside from text. Then the noise increases. When I do 90% CUP usage, the machine gets so hot that it needs fans at 70%+.
But, the HDs don't make the noise unless they are somehow improperly seated in their trays.
I have three each of the EARX and EARS, they aren't any different in terms of noise?
Constant head parking drove me nuts on the EARX. Maybe I had a lemon. Point is each drive could differ.
