Silence of the Macs

T

Tomasset

Registered
Hiya!

i am planning to buy soon a new Mac and one of the main things i am looking after is noise generation (or rather, the lack of it!). I have not yet decided if it would be a portable or an iMac, but well, the dual PowerMacs are out of the picture (they are so LOUD!!) :)

Unfortunately the noise specs does not appear in apple's PDFs (???)

After browsing some mac sites it seems that the iBook is probably the quietest machine (fans and HD), but I would like to get some feedback from you all :)

So who's the noisiest guy in the neirbourhood?? iMacs / iBooks / PowerBooks ???

thanksalot
Tomas
 
The new iBooks (with the Radeon 7500) have a fan that kicks in seldom, but when it does, it IS loud. Of course, if you're no big fan of first person shooters with extremely high CPU and GPU needs, you could never hear it. The iMac is instead extremely silent, even the 17"/GF4 version.

No test around, just my personal impression.
 
Dr. Lecter: What became of your dual 1.25GHz Power Mac, Clarice?

Clarice: He killed it.

Lecter: You still wake up sometimes don't you? Wake up in the dark, hear the screaming of the dual 1.25GHz Power Macs?

Clarice: Yes.

Lecter: Do you think if you save the poor dual 1.25GHz Power Mac, you could make them stop? Don't you? You think you if your dual 1.25GHz Power Mac lives, you won't wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the dual 1.25GHz Power Macs?

Clarice: I don't know. I don't know.

Lecter: Thank you, Clarice.

hehehehe! :D

from what i understand, the new Power Macs are quieter.
 
have u tried the powermac dual 1.25ghz ? or is this from rumors of Apple bashers such as urself?
im not sayin that they arent loud. but it would be nice if ppl with more experience could share their opinions with us, the hulk has tried all of them maybe i should ask him! :)
 
I use an iBook 600 myself and find it to be the quietest computer I've ever owned. I think even the TI994A from the late 70's was louder. But the fan DOES kick in every so often. I dunno what fan but A fan. Plus as beautiful as the computer is, it gets scratched very very easily on the outside.
 
I have the iBook 500 and it is QUIET. When I first took it out of the box I thought it wasn't working because I couldn't hear it.
There is a tiny fan mounted near the screen hinge to cool the GPU and processor and you can hear this in a quiet room.
Also, there is a hard-drive that is audible, but quieter than any I have ever encountered before.
All the Macs I have encountered so far are incredibly quiet. The PowerMacs do produce noise, but less than most PCs.
If you really wanted SUPER-QUIET, though, and didn't mind getting an older used system, I've heard the G4 Cube was the quietest system ever made, and many music studios use it with the hard-disk removed (set up to netBoot) and use it INSIDE the studio booth!
 
Just how much performance are you looking for? A lower end processor can offer cooler temps and therefore require less (or no) fan activity. I think the cube may have used exclusively conduction cooling. Can anyone verify this? A solid-state storage device would also eliminate noise if you have that option but it sounds like you want a standardized turnkey system.
 
i have a powerbook g3, and the only thing I can hear is the HardDrive... (VERY quiet)...
And if you think the DP 1.25ghz is loud try and AMD Athlon Machine....
 
hi, i think kendell's post was rather amusing since i had titled the thread "Silence of the Macs" :)

Well, so far we have:

iBooks - very quiet, although a fan kicks in sometines

iMacs - very quiet too

PowerBooks - there is someone mentioning the old G3 as being quiet too. None has said anything about the current generation G4s, though. Someone put its ear to the Al17 during MWSF ?? :)

Power Macs - probably the new ones are quieter

Old hardware - cubes have a nice reputation, yes. I would rather go for new hardware though, it is not easy to come by one of these things here in Norway.

AMDs, Pentiums - yes, I know, i am sick of it. Glad that Apple sticks to slow processors so they can be efficiently cooled :)


The thing is that I cannot decide which system to buy yet. Although it would be mainly for home use, having a fast processor/system does appeal to me. At one point one has to trade performance with noise, it seems.

Tomas
 
Lector: Agent Starling, you know what I see when I look at your good laptop bag and your cheap mouse? A rube: a well-scrubbed, hustling rube. Good nutrition's given you some length of bone, but you're not more than one generation away from poor Windows trash.

What's your father, dear? Is he a Windows programmer? Does he stink of the blue screen of death? You know how quickly the boys found you... all those tedious sticky keyboards in the back seats of cars...while you could only dream of getting out... getting anywhere... getting all the way to O S X.

Oh well, I tried. Thanks Kendall!!!

Regarding noise, I have a DP 1 Ghz - at first I thought it would drive me nuts, but you get used to it. In a way, it is kind of soothing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top