Noisy Mac Pro 8 core

banjambo · Post by **banjambo** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:11 pm

Monday morning I unboxed my new 2.8Ghz 8-core 5400 series Mac Pro. Upon start-up, I was immediately concerned by the unacceptable noise level (from the 3 fans) since I record audio in close proximity to my workstation. The last machines I have done extensive work on were 2.6Mhz and 3Mhz quad-cores which were silent.

After calling and speaking with Apple Care, they transferred me to an Apple Tech. They led me through several diagnostic routines - they then recommended that I either return it for replacement, or take it to a Genius at the Apple Store. At the Apple Store this morning, the Genius and a tech powered it up and gave a listen (in a noisy Apple Store) and were quickly dismissive and claimed they couldn••™t hear anything and that it was perfectly normal - stating that I was probably over-sensitive. I assured them that it wasn••™t really an objective call, that it was indeed measurable, and that I have contrary experiences with recent models. They admitted the computer for testing. Their conclusion was that all hardware issues passed their standards. At this point they don••™t feel that there••™s anything they can do.

If this is the indeed normal, I will be unable to record without extensive isolation (I thought those days were over!), or seeking out a quieter system.
Has anybody else had this experience, and if so, any ideas on remediating this problem (changing out to 3rd-party fans, or???)?

Thanks for your insights.

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:12 pm

Air-Conditioned Machine Room. Barring that possibility, a well-ventilated box. Seriously. There are a number of commercially available cases made, and if you are a tad handy as a carpenter, you can make one yourself.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 4:10 am

FWIW, I suspect they do vary a bit.
I was disappointed initially at the noise my new beastie made; I'd expected better.

The solution was easy - I only had to lower my standards.

eixb · Post by **eixb** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:50 pm

i'd guess the 8 core machine produces more heat, and as such needs more airflow compared to the older 4 core at the same ambient room temperature.

have you tested the fan noise in a cooler room?

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:11 am

FWIW, that's one reason I went for the slowest of the available clock speeds; I figured the machine would be the quietest of the quiet.
Finances would have dictated I go for this one anyway, but it was a nice consolatory thought anyway.

Summer's been really cold this year - today was 19C, for instance, so temperature definitely hasn't been an issue.

banjambo · Post by **banjambo** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:03 am

Thanks for the support.

Actually the room that the computer is in is no warmer than 65º.
Also, the fans come on from startup.

leigh · Post by **leigh** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:04 am

I'm not sure what "5400 series" means but I just got a stock Quad-core 2.8 GHz Mac Pro from my Apple Store to replace my quad G5.

The G5 was so loud I had to buy an IsoBox for it. The new Mac Pro is hugely quieter and cooler-running than the G5. Sometimes I accidently leave the door to the IsoBox open and I don't even notice that the Mac Pro is running.

If they gave you the option of returning it, I'd suggest returning it and see what happens.

Good luck.

**Leigh

newrigel · Post by **newrigel** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:57 pm

leigh wrote:I'm not sure what "5400 series" means but I just got a stock Quad-core 2.8 GHz Mac Pro from my Apple Store to replace my quad G5.

The G5 was so loud I had to buy an IsoBox for it. The new Mac Pro is hugely quieter and cooler-running than the G5. Sometimes I accidently leave the door to the IsoBox open and I don't even notice that the Mac Pro is running.

If they gave you the option of returning it, I'd suggest returning it and see what happens.

Good luck.

**Leigh

Heck I'll take it!
With more cores=more heat...
Mac pros are really quiet compared to most computers but like the gentleman said above... build an iso box for it.. it's easy.
You have a really nice machine there and I haven't even been able to bring my 2.66 Ghz down yet so you should be happy with all them CPU cycles ready to crank out some killer music!!!

banjambo · Post by **banjambo** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:00 am

Thank you all for your concerns and advice

I finally lucked out and found a Tier II Apple Care tech who understood my concerns regarding fan noise. We ran numerous diagnostic tests (many new ones).

First we discovered that the memory had problems (Apple Hardware Test continually crashed! - even after the Apple Store stated that my computer ••œexceeds all requirements••

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 1:55 am

Excellent! Congrats on the exchange.

I will say that there is nothing better than a dead-quiet recording environment, which is why I will always have a machine room, no matter how quiet my computer... at least until solid-state HD's are commonplace!

Phil O · Post by **Phil O** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:36 am

banjambo wrote:On Monday, I unboxed my new Mac Pro and yes, it is nearly SILENT! 10% of the previous noise level.

I'd let that Mac "genius" know that he was dead wrong! Geesh!

Glad to hear you got it worked out.

Phil

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:00 pm

I have (2) 15k spin drives from apple. The ones they sold me are quiet enough so I thought I would buy another, a cheetah, and BOY was I in for a surprise. The Cheetah puts out a loud 400hz wine and now I wish I hadn't popped for it.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:00 am

Bummer Gary.

Man, I don't know for sure about you, but I'm still experiencing my most glitchy/unforseen "gotcha"-filled upgrade ever, by a country mile.
So many little annoyances and stumbling blocks - I've more or less given up for now.
Hopefully 10.5.2 will help when I install it soon.
One thing's for sure, I'll be wiping everything and installing from scratch... again... soon.

Good luck man. Sorry to hear about the Cheetah.
FWIW, I've come to trust WD over the years.

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:15 am

Indeed MM. 10.5.2 is better but a few things are still strange like when you simply open a window it looses priority and opens behind.

Little things but annoyances for sure.

The DP halt thing really messes with work flow and there is no way 4 gigs of ram is enough for these hungry beasts.

I do feel however that when the wrinkles are smoothed out we'll have gems.

BTW, I have BFD up and running although a bit glitchy.

cheers

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 7:12 am

That's good news about 10.5.2 Gary.

4G nowhere near enough, eh?
Yikes; I've got to make do with 2G for a while unfortunately.

How 'bout this one: If I copy a file from one drive to another, I first have to erase the destination folder's contents if it has a file of the same name (like an older copy) or else the Finder bombs out when I release the drag.
Go figure. Glitchy, man.
Oh yeah, I would've posted a few pics by now of something else that happens occasionally, but I can only host one pic at a time, so the ol' monkey avatar remains king.
It's hard to explain, except that all screen graphics go wild and the only thing I've been able to do is take a pic using the key combination and force a restart by holding the physical button down.
Weird and freaky.

I still haven't run DP for more than a few minutes since last year; I didn't know about the halt thing. Dang again.
Hey, let's hope you're right that we'll end up with gems and that DP6 becomes the jewel in our Leopard crowns.
Good luck man.

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