How noisy is the Mac Studio M1 Max?

The Fans basically always run at 1300 but problem is there are ones that have a higher the normal frequency emitting from the back. The fans are not the problem but rather the airflow pushing out the high pitched noise. I returned my first one because of this and received an exchange. It was a base max. My second one was fine til Monterey 12.3.1 came out and I upgraded. Now I believe the left fan was not working till 12.3.1 was installed. I kinda know this to be the case as I could both feel an airflow difference and heard beeping and chipping a few days before the install. Apparently the beeping is a known tell tale sign of a faulty fan. Sounded like R2-D2. I’m away on vacation and clicked the return button last night. Spent more money now then I intended to by a base 16” MBP. But they are known to be extremely quiet 🤫. It’s as shame as I traded my iMac 24” 16 GB Ram to get the studio and the ASD. On paper the base max is the best value. I do help my nephew edit his Final Cut Pro you tube drumming videos so the studio would of been a great help. I was in under $4500 with keyboard and trackpad now over $5200. This has been the most exhausting and frustrating proposition. I’ve stayed positive through it all and truly appreciate my local Buffalo, NY Apple store for all their help. I will add that it’s unfortunate the when you return a product to Apple they almost always check buyers remorse. This is sad and no way to fix what could be a widespread problem.

Hello,

My Studio Max is much louder than my late 2014 Imac 5k, even with the fan slowed to 1100rpm. In addition, at times, it whistles very high. I'm thinking of returning it.

I am very disappointed.

Best regards

I'm sending my base model back today. I tried Macs Fans and lowered the rpm to 1100 and that actually helped a lot. The main reason I'm returning is I need more storage and RAM than the base model offers so I'll get by with my 14" MBP until the Mac Pro is released. I have no problem spending $3k + for a M1 Max 64gb 2 or 4 tb machine, but I really think this is a flawed design and the fans will collect massive amounts of dust and get louder over time.

I have had 2 of them the fans are audible at 1350 which is idle of that machine. I turned them down to 1100 with Macs Fans and that helped. I didn't have a whine should but I assume that it will get ugly after a year of dust accumulation.

I have a 14" MBP and the fans are at 0 all of the time. Its mind boggling that the fans in the Mac Studio idle at 1350.

No your not deaf you are focusing on the fan noise and not all max studios are effected. But the people who are complaining are complaining about the high pitched noise emitting out of the make studio not fan noise. It’s debated that either the power supply or the fans make the high pitched noise. Think nails on a chalk board as far as irritating factors go. The noise cuts right through and you would already know if the noise is present in yours or not. You may also not be sensitive to high frequencies.

Subjectively, I find the Mac Studio w M1 Max to be very quiet. The average refrigerator is much louder. I'm able to do audio production (including recording sound at my desk) without issue.

I have no high pitched sound. Only some air noise if I put my ear down by the vent. Cannot hear at all in my desk chair. I consider this unit very quiet.

I also have the M1 Max version. The noise from the fans is noticeable, but almost the same as my 2018 iMac 5k. The problem is the high frequency noise coming from the fans that drives me crazy. I have to use an external tool to limit the speed of the fans to 1100 which seems to help. Not very happy with my purchase.

Just got my Studio M1 Max. It is not super noisy (25 dB at the front and 30 dB at the back in 30cm distance when the computer is just in idle) but I hear it ALWAYS and thats super annoying in a otherwise silent environment especially as all the Macs I had so far were completely silent when not under heavy workload - like currently my Mac Mini.

Is Apple reading here ? If so: pls let me know if you are working on a solution e.g. an OS update which will shut off the fans or reduce their speed when the processor has only little workload. If not I will return the computer which I would love to keep but I am not spending that amount of money and then feel constantly annoyed. I am sure this can be solved if Apple wants to. I guess it is more if Apple is listening to its customers - one more time. btw: I wouldn't care about an external power adapter...

Got mine today (Studio) and sadly the fans are a bit on the annoying side. They whine a fair bit. I've slowed them down to their lowest speed using an app (1100) but it's still quite audible. It's a pretty annoying frequency is the problem. I'll try recording it and doing a readout for a exact measurment. Do I return it and stick with the m1 for the studio? Probably not but there is a chance if I can't forget it's there.

I am in the USA and one 110V nominal my UPS says 121V). Mac Fan Control say the RPM is 1325 or so w/only browser running. I can set it to 1100 by setting Custom control.. I do not hear anything in Auto (1330). I really do not hear any noise.

Seebär wrote:

I am based in Germany. If the voltage makes a difference I would expect that the US MacStudios are running on 1100 rpm by default. Is it like this ?

BTW: I found this webpage - not sure if it was mentioned somewhere above already - it clearly shows that the MacStudio is one of the noisiest Mac in the past years: https://quietmac.netlify.app

My new Studio (Max) is loud. Both the fan at idle (1300rpm, not silent at all), and the whining. 220V in Belgium.

I can use Macs Fan Control to lower their speed, then the air noise becomes acceptable, but whines appear. I have to play with the fan speed to find "silent rpm values", and those change during the day. As soon as a whine appears, I change the speed a bit and it goes away.

So there is a solution, but I'm really disappointed as I was hoping a premium experience with this machine. I'll have to install it under my desk somehow, and crawl every morning to start it up.

I have the M1 Max version.

Yes, it’s noisy. Not a lot but much than my iMac 27 5k.

I’ve never heard my iMac since 2015 and the Studio is much present.

But it’s only when my office is very quiet. When i’m listening the radio or music, no problem.

I returned my base max on the 23rd and bought another one same day. Sent the second one back today, which up to the point of updating to 12.3.1 and/or doing the apple hardware test was extremely quiet. Afterwards however did notice more airflow coming out of the right hand side(facing towards the front, and less on the left. Which my first unit was pure gush. Then a few days before updating, I started to here the beeping and chirping noise. I saw TG PRO say the left fan was not working properly. So I ran the apple hardware test which blast the fans I believe to their max. Matter of fact, when I performed the AHT for the first unit per Apple Care, that’s when my first unit got even worse. TG PRO stopped reporting this on my second unit after the AHT. I suspect now, based on the logical course of things, my second unit was quiet at first because the left fan was not working, and maybe the hardware test helped it along. Once that happened I was done with it!! Hope this made sense.

What supply voltage? Trying to gather information

MrGordonian wrote:

I had to return my Studio due to the high pitch noise of it... I do not want to post any links on here, but on YouTube I did manage to find someone who has the exact same issue I had. The title is "Mac Studio High Pitch Noise" and the user goes under the name of windz2022.

At times it sounded almost like an old mechanical hard drive platter chattering away... and I did actually check around my desk area thinking I had left a backup drive on! :)

Very weird that in 2022 we are still having to deal with noisy fans... more so on a computer of this spec and at this sort of price!

Roll on revision II that may hopefully be quieter!