The Mac Studio is a small computer with much CPU power. Some people say it's silent, others have complaints that it's too noisy. It seems that the Ultra is more silent because of the better cooling system. I have read that the fans run at 1325 rpm idle which is rather fast. What are the impressions of someone who bought the Mac Studio Max? (not the Ultra)
Mac Studio Max:
In a silent home office it sounds loud to me.
It's similar to the when the iMac increases fan speed under load, except it is more annoying because it is now only coming from one side of the screen.
In a work environment with background noise I don't think it would be noticeable.
If you're sensitive to noise, like me, there's also noticeable coil whine/ beeping. It sounds like occasional high-pitch morse code mixed in with the fan noise.
With such a small monitor cable it's not easily moved to a shelf or cupboard either.
A little disappointing in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CUoHwMtRsE
A video review here saying the Ultra is quiet, whilst the Max fans can be heard all the time. Of course this is just one review.
High pitched whine on both units and both with peeps and chirps as well. Could have lived with just fan gushing noise and I did have mine off 2.5’ to the right mounted under my desk.
Mine (Max) is very quiet. The fans run about 1325 even when I render a short movie. Probably would be much higher in a longer editing task. The Ultra may be noisier.
I've had a Mini M1 for a year, I only use SSDs, I work in a quiet room I've gotten used to the silence.
I was looking forward to Mac Studio Ultra and the performance. Unfortunately, my Mac suffers from the defect of whistling power supply or fans. I have found multiple people having the same problem. On top of that, even at rest the fans are spinning at 1300 rpm. In a noisy office it probably wouldn't be audible, but I have the Mac on my desk, whistling at 2.2 kHz echoing around the room and it's maddening. I can hear all the noise from 3 meters away. For people lucky enough to have the unit replaced, it's supposedly much quieter.
[Link Edited by Moderator]
There is a difference between noise and whistling, which is clearly delineated at 2.2 kHz and other frequencies. On my Mac, only one fan or the part at the back of the vent holes whistles and is noisier. The other half is as quiet as brown noise.
what I don't get is why Apple doesn't allow the fan to go to the minimum speed (1100) when the CPU is at 1% load. Then on the other hand if you go to 100% load the fan speed is also not increasing beyond 1300. Maybe a few lines of code are missing somewhere ;-) Or is it that this kind of processor is more temperature sensitive ?
I’m on my third unit all 3 have had the exact same noise. I either have horrible luck or this is more common and some are just oblivious to the noise. I will say that when running the fans at 1,100 RPMs the noise don’t get exhausted out so easily even though they are still there. I’m keeping the 3rd one cause I appreciate the 32GB of memory at the base price. Still I think this should be addressed. There is no way we should bring hearing anything but airflow.
What supply voltage? Trying to gather information
Jr. Shelby wrote:
I’m on my third unit all 3 have had the exact same noise. I either have horrible luck or this is more common and some are just oblivious to the noise. I will say that when running the fans at 1,100 RPMs the noise don’t get exhausted out so easily even though they are still there. I’m keeping the 3rd one cause I appreciate the 32GB of memory at the base price. Still I think this should be addressed. There is no way we should bring hearing anything but airflow.
In my experience, adjusting the fan speeds just created a whine, which was worse than just having the blower noise, so I gave up. I assume that is why apple has it running at 1330 RPM. That's why I assume apple will not be able to fix it via software. It's a curious design choice, seems like there would be better options.
Totally agree about the fans when a MBP never comes on. Totally mind blowing. Same temperatures are reported even if the fans run at 1,100 RPM. And obviously running them at 1300 vs 1100 acoustically is a night and day difference. I kind hear whine when the fans slow down and wind back up but in general the high pitch noise is better at 1,100 RPM
We have 230V here in Holland (EU). There are two problems: one is the noise of the air through the holes, and the other is a high pitches whine from the fans themselves. I don't understand this, my M1 iMac, Mac Mini and MBP are completely silent. This is a huge design flaw in the new Mac Studio, I am very disappointed and think the Apple Engineers must come up with a modification in new future models.
Everyone goes on about the fan noise… it’s the whine, nothing to do with the fans in any way that is the main issues on many units. The metallic tinny high pitch whine really makes this machine worthy of being used as a shot put ball. If you have a Quiet unit, enjoy it… but many of us are raging at the money we spent to have something with such an annoying defect in it. I’m so glad but angry that I returned this crap back for a full refund… but what really is annoying is that Apple has not even had the decency to give details on what this issue is…
I received my Max yesterday. I have it under a platform on my desk and it is very quiet at idle. I can't hear it. I am old so that may be the reason
If it’s simply fan noise, you can get rid of it by using a fan speed control app, while you wait for a fix from Apple.
I have the M1 Max version, and its whisper quiet.
How noisy is the Mac Studio M1 Max?
