How noisy is the Mac Studio M1 Max?

I am based in the US, and for something marketed as a desktop computer it is surprisingly very noisy. It is not coil noise, it is fan. It is like having a little fan constantly blowing on my desk, I've tried different positions, etc, I can still hear it under my desk, 10 feet away, it is still obvious. Again, very disappointed, I will return this computer. This will be the first Apple Computer I have returned due to unsatisfactory in over 25 years. I can't tolerate it for this kind of money.

It's concerning that they took form over function, I'd take a bigger "silent" computer, or even an external power supply over this constant noise. Why not do what they did with the iMac, make the power external and put the ethernet in the supply? I could tolerate it if it only ramps up doing heavy tasks, but it's 100 percent all the time, only ramps down when asleep. Computer is not warm at all.

If you are recording anything, mics would pick it up. I've looked all over online, and it seems pretty common, I don't understand how some people say it's silent, unless I just got a bad one, I can only heard the fans on my other computers, if I put them through stress or put my ear up to them, not this one.

I do not live in the UK and I’m on my 3rd one. I don’t know where people assume it’s more rampant in the Uk as all 3 of my base max have the high pitched whine. Apparently there are 2 different power supplies and this is a power supply lottery going on for sure. My new one so far fingers crossed does not yet make beeping and chirping noises. I may just live with it. With the base 16” MBP and 16 GB memory I was getting choppy playback just on YouTube with one 8 k HDR playing and testing a 4 k hdr video in the background at the same time. The max is the best way to get 32gb memory in a Mac under $2000. I notice a world of difference in in just std non menial task. Just YouTube and macOS hits as much as 19 GB of memory used on this 32 GB system with no memory swap what so ever.

I’ve been part of that thread from the beginning and if you follow you’ll see people have not gone back and re voted. They also break down between the max and ultra models the those figures are not right from the get go. It’s also been somewhat evident that some who have voted either never received their CTO orders yet or never bought one, yet still voted. All I’m saying is I’d not put to much stock yet as I myself can only vote one but am on my 3rd unit.

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

If it's just a white noise from the fans, you're in luck. Just use "Macs Fan Control" app - as mentioned earlier - and set the fan speed to 1100 rpm or use a different slope for the fans - and it will be silent.

dchao99 wrote:

The power supply converts AC into DC, and fan speed is modulated by PCM, so fan speed is independent of the mains power frequency.

These units are using use Switching Power Supplies, rather than a huge transformer in their first stage. The first stage of a switching power supply chops up the incoming power, (by switching it rapidly off and on) to generate transient fields used to generate smaller-voltage power outputs provided to the next stages, which are then rectified into DC, regulated, and provided to the computer.

Power supply operation does indeed change (and therefore the sounds made directly by the power supply itself may change as well) depending on whether the source is 120 Volt or 240 volts. That is why there may be differences depending on input voltage.

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!

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

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!

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.

I'm in Scotland, so the UK mains voltage is 230 volts, within a tolerance of +10% / - 6%.

I too was wondering if this noise issue is related to power, as all the usual YouTube "Techies" do not seem to be pouncing on this issue, as we all know.. they love a drama to get traffic to their sites!

To me it seems there are two different sources. One being fan noise and that can be changed by changing fan speed. The other seems to noise from the power supply (coil whine?) and that is dependent upon power supply voltage and maybe load too.

MrGordonian wrote:

I'm in Scotland, so the UK mains voltage is 230 volts, within a tolerance of +10% / - 6%.

I too was wondering if this noise issue is related to power, as all the usual YouTube "Techies" do not seem to be pouncing on this issue, as we all know.. they love a drama to get traffic to their sites!

I agree, but it's a very poor user experience to spend thousands on such a computer and then have to face manually controlling fans and then worrying about possible coil whine! You have to start wondering, how long down the line before ones are are currently quiet, start to develop similar issues as things start to warm up etc...

I just could not work with the noise emitting from the unit I had... made worse by the cost of it and not giving me any sense of "Apple Magic" to my purchase! :)

I cant believe that Apple are making a ££££ computer with any noise! its a disgrace.

I record and mix in the same room and need silence, especially tracking, my Macbook Pro 15" 2015 is TOTALLY silent all the time.

I wont be going for Mac Studio M1 or Ultra.

I found that on the room I am using, when trying to record voice over material, I had to keep the mic directed away from the unit, as Side on to it, I could hear the weird metallic clicking… ask I can do is wait for future revisions, so am not wanting to use a laptop for my work…